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iww-gnv · 4 months

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Technical artist Farhan Noor’s website, Video Games Layoffs, has been tracking confirmed games industry job cuts since the start of last year. According to the site, an estimated total of 10,500 game industry workers lost their jobs in 2023. At the time of writing, the estimated total for 2024 on the same site currently stands at 3,770.

#news #labor news #gaming news #gaming industry news #gaming industry layoffs #tech industry #tech industry layoffs

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yusuke-of-valla · 5 months

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WE LIVE IN A HELL WORLD

Snippets from the article by Karissa Bell:

SAG-AFTRA, the union representing thousands of performers, has struck a deal with an AI voice acting platform aimed at making it easier for actors to license their voice for use in video games. ...

the agreements cover the creation of so-called “digital voice replicas” and how they can be used by game studios and other companies. The deal has provisions for minimum rates, safe storage and transparency requirements, as well as “limitations on the amount of time that a performance replica can be employed without further payment and consent.”

Notably, the agreement does not cover whether actors’ replicas can be used to train large language models (LLMs), though Replica Studios CEO Shreyas Nivas said the company was interested in pursuing such an arrangement. “We have been talking to so many of the large AAA studios about this use case,” Nivas said. He added that LLMs are “out-of-scope of this agreement” but “they will hopefully [be] things that we will continue to work on and partner on.”

...Even so, some well-known voice actors were immediately skeptical of the news, as the BBC reports. In a press release, SAG-AFTRA said the agreement had been approved by "affected members of the union’s voiceover performer community." But on X, voice actors said they had not been given advance notice. "How has this agreement passed without notice or vote," wrote Veronica Taylor, who voiced Ash in Pokémon. "Encouraging/allowing AI replacement is a slippery slope downward." Roger Clark, who voiced Arthur Morgan in Red Dead Redemption 2, also suggested he was not notified about the deal. "If I can pay for permission to have an AI rendering of an ‘A-list’ voice actor’s performance for a fraction of their rate I have next to no incentive to employ 90% of the lesser known ‘working’ actors that make up the majority of the industry," Clark wrote.

SAG-AFTRA’s deal with Replica only covers a sliver of the game industry. Separately, the union is also negotiating with several of the major game studios after authorizing a strike last fall. “I certainly hope that the video game companies will take this as an inspiration to help us move forward in that negotiation,” Crabtree said.

And here are some various reactions I've found about things people in/adjacent to this can do

And in OTHER AI games news, Valve is updating it's TOS to allow AI generated content on steam so long as devs promise they have the rights to use it, which you can read more about on Aftermath in this article by Luke Plunkett

#video games #voice acting #voice actors #sag aftra #ai #ai news #ai voice acting #video game news #Destiel meme #industry bullshit

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reasonsforhope · 17 days

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Federal regulators on Tuesday [April 23, 2024] enacted a nationwide ban on new noncompete agreements, which keep millions of Americans — from minimum-wage earners to CEOs — from switching jobs within their industries.

The Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday afternoon voted 3-to-2 to approve the new rule, which will ban noncompetes for all workers when the regulations take effect in 120 days [So, the ban starts in early September, 2024!]. For senior executives, existing noncompetes can remain in force. For all other employees, existing noncompetes are not enforceable.

[That's right: if you're currently under a noncompete agreement, it's completely invalid as of September 2024! You're free!!]

The antitrust and consumer protection agency heard from thousands of people who said they had been harmed by noncompetes, illustrating how the agreements are "robbing people of their economic liberty," FTC Chair Lina Khan said.

The FTC commissioners voted along party lines, with its two Republicans arguing the agency lacked the jurisdiction to enact the rule and that such moves should be made in Congress...

Why it matters

The new rule could impact tens of millions of workers, said Heidi Shierholz, a labor economist and president of the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank.

"For nonunion workers, the only leverage they have is their ability to quit their job," Shierholz told CBS MoneyWatch. "Noncompetes don't just stop you from taking a job — they stop you from starting your own business."

Since proposing the new rule, the FTC has received more than 26,000 public comments on the regulations. The final rule adopted "would generally prevent most employers from using noncompete clauses," the FTC said in a statement.

