News from the lovely world of the Games Industry.

[Syt]

I don't get the discord message.  It says that the former President was ousted "and replaced by a status quo techbro board member."  But the replacement was Fredrik, who owns the company.  This isn't the replacement of one outside CEO by another outside CEO, it is the principal owner retaking over management.  That would also explain the tone of the company meeting.

Yes, it's one of the reasons why I take the comments with a grain of salt. The way I see it is Fred handed over to a new person who wanted to diversify the publishing portfolio with very mixed success and Fred took back over.

[Syt]

The powers that be fired The Escapist editor in chief Nick Calandra on Nov 6th.

In response all video creators of The Escapist, including Yahtzee and the crew of their D&D campaign "Adventure is Nigh" resigned and they're striking out on their own. It also means that Zero Punctuation is coming to an end after 16 years. --- and doing I guess the same under his "Fully Ramblomatic" brand.

https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-67348861

Yahtzee/Nick talk about it here: https://youtu.be/KG2ttRgc5Zk

[Josquius]

Always wondered how The Escapist made their money.

[jimmy olsen]

Well, I guess Lamplighters League didn't pan out for Harebrained Schemes/Paradox.


Yikes.

This is the first time I'd heard of this game and '30s occult stuff is right up my alley.

[Syt]

In a few weeks, the industry's auto-fellatio that is the Game Awards take place.

The nominees are online: https://thegameawards.com/nominees

Unsurprisingly, BG3 is nominated in almost every category that is applicable.


The only one coming close is the new Zelda game with 5 nominations.

Meanwhile, and maybe surprisingly ...



Even Cyberpunk 2077 has 4 nominations (best narrative, best performance (Idriss Elba), best ongoing, best community support).

I sure hope Bethesda takes note for TES6.

[Tamas]

I mean I think that's fair. Starfield's sum of its parts is definitely very good and enjoyable but none of the individual parts stand out in this day and age. Like, really, none of the individual features of functionalities (except maybe number of quests, IDK) have improved on their area, they are all at best very good and often mediocre. The total result is a very nice and enjoyable game IMHO but not exactly rewards material. BG3 is a much more limits-extending products. No wonder it got furious complaints from other game devs.

[Syt]

I guess this article summarizes it somewhat. That it's mostly "all right" but  not a special standout as Bethesda games used to be. https://www.pcgamer.com/starfields-down-to-mixed-reviews-on-steam-while-the-community-laments-the-magic-is-just-missing-from-starfield/

IMO none of their games have had the staying power of Skyrim and all later attempts may have been making more money, but only Skyrim has stayed a popular touchstone.

[The Minsky Moment]

Favorite steam review comment of the season so far:

"I know Blizzard gets a lot of hate, but personally, I don't think it gets enough."

[crazy canuck]

 

[Valmy]

I sure hope Bethesda takes note for TES6.

Part of me kind of hopes they don't make it. Every TES game since Morrowind has gotten a little worse. Just IMO.

By TES6 there will probably be no skills or stats, you will just be a superhero, and the plot will just be 'WOW THE DARK BROTHERHOOD IS COOL!!!11"

But we will see.

[Syt]

Studios are firing people left and right (if not outright closing, Embracer being a main culprit there, it seems), but here's a big one that might alter the landscape on the whole:

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-67688720

Google loses monopoly case to Fortnite maker Epic Games

The maker of popular video game Fortnite has won a US court battle against Google, with a jury deciding that the search giant had operated an illegal monopoly.

Epic Games sued Google in 2020, accusing it of unlawfully making its app store dominant over rivals.

Hundreds of millions of people use the store to install apps for smartphones powered by Google's Android software.

Google has said it would challenge the outcome.

"Android and Google Play provide more choice and openness than any other major mobile platform," Wilson White, vice-president of government affairs and public policy at Google, said.

"The trial made clear that we compete fiercely with Apple and its App Store, as well as app stores on Android devices and gaming consoles," he added.

"We will continue to defend the Android business model and remain deeply committed to our users, partners, and the broader Android ecosystem."

