Jason Schreier
@jasonschreier
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Reporter at Bloomberg | co-host of @tripleclickpod | PLAY NICE: The Rise, Fall, and Future of Blizzard Entertainment out October 8 | jschreier @gmail | he/him
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Excited to announce that my next book is PLAY NICE: The Rise, Fall, and Future of Blizzard Entertainment. It chronicles the 33-year history of one of gaming's most fascinating companies, and it'll be out on October 8. Preorder here:
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Can't imagine why all the advertisers are pulling out of Twitter lmao
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Not that there was much doubt, but I’ve confirmed with Rockstar sources that this weekend’s massive Grand Theft Auto VI leak is indeed real. The footage is early and unfinished, of course. This is one of the biggest leaks in video game history and a nightmare for Rockstar Games
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Scrambling to find childcare because my capricious manchild of a new boss just declared that I’ll lose my job if I don’t come into the office tomorrow after years of remote work… le epic
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Just spoke to the guy who interrupted The Game Awards. He says his name is Matan and that he's 15 years old. Some thought his speech was an antisemitic dogwhistle, but he is almost certainly a Jewish prankster. He understood a question I asked in Hebrew (then pretended he didn't)
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Fun fact: Video game production cycles have gotten so long that if a big-budget game studio started working on a brand new project today, it would likely be for the PlayStation 6
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What video game executives will learn from Tears of the Kingdom:
- Games all need crafting now
What they should learn from Tears of the Kingdom:
- Retaining your staff is vital
- The graphical fidelity arms race is a waste of money
- Games all need rockets now
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Omicron presents a tremendous challenge: do you go out and risk getting covid or stay on the internet and risk hearing people talk about NFTs
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Former Bayonetta actress Hellena Taylor, who asked fans to boycott Bayonetta 3 in a video that was later proven to be misleading, has posted a list of charities to which she would like fans to instead donate. The list includes a Kentucky group that runs anti-abortion billboards:
@PetsforVets
@LAMDAdrama
(Student Pizza Fund)
@DogsTrust
(Your local branch)
@TeamRubicon
@BB4LifeKY
@TheHALOTrust
@StMonica90403
(Brother Andre Medical Centre, Dandora, Kenya,)
@KCFoundationUK
@acn_uk
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Powerful, unifying words from the 45th president to his country as we elect the 46th
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The California Department of Fair Employment and Housing has filed an explosive lawsuit against Activision Blizzard for discrimination. Some of the details in the complaint are horrifying
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It's now official: testers at Activision-owned Raven Software have voted to form the U.S. video game industry's first major union. There were 19 votes for and 3 votes against
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Haha epic memeing one thousand internet points for you sir
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Former Bayonetta voice actor Hellena Taylor now confirms my reporting that she was offered at least $15,000 and that the final offer was for a cameo, despite the claims in a video that went viral last week:
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I knew Cyberpunk 2077 was going to be glitchy but I did not expect my entire game to be covered with tiny trees
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BREAKING: Rockstar plans to announce Grand Theft Auto VI as early as this week and will release a trailer in December, sources tell Bloomberg News. The most anticipated video game on the planet will soon be revealed:
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NEW: Activision Blizzard just told staff that all of its 1,100 quality assurance testers will be 1) converted from contract to full-time and 2) bumped up to at least $20/hour. A big win for QA in the wake of several worker revolts and a burgeoning union effort. Story soon
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Fun fact: Spider-Man 2 developer Insomniac Games allows employees to work from anywhere they'd like
With the first 119 critic reviews lodged, Marvel's Spider-Man 2 is officially a Metacritic Must-Play with a Metascore of [91]
"That winning formula is still so damn fun..." - GameSpot
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NEWS: Spider-Man Miles Morales is *not* an expansion or enhancement or remaster, despite a Sony executive's comments this morning, a source tells Bloomberg News. Nor is it Spider-Man 2. It is a brand-new, standalone game similar in scope to Uncharted Lost Legacy.
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BREAKING: Microsoft is planning to buy Zenimax/Bethesda, an industry-shaking acquisition that will give Xbox ownership of Fallout, The Elder Scrolls, Doom, Wolfenstein, Dishonored, and more. Story hitting Bloomberg shortly
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If you're gonna go to jail for storming The Game Awards you should at least say something cool, like "where's Silksong"
The individual who interrupted our Game of the Year moment has been arrested.
