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VOICE ARCHIVE

Nicole Carpenter

@sweetpotatoes
25 posts
2025-05-01
Tim Sweeney clarified on a call with press that this relies on Apple approving Fortnite: “Apple could arbitrarily reject Epic from the App Store despite us following all of the rules. But, you know, that they would have to deal with various consequences of that, if they did.”
2025-05-01 View on X
Bloomberg

A US judge rules that Apple violated a 2021 court order to open the App Store to third-party payment options, and refers the case for a criminal investigation

Gonzalez Rogers also referred the case to federal prosecutors to investigate whether Apple committed criminal contempt of court for flouting her 2021 ruling.

Tim Sweeney clarified on a call with press that this relies on Apple approving Fortnite: “Apple could arbitrarily reject Epic from the App Store despite us following all of the rules. But, you know, that they would have to deal with various consequences of that, if they did.”
2025-05-01 View on X
9to5Mac

Tim Sweeney says Epic plans to submit Fortnite to the US iOS App Store next week and “puts forth a peace proposal” to end all litigation over App Store policies

Epic Games founder and CEO Tim Sweeney has announced that the company will submit Fortnite to the iOS App Store in the U.S. next week.

2024-09-25
SAG-AFTRA adding League of Legends to its list of struck games after Formosa Interactive (which does voice over work for LoL) allegedly tried to subvert the strike. Here's the unfair labor complaint, and more on the story, including Riot statement: https://www.polygon.com/... [image]
2024-09-25 View on X
The Hollywood Reporter

SAG-AFTRA asks members to stop work on League of Legends, filing an NLRB complaint against producer Formosa Interactive and others for refusing “fair AI terms”

The union charges one of the multiplayer game's producers, Formosa Interactive, with attempting to work around …

Crucially, Riot Games doesn't appear to be involved in the dispute — SAG-AFTRA chose the game to be struck because of its involvement with Formosa. (To be more clear, the “canceled” game is unrelated to Riot," per a spokesperson.) [image]
2024-09-25 View on X
The Hollywood Reporter

SAG-AFTRA asks members to stop work on League of Legends, filing an NLRB complaint against producer Formosa Interactive and others for refusing “fair AI terms”

The union charges one of the multiplayer game's producers, Formosa Interactive, with attempting to work around …

2024-09-13
Annapurna Interactive is one of the most prestigious game publishers, known for publishing great games. But that vision comes from its staff — who are all now gone. It definitely leaves question marks around the publisher.
2024-09-13 View on X
Bloomberg

All 25 staff of Annapurna's gaming division resigned in September after CEO Megan Ellison pulled out of talks with President Nathan Gary to spin off the unit

Megan Ellison-led firm sees staffers quit after spinoff talks fail.  —  The entire staff of Annapurna Interactive …

Wow. Twenty-five Annapurna Interactive workers resigned — the whole staff — after negotiations to go independent fell through. AI says it'll still honor its contracts with dev partners, but I can imagine that there's a ton of anxiety all around!
2024-09-13 View on X
Bloomberg

All 25 staff of Annapurna's gaming division resigned in September after CEO Megan Ellison pulled out of talks with President Nathan Gary to spin off the unit

Megan Ellison-led firm sees staffers quit after spinoff talks fail.  —  The entire staff of Annapurna Interactive …

2024-05-27
Bungie and AimJunkies are in court this week over the latter's Destiny 2 cheating software. Yesterday, the big sticking point was over source code vs. object code — and whether accessing and using those to create cheats is copyright infringement. https://www.polygon.com/...
2024-05-27 View on X
The Verge

A US jury finds that Phoenix Digital, which owns the cheat mod site AimJunkies, is guilty of violating Bungie copyrights when it created cheats for Destiny 2

and whether accessing and using those to create cheats is copyright infringement. https://www.polygon.com/... Stephen Totilo / @stephentotilo : NEW: What just might be the first-ev...

2024-05-26
Bungie and AimJunkies are in court this week over the latter's Destiny 2 cheating software. Yesterday, the big sticking point was over source code vs. object code — and whether accessing and using those to create cheats is copyright infringement. https://www.polygon.com/...
2024-05-26 View on X
The Verge

A US jury finds that Phoenix Digital, which owns the cheat mod site AimJunkies, is guilty of violating Bungie copyrights when it created cheats for Destiny 2

The landmark decision may be the first time a jury has agreed that a cheat creator violated a gaming company's copyrights.

2024-03-09
398 people voted — 390 yes and 8 no, per CWA.
2024-03-09 View on X
The Verge

About 600 Activision QA workers form a union with help from the CWA, becoming the largest video game union in the US; Microsoft voluntarily recognized the union

Around 600 workers in Activision Publishing's quality assurance department have formed a union.

