Activision-Blizzard is Being Sued for Sexual Harassment and Racial Discrimination
Activision-Blizzard is being sued by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DEFH). An investigation investigation held by the DEFH into the company over the last two years uncovered evidence of discrimination against female employees "in terms and conditions of employment, including compensation, assignment, promotion, termination, constructive discharge and retaliation."
The lawsuit alleges that the company routinely racially discriminates and sexually harasses its employees. "Defendants' workforce is only about 20% women," the filing reads. "Its top leadership is also exclusively male and white. The CEO and President roles are now – and have always been – held by white men." Allegedly, even when women do reach higher positions in the company, they "earn less salary, incentive pay and total compensation than their male peers, as evidenced in Defendants' own records."
Several examples are cited of instances of sexual harassment and abusive behaviour, including unequal treatment of women in terms of compensation and supervision by superiors. Male employees are said to repeatedly engage in unprofessional behaviour, such as drinking on the job, playing video games in the office and delegating their work to female employees, routinely making jokes about sensitive issues such as rape, and more.
One instance mentioned in the suits recounts how a female employee was subject to sexual harassment for a prolonged period of time by several in the company, following which she took her own life during a business trip with a male supervisor. The lawsuit also talks about discrimination against African-American female employees, as well similar behaviour against pregnant employees.
In a statement, an Activision-Blizzard spokesperson said the DEFH's lawsuit "includes distorted, and in many cases false, descriptions of Blizzard's past."
"The picture the DFEH paints is not the Blizzard workplace of today," the company says. "Over the past several years and continuing since the initial investigation started, we've made significant changes to address company culture and reflect more diversity within our leadership teams. We've updated our Code of Conduct to emphasize a strict non-retaliation focus, amplified internal programs and channels for employees to report violations, including the "ASK List" with a confidential integrity hotline, and introduced an Employee Relations team dedicated to investigating employee concerns. We have strengthened our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion and combined our Employee Networks at a global level, to provide additional support. Employees must also undergo regular anti-harassment training and have done so for many years."
PS5's SSD Speed Has Advantage Over Xbox Series X, Cross-Gen Pipelines Causing Bottlenecks – Dev
The ninth generation of consoles isn't even a year old but it's still interesting to look at the strategies that Microsoft and Sony are employing. While the former is all about support across generations, backwards compatibility and cloud gaming, the latter is leaning more into high-profile exclusives (though some like Horizon Forbidden West, Gran Turismo 7 and the next God of War are coming to PS4 as well as PS5). Given the similar technologies in the Xbox Series X and PS5, it's interesting to note the subtle differences in their make-up.
While both utilize a custom octa-core Zen 2 CPU, the Xbox Series X is notable for its 3.8 GHz clock speed (3.6 GHz with Simultaneous Multithreading active) while the PS5 runs at a variable frequency up to 3.5 GHz. However, the PS5's SSD is an different league, offering a Read Bandwidth of 5.5 GB/s (Raw) and 8-9 GB/s (Compressed) while the Xbox Series X's Read Bandwidth is 2.4 GB/s (Raw) and 4.8 GB/s (Compressed). We spoke to Invader Studios co-founder Michele Giannone, who's currently working on Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle for previous and current-gen platforms, on how developers can take advantage of the former along with how it compares to the latter.
"The first and most logical of the answers is obviously linked to the speed of the uploads. Having the ability to access data so quickly allows us to have almost instant uploads, so as to avoid long waits between one map and another. If we analyze everything more deeply, however, we can understand how much this speed of access to gigs of files can also have an impact at the level of game design or go to redefine some pipelines now consolidated in the gaming industry. Just think of what Insomniac Games' Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart did."
However, it may be a while before we see such pipelines becoming prevalent in the entire industry. As Giannone notes, "The current bottleneck, however, appears to be the almost always cross-gen nature of the products in the pipeline and the concept of multi-platform itself. So we will see only the exclusive titles for a single platform fully enjoy these new technologies, while for all others will have to 'be content' with being able to pass from the start menu to the actual game in a matter of seconds."
As for how the PS5 or Xbox Series X compares in terms of their SSDs, "We believe that Sony has a distinct advantage from this point of view."
Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle is out in 2022 and serves as a prequel to Daymare: 1998. It's in development for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5 and PC.
Aliens: Fireteam Elite Shows off 15 Minutes of New Gameplay Footage
Cold Iron Studios confirmed last month that their co-op third person shooter Aliens: Fireteam Elite will be releasing this August (and also bolted on an "Elite" at the end of its name), and ahead of its upcoming launch, we've been getting plenty of new details on the game. Now, courtesy of the folks at Game Informer, we've got a pretty meaty chunk of new gameplay footage to look at.