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BREAKING: Activision Blizzard employees say they're launching a walkout today in the wake of the Wall Street Journal article detailing CEO Bobby Kotick's knowledge of sexual misconduct and harassment at the company. They're demanding that Kotick be replaced
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“Speaking of Final Fantasy…” *crowd cheers* “… Doordash has your back” was definitely an all-time Keighley press conference moment
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The greatest story ever told in video games is the message in Elden Ring saying "hidden path ahead" and then the message behind it saying "liar ahead"
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Very silly that Hollywood thinks it can outlast a Writers Guild strike when Zelda comes out next week
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BREAKING: Sony is buying Bungie, the maker of Destiny — another seismic gaming deal that comes just two weeks after Microsoft purchased Activision Blizzard.
Bungie put Xbox on the map. Now it's part of PlayStation Studios. Filed to Bloomberg Terminal, hitting web soon
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Nintendo really came out with Breath of the Wild, one of the best games ever made, and then said "Nah you fuckers ain't seen nothing yet"
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BREAKING: Testers at Raven Software, a division of Activision, say they've formed a union and are asking for voluntary recognition. The 34-person unit is the first-ever union in the big-budget video game industry. Filed to Bloomberg Terminal, story coming shortly.
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It’s incredible how quickly (and unnecessarily) he’s gone from some rich weirdo to one of the most hated people on the planet
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Cannot wait to play Square Enix's Splatoon on my Sony Wii U
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"...employees are required to take at least 20 days off per year."
"We try to look out for each other and say, ‘Hey, is this too much?'"
"...if your milestone schedule involves crunching every milestone, your whole production process is broken."
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BREAKING: Xbox boss Phil Spencer has joined the chorus of industry professionals criticizing Activision Blizzard, telling staff in an email obtained by Bloomberg that Xbox is "evaluating all aspects of our relationship" with the embattled publisher
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What went wrong with Cyberpunk 2077? Interviews with more than 20 current and former CD Projekt staff paint a complex picture. Unchecked ambition, technical woes, unrealistic deadlines, and above all, one belief: "We made The Witcher 3 -- it'll work out."
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So Epic lost on just about every count & will have to pay millions, while Apple now has to let apps use external payment processors, potentially costing them billions.
Big win for everyone who was rooting for both companies to lose
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Time for some news that is going to make BioWare fans really happy.
Following the success of Jedi Fallen Order and the failure of Anthem, EA has allowed BioWare to make the next Dragon Age a single-player RPG. Previously, it was planned as a service game
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BREAKING: The WSJ reports that Microsoft is buying Activision Blizzard, the troubled publisher behind Call of Duty and World of Warcraft, which has been facing crisis over the last year following numerous reports of sexual misconduct and discrimination. A seismic gaming deal
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Holy shit - Cyberpunk 2077 on PS4 is so busted that Sony is offering full refunds and even removing it from the PlayStation Store (!!)
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So last week I had a baby. She’s only three days old and she’s not very good at Bloodborne yet but I’ve grown quite fond of her
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Of course it's Elden Ring. It was always Elden Ring
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BREAKING: A U.S. Senator is introducing legislation to ban loot boxes and pay-to-win microtransations in "games played by minors." It begins.
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As we look at the video game industry's layoffs, burnout, abusive microtransactions, prioritization of short-term profits, risk aversion, rapidly increasing budgets, endless development cycles, and studio closures, it's important to highlight the real problem: too much diversity
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Last year, the bosses of CD Projekt Red approached me for an interview. They wanted to announce that for Cyberpunk 2077, they would be avoiding mandatory crunch.
This week, they sent out an email to staff announcing studio-wide mandatory crunch. News:
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BREAKING: Activision Blizzard employees will strike tomorrow outside Blizzard's campus to protest the company's responses to the discrimination lawsuit and to demand more equitable treatment for staff
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The 2023 Game Awards show allocated 30 seconds for a speech from the director of Game of the Year winner Baldur’s Gate 3 and six minutes for Jordan Peele and Hideo Kojima to compliment one another. This week’s newsletter:
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This, from a studio head, is crunch culture defined. Of course nobody is “forced” to work insane hours. But imagine the reduced bonuses and lack of promotion opportunities if you don’t? “You do it because you love it.” Weaponized passion. This is why people burn out of gaming
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We at The Game Awards take a strong stance against harassment of any kind. Now here’s a new game from Quantic Dream
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Hello! Elden Ring is one of the best games I've ever played. It mixes the blissful wonder of Breath of the Wild with the intricate design of Dark Souls. It's more accessible than previous From Software games, yet just as tense, punishing, and weird. A tremendous achievement.
