Bloomberg is reporting that Christopher Barrett, a top-level executive and director at Bungie, was fired in March following a series of misconduct allegations.Barrett previously served as director on Marathon and held a seat on the Bungie board before the company was acquired by Sony. Bloomberg claims he was accused by at least eight women of "behaving inappropriately" towards them in the workplace.He allegedly "called lower-level female employees attractive, asked them to play truth-or-dare and made references to his wealth and power within the studio," suggesting he could help "advance their careers."Sources speaking to Bloomberg claim he befriended several women across various departments within the studio. He then reportedly sent a "barrage" of texts that "blurred the lines between professional and personal."Barrett joined Bungie in 1999 as an artist but eventually became an integral figure within the studio, serving as a director and designer on key projects including Destiny 2 and Marathon.It's reported that Bungie staffers weren't informed why Barrett had been let go, with the Marathon team initially being told he w…
Author: Grace Johnson
Eurogamer reported layoffs at Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League studio Rocksteady.On Monday, the outlet said the developer's QA team was effectively cut in half from 33 staffers to 15. Other departments were affected, though at time of writing, the total number of redundancies is unclear.Junior and tenured staff were among those let go. Senior management has reportedly acknowledged product quality will "suffer" with the QA culling, which included employees with "specialized knowledge."Sources told Eurogamer the anti-hero shooter's poor sales were a direct reason for the cuts. Warner Bros. Discovery has been open about the game's commercial underperformance, even as recently as last month.
Suicide Squad's hits keep on coming
Similar to the recently scrapped Concord, the saga of Suicide Squad has largely been met with negativity.A Bloomberg report from June claimed Squad's issues were caused by a lack of clear direction and Rocksteady (whose previous works were single-player) not having the mentality of a mult…
Staff at Visual Concepts South were laid off earlier this week, according to ex-developers at the studio and others across the industry.At time of writing, it's unclear how many were let go from the Orange County-based developer, but 3D artist Katlynn Woodward said the "majority" of her team were let go. Affected departments include art, production, and engineering."After three incredible years at 2K Games Visual Concepts…I was affected by the recent layoffs," wrote VFX artist Arnold Song. "It was an honor to work alongside such talented individuals.""It was a great three years at Visual Concepts South," added level designer Jordan Mann. "I worked with some truly great people and am proud of all the work we did together, and will miss them all."Per the website, VC South is best known for 2023's Lego 2K Drive, along with an "integral role" in 2K's NBA franchise. This marks Visual Concepts' second round of layoffs this year, following reductions over at its Austin offshoot in February.In September 2023, nearly a full year ago, Visual Concepts also laid off staff at its Austin studio. In each instance, 2…
After recent patch notes drummed up interest, Valve has confirmed its Linux-powered SteamOS will support upcoming, non-Steam Deck handhelds.Designer Lawrence Yang told The Verge third-party devices can eventually run its operating system, beginning with ASUS' ROG Ally. Yang told the outlet support was in the cards back in late 2022, as a potential herald for the Steam Controller or Machine's return.However, he stressed this feature "isn't ready to run out of the box yet." Valve is making "steady progress," and it sounds like it wants to have support for multiple handhelds prepared before pushing it out."The note about ROG Ally keys is related to third-party device support for SteamOS," he explained. "The team is continuing to work on adding support for additional handhelds."When Yang spoke with The Verge in 2022, he said a separate release of SteamOS 3 (the Deck's operating system at the time) was planned. That effort has also made progress, and he's now said Valve will make Windows drivers for the Steam Deck OLED available for use.That feature will let users switch between that and the Windows OS, which could expand …
A new Windows Central report claims Microsoft and Activision Blizzard quietly opened a new studio. Its purpose? Developing and releasing spinoffs of popular Activision Blizzard franchises.The outlet spotted several King employees updating their LinkedIn profiles reflecting the shift to a new team. Further, their sources allege this studio is tasked with making smaller double-A games, like how Nintendo treats Mario and Zelda.At time of writing, it's unclear what systems these hypothetical titles will release for, given King's status as a mobile studio. Likewise, it's unknown what ABK franchise would be this supposed new team's debut project.
Can a double-A focus give Xbox a win?
Why launch a smaller studio inside a bigger one? Because making games is expensive!Triple-A titles have become infamously more costly to make, and not all of them sell enough to break even. Smaller, double-A titles provide a reprieve for Microsoft, and let it put marquis games out at a faster clip than its tentpoles.In the case of Activision Blizza…
Developer Echo Chunk, a studio focusing on AI-powered games, has raised $1.4 million in a pre-seed funding round. That money will go towards its debut title Echo Chess, and other projects it's working on that'll use the technology.Included in that funding was a16z Speedrun, Zynga founder Mark Pincus, and Roblox Corp's AI head Stef Corazza. Echo Chunk founder Sami Ramly commended all funders, saying they "understood our passion for AI’s role in the co-creation process of the future."Echo Chess is a free-to-play title with daily puzzles and sees players become the chess piece they just captured on the board. It went viral after its launch in April, and Ramly described it to VentureBeat as "a collaboration between humans and AI."
GenAI in game dev still on shaky ground
Generative AI in games is still controversial, though some developers have figured out how to use the technology. Last week, developer Volley also raised seed money, which it plans to use for its own projects made with generative AI.The idea…
Square Enix released Final Fantasy XIV's new Dawntrail expansion this week, and the new adventure is doing big numbers. In a new blog, director/producer Naoki Yoshida claimed the MMO hit a new record of concurrent players.Hard numbers weren't posted, but Yoshida noted the concurrents were its biggest since the soft reboot A Realm Reborn launched back in 2013. He considered it even more impressive given the game's launch issues."It has been a joy to watch you all play, each in your own unique way," he said. "But we’ve become aware of several issues that may have proven a hinderance to your overall experience. For that, I sincerely apologize."Charting Final Fantasy XIV's numbers is a little tricky, given its multiplatform status. On SteamDB, it had a recent 24-hour peak of 71,208 players, which puts it not that far behind the peak of 95,150 players back when Endwalker launched in 2021.So big was Endwalker that Square Enix had to stop selling the game ahead of launch because it'd gotten too popular. Even with that expansion's issues, it went on to become a big revenue driver for Square Enix at the time.Dawntrail's importance was…