🎮 The industry continues to struggle  July 4th 2020

The Ubisoft paradox: How the publisher enabled a culture of abuse and control

The stories continue to come out. More and more people are offering their stories of abuse and Ubisoft seems to be at the center of a lot of the allegations.

This is following last week's stories of abuse from Ubisoft. This article goes deeper into the awful culture inside many of Ubisoft's offices.

It's so sad to read people's accounts and have them finish by saying they don't expect these recent allegations to change things. We have to do better so that a better future isn't just a hope, but a reality.

In response to this news, Ubisoft published an internal letter from their CEO Yves Guillemot. In it, he details ways that Ubisoft is going to improve the ways they "operate and collaborate," including the creation of multiple positions that oversee workplace culture and diversity in the company. You can read the full letter here

Image credit: Ubisoft

gamasutra.com  

EA urges employees to come forward with experiences of abuse

In reaction to last week's events, some companies are taking steps to weed out abuse and create a space of accountability in their communities. EA has now created a digital portal where people can report harassment or sexual misconduct through their Raise a Concern program.

EA is allowing a way for people to report any abuse from EA staff, esports partners, or members of its Game Changers program. This seems like a great way for EA to get a hold of abuse going on in their communities. Only time will tell if its effective, and who knows if the investigations will ever be made public. If anything, this measure goes to show that EA will not turn a blind eye to abuse, which will hopefully give reason for anyone working with EA to stop the chance of it happening

Image credit: EA

gamesindustry.biz  

The Last of Us 2 has become a minefield for press, devs, and fans

This article has encouraged multiple game critics to come forward and talk about how devs have approached them in regards to a negative review. Of the stories I've seen, I've read about blacklisting from communities, devs pleading with reviewers to take into account the families behind the people who made the games (???), and critics receiving gifts in response to a positive review.

Along with this, some have suggested that game criticism should be done away with. That idea is ridiculous to me. I don't read reviews often, especially if it's a new title, but criticism is key to building better games. The criticism for The Last of Us Part II has been legitimate (aside from trolls). Without criticism, are we just supposed to take what we get and be happy? I do think it's embarrassing to see Neil Druckmann, Troy Baker, and other employees from the Naughty Dog team jump into random conversations to defend their game. I would think these people would be able to respect others' opinions and still revel in the praise they're getting from 90% of the people. I suppose greed comes in and ND still wants to have the best game ever made.

Image credit: Naughty Dog

polygon.com  

Amazon and Google are in games for the wrong reasons | Opinion

I wanted to talk about the news of Crucible, Amazon's first official video games, un-releasing and going back into closed beta because of how bad it was performing, but I wanted to link more of a story than just a headline. This article does what I love, zooms out and looks at the bigger picture. What effect does the unrelease have on Amazon and why did it happen in the first place?

Here's my perspective about game dev: at its heart, developers create games because they're artists who want to share their art with others. I know this isn't always the case as money has a way of talking, but most great games at least start from a place of love for the concept. This was the step that was missing from Crucible.

This article has a lot of great takes about Amazon and Google's foray into gaming. Will these mega-companies learn from their mistakes and make something worthwhile? I guess we'll see when Amazon's MMO New World launches on August 25 (if it doesn't get delayed).

Image credit: Amazon

gamesindustry.biz