Category Archives: Gaming

NetEase Cutting Jobs At Ouka Studios Ahead Of Potential Closure

Gaming, ,

Bloomberg is reporting that Visions of Mana developer Ouka Studios is about to the shuttered by parent company NetEase, GameDeveloper reported.

The Japanese studio opened in 2020 and hired veteran developers from Capcom and Bandai Namco. It was tapped to handle production on Visions of Mana, a new mainline entry in the popular series published by Square Enix.

The action-RPG garnered a positive reception when it launched earlier this week, but NetEase is reportedly looking to shutter the studio responsible for that critical success. 

NetEase rival Tencent — another sprawling Chinese business with a taste for massive investments — is also reportedly rethinking its approach in Japan. The company has seemingly pulled out of several funding commitments in the region that would have financed multiple new projects.

IGN reported Chinese video game company NetEase has reportedly laid off most staff at Visions of Mana developer Ouka Studios with plans to shut it down all together.

Anonymous sources familiar with the situation told Bloomberg that the studio which only opened in 2020, will be kept afloat by the few remaining members until its final games have been released. Visions of Mana only launched yesterday, August 29, 2024, and earned high critical praise.

The closure of Ouka Studios is reportedly due to major Chinese companies like NetEase and its rival Tencent shifting away from a Japan-centric approach. 

Bloomberg reported that Tencent is also reconsidering how much it invests in Japanese video game developers and has already backed out of several funding commitments. It had secured the rights to develop and publish the mobile version of anime-inspired game Blue Protocol, for example, but on August 28, Bandai Namco announced Blue Protocol would be shut down altogether, and its worldwide release, set to be handled by Amazon Games, was cancelled.

NetEase told Bloomberg it had “nothing to announce” regarding the closure of Ouka Studios. Tencent said it is “always making necessary adjustments to reflect market conditions.

VideoGamesChronicle reported Ouka Studios, the developer behind Visions of Mana, is reportedly set to close as part of an overall scaling back of investment in Japanese studios NetEase and Tencent.

Both Chinese companies have invested heavily in Japanese game development in recent years, acquiring numerous development studios and opening new ones.

Now, however, a Bloomberg report claims both companies are starting to rethink their strategy because it’s yet to bear any significant fruit.

According to the report, NetEase has “cut all but a handful of jobs” at Shibuya-based Ouka Studios, whose Visions of Mana was only released on Thursday.

The company reportedly plans to close the studio, with the remaining staff overseeing the release of its final games first.

In my opinion, it seems strange to me that Ouka Studios is suddenly laying off workers and only keeping a few around to finish up with the company’s final games.

Epic Debuts The Epic Game Store On iOS In The EU

Gaming

Epic Games today officially launched a rival app for iOS in the European Union, marking the first time Apple’s own App Store has had to face a serious rival. The Epic Games Store will initially offer Epic’s games, including Fortnite, for users to download onto their iPhones, with plans to start onboarding third-party developers’ games beginning December, Wired reported.

The launch, the most dramatic outcome of a series of new EU tech rules passed over the last year, imports the long-standing rivalry between Epic and Apple onto European soil. Epic says its app store will take a minimum 12 percent commission on sales, undercutting Apple’s App Store, where fees can reach up to 30 percent. 

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Epic CEO Tim Sweeney hailed the arrival of the Epic Games Store to iOS as a way to fix the “largely broken” mobile gaming industry.  “Competition wouldn’t crush Apple’s App Store,” he said.  “It would force Apple to compete with better prices and with better features and better promotions and better deals and less advertising.”

Epic Games  posted: The Epic Games Store Launches on Mobile

Today the Epic Games Store is available for download on iPhones in the European Union and on Android devices worldwide. The store is launching with Fortnite, Rocket League Sideswipe and the all-new Fall Guys for mobile, and we are working to enable all developers to launch their games and apps through the Epic Games Store in the future. We are also bringing our games to independent mobile stores including AltStore PAL today.

…We are launching on iOS devices in the European Union thanks to the Digital Markets Act, but Apple is still blocking all other iOS users outside of Europe from accessing Fortnite and Epic Games Store for iOS.

For now, the process of installing the Epic Games Store on iOS and Android is lengthy due to Apple and Google introducing intentionally poor-quality install experiences laden by multiple steps, confusing device settings, and scare screens. We are continuing to fight in courts an work with regulators around the globe to eliminate the anticompetitive terms that Apple and Google impose on developers and consumers, so we can build a better store for everyone.