The video, which you can view below, shows 15 minutes of footage. Plenty of different kinds of aliens are squished and shot, different weapons are shown off, and we get some interesting details on the game's various playable classes and what they'll each bring to the table. Of course, that classic Alien visual aesthetic is also on full display here. Check it out below.
Aliens: Fireteam Elite is out for the PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, and PC on August 24. It will cost $39.99 on all platforms, but it's been confirmed that it won't support cross-play.
Crash Bandicoot is Celebrating its 25th Anniversary with an Anniversary Bundle
2021 is the year where many major video game franchises are celebrating their landmark anniversaries, and beloved platforming series Crash Bandicoot is one of them. To celebrate its 25th birthday, Activision has released a special anniversary bundle called Crash Bandicoot Crashiversary Bundle.
The bundle includes all the major Crash games that have released these last few years- including Crash Bandicoot N.Sane Trilogy, Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled, and Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time. It's available on PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch, and costs $199.99 on the former two, and $99.99 on the latter. Just for today though, it's being sold at a heavily slashed price- $59.99 on all three platforms. All three of those are excellent releases, encompassing five great games in total, so if you haven't given them a go yet, now's your chance.
The future of Crash Bandicoot has looked to be in doubt these last few months. N.Sane Trilogy developer Vicarious Visions has been merged into Blizzard and is working on Diablo 2: Resurrected, while reports have suggested that Crash 4 developer Toys for Bob is one among several Activision studios that's been brought in to focus exclusively on Call of Duty (though Activision says reports of layoffs at the studio are incorrect).
https://twitter.com/CrashBandicoot/status/1417925381043023872
Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin – Title Update 1 Brings Several Bugs, Capcom Investigating
Title Update 1 for Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin went live last week and added a new Monstie, Monster Hunter Rise's Palamute, to the roster. Even better is that players can obtain Palamutes with different element types. However, the update also introduced its fair share of annoying bugs.
This includes the final cutscene suddenly stopping for some players, a Monstie's body color changing while out in the field and the inability to access multiplayer due to "corrupt data" being found. Perhaps most annoying is a bug that causes a Battle Buddy and Monstie at level 99 to be reverted to level 1. This occurs if the player parts with a Battle Buddy and then adds them to the party again.
Capcom has acknowledged the existence of the bugs and is currently investigating their cause. A subsequent update will release later to implement fixes so stay tuned and follow the workarounds provided. Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin is currently available for PC via Steam and Nintendo Switch with over one million in worldwide shipments and digital sales since launch.
Electronic Arts' "Project C" Listed for PS5 on Amazon UK
EA Play Live 2021 is set to broadcast today at 10 AM PST. While a bunch of games like the next Dragon Age and Mass Effect along with skate. (aka Skate 4) won't be appearing, rumors indicate that a remake for Dead Space will be unveiled. Whatever the case may be, a new title from Electronic Arts was listed (and subsequently pulled) from Amazon UK.
Dubbed "Project C", it's coming to PlayStation 5, though given the company's multi-platform stance, it's highly unlikely to be an exclusive. No other details were provided (as seen in the screencap below via WCCFTech) but there's already the assumption that this is Motive Studios' Dead Space remake. As always, we'll have to wait for more details.
EA Play Live 2021 will be 40 minutes long – confirmed announcements include the launch trailer for Apex Legends – Season 10: Emergence, Lost in Random (which could receive a release date) and Battlefield 2042. Stay tuned for more details when the show goes live.
Assassin's Creed Art Director Leaves Ubisoft
Veteran Assassin's Creed art director Raphael Lacoste has announced his departure from Ubisoft in a series of tweets published yesterday. Lacoste has spent over 16 years at Ubisoft across two stints- first from 2002 to 2007, and then returning to the company in 2010.
He worked as art director on eight Assassin's Creed titles, including the likes of Assassin's Creed 1, Revelations, Black Flag, Origins, and most recently, Valhalla. Prior to his work on the Assassin's Creed series, Lacoste also worked in art direction roles on Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Warrior Within, and The Two Thrones.
In his announcement on Twitter, Lacoste said "it was time to do another leap of faith". Updates to his Twitter bio and his LinkedIn profile state that he's joined Haven Studios as Art Director. Haven Studios is currently working on a new PlayStation-exclusive IP, and is led by Jade Raymond, Lacoste's former Ubisoft collaborator and producer on several Assassin's Creed games.
A new Assassin's Creed game, codenamed Assassin's Creed Infinity, is currently in early development at Ubisoft, and is being billed as an ongoing live service platform that will grow and expand over time. Read more on that through here.
