Video Game Culture: Last News

Nintendo‘s headquarters in Kyoto, Japan after a small fire broke out inside the building.The original story from Japanese news publication NHK reports that the fire broke out on Monday (August 15) at 1PM local time at the publisher’s development building (translation via VGC).Eight fire engines were dispatched to the headquarters, but the small blaze was quickly distinguished by employees before they arrived. It’s been confirmed that no one was harmed in the fire.According to police cited in the original report, desks and chairs in a room on the third floor were caught in the fire.Emergency services are still investigating the origins of the fire, but it’s being reported that conditions at the scene suggest that it was caused by an electronic device that was being charged.

Twitch has changed its COVID-19 guidelines for TwitchCon, with attendees now required to provide proof of vaccination or a negative test, as well as wearing a face mask while indoors.TwitchCon is set to take place next month in San Diego, with players able to meet streamers and take part in “legendary cosplay contests, rivals tournaments, meet and greets, rare loot, panels, artist alley” and witness an “epic” musical performance.However, following criticism from some fans about the lack of COVID-19 safety precautions, Twitch has now updated the entry requirements for the three-day event.“We’ve heard from many of you that you want a safer TwitchCon, so we’re updating our policy,” said Twitch in a Tweet. “Masks will be required indoors, as well as either proof of vaccination or a negative covid test.

Nintendo and a contracting firm it uses in its main office in the United States.This is the second time this year that Nintendo has received such a complaint, with attention being drawn to workplace conditions in the gaming industry. The complaint was filed earlier this week (August 8) and alleges that Nintendo, alongside its contracting firm Aston Carter, established “coercive rules”.

Twitch streamer Clara ‘Keffals’ Sorrenti woke up on August 5 to armed police raiding her home, pointing an “assault rifle” in her face. It follows a campaign of harassment she has experienced whilst streaming on Twitch, and she has now pleaded for help.In a video posted to her YouTube channel (via PC Gamer), Sorrenti detailed a harrowing experience with London (Ontario, Canada) police, where they raided her home, armed, after “every city councilor in the city of Ontario” received an email stating that she possesses an illegal weapon, had killed her mother, and planned to go to City Hall and shoot “every cisgender person” in sight.After being taken into custody, she claims the police took the email seriously despite it being “riddled with grammatical errors” and appearing more like “something a troll would say”.

Quantic Dream‘s reported history of toxic workplace culture and has denied accusations of homophobia and misogyny.Back in 2018, French publications Le Monde, Mediapart, and Canard PC published stories alleging a harmful work culture at Quantic Dream, the studio where David Cage serves as co-CEO and scriptwriter. Quantic Dream ended up suing, alleging that the reports had damaged the studio’s reputation.In a recent interview with Edge magazine (via Eurogamer) Cage discusses the company culture at Quantic Dream, and defends its response to the allegations of a toxic workplace environment:“When you’re accused of things that go against everything you believe in, everything you’ve done in your life, it hurts.

Netflix’s subscribers are playing the games included with the TV and film streaming service.Since last year, Netflix has offered a number of games with its streaming service – which will reportedly increase to 50 by the end of this year – that can be downloaded separately at no extra cost.Data from CNBC and Apptopia indicates that of Netflix’s 221million subscribers, the games have been downloaded 23.3million times and average daily users of around 1.7million – or less than one per cent of the service’s subscribers.With more streaming services creating competition for Netflix, this strategy of mobile games is undoubtedly being used to set itself apart from other services. That said, Netflix lost around 1million subscribers earlier this year, which was less than its projected loss of 2million.Whilst Netflix is adding the likes of Spiritfarer and a number of titles from Devolver Digital to its games service, there are also some original titles based on actual Netflix series’ on the way as well.

Ubisoft’s Beyond Good And Evil 2 has a new lead writer – Sarah Arellano.The prequel to 2003’s Beyond Good And Evil was first teased in 2008 before officially being announced at 2017’s E3 conference with a trailer, though no release date was confirmed.Since then, updates on Beyond Good And Evil 2 have been few and far between. In 2020, creator Michel Ancel retired from the games industry but said work on Beyond Good And Evil 2 was “going super well,” before promising “beautiful things to be seen soon.”However, he said the same thing about Wild which was quietly cancelled in 2021.Earlier this year, it was reported that Beyond Good And Evil 2 was still in pre-production.

P Money has released ‘Outplayed’ in partnership with London-based Tundra Esports, with footballer Virgil van Dijk starring in the music video.Today (August 4), Tundra Esports described ‘Outplayed’ – a track created by P Money, an ambassador to the group – as “the first official grime gaming song.”You can watch the music video for ‘Outplayed’ below:Speaking to NME, P Money shared that he’s “always loved” music and gaming and grew up playing games such as Zelda, Streets Of Rage, FIFA and Sonic The Hedgehog. However, the musician says he’s “never really heard artists such as myself – rappers and MC’s – really dive into that world within their music, even though we all played games or still play some form of game.”On the inspiration behind ‘Outplayed’, P Money explained that he is “driven by the gap I see between music and gaming” and says that “grime, to me, blends really well with games – maybe it’s the sounds producers use that are similar to the sounds in games.”“[‘Outplayed’ is] not necessarily just for us to gain a wider audience, it’s for gaming and music as a whole,” added P Money.