The agency's action comes more than two years after President Biden directed the agency to "curtail the unfair use" of noncompetes, under which employees effectively sign away future work opportunities in their industry as a condition of keeping their current job. The president's executive order urged the FTC to target such labor restrictions and others that improperly constrain employees from seeking work.

"The freedom to change jobs is core to economic liberty and to a competitive, thriving economy," Khan said in a statement making the case for axing noncompetes. "Noncompetes block workers from freely switching jobs, depriving them of higher wages and better working conditions, and depriving businesses of a talent pool that they need to build and expand."

Real-life consequences

In laying out its rationale for banishing noncompetes from the labor landscape, the FTC offered real-life examples of how the agreements can hurt workers.

In one case, a single father earned about $11 an hour as a security guard for a Florida firm, but resigned a few weeks after taking the job when his child care fell through. Months later, he took a job as a security guard at a bank, making nearly $15 an hour. But the bank terminated his employment after receiving a letter from the man's prior employer stating he had signed a two-year noncompete.

In another example, a factory manager at a textile company saw his paycheck dry up after the 2008 financial crisis. A rival textile company offered him a better job and a big raise, but his noncompete blocked him from taking it, according to the FTC. A subsequent legal battle took three years, wiping out his savings.

-via CBS Moneywatch, April 24, 2024

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Note:

A lot of people think that noncompete agreements are only a white-collar issue, but they absolutely affect blue-collar workers too, as you can see from the security guard anecdote.

In fact, one in six food and service workers are bound by noncompete agreements. That's right - one in six food workers can't leave Burger King to work for Wendy's [hypothetical example], in the name of "trade secrets." (x, x, x)

Noncompete agreements also restrict workers in industries from tech and video games to neighborhood yoga studios. "The White House estimates that tens of millions of workers are subject to noncompete agreements, even in states like California where they're banned." (x, x, x)

The FTC estimates that the ban will lead to "the creation of 8,500 new businesses annually, an average annual pay increase of $524 for workers, lower health care costs, and as many as 29,000 more patents each year for the next decade." (x)

Clearer explanation of noncompete agreements below the cut.

Noncompete agreements can restrict workers from leaving for a better job or starting their own business.

Noncompetes often effectively coerce workers into staying in jobs they want to leave, and even force them to leave a profession or relocate.

Noncompetes can prevent workers from accepting higher-paying jobs, and even curtail the pay of workers not subject to them directly.

Of the more than 26,000 comments received by the FTC, more than 25,000 supported banning noncompetes.

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technewsonline01 · 1 year

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Top Gaming News and Updates | Gaming Industry News Today

Read the top gaming news, updates and gaming industry news today at Tech Upside. Get the game guide for mobile apps and windows, IOS etc.

#gaming news today #gaming news Website #Top gaming news #gaming industry news

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eldritch-thrumming · 6 months

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scream 7 fires their highly successful female lead who revitalized their franchise & made them millions of dollars all because of her pro palestinian stance but not a single word from netflix on their side characters in an ensemble cast who are literally saying shit like “zionism is sexy” and advocating for absolutely no ceasefire under any circumstances. this is a hell world.

#i’m talking abt melissa barrera noah schnapp and brett gelman respectively #hollywood is such a fucking joke i hope it collapses #i get it’s different studios and companies but for fucks sake really #will be interesting to see what jenna ortega has to say abt this i have no idea if she’s even attached to scream 7 tbh #also something so sinister abt an industry that would drop a new hunger games installment rn

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youweremylight · 2 months

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two legendary geniuses of gaming industry are having a coffee break in Tokyo

#sam lake #sami järvi #hideo kojima #kojima productions #remedy entertainment #remedy games #dailygaming #gaming news #video gaming #gaming industry #alan wake 2