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@verified
Unverified: Actors, politicians, news organizations
Verified: 4,000 guys with profiles saying "father, founder, web3 advocate" and "hands off my guns"
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Tech companies are all just trying to do what the video game industry mastered decades ago.
Facebook: virtual worlds
Netflix: licensed games
Twitter: forcing employees to work 16 hours a day
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The crowd here at the Summer Game Fest live show let out an audible “Awwwww” at the announcement that this new Arkham game is for Meta Quest, in case you’re wondering how VR is going
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NEWS: During an internal Q&A with CD Projekt management on Thursday, frustrated Cyberpunk developers asked blunt questions about the game's rocky launch.
One asked: How could they make a game about exploitative corporations while forcing devs to crunch?
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@Justin__NC
I asked two dozen people who worked on the game what went wrong and not a single one mentioned the words “Sweet Baby.” You are chasing angry hallucinations created by grifters who make money off your rage
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You have to wonder: How many programmers/testers/other devs at CD Projekt Red tried to raise the alarm that the game was just not ready, only to be rebuffed or ignored by the studio's management?
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PlayStation boss Jim Ryan sent an email today asking his staff to "respect differences of opinion" on abortion rights. Then he wrote five paragraphs about his two cats' birthdays, their habits, and his desire to get a dog.
People are... not thrilled!
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Alright, I think it's been long enough: it's time for another remake of The Last of Us
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Some news: After eight years and some change, I am leaving Kotaku. I'm taking a few weeks off to finish up my book and hang out with my daughter, then starting a new job reporting on video games at another outlet. I wrote one last thing to say goodbye:
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@drdisrespect
Hey man like I said, I'd be happy to chat any time - if it makes you feel more comfortable I can Skype from the bathroom
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These Xbox layoffs are such a mess that staff across Activision Blizzard are texting *me* to try to find out if they might be impacted. Nearly 2,000 job cuts and people now just have to wait around to see if they're part of the bloodbath
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Can't believe dunkey started a video game publisher with no experience instead of taking the normal approach: getting a Harvard MBA, working at McKinsey for five years, and then failing upward between C-suites for the rest of your life
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Holy shit - video game retailer GameStop just sent a memo to all of its staff telling them to keep their stores open even during state lockdowns, and to tell law enforcers that it's OK because they're "essential retail"
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Rockstar Games has spent the last four years overhauling its culture and working to become a kinder, more progressive company. But what does that actually look like? And what does it mean for the company's next game, Grand Theft Auto VI? My latest feature:
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BREAKING: PlayStation boss Jim Ryan is stepping down, two sources tell Bloomberg News.
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You know it's a healthy democracy when one candidate is beating the other by 2.6 million votes but nobody knows who's going to win because a pipe burst in Georgia and a Wisconsin printer ran out of ink
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NEWS: John Riccitiello is stepping down as CEO and president of Unity, per company
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What went wrong with Anthem? This is the story, based on interviews with 19 people who worked on or close to the game, of why BioWare's loot shooter was such a mess. It's also a story about a legendary RPG studio facing a burnout crisis. My latest:
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TODAY IS SUKKOT
Rosh Hashana: Ruth Bader Ginsburg dies
Yom Kippur: NYT publishes Trump's tax returns
Sukkot is gonna be wild
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Activision exec Brian Bulatao, who previously worked for the Trump administration, sent an email to staff this morning saying to "consider the consequences of your signature" on union cards.
Safe to say Activision management is nervous about the burgeoning labor movement
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This viral Twitter thread about business hustle of course neglects to mention that Eric was supported financially by his girlfriend, Amber Hageman, for all five years of Stardew Valley's development. I think I saw that in some book
Eric Barone has made $300M+ (yes, that's not a typo) in revenue in 6 years with 0 employees.
He developed a game that has sold 20M copies to date.
At this rate, he can easily become the first one-person founder to do 1B+ in sales.
Here's how he did it:
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Fallout 76's new premium subscription ($12.99/month) costs more than Xbox Game Pass ($9.99/month), on which you can get Fallout New Vegas and The Outer Worlds🤔
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Cyberpunk 2077 getting a three-week delay is unusual but probably won't change much for the developers, many of whom were going to be crunching into December anyway for a post-launch patch. But I sure do hope reality is becoming clearer to those who tried to deny it.
