Telltale games continues to make headlines as a former employee has filed a class-action lawsuit against the developer in the state of California.
“Vernie Roberts, Jr., is seeking missed wages, salaries, 401K contributions, and any other compensation that would have been earned during the 60-day WARN Act period. The suit also names ‘all other persons similarly situated’ who could join the class action, which could be as many as 275 employees who were fired from Telltale last week,” said Steve Watts in an article for GameSpot. The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN act, requires companies in California with more than 75 or more full or part time employees a 60-day need to give employees notice of something like a mass layoff, according to shrm.org. Companies do have some leeway when it comes to notifying their employees as part of the WARN act, “such as if the company is seeking to acquire new capital and can't risk the information of pending layoffs becoming public,” said Watts. GameSpot has also reported that Telltale has removed “The Walking Dead: The Final Season” from digital retailers. The second episode released as planned yesterday, but the remaining two episodes remain up in the air. The Telltale Twitter announced that the company is seeking outside help to finish the remainder of the season. Pulling the season pass from storefronts is not a surprising move, as it looks like Telltale is attempting to keep people from spending $20 on something the company cannot deliver.
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Last week Telltale announced that they had laid off almost their entire staff. Only 25 employees remain to work on the company’s remaining obligations.
Questions remained about the remainder of “The Walking Dead: The Final Season”. The “The Walking Dead” team was part of the mass layoff, and speculation was that the series would end after the second episode. The season was originally set for four episodes. The Telltale Twitter account made a statement yesterday about the state of the game. “Multiple potential partners have stepped forward to express interest in helping see “The Final Season” through to completion. While we can’t make any promises today, we are actively working towards a solution that will allow episodes 3 and 4 to be completed and released in some form,” said the Telltale Twitter. For the last couple months, loot boxes have become an issue outside gaming circles with countries changing gambling laws to include loot boxes.
A week after it was reported that publisher EA is under criminal investigation in Belgium for breaking the recent gambling laws as they pertain to loot boxes, it was revealed that 15 regulators from Europe and one from the US have stated they are looking into the issue. “The collaborative effort, organized at the 2018 Gambling Regulators European Forum, includes signatories from the UK, France, Ireland, Spain, and even the US (via the Washington State Gambling Commission),” said Emma Kent in an article for Eurogamer. Loot boxes and microtransactions have been a big issue within the gaming community for a while now. A microtransaction is the purchase of in-game items with real world money. A typical game in the modern day costs $60, and a microtransaction is a way for companies to make more money after one has already purchased the game. A loot box is a type of microtransaction in which a person buys a group of random in-game items. These can include weapons, cosmetic items, etc. that players can equip to their avatar. On the issue of loot boxes and whether or not they are gambling, I suppose it depends on your interpretation of gambling. I do not see them as gambling, because of one key factor: there are no stakes. To me there has to be something to lose. I see loot boxes as a purchase similar to that of trading cards. With loot boxes, like trading cards, you pay for a set number of random items. They could be rare or common, they could be new or ones you already have, but you still get what you pay for. Now loot boxes are slightly different as they are often tiered, meaning you can often pay more for a higher chance at rare items but I think the comparison still works. If it were gambling there would be something at risk. When you sit down to play black jack, you place a bet or collateral. The hand is played, and depending on the outcome, you either win or lose money. At a raffle you buy a ticket and you might win a prize. There is no guarantee of a payout. I can understand legislation in an attempt to shut down things like CS:GO Lotto (a website where people could wager weapon skins on “Counter Strike: Global Offensive” matches and exchange skins for money). In that case underage people were able to gamble using skins as poker chips and was really shut down when Steam took action. It is totally understandable to expand laws in that case, but this is a case of government stepping in the way of a business’ right to provide and sell a product. I have seen people enjoying the circus, and with the low popularity of loot boxes and EA, it is perfectly understandable but these recent events actually scare me. Not from a government interfering with business perspective or the questionable reclassification of gambling perspective, but from an unknown future. I’d rather deal with the devil I know, as opposed to the devil I don’t. What if a company can no longer use loot boxes? It’s not like they will completely remove microtransactions. What will replace the loot box? Will it be better or worse? I am not a fan of loot boxes, but I understand them. Companies use them and other microtransactions as a way to supplement income after a game’s release. It could even be argued that they are a predatory business model. Take FIFA Ultimate Team, and by extension Madden Ultimate Team, for example. Building a competitive team without spending cash on packs is near impossible. It’s the sad reality of the situation, but getting rid of loot boxes does not solve the problem. What EA replaces them with could be even worse. Companies will work within any legal means to scrape as much money out of a game as possible. The loot box issue is only the latest part of the larger microtransaction debate that has been going on for years in the gaming community. When laws stop the current way of doing things, companies will adapt and adopt new tactics. Nothing gets solved, but if consumers are behind the change I think things will change in their favor. This pushback needs to come from consumers and they need to not purchase loot boxes if removing them is the goal. I understand that some games require them to be competitive, but if loot boxes are truly the issue, the only way to keep companies from utilizing them is to not purchase them. There is a reason why companies continue to utilize them. It is because people keep buying them. Play singleplayer or play another game, it’s a cliché at this point in time but vote with your wallet. At the end of the day this issue can be solved on an individual level not on a governmental one. Telltale has announced a mass layoff with 25 employees remaining at the company, according to the Verge.