Fortnite maker Epic Games on Friday launched an alternative app store for iPhone users in Europe, The Wall Street Journal reported. Spotify this week began directing Europeans on its iOS music-streaming app to the company’s website to sign up for subscriptions, something it wasn’t previously permitted to do.

Apple separately said Wednesday that it plans to make it possible for developers in the U.S. and several other countries to offer secure contactless payments through their own apps on iPhones. Apple had previously committed to opening contactless payment technology in Europe to settle a European Union antitrust case.

Epic Games said Friday that its new app store for iPhone users in Europe will initially offer three games: Fortnite, Fall Guys, and Rocket League Sideswipe. Those games will also be made available through other alternative app stores in Europe beginning with one called AltStore, Epic said.

In my opinion, this is yet another situation where Apple and Epic Games disagree with each other. For whatever reason, this just keeps happening.

SAG-AFTRA Calls Strike Against Major Video Game Studios

Gaming

For close to two years, SAG-AFTRA has been in talks with major video game companies on a new contract agreement that would cover voice and performance capture workers on titles from Disney Character Voices, Activision Blizzard, Electronic Arts, Warner Bros.Games, Insomniac Games, and more, according to The Hollywood Reporter. 

Now, at an impasse over artificial intelligence concerns, the union’s chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, has called a strike. 

“We’re not going to consent to a contract that allows companies to abuse AI to the detriment of our members. Enough is enough,” stated SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher. “When these companies get serious about offering an agreement our members can live — and work – with, we will be here, ready to negotiate.”

The move has been signaled for nearly a year. Last September, nearly 35,000 of the union’s members voted to authorize a strike (with 98 percent of members in favor) against the major gaming companies over the agreement, giving SAG-AFTRA’s national board voted to give authority to Crabtree-Ireland to call a strike. As of Saturday, the union said it was “far apart on resolution of necessary terms covering critical AI protections for video game performers.”

“Frankly, its stunning that these video game studios haven’t learned anything from the lessons of last year — that our member can and will stand up and demand equitable treatment with respect to AI, and the public supports us in that,” added Crabtree-Ireland.

Kotaku reported video game actors are going on strike for the first time since 2017 after months of negotiations with Activision, Epic Games, and other big publishers and studios over higher pay, better safety measures, and protection from new generative AI technologies.

They’ll be hitting the picket like a year after Hollywood actors and writers wrapped up their own historic strikes in an escalation that could have big consequences for the development and marketing of some of the industry’s biggest games. 

Members of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) voted last fall to authorize a strike citing an unwillingness of big game companies to budge on guaranteeing performers rights over how they work is used in training AI or creating AI-generated copies. 

Roughly 2,600 voice actors and motion capture artists, including talents like Troy Baker from The Last Of Us, Jennifer Hale from Mass Effect, and Matt Mercer from The Legend oF Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, have been working without an Interactive Media Agreement since November 2022. The strike starts on July 26 and 12:01 a.m.

Variety reported SAG-AFTRA will go on strike against major video game publishers, the actors union announced Thursday, following more than a year and a half of negotiations, with the main sticking being protections against the use of artificial intelligence.

“Although agreements have been reached on many issues important to SAG-AFTRA members, the employers refuse to plainly affirm, in clear and enforceable language, that they will protect all performers covered by this contract in their A.I. language, SAG-AFTRA said.

Per the actors union: “Any game looking to employ SAG-AFTRA talent to perform covered work must sign onto the new Tiered-Budget Independent Interactive Media Agreement, the Interim Interactive Localization Agreement. These agreements offer critical A.I. protections for members.”

In my opinion, companies that suddenly prefer to work with AI, instead of their current, human, workers, are about to lose a significant amount of their workers. No one wants to be replaced by AI.

 

Why Dolphin Isn’t Coming To The App Store

Gaming, ,

Two weeks ago, Apple modified their App Store guidelines to allow retro game emulators in the App Store. This week, Delta, a multi-system emulator that was previously available via the AltStore, was released on the App Store, OatmealDome reported.

Since these events happened, we’ve been asked many times if we will submit DolphiniOS (our fork of Dolphin) to the App Store.  Unfortunately, no.

Apple still does not allow us to use a vital technology that is necessary for Dolphin to run with good performance: JIT.

What is JIT?

The GameCube and Wii have a PowerPC-based CPU inside them. All modern Apple devices use an ARM-based CPU. It isn’t possible to directly run PowerPC code on an ARM CPU, and vice versa. Therefore, if we want to run a GameCube or Wii game on an iPhone, it is necessary to translate the game’s Power PC code to ARM so that the CPU can understand it.