2/3 – I would like to thank from the bottom of my heart our wonderful community and the incredible talents I've had the chance to collaborate with, over these amazing years. pic.twitter.com/H1j7WpOu3v
— Raphael Lacoste (@raphaellacoste) July 21, 2021
Ubisoft has been a nice home for me for 16 years, and I am very touched about this, the trust they gave me as well as the opportnities, but it was time to do another leap of faith 🙂
— Raphael Lacoste (@raphaellacoste) July 21, 2021
Ghost of Tsushima Director's Cut is adding a meaty new chunk of content to the game with the Iki Island expansion, which, as its name suggests, adds a whole new island to explore and new story content to experience. Based on what Sucker Punch has shown of it so far – especially in the recent story trailer – it seems like it's going to bring something new to the table that wasn't in the original game, and the developer recently highlighted one such example of that in a series of tweets.
Scattered through Iki Island, players will be able to find several animal sanctuaries, where Jin can tame various different kinds of animals by playing "soothing melodies" with his flute. Of course, once you've tamed these animals, you can pet them as often as you want any time you return to these sanctuaries. Examples of animals that can be found in these sanctuaries are cats, deer, and monkeys- check them out in the clips below.
Ghost of Tsushima Director's Cut launches for PS5 and PS4 on August 20.
https://twitter.com/SuckerPunchProd/status/1417899233932308484
https://twitter.com/SuckerPunchProd/status/1417900145346179073
Tribes of Midgard Interview – Survival Mechanics, Co-op, and More
Norsfell's upcoming survival RPG Tribes of Midgard has turned a lot of heads in the last few weeks, and one look at the game is enough to see why. Eschewing the elements of survival games that many don't enjoy, emphasizing the parts that many do, and throwing it all in together in what's looking like a rich universe based on Norse mythology with several interesting ideas of its own, Tribes of Midgard looks set to deliver a unique blend unlike anything else. We recently reached out to its developers to learn more about the game and what makes it tick, and learned quite a bit in the process. Below, you can read our conversation with Julian Maroda, CEO of Norsfell and creative director of Tribes of Midgard.
"This is a game where survival is dependent on the entire community. In Tribes of Midgard, your team will either thrive as a cohesive unit, or fall together."
You've said in the past that Tribes of Midgard is attempting to create a completely new genre. Can you elaborate on that a little bit, and how the game attempts to do that?
Tribes of Midgard blends together all of our favorite things across the survival, co-op, and action RPG genres – we affectionately call this new genre "surthrival." This is a game where survival is dependent on the entire community. In Tribes of Midgard, your team will either thrive as a cohesive unit, or fall together.
This has a number of cascading effects. First, your survival plays out differently than you might expect. Because you're playing as an Einherjar, a glorious Viking hero brought back from Valhalla, you're a bit of a big deal. This means that "normal" concerns are beneath you: you won't starve to death, die of thirst, etc, and you are strong enough to chop down trees in a single swing of your axe. Second, you can die in combat and be revived endlessly. Your gear will even stay with you after death. Instead of focusing on the survival of the individual, you'll live and die as a team – and if the Seed of Yggdrasil at the center of your village dies, it's game over.
This makes survival a "team-sport," which should be more appealing and accessible both to players new to survival or long-time fans of the genre. Of course, you can also play and "surthrive" solo…there may be "no I in team," but there is in both "survival" and "win!"
Tribes of Midgard has a particularly striking art style. Can you talk about the process of how you settled on this aesthetic for the game? Was it something that came from its setting, or did you decide early on what you wanted it to look like?
Tribes of Midgard's brightness and vibrant colors are intentional. This is your player's shot at joining the heroes of legend. The Einherjar have been sent down to Midgard from Valhalla to save the world, and they're excited about it!
You are living and playing through the Norse myth in Tribes of Midgard, and this mythology is full of magic, adventure, monsters, and wonder. It's deep, colorful, and fun – and the game needed to reflect that. The mix of bright colors, cell shading, and a cross-hatching effect gives the game an almost comic book-ish feel, as if you were playing through an Edda (Norse Saga) as told around the campfire by the village mystic.
We've seen a lot of games take a dark and gritty approach to Vikings and Norse mythology, and while that works really well for so many other games, it's not the tone we want. Our characters are excited to stave off Ragnarök. They are Vikings. They love to fight. Tribes of Midgard's art style reflects that battle-joy, and the Einherjar's desire to join the ranks of Legendary Heroes.
"Tribes of Midgard's brightness and vibrant colors are intentional. This is your player's shot at joining the heroes of legend. The Einherjar have been sent down to Midgard from Valhalla to save the world, and they're excited about it!"
What can you tell us about the building mechanics, and how robust players can expect them to be?
We wanted the building mechanic to expand gameplay and be a strategic tool in the Einherjar's toolset. In Tribes of Midgard, building adds a new way to explore, defend and thrive. You'll create ramps to access new ground, equip your village with fortified gates and archer towers, or restore ruins of buildings that boost resource generation. Each has its own time and place in the ebb and flow of the game, and each costs resources. Players will want to consider their resources before undertaking a building project – could that stack of wood be used to create new items, or is it needed to fortify the gates before a nightly Helthing incursion?