This is not the first sign of trouble from the studio. Telltale reportedly laid off 90 employees in 2017. The studio is currently in the middle of releasing their final season of “The Walking Dead: The Final Season”, with episode two set to release on Sept. 25. “The layoffs come a few months after revelations that Telltale was a studio mired in toxic management that included employees being subjected to constant overwork. Once an industry darling that worked on iconic brands like “Game of Thrones” and “Minecraft”, Telltale quickly spiraled,” said Megan Farokhmanesh in an article for the Verge. “In June, co-founder and former CEO Kevin Bruner sued the company seeking recovery of financial damages.” CEO Pete Hawley has since released a statement. ““It's been an incredibly difficult year for Telltale as we worked to set the company on a new course. Unfortunately, we ran out of time trying to get there,” said Hawley. “We released some of our best content this year and received a tremendous amount of positive feedback, but ultimately, that did not translate to sales. With a heavy heart, we watch our friends leave today to spread our brand of storytelling across the games industry.” No official statement has been made about the status of “The Walking Dead” season in development at Telltale, though Telltale has said they will make updates as to the status of their projects in the coming weeks. USgamer has updated their article with inside information on the projects of Telltale. “We previously reported that a skeleton crew will remain behind to complete work on The Walking Dead Final Season. That information was inaccurate,” said Matt Kim in his article for USgamer. “Sources who wish to remain anonymous explained that there is a skeleton crew at Telltale, but they will be working on the Minecraft Story Mode project for Netflix. In fact, The Walking Dead team was also laid off today and The Walking Dead Final Season will not be completed.” It looks as if Telltale is in the death throes. It is disappointing to fans of the developer’s games, as it looks like the announced sequel of “The Wolf Among Us” will not be happening and games like “Tales from the Borderlands” or their “Game of Thrones Series” will never get a sequel. Capcom recently announced that it will be shutting the doors of Capcom Vancouver and canceling the studio’s current projects.
Capom Vancouver was in the new back in February after the studio laid off 30 percent of their staff. “Capcom Vancouver has undergone a restructure which has impacted approximately 30 percent of the studio, as part of its regular periodic assessment of upcoming projects and overall studio goals,” according to a statement given to IGN by a Capcom representative. “The team is continuing to work hard to support the recent release of Puzzle Fighter for mobile and is dedicated to its flagship Dead Rising series.” As part of this recent closing news, it has been reported that Capcom expects to lose 40 million dollars with this closing. “Capcom has disclosed that the termination of the projects at the Dead Rising studio will amount to a $40 million loss "under the cost of sales" for the "six months of the fiscal year ending March 31, 2019.",” said Shabana Arif in an article for IGN. The Vancouver studio is most famous for its work on the “Dead Rising” franchise. The studio has also been working on another project when this news broke. According to Kotaku’s Jason Schreier, the project was a third-person action-adventure game set in an alternate universe version of New York. While this unknown project has been canceled with Capcom Vancouver’s closing, the future of “Dead Rising” is still up in the air. Capcom still owns the “Dead Rising”, so it would be surprising to see them get rid of such a popular franchise but nothing has been stated about the franchise’s future. There are many famous Japanese Role-playing Games, or JRPGs, that have proliferated their way into a Western culture like “Final Fantasy”, “Dragon Quest” and “Fire Emblem” to name a few.