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Some sentiments I’ve heard from Activision Blizzard employees today:
- Optimism about management changes and the positive culture at several Xbox-owned studios
- Fury toward Microsoft for giving Bobby Kotick a big payday and soft exit
- Determination to keep organizing
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BREAKING: Tripwire Interactive CEO John Gibson is stepping down following severe backlash against his tweet supporting the Texas law that bans abortion after six weeks and deputizes private citizens to sue anyone who aids in the procedure, the company says
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Some fun facts:
- This is 3x what Microsoft paid for Minecraft/Mojang
- Bethesda and Obsidian are now sister studios. Fallout New Vegas 2 is now actually a possibility
- Microsoft is now releasing two timed PS5 exclusives lol
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Last weekend, Bayonetta's former voice actor called for fans to boycott the new game, saying she was offered just $4,000 to work on it. Her Twitter videos went viral and stoked a debate over voice actor wages. But the full story is much more complicated...
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Troy Baker is trending for shilling NFTs which is a good excuse to remember one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen on Twitter
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OK, time for some good news: Sony's PS4 exclusive Horizon: Zero Dawn is coming to PC this year, sources tell Kotaku. It's an unprecedented move that may help usher in a platform-agnostic future.
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BREAKING: Blizzard president J. Allen Brack is leaving the company, Activision Blizzard just told staff. Jen Oneal and Mike Ybarra will take over as "co-leaders of Blizzard."
Filed to Bloomberg Terminal, story will be live shortly
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Every time a live-service game with no hook or strong word of mouth fails to penetrate an oversaturated market, the most annoying people on the planet will be there to blame diversity
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To those who asked: There are several reasons this is a nightmare for Rockstar. One is that it'll disrupt work for a while. Another is that it may lead management to limit work-from-home flexibility. The repercussions of this leak might not be clear for quite a while
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All jokes aside congratulations to Jeff Bezos on successfully launching a rocket before successfully launching a video game
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SCOOP: Sony is planning a new subscription service, code-named Spartacus, to take on Xbox Game Pass. It's being pitched as a three-tier service that will merge PlayStation Now with PlayStation Plus. Highest tier could include PS1/PS2/PSP games
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While monopolies are undoubtedly bad news for the video game industry, this acquisition could have some positive effects on Blizzard both culturally and strategically. Under Activision, every game had to be a billion-dollar franchise. Under Xbox, that will likely change
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Ubisoft is such a bizarre company. During the same week that they shut down Hyper Scape, their failed attempt to chase a buzzy new trend, they defend the plan to sell NFTs
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BREAKING: Microsoft is laying off 1,900 people in its gaming division, including Activision Blizzard, just three months after closing its $69 billion acquisition. Story coming shortly (first reported by The Verge)
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In case you missed it, in the last ten minutes Cyberpunk 2077 DLC was delayed, James Harden was traded to the Nets, and the President of the United States was impeached
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If my kid was a bit older I'd be playing the hell out of the PS5 with her - between Sackboy, Astro's Playroom, and Bugsnax, there's a ton of good child-friendly stuff on this thing. Sadly she is almost 14 months now and still can't even finish Bloodborne
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A good look at what corporations really are
Blizzard suspends Hearthstone player for Hong Kong support, pulls prize money.
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I like it when video game marketers call their studios "AAAA" instead of "AAA" because it unwittingly exposes the reality that big-budget game development is just one gradually advancing scream
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November 2, 2011: Grand Theft Auto V trailer
September 9, 2021: Grand Theft Auto V trailer
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Got a bunch of texts from an AAA game developer in Seattle saying it's so hot that nobody can get any work done.
Gamers, I hope you're hearing this. Climate change is preventing games from being made
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BREAKING: Blizzard staff are compiling a list of workplace requests for management including equal pay, fair promotions, and living wages for QA. The US games industry has no unions -- this is one of the largest collective labor actions in games to date
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I can confirm this is true, and that it's hilarious. The first one was "Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare" so obviously the fourth one is "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare." Video games are absurd
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The secrets behind Astro Bot's success include a small team, a reasonable scope, and people who have worked together for years. It's a model for the video game industry.
For this week's column, I spoke to the director of 2024's best-reviewed game:
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