Update Patch | January 2022
January has come and gone. At the time of writing, Boris Johnson is still PM despite being subject to a police investigation, the film awards season has kicked off and to top it all off, Novak Djokovic got deported from Australia. Far from a calm start to 2022, and that extends to the gaming news which has been full of surprises. However, some things are inevitable, for instance, we did get a new Pokémon which is both somehow the best the series has ever been and the worst entry yet depending on who you ask.
1. Acquisitions, Mergers and Too Much Money
The month has seen a number of large scale acquisitions as the industry begins the year with corporate consolidation becoming a key part of business.
Betting the Farmville
It began with Take-Two’s acquisition of Zynga, with the company adding the mobile-game conglomerate to its own portfolio of mainly console games like Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption, all for a cool $12.7bn, which at the time was the largest corporate deal in video game history.
Zynga gained their early fortune with games that gained traction through Facebook, including Farmville. Like all deals, the completion is pending approval but is expected to close in early 2023. In a statement released by Take-Two, Chairman and CEO of Take-Two Strauss Zelnick said “This strategic combination brings together our best-in-class console and PC franchises, with a market-leading, diversified mobile publishing platform that has a rich history of innovation and creativity.”
That opened the floodgates for Microsoft’s bombshell announcement of their plan to acquire Activision Blizzard for the small price of $68.7bn. The acquisition continues Xbox’s massive spending spree over the last few years, following the deal with ZeniMax and Bethesda for roughly $7bn. The deal, according to Microsoft, would see the company become “the world’s third-largest gaming company by revenue, behind Tencent and Sony.”
The two companies will continue to operate independently of each other until the deal is completed at which point, Activision Blizzard will report to Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer, as detailed by the man himself in an Xbox Wire blog post. Until the deal goes through, current CEO Bobby Kotick will remain in his current role. The closest to a statement on Activision Blizzard’s controversies is this paragraph from the blog, stating:
“Microsoft is committed to our journey for inclusion in every aspect of gaming, among both employees and players. We deeply value individual studio cultures. We also believe that creative success and autonomy go hand-in-hand with treating every person with dignity and respect. We hold all teams, and all leaders, to this commitment. We’re looking forward to extending our culture of proactive inclusion to the great teams across Activision Blizzard.”
Nate and Elena seen here playing that famous Microsoft game Crash Bandicoot.
The other big acquisition news was Sony’s deal to acquire Destiny creators Bungie for $3.6bn. In this deal, Bungie will continue to “independently publish and creatively develop our games.” Of the deal, SIE President and CEO Jim Ryan has said “we are incredibly excited about the opportunities for synergies and collaboration between these two world-class groups.”
Humorously, certain Twitter accounts that have not yet heard the good news that The Great Console Wars ended 10 years ago were quick to claim that Sony buying the creators of Bungie was some billion dollar snapback at Xbox. However it has now come to light that this deal was both in the works for several months before even the Activision Blizzard one and that Sony were less interested in buying Destiny and more concerned with Bungie’s liveservice expertise. This was made clear by a report claiming Sony are putting aside $1.2bn just to retain staff at the company. While the company’s CFO Hiroki Totoki recently stated Sony aims to ship 10 new liveservice games by 2026.
2. Speedrunning, World Records and Blindfolds, OH MY!
Once again, Games Done Quick began the year by raising $3.4m dollars for the Prevent Cancer Foundation, a U.S. charity funding technologies for the detection and screening of cancers, through the Awesome Games Done Quick event, which ran for a week from 9th January.
I was always thinking “this game is too darn easy” while playing Sekrio
Over the week, many streamers and speedrunners got in on the act of whizzing through games. The highlight for many was a blindfolded 2 hour run of Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice from Mitchriz, a truly inexplicable run worth your time. Other notable moments include a world record 28:35 run of Ember Lab’s Kena: Bridge of Spirits by InsertLogic, a 48:42 run of Ori and the Blind Forest by rinSR and a 26:46 run of the recently released Deathloop by CreeperHntr.
GDQ’s next events are the weekend long Unapologetically Black and Fast and the week long Frost Fatales from 12-13th February and 27th February - 6th March respectively, before the big Summer Games Done Quick event in, well, some time this Summer.
A full playlist of all the runs from the conference has been uploaded on GDQ’s channel here.
3. The Castle of “Narrative Legos” Comes Crashing Down
Ken Levine’s studio Ghost Story Games is currently stuck in development hell, according to a new report from Bloomberg. Levine was creative director on the BioShock series and created the studio under the control of Take-Two Interactive shortly after the release of Infinite in 2013.
Issues at the studio have arisen from Levine’s ambition to create a game that was due to be released in 2017, as a sci-fi shooter with three different factions who the player could be friend or foe with, but the unnamed title hasn’t got off the ground. Part of this is due to his approach which he described in a panel where systems and mechanics would be scrapped and changed, saying “You sort of dick around for years, and then you’re like, ‘Oh my god, we’re almost out of time,’ and it forces you to make these decisions.”. Because of this, mechanics of Ghost Story’s project were in constant flux, causing developers to be constantly demoralised. Giovanni Pasteris, who worked as a Senior AI Programmer during the early days of the company, said that Levine could be “moody and lash out, singling out an individual, while berating them in front of their co-workers”.
Some individuals also seemed to place some blame at a lack of accountable bodies above Levine, with his auteur status and historical connection with Take-Two (who acquired his initial studio Irrational Games in 2006) resulting in a lack of people above him.
