News July 27 Activision Blizzard seemingly done with apologetic memos, now pushes for strictly internal investigation, disapproves of unionization Yesterday, on July 26, Activision Blizzard held a Zoom call which should have been company-wide but was only attended by 500 employees due a scheduling error. During tha call, Activision chief operating officer Joshua Taub reportedly claimed that neither him nor Bobby Kotick has ever seen the alleged misconduct taking place, although he did admit that “does not mean this behavior does not happen.”
News July 26 “Abhorrent and insulting”: around 1,000 Activision Blizzard devs say they no longer trust executive team Around 1,000 current and former Activision Blizzard employees have signed a letter that calls the corporate response to the sexual harrassment allegations "abhorrent and insulting."
News July 26 Research: many iOS games ignore Chinese law requiring devs to disclose loot boxes odds Although Chinese regulators require developers to disclose loot boxes odds to players, many studios find their own ways to bypass the rules. Some companies try to hide the information from gamers, while others simply ignore the law.
News July 26 Report: PUBG maker Krafton working on The Witcher-styled dark fantasy RPG Krafton is now reportedly developing its new game based on The Bird That Drinks Tears, a series of Korean fantasy novels. The developer has high hopes for the project. The plan is to grow the IP into something similar to what CDPR has done with The Witcher franchise.
News July 26 Death Stranding surpasses 5 million copies sold on PS4 and PC The exact number of Death Stranding sales has never been revealed until now. According to Kojima Productions, the game has sold more than 5 million copies globally on PlayStation 4 and PC.
News July 26 Amazon Games’ New World tops Steam weekly chart, surpasses 200K peak concurrent players New World, a new MMORPG from Amazon Games, has become a new chart-topper on Steam. The game continues to attract new players ahead of its official launch.
News July 26 Latest on Blizzardgate: former Blizzard execs accept responsibility, World of Warcraft development suspended, gaming outlets boycott Blizzard games Last week’s sex discrimination allegations against Blizzard continue to send repercussions across the industry.
News July 23 “You deserve better than the product of stress and depression”: SUPERHOT VR devs remove content alluding to self-harm / sucide despite backlash from players On July 21, the Poland-based developer of SUPERHOT VR issued an update to the game, which removed scenes alluding self-harm or sucide. Backlash from players ensued. However, the developer said it would not reverse the changes.
News July 23 Steam went down right after No More Robots uploaded its new game on Valve’s store On July 22, Steam went down along with a number of other online services. Unfortunately, at that precise time, some developers were preparing to upload their games, including indie publisher No More Robots.
News July 23 Bungie promises to confront harassment ‘head on’ following Activision Blizzard lawsuit Bungie, which was once a part of Activision, has issued a statement on toxic work culture and harassment amid latest allegations against its former publisher. While the company doesn’t say it is perfect, it claims to have no tolerance towards such behavior.
News July 23 Blizzard president J. Allen Brack renounces “bro culture” and canonizes Gloria Steinem in message to staff Following this week's sex discrimination allegations, Blizzard Entertainment president J. Allen Brack sent out an email to employees. In the letter, obtained by Jason Schreier, Brack says he will be meeting members of staff personally to discuss the situation and ways to improve.
News July 23 WoW players stage virtual sit-in to protest Activision Blizzard’s culture of sex discrimination and to support Black Girls Code charity Hundreds of World of Warcraft players took to the game's social hub of Oribos to host a virtual sit-in protest against Activision Blizzard's alleged “pervasive frat boy workplace culture.”
News July 22 Confirmed: EA Motive working on Dead Space remake EA Motive is working on the remake of the original Dead Space, after all! This is coming from EA itself that broke the news during EA Play Live 2021.
News July 22 How Warcraft III: Reforged development turned into nightmare due to Activision’s takeover and budget cuts Many Blizzard fans still would like to forget about Warcraft III: Reforged. However, the game’s problems began way before the launch. Misunderstanding, low budgets, and Activision taking over Blizzard’s operations were just a few issues that plagued the project.
News July 22 Former Blizzard dev on how Blizzard prevents its employees from going to court With a Twitter-wide debate unfolding around the Blizzard sex descrimination lawsuit, a former employee shared what seems to be the beginning of the dispute resolution agreement new hires have to sign when joining the company.
News July 22 JoyPac to help Ketachapp and other top hyper-casual publishers enter Chinese mobile market China is one of the biggest markets for mobile games. However, it is still hard for Western companies to enter this territory. That’s why JoyPac decided to help top hyper-casual publishers reach local players and expand their businesses.
News July 22 Ubisoft Singapore devs on working in ‘colonial outpost’ led by toxic managers: “The head was rotten” There have been numerous reports on Ubisoft’s work environment and harassment within the company. And it seems like its Singapore division is no exception, as employees describe it as “one of the worst Ubisoft studios in terms of culture.”
News July 22 DFEH alleges discrimination against women at Activision Blizzard. Activision Blizzard calls DFEH “unaccountable State bureaucrats” California's civil rights agency called Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) has sued Activision Blizzard for discrimination against its female employees, who make up around 20% of the company's entire workfore.
News July 21 Epic Games buys 3D model sharing platform Sketchfab for undisclosed sum Sketchfab, a platform for selling and sharing 3D assets, has joined the Epic Games family. The company will now reduce its store fees and make some of its features free. The terms of the deal, however, remain undisclosed.
Featured July 21 Utopia Analytics’ Sharon Fisher on Discord’s Sentropy acquisition: “Using human moderators just can’t address the scale of the challenge we are seeing” Sharon Fisher, a veteran in the games moderation space, comments on Discord's Sentropy acquisition, as well as the role of human-based and AI moderation in the video games industry.