Bungie against the Destiny 2 player who was threatening the studio’s employees.Back in June, Bungie filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against Twitch streamer Luca Leone, also known as MiffysWorld, for cheating, reselling Destiny 2 assets and threatening Bungie employees. Some of the repeated threats involved mentions of burning down the studio’s offices, telling employees to “keep your doors locked” via their Twitter alias Inkcel.Two months later, it’s now been revealed in a ruling issued in June by the Superior Court of Justice in Ontario, Canada that the threats were much worse than originally reported (via PC Gamer).

Tencent is reportedly looking to raise its stake in Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry publisher Ubisoft.According to a new report from Reuters, Tencent apparently expressed interest in the French publisher and is looking to raise the five per cent stake it placed in 2018.Two sources claimed that Tencent is aiming to “become the single largest shareholder” of Ubisoft with another stake purchase. At this time it’s unclear how much the company is planning on owning of the company.Additional sources said that Tencent does plan on purchasing the extrastake from the Guillemot family – the current CEO of Ubisoft – which own 15 per cent of the firm.

Mortal Kombat series co-creator Ed Boon has implied that there will not be an announcement made regarding Mortal Kombat at Evo 2022.Boon’s quote tweet was in response to a now-deleted tweet from IGN claiming that “The developers behind Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Tekken and Guilty Gear are all expected to make announcements during Evo 2022.”The implication is that while the other aforementioned series may get announcements, there will not be a Mortal Kombat-related announcement at the fighting game community event.

Grand Theft Auto 6 (GTA 6) will be set in a fictionalised version of Miami, and players will follow a female protagonist.In an article published today (July 27), Bloomberg has claimed that GTA 6 will feature the series’ first female character – a Latina who will be one of two leading characters. Speaking to Bloomberg, sources familiar with the project say that the pair of characters are influenced by Bonnie and Clyde.Bloomberg‘s report also claims that GTA 6 will be set in a fictionalised Miami and its neighbouring areas, though the game was initially designed to feature “large swaths of North and South America.”It also states that due to developer Rockstar‘s ongoing efforts to tackle crunch culture within its projects – along with the project’s scale and issues caused by the COVID-19 pandemic – GTA 6 is taking longer to create. To get it released earlier, Rockstar is reportedly going to update the game with new missions and cities regularly post-launch.Because of GTA 6‘s slow production, developers interviewed by Bloomberg have claimed that the game is “at least” two years away from launching.Bloomberg has also reported that besides trying to move away from crunch, Rockstar also wants to avoid using Grand Theft Auto‘s satirical humour to “punch down” on marginalized groups.

Aspyr Media‘s Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic remake has been put on hold, following the abrupt firing of two senior developers.According to a report published by Bloomberg last night (July 26), Aspyr Media has placed development for Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic on indefinite hold.Bloomberg adds that earlier in the month, studio heads at Aspyr told employees that the project had been paused while the studio looked for “new contracts and development opportunities.”Along with the indefinite delay, Aspyr also reportedly fired the art director and design director for the remake.The report also alleges that Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic has suffered an unsustainable development cycle. An anonymous source familiar with the project told Bloomberg that too much time and money had been put into making a demo of the game for Lucasfilm and Sony, while multiple developers said the game was more likely to release in 2025, rather than Aspyr’s projected 2022 launch.Some staff at Aspyr claim that Saber Interactive, which joined the project in May 2022, could take over development completely.When Saber Interactive’s participation was announced, Embracer board member Matthew Karch said that while the team was “fully confident that the game is going to be fantastic,” the scope of the project means it will take time to complete.“It’s a massive, massive product and massive products require a lot of effort and a lot of time to make good.

The annual European version of the Twitch event was held in Amsterdam, The Netherlands earlier this month, whilst another yearly event is held in North America each year.Next year’s Paris event will take place in the summer, after the inaugural European TwitchCon was hosted in Berlin, Germany in 2019.“Attending TwitchCon offers a technicolour experience of everything that makes Twitch unique,” said Twitch CMO and EVP, International Doug Scott.“The memories and community bonds formed on our service are visible for all to see during a weekend of extraordinary entertainment, knowledge sharing, competitive gaming and, above all, fun. We cannot wait to bring the community back together again in San Diego this October and at TwitchCon Paris next year.”This year’s San Diego TwitchCon event will run from October 7 to 9, with tickets going on sale early next month in August.The exact size and scope for TwitchCon 2023 in Paris is yet to be revealed, but statistics suggest it may have to be bigger than this year’s event.

