Oct 12 2023 6 mins 3
INDUSTRY
Ubisoft says it's "on the right path" following sexual harassment allegations | Eurogamer.net
Ubisoft is now claiming that they've improved their workplace culture after allegations of sexual harassment against long-time employees and senior staff in 2020.
Their Chief People Officer, Annika Grant, has been in place since 2021 and remarked last month that they've been navigating the "misconduct crisis" and that "HR was part of the problem".
Ubisoft has now improved their internal reporting system, code of conduct AND yearly mandatory training for all employees. Though this wasn't all, as five former employees of Ubisoft were arrested shortly after Grant presented this information at the GamesIndustry HR Summit.
Hideki Kamiya left his CEO position at Platinum Games last month after founding the company 15 years ago, and now he has a YouTube Channel!
Responsible for the Bayonetta series and Wonderful 101, he says he's not planning to retire, but has moved on from Platinum to pursue his own game development ideals. At least, when his inferred non-compete agreement runs out.
Historically, he has been fairly outspoken and secretive. Of particular note is the Bayonetta 3 voice actor scandal not long ago where he responded quite savagely on Twitter with seemingly no remorse.
I'm sure he will do great things with his new career prospects, but joking about receiving unemployment while driving off in a Lamborghini might be a bit more than the gaming public can bear.
Disney is apparently considering turning the company from a licensing giant into a first-party development studio.
With Marvel, Star Wars and other massive Disney IP available to them, and with highly successful games out there already, Bob Iger is hearing from senior executives that internal development makes sense.
Unfortunately, Video Games Chronicle has reported this as Disney considering buying EA - though this is a tenuous link to a story months ago about EA actively pursuing a merger and taking calls with other companies in the wake of the Microsoft Activision Blizzard acquisition. Bit of a bait and switch there, team.
Sony unveils "smaller" PlayStation 5 and PS5 Digital with £100 disc drive add-on | Eurogamer.net
Sony has revealed new, smaller form-factor PS5 Disc and Digital-only consoles that will be available for purchase in November of this year.
Optional extras for the announcement include a disc drive for the Digital-only model and a vertical stand , but both will still have 1TB internal drives.
The disc version will start at €550 and digital at €450 (I'm in Ireland now, so you've got EU prices).
GAMES
Activision CEO hints again that Guitar Hero may return | VGC (videogameschronicle.com)
Bobby Kotick held a town hall meeting with Acti-Blizz employees this week, talking about how Microsoft will add significantly to their ability to make games.
He did, of course, quickly drop that the "re-emergence" of Guitar Hero would only be possible with Microsoft - and of course, the news outlets love chat of a reboot.
Bobby keeps hinting that Guitar Hero may return with the advent of AI development - as an Activision title that had a massive following and revolutionised rhythm games for a time, he'd be necessarily invested in it. His influence could be extremely limited though…
Pacman Mega Tunnel Battle, previously a Stadia-exclusive title, is now getting a new lease on life on all other platforms.
After Google killed Stadia, many first party titles from devs were left stranded - it's good to see games getting a new life on supported platforms.
It will be releasing some time next year. Though, on a sour note, Nintendo shut down Pac-Man 99 online functionality only days ago.
Activision Blizzard expects to add games to Game Pass next year | GamesIndustry.biz
As we expect the Activision Blizzard acquisition to complete, now gamers are musing on what will appear on GamePass.
On Twitter they've mentioned games such as Diablo 4 and Modern Warfare 3 won't make it there, but they will be talking about the new titles that will become available on the service.
Dead Island 2’s first story expansion launches in November | VGC (videogameschronicle.com)
Dead Island 2 will launch their first story expansion in November of this year. They have stated that two expansions are in development, and rightly so as it took eight years for the game to come to fruition in the first place.
Overwatch 2 is stealing your money again as the new Lilith skin, a Diablo 4 crossover, is only available with the Ultimate Battle Pass bundle in Season 7 and its $40 US dollars. Blizzard is copping it for micro-transactions and paywalls - maybe they are the new EA?
The Nintendo Switch has received a system update that includes system stability improvements, GUI files, Time Zone data, and the words "thot" and "reeee" have now been added to the banned word list in all languages. It is Thursday, my dudes…
Dashcam footage shows police ignoring robbery to play Pokémon Go | Eurogamer.net
And lastly, footage of the LA cops who were prosecuted for playing Pokemon GO while on duty has been released publicly. It shows them hearing calls about a robbery and ignoring them to catch a Snorlax and evolve a Togetic.
But what I LOVE about Eurogamer is that they know their audience - in the second paragraph, they clarify that Togetic is specifically the evolution of the pokemon Togepi. This is how you give gamers the information that they need.
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