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ganondoodle · 4 months

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in light of the news that riot games is letting go 11% of their workers (over 500 people), including long time workers responsible for big parts of the best lore in the entire league ip, AND cutting down LoR AND abandoning Riot Forge (the best idea they had in years lol)-

i stopped playing league a long time ago for multiple reasons, but one of the big ones were my annoyance with the increasingly shit ass monetization (thats only getting WORSE and MORE exploitative) and my frustration with its constant boring ass design decisions (like every new champ being either sexy girly girl that looks like all of the rest of them or sexy guy thats also starting to have the same problem plus all skins putting female champs in just another dress no matter how monsterfied the male champs were-) with my only interest in it being the lore and the attachment i felt to certain characters

im not even really interested in arcane anymore .. i was looking forward to it bc i like fortiches work alot but given how riot immedaitely wanted to make it canon (a dumb and stupid idea) after the first season was successful, which already made it less enjoyable for me, this is just ... idk, what does it matter

these news together with how bafflingly badly written totk was and its subpar quality (especialyl for that PRICE) that made me fear the future of loz yet it was still wildly sucessful (we deserve better than this!!), the recent commercial success of the plagiarism pokemon slavery/trafficking game and the general situation of the games industry, with AI rampant and CEOs sucking it up to shareholders only, constant massive lay offs everywhere in every studio

i have little hope left there will be new, good, games from big studios .. what an exhausting shitty world we live in

#ganondoodles talks #random #personal #save me good indie games #good indie games....#good indie games save me ..#im well aware that there are more important things than video games #but this just adds to the oeverall exhausting feeling of everything everywhere in every industry and every part of the world getting worse #like fuck #cant soemthing good be happening for once #maybe less death and destruction #both literally and in an artistical sense #genuinely not looking forward to anything anymore #im not gonna dare to hope for a new good loz game bc hell it will be years and totk was a grim view into the future of the franchise #i dont want to be disappointed like this again-#i wanna mention again that i set my expectation extremely low for totk- all i wanted was a sequel to botw- or just a good game #and my god was it not #dont try to argue with me #im angry and tired

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sanshofox · 8 days

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EA thinks about putting ads into their games??

They shall dare and I hope they go bankrupt real fast. Like this is insane.

#what is going on today with the bad news in gaming industry???

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devsgames · 8 months

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Despite it being a while back now it's still wild to hear about the literal man-children determining the fate of a game you worked on getting detained by the police!

One of the men mentioned here is former CCO Serge Hascoët.

He was the VP in charge of a project I worked on who did regular reviews on it (and many other projects at Ubi at the time), and is/was very close to the CEO of Ubisoft Yves Guillemot. Oh yeah and he perpetuated a culture of harassment at the studio and sexually harassed women.

His "special abilities" (which every junior designer had to be forewarned about before entering a meeting with him) were:

'banging his head against a wall and simply groaning like a child when he didn't like an element of a game instead of actually providing useful feedback on it'

'being abnormally bad at video games to the point people had to take into account that he was going to judge it based on his limited abilities'

'getting distracted by the smallest most insignificant thing and doubling down on it'

'wanting to make literally everything an RPG' (ever wonder why there was a certain era of Ubisoft game that was deadset on loot drops, item rarities and simply making lots of tiny numbers go up? Yeah that's partially his fault).

He also originated the term "AAAA", which was an inside joke for a long time at the studio because everyone used it despite the fact he never explained what it meant.

Anyway fuck these people and everyone who perpetuates and doesn't stand up against harassment in their workplaces!!!!

#I will not burden everyone with all my trauma from this place but #absolutely fuck all of these guys so hard #this is a story I still follow closely and hold many grudges over #game industry #news #video games #ubisoft #game development #gamedev #video game #gaming

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iww-gnv · 4 months

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The entire game industry is still reeling from yesterday's bombshell announcement that Microsoft—hot on the heels of its $69 billion acquisition of Activision—would be laying off 1,900 employees across Activision-Blizzard and Xbox. Inevitably, Twitter is awash with reactions highlighting the human cost, both from dazed devs waking up in a world in which they no longer have jobs, and from others wondering what this all means for the months and years ahead. The posts by former Blizzard devs are too many to count. "After years of applying," wrote former QA learning specialist Cole McElwain in a much-retweeted post, "I finally secure a job at Blizzard. I move to California and am welcomed with an incredible team. I couldn't be more excited to start… "Four months into the job, I'm laid off. What the hell, Microsoft?"

#news #labor news #gaming news #gaming industry #gaming layoffs #gaming industry layoffs #tech layoffs #tech industry layoffs #layoffs #2024 layoffs

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allthecanadianpolitics · 7 months

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Video game developer Ubisoft has laid off 84 people in Quebec to "streamline" its operations. The news concerns Canadian administrative services, the Montreal-based Hybride studio and the IT team across the company's worldwide operations. In Canada, 98 people are losing their jobs, representing 2 per cent of the Canadian workforce, Ubisoft confirmed in an email. The company stated that production teams are not affected by the decision. In Quebec, Ubisoft has studios in Montreal, Sherbrooke, Quebec City and Saguenay. The company employs 19,000 people in 45 studios.