Dolphin uses something called a Just-In-Time (JIT) decompiler to achieve this. Whenever the emulated console wants to run the game code, Dolphin will use its JIT to translate the PowerPC code to ARM, and then execute the results.

JIT on iOS

Unfortunately, Apple generally does not allow apps to use JIT recompilers on iOS. The only exceptions are Safari and alternate web browsers in Europe. 

We submitted a DMA interoperability request to Apple for JIT support, but Apple denied the request a few weeks ago.

It’s hard to tell exactly why Apple is so hesitant to open up JIT support. It’s possible that they consider it to be a security risk.

9T05Mac reported Apple recently changed its policy to allow game emulators on the App Store. Delta, one of the essential emulation apps, skyrocketed to the top of the App Store overnight. Another popular emulator called DolphiniOS, however, is still facing a policy road block.

DolphiniOS explains in a blog post that Apple’s resistance to apps using JIT means the App Store is still out of reach for now.

Apple has already denied their request to use JIT, likely as a security precaution.

Tom’s Guide reported in the last week, the iOS world has shifted. Retro game emulators have started launching and actually sticking around thanks to an Apple policy change. 

The launch and subsequent success of the Delta emulator have led people to wonder whether the beloved GameCube and Wii emulator DolphiniOS (a popular fork of Dolphin) could make its way to Apple’s mobile platform. Unfortunately, according to the app’s developer, it doesn’t look like it will happen.

Just-In-Time (JIT) is required to get around the PowerPC-based ARM-based CPU translation. Without it, it appears to be impossible to run DolphiniOS. Unless another developer can come up with a miraculous solution, it’s unlikely that we’ll see other GameCube or Wii emulators make their way to the app store.

In my opinion, it sounds like Apple is not interested in using JIT in its game emulators. That’s not good news for DolphiniOS and perhaps not good for other emulators using JIT.

Apple Reinstates Epic Developer Account After Public Backlash For Retaliaton

Gaming,

Epic Games wrote: We recently announced that Apple approved our Epic Games Sweden AB developer account. We intended to use that account to bring the Epic Games Store and Fortnite to iOS devices in Europe thanks to the Digital Markets Act (DMA). To our surprise, Apple has terminated that account and now we cannot develop the Epic Games Store for iOS. This is a serious violation of the DMA and shows Apple has no intention of allowing competition on iOS devices…

…In terminating Epic’s developer account, Apple is taking out one of the largest potential competitors to the Apple App Store. They are undermining our ability to be a viable competitor and they are showing other developers what happens when you try to compete with Apple or are critical of their unfair practices…

…Apple said one of the reasons why they terminated our developer account only a few weeks after approving it was because we publicly criticized their proposed DMA compliance plan. Apple cited this X post from this thread written by Tim Sweeney. Apple is retaliating against Epic for speaking out against Apple’s unfair and illegal practices, just as they’ve done to other developers time and time again.

And there there was an update: “Apple has told us and committed to the European Commission that they will reinstate our developer account. This sends a strong signal to developers that the European Commission will act swiftly to enforce the Digital Market Act and hold gatekeepers accountable. We are moving forward as planned to launch the Epic Games Store and bring Fortnite back to iOS in Europe. Onward!”

ArsTechnica reported that Apple has agreed to reinstate Epic Game’s Swedish iOS developer account just days after Epic publicized Apple’s decision to rescind that account. The move once again paves the way for Epic’s plans to release a sideloadable version of the Epic Games Store and Fortnite on iOS devices in Europe.

“Following conversations with Epic, they have committed to follow the rules, including our DMA policies,” Apple said in a statement provided to ArsTechnica. “As a result, Epic Sweden AB has been permitted to re-sign the developer agreement and accepted into the Apple Developer Program.”

According to ArsTechnica, Apple’s quick turnaround comes just a day after the European Commission said it was opening an investigation into Apple’s conduct under the new Digital Markets Act and other potentially applicable European regulations. That investigation could have entailed hefty fines of up to “10 percent of the company’s total worldwide turnover,” if Apple was found to be in violation.

In my opinion, it certainly sounds like the two companies were bickering with each other in a way that resembles something that a middle-schooler would do. Hopefully, this spat is over and done with now.

Blizzard Introduces Johanna Faries As The New President Of Blizzard Entertainment

Gaming

Blizzard Entertainment posted an email that was delivered to Blizzard employees by Johanna Faries, the new President of Blizzard Entertainment.

“Dear Blizzard,

Though my official first day with you all is February 5, I want to let you know immediately that it is an honor to join you next week in this new capacity. I do so humbly and in awe of all that Blizzard has stood for and delivered to the world for over thirty years. Today also brings some mixed emotions. The loss of talented teammates in recent days is hard to hold side-by-side with the immense excitement I feel about joining Blizzard – and building on the momentum you’ve created for Blizzard’s next chapter.