With any genre, there are always sleeper hits, experimental titles and cult classics that fall by the wayside in terms of mass popularity. Then, there are solid games that people remember to some degree or forgotten altogether. For two of these kinds of titles, another chance has just opened up for them. Last week, Square Enix announced a remaster to an often-ignored gem “The Last Remnant”. “The Last Remnant” was released a decade ago in 2008 for Xbox 360 and later came to PC in 2009. As with most games of this genre, giving a short, pithy synopsis of the plot is an insurmountable task. Most JRPG plots can be broken down to a traditional hero’s quest. There is a grand evil, the player is a chosen one or the only one willing to risk life and limb to stop it and ends in triumph and sometimes sacrifice. The game did feature a unique battle system that broke from the typical turn-based formula and featured a system that was more tactical and focused on positioning as well as skills. The game had plenty of new ideas but was a bit esoteric and that may have led to both versions scoring a 66 out of 100 on Metacritic. The remaster for “The Last Remnant” is scheduled for a December 6 launch on PS4. There is no word on an updated PC version, but the original was pulled earlier this month from the Steam Marketplace in possible anticipation for this announcement. With nothing confirmed, a new PC version is still a possibility. The news of remakes did not stop there as developer tri-Ace announced that its forgotten “Resonance of Fate” will be remastered for PS4 and PC. “The firearms-focused RPG lets players take control of three protagonists (Zephyr, Leanne, and Vashyron) who use flamboyant, turn-based attacks in battles against monsters and machines. The game is set in a futuristic civilization known as Basel, a refuge for humanity in a polluted, steampunk world,” said Michael McWhertor in an article for Polygon about this announcement. Another game with interesting ideas and unique combat that was maybe a bit too out there for mainstream success. The remaster of “Resonance of Fate” is scheduled for an October 18 release for both PS4 and PC. Along with these more obscure remasters, it was announced recently that a number of “Final Fantasy” games will be released on the Nintendo Switch and Xbox One. The list includes Final Fantasy 7, 9, 10, 10.2, and 12: The Zodiac Age that will all be releasing sometime next year. Physical sales for “Shadow of the Tomb Raider” are down when compared to the first game in this recent series, which released in 2013.
The key word there is physical sales. “Of course, Shadow will likely have sold more digital downloads now than 2013's game did (as ever, UK numbers company Chart-Track does not count these). But Shadow also only posted a meager gain in sales on the more recent Rise of the Tomb Raider, which unlike Shadow was initially released only for Xbox One,” said Tom Philips in an article on Eurogamer. The small increase in sales for a well-anticipated game could be explained by the heft of the fall release schedule. With Insomniac’s “Spider-Man” releasing just a week before, that could have dealt a major blow to “Tomb Raider” sales. “Spider-Man” continues to sell phenomenally well. It is top of the chart again this week, and in its two weeks of release has already almost matched the lifetime sales of this year's “God of War” - which didn't do shabbily either,” said Philips in his article. “NBA 2K19” is another big game that released recently and next week “Valkyria Chronicles 4” and “FIFA 19” are set to launch. “Tomb Raider” has plenty of competition just in the month of September, and there are still plenty of big releases still set for this year with the new “Assassin’s Creed” in early October and later that month is the behemoth that is “Red Dead Redemption 2”. With the mass of games that are out or will soon release, gamers may be holding on to their money for other titles. “Shadow of the Tomb Raider”, if sold in a different year, may have sold much higher than it is this year. The drop in physical releases is not that surprising, seeing as physical game sales and brick and mortar stores are a dying breed. With the switch to digital, groups that track these sales data need to focus on the digital sales as well to be anywhere near accurate when income to total sales. According to the article, “Shadow of the Tomb Raider” ranks second in last week’s overall sales in the UK. Leading the pack was “Spider-Man” and behind “Tomb Raider” was “NBA 2K19”. The staple of every sales chart, “Grand Theft Auto 5”, is still in the top ten take the six spot for last week. In August, Gamespot reported that “Grand theft Auto 5” is nearing 100 million units sold. To put that number in context, that means “Grand Theft Auto 5” is the third highest selling game of all time and is still going strong despite originally released in 2013. EA is under criminal investigation in Belgium, according to Eurogamer, for allegedly being in violation of recently established gambling laws.
Earlier this year Belgium, along with the Netherlands, adopted laws pertaining to video game loot boxes. Loot boxes are a way of rewarding players with in-game items to be used in multiplayer activities. Loot boxes can often be awarded for concurrent logins, playing for a certain amount of time, completing challenges, or winning multiplayer matches. Typically, loot boxes can also be purchased with real-life currency. According to Belgium’s law, loot boxes are a game of chance and are considered gambling. When these laws were first announced earlier this year, many were questioning the ramifications of this classification. While not held in high favor by gamers, loot boxes appear in a multitude of games and if the laws will apply retroactively to games in circulation. Apparently, the laws are being applied retroactively as the offender at EA is “FIFA 18”. Loot boxes are used to award gamers players for their FIFA Ultimate Team, the team building multiplayer mode in the recent “FIFA” series. According to Eurogamer, many other games that utilize loot boxes have made changes to fit within the current laws. “We strongly believe that our games are developed and implemented ethically and lawfully around the world, and take these responsibilities very seriously. We care deeply that our players are having a fun and fair experience in all of our games, and take great care to ensure each game is marketed responsibly, including in compliance with regional rating standards. We welcome the dialogue with Minister Geens on these topics, as we do not agree that our games can be considered as any form of gambling,” said an EA spokesperson to Eurogamer back in April. EA CEO, Andrew Wilson, expanded on that thought a month later in a conference call. “First, players always receive a specified number of items in every FUT pack. Second, we don’t provide or authorize any way to cash out digital items or virtual currency for real-world money. And there’s no real-world value assigned to in-game items,” said Wilson. In late August, Sega announced a new project was in development and said that they would release more details in September. Recently the new project has been revealed to be “Project Judge” by the studio behind “Yakuza” Ryu ga Gotoku.