All that said, we're just scratching the surface of what building will do in our game. We have plans to support Tribes of Midgard for months and years beyond launch, and are already working to expand on this system in alignment with our community. We'll be keeping a close eye on player feedback and make sure that we're giving this community the ultimate Viking sandbox experience.
For those who prefer to play games solo, does Tribes of Midgard offer a single player experience that's on par with co-op, or is it designed primarily around co-op gameplay?
While Tribes of Midgard is best with friends, you can absolutely play solo. To make sure the game is always fun for any group size, Saga Mode has two options that are adjusted for different playstyles: Solo and Matchmaking. In Solo, you get to save Midgard on your own in a smaller map suited to individual play. In Matchmaking, you can start in a Group with your friends or matchmake with the community to start a new tribe with others! Either way, difficulty automatically scales based on party size, with the game raising or lowering the difficulty as players join and depart the session.
For example, if you start with only two others, the game will adjust enemy difficulty, resources and other features to make sure your party of three has an awesome experience. If some friends join, the game will change – updating numerous parameters to make an ideal experience for any size group. One that won't change is map size: you'll all get to play on a larger map, but entire regions won't raise and lower out of the sea because someone joined or left your game.
In Survival Mode, you set the difficulty by choosing parameters at the start of your game. The more challenging you make your game, the more meta XP you can earn! Your friends can join based on how many players are already in your party, but if you want to keep your Midgardian adventure to just your close circle of Viking warriors, you can password protect your play session.
"While Tribes of Midgard is best with friends, you can absolutely play solo."
Unlike most survival games out there, Tribes of Midgard is pulling back on managing meters, which is a mechanic that is, of course, crucial to the survival genre, but is also something that can get a little tedious at times. How does the game strike the balance between keeping it streamlined but ensuring that it isn't too simplified?
Survival games have specific, prominent features that mark the genre. While Tribes of Midgard includes a lot of survival aspects, we removed meters like hunger and thirst to streamline the game. As human beings, we all understand the necessities of things like food and drink for survival. But you're not playing as a normal human, you're a hero from Valhalla! Hunger and thirst are beneath you. Your concern is to quite literally stave off the end of the World; that means you can't stop and grab a bite to eat!
That doesn't mean the game is simple – quite the opposite, actually. The diversity of threats looming over your tribe add a number of different "meters" you need to track. Is it almost night? Better get back to the village, because Helthings are coming. Has a Jötunn appeared? It's time to scout it out, prepare your arsenal and coordinate a few raids to chip down its enormous health pool. Uh-oh, that Jötunn is weak to lightning, better go find some resources to make a Lightning Axe!
The world around you also adds another layer that we think players will enjoy. We added frigid glaciers and scorching deserts to Midgard to create a different kind of threat, because even if your Einherjar can't starve to death, that doesn't mean they can't freeze or broil. You can monitor your temperature and equip the right gear to stay cool and collected. As you explore the map, you may encounter threats beyond your skill level. To know if you are strong enough and have the right equipment to face these beasts, keep track of the power rankings and how they change from place to place.
TLDR: Tribes of Midgard is the kind of game that's easy to get into, but easier to stick around in – there is just so much you can do!
What are your plans for the game in terms of post-launch support?
We will keep the game fresh with seasonal updates that we call Sagas, and we've got an early look at our content roadmap to share with you. Best of all, all these Sagas will be free to anyone who's bought the game and they only build upon each other. For example, when a new Saga comes out, you can still play through the past Saga and even potentially knock out both Saga Quests in the same session.
Homeworld Mobile Gameplay Trailer Showcases Combat
Announced back in August 2019, Homeworld Mobile has received a new gameplay trailer which shows off its combat. If you've ever played a Homeworld title, much of this will be familiar from the use of the Z-axis in combat to building and upgrading your fleet. Check it out below.
Taking place over 100 years since the first game, the Hiigarans are described as having This time, they're looking to explore into an "uncharted universe" using Hyperspace Gates. Players can choose a faction of their Space Fleet and work with or against other factions' settlers to seek out the Progenitors. Along with "large scale initiatives", players can also work together in co-op game modes.
Each faction has their own unique premise, from the S'jet and their focus on research to the Kiithless and their status as outcasts. The usual tropes of Homeworld combat, from ship types like carriers, destroyers and interceptors to formations and focus targeting are present. Stratosphere Games is also touting "rich lore" with voice-overs in keeping with the previous titles.
Currently, Homeworld Mobile is available in testing for certain regions on iOS and Android devices. Sign up here to register for the same.