FaZe Clan has officially gone public on the Nasdaq Stock Market in a deal evaluating at £607million ($725million).As reported by Axios, the gaming company officially began trading publicly on Nasdaq yesterday (July 20) shortly after its SPAC (Special-purpose acquisition company) merger with B.Riley Principal 150 Merger Corp.According to the publication, this is the first gaming company targeted at Gen-Z (those born between the late ’90s and early ‘2010s) consumers to go public and will now go on to trade under the name “FAZE”.The deal of £607million ($725million) is lower than the original one billion dollar valuation that was reported last year when the merger was announced.FaZe Clan is officially a publicly traded company. $FAZE pic.twitter.com/QjrOhJ9ffx— FaZe Clan (@FaZeClan) July 20, 2022However, after FaZe Clan officially went public, it was reported by PC Gamer that the deal prompted an immediate selloff of FaZe stock, as well as a 25 per cent decrease in its valuation on the first day.“I understand why other companies have been criticised for going public via the SPAC vehicle.

Square Enix is selling a Final Fantasy 7 action figure from November 2023, and it comes with a digital NFT that carries the risk of becoming inaccessible.The Cloud Strife figure will be priced at £108 ($129.99) but fans have the chance to opt for the Digital Plus Edition at £133 ($159.99). Pre-orders for the figure are open now, though the Digital Plus Edition is exclusive to the Square Enix store.The Digital Plus edition comes with an “exchange ticket” which fans can redeem for an NFT, which is a digital version of the figure that can be “enjoyed on PC and smart phone.” The description confirms, “The digital certificate of authenticity uses blockchain technology known as NFTs”.Anyone purchasing the figure will need to create an account with NFT platform Enjin and download their Enjin Wallet app, with limited time available to redeem their digital certificate and figure.

Uncharted 2, Uncharted 4 and The Last of Us with Naughty Dog, has announced he is returning to games development and establishing a new studio titled Wildflower Interactive.In a video posted to Straley’s Twitter page which was captioned, “It’s finally happened!! We’re doing a thing!!” he explained that he had some news to share. “In 2017 I left the industry not sure whether I wanted to make games anymore, but the longer I was away I kept thinking about this medium and everything yet to be done and everything I wanted to do still.”Straley explained that he had an idea that “kept following” him and so he teamed up with some friends and began to prototype.

Project GG director Hideki Kamiya has shared a few more details about the upcoming PlatinumGames title. When asked about Project GG in an interview with Famitsu, Kamitya shared that PlatinumGames co-founder Atsushi Inaba told him that “PlatinumGames will make this kind of game from now on.”“In response to that idea, I expanded it to the current large-scale projects,” shared Kamitya. This seems to tie into Inaba’s statement from earlier this year, which claimed the company would pivot to creating live service titles.Kamiya added that “personally, I didn’t expect [Project GG] to be a game like this”, suggesting the idea has changed significantly from its original concept.Kamiya mentioned that Project GG will have a core feature that’s distinct to it, akin to Bayonetta’s Witch Time and The Wonderful 101’s Unite Morph, although the project as a whole won’t be in the same vein as those games.

Wizards of the Coast has finally announced it will show Dominaria United, the upcoming 93rd expansion for Magic: The Gathering, in a special Twitch stream on July 21.With Alchemy Horizons: Baldur’s Gate and Double Masters 2022 releasing back-to-back, Wizards of the Coast has been relatively quiet by its standards, with the only announcements being language changes and the Explorer Anthology 1.11 months after its initial announcement, Dominaria United will be shown in more depth to fans on a special live stream on the Wizards Twitch channel.

Ubisoft employees have addressed why developers avoid communicating with fans where possible, especially around the launch of a new title.Joe Hobbs, lead prop artist at Ubisoft Annecy, shared his thoughts via his Twitter page where he wrote that team members who are open online about their involvement with Ubisoft titles regularly receive abuse from “fans”, which has led to employees deciding to avoid associating with their achievements publicly.“I’ve received death threats in the past over Division 2. It’s unacceptable,” said Hobbs, before continuing, “The harassment that game develops receive is utterly disgusting and I see it in the comments of most devs who say pretty much anything.”Hobs then goes on to suggest that if players want devs to be more open and communicative, it cannot be met with demands and threats when they do make the decision to do those things, especially when such fans seem to be unaware of how games are made and which decisions certain roles are responsible for.Other developers responded in the Twitter thread by Hobbs to confirm that comments and abuse from fans has driven them away from social media “to the point I avoid saying anything about what I work on,” said Ubisoft artist Chris Goodridge.

Roblox has had a selection of internal documents stolen, which have now been posted online.According to a statement from Roblox, the publication of the documents is part of an extortion effort against the company. The statement given to Vice reads: “Roblox has been actively investigating a phishing incident, which involved a Roblox employee being targeted by cyber criminals [through social engineering tactics/using highly personalized scare tactics].”The statement continues, “These stolen documents were illegally obtained as part of an extortion scheme that we refused to cooperate with.