Many outlets are commenting on how this was being teased as being a “completely different” game from the “Yakuza” series, and that after seeing the gameplay and story trailers, “completely different” means “extremely similar”. The story trailer starts in a small law office, the lawyers going about their work. Here viewers meet main character Takayuki Yagami. Yagami had gained a certain level of fame after securing a miracle acquittal for a man accused of murder. Sadly for Yagami, the life of a Ryu ga Gotoku main character is never easy. The man Yagami defended is now being charged with the murder of his girlfriend. Here the trailer begins playing screens from throughout the game interspersed with screens hinting at themes for the game. News aside, this was a beautifully made trailer and well worth the watch. The crux of the game is that Yagami leaves his practice as a lawyer for the life of a detective. Even his look change with his profession, swapping his suit and slicked back hair for a leather jacket and more unkempt hairdo. “Project Judge” may be different in terms of which side of the law players are on, but that’s about it and that’s not a bad thing. The “Yakuza” franchise is one of the best-woven crime dramas in video games. The franchise spans six games, a prequel, and remakes of the first two games. “Project Judge”, just looking at the trailer, looks to have the same level of emotion and detail as the studios hit franchise. That was the serious stuff, now onto the more lighthearted things this studio is also famous for. This studio’s games are famous for having extremely serious stories, over-the-top beatemup (that is a game genre) combat and ridiculous side activities. The gameplay trailer shows that “Project Judge” has that in spades. The trailer starts with detective styled gameplay. Similar activities (surveillance photos, disguises, crime scene investigation, etc.) have been seen in other franchises before, but this is a new thing for this studio. As the trailer goes on, things keep getting nuttier. Yagami doing flip kicks, jumping off walls to tackle people and even kickflipping on a skateboard, and while in the air, kicking a man in a moving car in the face. The trailer ends by showing some of the various mini-games that players can participate in while not doing detective work. This is another similarity to the “Yakuza” series. In the most recent game “Yakuza Kiwami 2”, players can play mahjong, shogi, Sega arcade games, claw machines, and the list goes on and on. If “Project Judge” can balance the seriousness with the wacky, Ryu ga Gotoku has a hit on their hands. “Project Judge” is set for a 2019 release in the west and with the Tokyo Game Show in a couple weeks, more details may be right around the corner. The White Wolf has been cast. Netflix’s adaptation of “The Witcher” has its leading man in the form of Henry Cavil.
The show’s showrunner Lauren Hissrich spoke on Twitter about the casting of Cavil. “He was my first meeting. I didn’t have writers or scripts yet – just a green light and a lot of passion,” said Hissrich. “That was four months ago, and I’ve never forgotten the passion he brought.” Cavil has also received praise from the man who voiced Geralt in “The Witcher” video game series, Doug Cockle. “People keep asking... so... let me go on record saying I think that #HenryCavill will do a great job as #GeraltOfRivia,” said Cockle on Twitter. “He'll make it his own of course, as well he should, and I can't wait to see what @LHissrich and the whole @netflix team create. It's gonna be #Magic.” “This will be Cavill's first series regular TV role since his time on The Tudors from 2007-2010,” said Laura Prudom in an article for IGN. Cavil has also portrayed Superman in the most recent Superman films. Cavil will be leading the cast for this adaption of a series of novels by Andrzej Sapkowski and video games by CD Project Red as Geralt. Geralt is a witcher, a member of a guild of genetically mutated monster hunters. The series takes place in a sprawling fantasy world filled with friends, lovers and plenty of enemies for a witcher. With fiction as deep as “The Witcher”, Hissrich and Netflix have multiple directions to take the story and methods by which to tell the story. The big challenge here is finding a way to work within the existing canon of the franchise and finding a way to tell the story they want to tell. Now that it has come out that Cavil will be taking the lead role in the show, it would not be surprising to see more information about this show trickle out until its release. The eight-episode first season of Netflix’s adaptation of “The Witcher” is set for a 2019 release. |
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