In an interview with Arcade Attack, Levine has further elaborated on the origins of his approach from a mentor in Doug Church at Looking Glass and said “I’d have to learn very quickly to bounce back from rejection and I think he was right in all those cases, like I think Thief was the best of those ideas, it was the most unified of all those ideas… As a writer, there’s a saying: writing is rewriting, and it’s a luxury in the games industry to be able to do that.”
At least this month gave us Baguette Boy.
4. TT Games Has Been Stepping On Lego
TT Games have been working on its well-known style of Lego games since 2005's Lego Star Wars: The Video Game and has seen great success adapting numerous Lego franchises into games over the years. Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga since 2017 and seeks the rejuvenate the decade and a half old formula. Yet, according to a report from Polygon’s Jack Yarwood this month, the developers at the company have faced crunch and battles with management in solving the studio's problems.
I kinda miss when the only voice acting in the games were character making “hrrmmm” noises.
30 current and former employees told tales of how once the company began producing yearly entries starting in 2009 with Lego Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues, creating a crunch culture in which according to one former employee “projects were planned with crunch periods in the schedule, or even worse, crunch was the schedule. [...] It was a regular occurrence because of the type of games we made: movie tie-ins, and kids’ stocking fillers.” When the company ran an internal survey in 2008 to gauge the happiness of staff, it was the lowest received by any Warner Bros. company at the time, and whilst it was addressed by then creative director Jon Burton, employees were warned of “consequences if they didn’t pull their weight”. Additional issues reported include worse conditions for QA staff who faced a lack of trust, and a pay gap for some women and a lack of women promoted to top roles. All this combined with 40 staff leaving the company in the last 12 months.
One of the largest internal issues is the use of a new engine, NTT, for the latest entry in Lego Star Wars. An internal team pitched for a switch to Unreal Engine, but to avoid licence fees, the management went forward despite it being “unstable and missing features.” Coupled with divisive figures at the top of the company and employees have some fair concerns. However, the same Polygon report does detail some positive steps going forward, including the company going forward with Unreal Engine in the future.
5. Non-Fungible Bollocks
As little as I want to discuss the topic, NFTs have been the hot topic with numerous companies and individuals willing to throw themselves and their brands into the NFT trend.
“Let me tell you a tale of my unique online Triple Triad cards.”
Firstly, numerous larger companies have either announced their interest or are looking to involve NFTs in their games. It began with the President of Square Enix Yosuke Matsuda releasing a letter stating his belief that 2021 “was a year in which NFTs were met with a great deal of enthusiasm by a rapidly expanding user base.” Additionally, Matsuda believes that NFTs will have “an eventual right-sizing in digital goods deals as they become more commonplace”. Matsuda’s letter also states his belief in blockchain games and that “I see the “play to earn” concept that has people so excited as a prime example of this.” What an exciting future of turning my hours of grinding in FFXIV into earning a jpg of a Chocobo on the blockchain. Square Enix have not changed their stance publicly.
Most notably, voice actor Troy Baker found himself heavily criticised after partnering with Voiceverse NFT, selling the concept of buying voices as a NFT. Baker supported the company very publicly with a tweet declaring “You can hate. Or you can create,”. After weeks of controversy, Baker made a U-turn, stating “I’ve heard you and apologize for accusing anyone of “hating” just by simply disagreeing with me.”
In the least surprising match made in hell Konami also launched a line of Castlevania NFTs to celebrate the groundbreaking franchise's 35th anniversary.
I’m sure there will be more updates like these ones as suits continue to bet big on the metaverse, while tanking any good will they may have with fans.
6. Russell Lees Death
To end on, some sad news in the form of the death of writer, narrative designer and game industry veteran Russell Lees.
Lees’ work stretches back as far as 1995 with writing and directing credits on The Dark Eye, a horror game based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe. From there, he would become a mainstay in Ubisoft where he would work on the Assassin’s Creed franchise with credits as recently as Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla. Lees would also contribute to other projects within the company including work on Watch Dogs 2 & Far Cry: New Dawn.
Tributes were paid by colleagues & friends, including Darby McDevitt who praised “his generosity, his passion, & his bright spirit.” and Eidos’ Principal Game Writer Ethan James Petty describing him as “one of the kindest people I've ever worked with and had an incredible sense of humour.”
Patch Notes:
Delays continue, with S.T.A.L.K.E.R.2: Heart of Chernobyl now set back to 8th December 2022 and over seven months of further development time.
A report by Games One has listed the 2020 pay of CEOs in the industry coupled with data of median employee compensation and a CEO pay ratio disclosure, with the report in full here.
Yakuza spin-off, Lost Judgment, reportedly has a TV series in development according to a Japanese publication. In non-rumoured TV series based on games, The Cuphead Show! has a confirmed release date, with Netflix releasing a trailer ahead of the first episode’s release of 18th February.
Microsoft have ceased production of all last-gen Xbox One consoles, with production now shifting to Xbox Series X│S.
An in-person E3 event has been cancelled once again by the ESA with the last gathering of the LA-based show now being in 2019.
Ian Livingstone, one of the men behind the Tomb Raider franchise and co-founder of Games Workshop, has received a Knighthood in the New Year’s Honours.
IO Interactive announced a full Hitman trilogy which will debut in Xbox Game Pass and the start of a second year of content including Elusive Target Arcade and a new campaign mode called Freelancer, where players must re-tool in multi-part missions to take down organisations.
Nintendo put out a release date for what will be the best game of 2022 in Kirby and the Forgotten Land, with the strongest character in Smash Bros. being back on 25th March 2022.
It is hard to remember now but in January we lived in a B.M.M. (Before Mouthful Mode) world.
