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I’m a no-name nobody who enjoys observing the games industry, and blogging about Xbox (mostly). About.

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    More game dev unionisation at Microsoft

    World of Warcraft workers have voted to unionize the popular video-game franchise, expanding organized labor’s new foothold at Microsoft Corp. by around 500 employees…

    Their organizing effort, which brings the number of unionized US gaming employees at Microsoft to around 1,750, was buoyed by the company’s unusually union-friendly stance…

    Rather than campaigning against unionization on its gaming teams, Microsoft continued its recent practice of staying neutral and agreeing to voluntarily recognize and negotiate with the group if it secured majority support, according to the CWA.

    – Bloomberg

    This follows previous unionisation at Bethesda Game Studios where over 200 employees voted to form a union, which was similarly voluntarily recognised by Microsoft.

    Excellent news for employee rights and advocacy in game dev at one of the world’s biggest companies, Hopefully the momentum continues to build.

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    Generative AI in gaming development is already here, and it’s going to get messy

    Brian Merchant for Wired:

    A recent survey from the organizers of the Game Developers Conference found that 49 percent of the survey’s more than 3,000 respondents said their workplace used AI, and four out of five said they had ethical concerns about its use.

    Brian’s piece is thoroughly reported, and presents a messy, transitional state of affairs, as the gaming industry navigates a new reality where automated creativity (gross did I really type that) has become available during a shaky economic period.

    Managers at video game companies aren’t necessarily using AI to eliminate entire departments, but many are using it to cut corners, ramp up productivity, and compensate for attrition after layoffs. In other words, bosses are already using AI to replace and degrade jobs. The process just doesn’t always look like what you might imagine. It’s complex, based on opaque executive decisions, and the endgame is murky. It’s less Skynet and more of a mass effect—and it’s happening right now.

    Though many of the game workers and artists were queasy about this proliferation, and some were even afraid for their livelihoods, few spoke out. “I think we all didn’t talk about it much for fear of losing our jobs,” Noah says. He claims Activision assured its artists that generative AI would be used only for internal concepts, not final game assets—and importantly, that AI would not be used to replace them.

    Yet by the end of the year, Activision made an AI-generated cosmetic available for purchase on the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 store.

    Essential reading.

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    Linked: Behind the development of Redfall

    …to the makers of Redfall, the mediocre reception was no big surprise. The project suffered from unclear direction, frequent attrition and a perennial lack of staff, according to more than a dozen people who worked on the game.

    Jason Schreier

    Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier spoke to several anonymous developers about Redfall, and what led to the disastrous launch.

    A few notes:

    • Redfall development began during a tumultuous time when Zenimax was looking to be acquired. Their games historically had been critically well received but failed to sell huge numbers. This lead to a mandated focus on more “service” type games and MTX oppotunities.
    • Reportedly up to 70% of the developers that worked on Prey left the studio, and they then had difficulties hiring for a live service co-op game when the studio’s reputation was built on im-sim single player experiences.
    • The game had microtransaction plans in place for its first three years of development; this was ultimately scrapped.
    • Some working staff had privately hoped Microsoft would cancel the game, or allow for a full reboot.

    Inside the making of Redfall, Xbox’s latest misfire [Bloomberg]

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    Linked: Xbox “wasn’t involved” with Redfall

    I’m still gathering evidence on exactly why or how Redfall was allowed to release in this state […] However, I have been told by multiple sources that Xbox was entirely hands-off with the project, and that the game doesn’t fall under Xbox Game Studios’ director Matt Booty’s responsibilities — because rightly or wrongly, right now, Arkane is not an Xbox Game Studio by internal definition.  

    Jez Corden

    Xbox wasn’t involved with Redfall, but it’s still blamed for its quality [windowscentral.com]

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    Sony’s bumbling cloud gaming strategy

    Apropos of nothing in particular today…

    Sean Hollister writing for The Verge in 2019:

    Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: a video game platform that lets you play games with the press of a button, no need for discs or downloads… Experience the latest and greatest games on your ancient laptop, phone, or tablet, thanks to remote servers instead of having to buy a console or build a powerful gaming PC. Fire up a game on the TV, then seamlessly pick it up on your mobile device…

    If that sounds like the lofty pitch for Google’s Stadia cloud gaming service, you’ve been paying attention. But every single one of those things was promised years ago by a startup named Gaikai — a startup that Sony bought in 2012 for $380 million. At the time, Sony gave every indication that it would harness the full potential of a PlayStation cloud. It even bought Gaikai’s closest competitor, OnLive, in 2015 and launched a service called PlayStation Now that finally hit 1 million subscribers this October. But half a decade later, the company has barely tapped into cloud gaming’s promise, and competitors like Google seem poised to attract the gamers that Sony failed to convert.

    Sean Hollister

    How Sony bought, and squandered, the future of gaming [theverge.com]

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    On Xbox and disappointment

    Windows Central’s Jez Corden hits the nail on the head here with an excellent opinion piece, following Arcane’s recent announcement that Redfall will launch missing a 60fps mode.

    At the end of the day, Xbox fans just want to see the platform they’ve invested in succeeding on the same level the competition seems to succeed, with expectations set by Microsoft itself being met. There are too many caveats, too many broken promises, and too much misalignment between marketing beats and product realities. As a fan, it just becomes a little tiring. 

    Jez Corden

    On Xbox, caveats, and mismanaged expectations [windowscentral.com]

    #Redfall Clusterfk

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    Consoles and Competition

    Ben Thompson goes on a 40 year deep dive of the video game industry then calls into question some of the FTC’s specific concerns with Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

    Microsoft is willing to cannibalize itself to build a new business model for video games, and it’s a business model that is pretty darn attractive for consumers. It’s also a business model that Activision wouldn’t pursue on its own, because it has its own profits to protect. Most importantly, though, it’s a business model that is anathema to Sony: making titles broadly available to consumers on a subscription basis is the exact opposite of the company’s exclusive strategy, which is all about locking consumers into Sony’s platform.

    Here’s the thing: isn’t this a textbook example of competition? The FTC is seeking to preserve a model of competition that was last relevant in the PS2/Xbox generation, but that plane of competition has long since disappeared. The console market as it is today is one that is increasingly boring for consumers, precisely because Sony has won. What is compelling about Microsoft’s approach is that they are making a bet that offering consumers a better deal is the best way to break up Sony’s dominance, and this is somehow a bad thing?

    Ben Thompson

    Consoles and Competition [stratechery.com]

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