I want to thank Matt for the introduction, bring some further clarity to today’s announcement, and share more about how I see our future together at Blizzard. I understand this is a lot to take in. The news of my appointment may no doubt bring up a range of reactions, questions, or even concerns.

Activision, Blizzard and King are decidedly different companies with distinct games, cultures, and communities. It is important to note the Call of Duty’s way of waking up in the morning to deliver for players can often differ from the stunning games in Blizzard’s realm: each with different gameplay experiences, communities that surround them, and requisite models of success. I’ve discussed this with the Blizzard leadership team and I’m walking into this role with sensitivity to those dynamics, and deep respect for Blizzard, as we begin to explore taking our universes to even higher heights.

I am committed to doing everything I can to help Blizzard thrive, with care and consideration for you and our games, each unique and special in their own right. I’m optimistic about our ability to serve our current and future player communities and to further amplify the shared passion for greatness, polish, and creative mastery that is a hallmark of Blizzard’s approach to gaming…

…A few personal facts about me: my #1 job in life is raising two amazing boys. In addition to parenthood, a typical week for me includes finding time for daily yoga and prayer, and of course, playing video games (big Diablo IV fan over here!). Throughout, the joy I find in video games – and working with those who make them – only deepens…”

PCMag reported that Microsoft-owned game publisher Blizzard Entertainment has announced that Johanna Faries will be its new president, effective Feb, 5.

Faries’ announcement comes just days after Microsoft laid off 1,900 employees across its gaming businesses, affecting staff at Activision Blizzard, Xbox, and Zenimax, home to Bethesda Softworks, MachineGames and Arcane Studios. Former President Mike Ybarra also shared on X that he was leaving his role.

Prior to stepping up at Blizzard, Faries was at Activision as its general manager for the studios first-person shooter franchise Call of Duty. Faries also spent 11 years at the National Football League (NFL) on its business development, marketing, and licensing teams.

In my opinion, it is good that Blizzard has selected a new president, especially since former president Mike Ybarra has left the company. Johanna Faries appears to be a great choice, considering she previously was   was involved with Call of Duty.

New Survey Shows Game Developers Are Worried About Layoffs And AI

Gaming

Game Developers are overwhelmingly concerned about the ethics of using AI. The organizers of the Game Developer’s Conference (GDC) have released their annual State of the Game Industry Survey, in which 84 percent of the 3,000-plus respondents said they were somewhat or very concerned about the ethics of using generative AI, The Verge reported.

The survey’s results elaborated on why developers are concerned, citing reasons that include the potential for AI to replace workers and exacerbate layoffs or expose developers to copyright infringement complaints. Developers are also worried that AI programs could scrape data from their own games without their consent.

GDC’s survey also broke down developer sentiment regarding AI according to job type. Respondents in more technical fields like marketing, programming, and business generally thought AI would have a positive impact on their jobs, while those with creative job types like art, narrative, and quality assurance felt AI would negatively impact their jobs.

The Game Developer’s Conference (GDC) posted some key information from its survey:

One-third of developers have been impacted by layoffs, and half are concerned there could be more

One-third of developers (35%) said they’ve been impacted by layoffs – either by having some layoffs take place within their team or company or being laid off themselves. Quality assurance developers appear to be hit the hardest, with 22% of them saying they were laid off this year (compared to 7% of all developers). Business and finance professionals reported the least layoffs (2%).

Over half of all respondents (56%) expressed some level of concern that their company could see layoffs in the next 12 months, while one-third said they weren’t at all concerned. When asked to share their thoughts on the rise of layoffs in the game industry, many developers cited post-pandemic course correction, studio conglomeration, and economic uncertainty as possible explanations, and some expressed a desire for unionization to protect workers.

Four out of five developers are worried about the ethical use of Generative AI

When it comes to how Generative AI will impact the game industry as a whole, game makers appear to be mixed. Those working in business, marketing, and programming were more likely to say the technology would have a positive impact while those in narrative, visual arts, and quality assurance were more likely to say the impact would be negative.

Even though many developers seem to be uncertain about their industry impact of Generative AI, they are quite certain about the ethical impact. A large majority of developers indicated they were somewhat or very concerned about the ethics of using Generative AI, while only 12% stated they had no concerns.

In my opinion, it sounds like game developers are concerned about layoffs of real people – whose jobs might be taken over by generative AI. That must be a huge headache for those who are worried about losing their jobs.