Epic Chief Executive Tim Sweeney said that work on remedies would start in January.

"Victory over Google! After four weeks of detailed court testimony, the California jury found against the Google Play monopoly on all counts," Epic Chief Executive Tim Sweeney wrote in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The lawyers for the two companies made their final arguments on Monday in the trial that lasted more than a month.

Jurors found in favour of Epic on all counts unanimously, according to a court filing.

The case also challenged transaction fees of up to 30% that Google imposes on Android app developers, and how the tech giant ties together its Play Store and billing service, which means developers must use both to have their apps in the store.

The ruling therefore could give developers more agency over how their apps are distributed and how they make money from them.

Google maintains that its commissions are competitive for the industry, and that it provides added bonuses like reach, transaction security and protections against malware.

But if the ruling stands, Google may have to allow more app stores onto Android-powered devices and will lose revenue it makes from any in-app purchases.

Google Play Store is one of the world's largest app stores and competes directly with Apple's App Store.

Android powers roughly 70% of smartphones globally, and according to Epic games, more than 95% of Android apps are distributed through the Play Store.

The store is not as profitable for the tech giant as its profitable search business, but the platform gives Google access to billions of mobile phones and tablets.

Epic said in the lawsuit that Google "suppresses innovation and choice" through a "web of secretive, anti-competitive agreements".

"Over the course of the trial we saw evidence that Google was willing to pay billions of dollars to stifle alternative app stores by paying developers to abandon their own store efforts and direct distribution plans, and offering highly lucrative agreements with device manufacturers in exchange for excluding competing app stores," Epic games said in a statement after the verdict.

Google had countersued for damages against Epic for allegedly violating the company's developer agreement.

The tech giant has faced a number of anti-trust cases, settling similar claims from dating app Match before the Epic trial started.

Epic filed a similar antitrust case against Apple in 2020, but a US judge largely ruled in favour of Apple in 2021.

"The evidence presented in this case demonstrates the urgent need for legislation and regulations that address Apple and Google strangleholds over smartphones," Epic Games said in its statement.

Oh, and there was some drama around the game "The Day Before" - never heard of the title, but apparently it was announced as open world zombie survival game a few years ago with art that immediately drew positive attention. Game launched less than a week ago, turned out to be far from what was promised (essentially a watered down, worse version of The Division with shitty gameplay and bad enemy AI), garnering an "overwhelmingly negative" score on Steam and - according to some social media posts from supposedly devs on Russian social media - almost half of players refunded the game. The devs announced yesterday that they'll close the studio because of the financial failure. Also, the game is now delisted from Steam. Debate seems to be ongoing whether it was a developer biting off more than they could chew, or one mor entry in a series of MMO scams that turn out to be glorifed asset flips where devs grab as much money as they can via the hype machine and then bolt.

[Sheilbh]

Worth noting there's about three separate challenges to pretty core bits of Google's business underway at the minute (and some of them started under Trump's DoJ and have continued under Biden's).

I feel like seeing them split up or voluntarily shutting down whole wings of their business (like advertising) is not beyond the realm of possiblilities any more.

[Syt]

Tbh, I'm not quite clear why judges would rule in favor of Apple in one case (with the Apple platform generally being more restrictive than Android), but against Google.

[Sheilbh]

Tbh, I'm not quite clear why judges would rule in favor of Apple in one case (with the Apple platform generally being more restrictive than Android), but against Google.

It's a jury - Apple was a judge only.

I'm not sure on the details of this case - but the wider actions against Google's Play store is actually that it has a huge range of contractual relationships in order to preference certain vendors/block others. So it's not a walled garden like Apple, but it's all rigged.

Edit: That's the argument certainly in the Chrome case. But there's a case against Chrome, the Epic case against Play Store and a case against Google's digital advertising business (through search). As I say those seem to me, as an outsider, like Google's three core businesses

[HVC]

Splitting up their core businesses can't be good for shareholder value. All hail the reign of Bing?