Tagging @politicsofcanada

#cdnpoli #canadian politics #canada #canadian news #ubisoft #gaming industry #layoffs #economy #quebec

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felassan · 30 days

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Xbox Games Showcase Followed by [REDACTED] Direct announced to be airing on June 9

Text reads: "Mark your calendars! The Xbox Games Showcase will be livestreamed on June 9, 2024, starting at 10am PT / 1pm ET / 6pm BST (additional time zones below). Like our double-feature last year with Starfield Direct, immediately following the Showcase we’ll be airing a special deep-dive into the next installment of a beloved franchise. We can’t say much, so for now we’ll call it the Xbox Games Showcase followed by [REDACTED] Direct. This will also be our first Showcase featuring games from our portfolio of studios across Activision, Blizzard, Bethesda and Xbox Game Studios, in addition to titles from our third-party partners. You’ll be able to enjoy both of our June 9 livestreams live through a variety of outlets, and in over 30 languages, and American Sign Language and English Audio Descriptions: YouTube.com/Xbox Twitch.tv/Xbox Twitch.tv/XboxASL Facebook.com/Xbox"

[source]

#video games #(general industry news)#(not bw related)

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video-game-tracker · 21 days

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Little Kitty Big City is out now on Xbox One, Xbox Series, Switch, and PC!

It's also on Game Pass!

youtube

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yusuke-of-valla · 9 months

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Unity Offices Evacuated Over Death Threats After New Install Charge Policy

Original article on TheGamer

TL;DR: earlier today, Thursday, September 14th, Bloomberg reported that several Unity offices will be closed today and tomorrow due to “credible death threats.” Several Unity developers have commented on this on Twitter.

On Thursday, September 24th, Bloomberg reported that Unity had cancelled a town hall and would be closing two of its offices in the wake of “credible death threats”

Several employees have responded to the report, seemingly confirming it’s legitimacy, including Senior XR product designer Javier Busto and senior software engineer Eli C Davis.

(9/14, 11:46 PM EST) UPDATE: Polygon reached out to SFPD who said “officers responded to Unity’s San Francisco office “regarding a threats incident.” A “reporting party” told police that “an employee made a threat towards his employer using social media.” The employee that made the threat works in an office outside of California, according to the police statement.”

Link here

#industry bullshit #will put thoughts/analysis on it he reblog #Unity #unity game engine #vidoe game news #bomb tw #bomb threat tw

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youweremylight · 2 months

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the most beautiful coffee lover on the BAFTA red carpet

#sam lake #sami järvi #remedy entertainment #bafta games awards #bafta awards #bafta 2024 #alan wake 2 #alan wake ii #aw2 #gaming news #gaming industry

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dormont · 4 months

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palworld being praised for being pokemon but edgy is so funny. as if that isn't the most boring and overdone thing within the pokemon fangame community. in what world is this a revolutionary concept. just go play pokemon reborn or something it's about the same quality (bad) but it's actually free

#bwark #im dead serious you sound like a bunch of teenagers with no personality lmao #also we were discussing this on discord earlier but it feels like a lot of the discussions around the quality of modern pokemon have more to #do with people wanting to make cheap shots at the devs and not actually saying something about the toxic working conditions in the video #game industry and crunch time #like the fact that you'll complain about nintendo and gamefreak not putting in any effort into their games yet bat for this game that steals #from smaller artists and has genuinelg no effort behind it says volumes #and before anybody says anything no i don't care that they're stealing from nintendo and gamefreak. they'll live #it's just the hypocrisy of it all lmao #also i already went off earlier about how something being edgy and ''mature'' doesn't automatically make it good #dark themes with no substance or respect to the topics they're handling are automatically immature to me #anyway im done talking about this now. this game will be forgetton about in a week #it's not going to be a ''pokemon killer'' you say this every time a new monster collecting game comes up and it never does anything #*forgotten. im so tired i forgot how to spell and thought that was right

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