2024-03-01
The thing I keep thinking about with all these layoffs is how studies have shown that layoffs don't actually save that much money. EA expects to spend up to $165 million on this, on top of the ~$200 million from last year's cuts. https://www.polygon.com/... [image]
2024-03-01 View on X
CNBC

EA plans to cut 5% of its workforce, part of a plan that includes reducing office space and sunsetting some games; EA employed 13,400 workers as of March 2023

2024-02-29
The thing I keep thinking about with all these layoffs is how studies have shown that layoffs don't actually save that much money. EA expects to spend up to $165 million on this, on top of the ~$200 million from last year's cuts. https://www.polygon.com/... [image]
2024-02-29 View on X
CNBC

EA plans to cut 5% of its workforce, part of a plan that includes reducing office space and sunsetting some games; EA employed 13,400 workers as of March 2023

- EA announced Wednesday that it will cut 5% of its workforce.  — The video game company employed 13,400 workers as of the end …

2024-02-08
NEW: It's harder than ever for game companies to get funding — and even worse for studios led by marginalized devs. Even at a peak in 2021, $4.1B in VC funding went to 223 companies led by men, while $1.2M went to 5 companies led by women. https://www.polygon.com/...
2024-02-08 View on X
Polygon

PitchBook: in 2021, 223 male-founded video game startups raised $4.1B, five women-founded startups raised $1.2M, and 62 mixed-gender startups raised $400.9M

and even worse for studios led by marginalized devs. Even at a peak in 2021, $4.1B in VC funding went to 223 companies led by men, while $1.2M went to 5 companies led by women. htt...

But beyond the numbers, this story goes into the lived experience of funding as a developer from an underrepresented group. It's rough out there, but there are people looking to make changes. https://www.polygon.com/...
2024-02-08 View on X
Polygon

PitchBook: in 2021, 223 male-founded video game startups raised $4.1B, five women-founded startups raised $1.2M, and 62 mixed-gender startups raised $400.9M

and even worse for studios led by marginalized devs. Even at a peak in 2021, $4.1B in VC funding went to 223 companies led by men, while $1.2M went to 5 companies led by women. htt...

2023-09-01
starfield is a fine game — i like it! there are parts that were really compelling, but too many parts that felt shallow. it plays like bethesda went for that vast scope spreading the game wide rather than deep. https://www.polygon.com/...
2023-09-01 View on X
New York Times

A look at Starfield, a game by Microsoft's Bethesda with 1,000 explorable planets, set for September 6 after a 10-month delay, as Microsoft needs an Xbox hit

Alright everybody, strap yourselves in.  This is gonna be a bumpy ride. Jordan Middler / Video Games Chronicle : Review: Starfield is the ultimate Bethesda game Matt Miller / Game ...

2023-06-30
Niantic laid off ~90 people in 2022, and are laying off ~230 people now. The company was valued at $9 billion in 2021, and CEO John Hanke said today that the company is growing faster than revenue. https://www.polygon.com/...
2023-06-30 View on X
Kotaku

Niantic lays off 230 employees, closes its Los Angeles studio, and moves away from in-house game development, saying its expenses grew faster than its revenue

2023-04-12
“Gaming companies, equipped with AI image generators, can create a similar illustration in seconds. Yu said they now simply offer to commission her for small fixes, like tweaking the lighting and skewed body parts, for a tenth of her original rate.” https://restofworld.org/...
2023-04-12 View on X
Rest of World

Video game illustrators in China say AI image generators are causing them to lose their jobs, as some employers encourage use of AI tools to boost productivity

“AI is developing at a speed way beyond our imagination.  Two people could potentially do the work that used to be done by 10."

2023-03-30
EA is laying off hundreds despite a net income of $204 million last quarter and $1.3 billion in gross profit. Layoffs began earlier in the year, and will continue through “early next fiscal year,” around October. https://twitter.com/...
2023-03-30 View on X
Wall Street Journal

EA plans to lay off ~6% of its workforce and cut its office space, incurring $170M to $200M in restructuring charges; EA had nearly 13,000 employees in mid-2022

Publisher of ‘Madden NFL’ and other videogame series is also making office-space reductions  —  White-Collar Recession: Why Job Cuts Are Hitting Professional Workers

2022-04-24
big win for raven software's @WeAreGWA, though activision blizzard says it's considering an appeal. eligible qa workers will be mailed ballots later this month, and votes will be counted in late may: https://twitter.com/...
2022-04-24 View on X
The Verge

The NLRB rules that 21 QA employees at Activision Blizzard's Raven Software unit are allowed to have a union election; they have until May 20 to submit ballots

Ash Parrish / The Verge :

2022-04-23
big win for raven software's @WeAreGWA, though activision blizzard says it's considering an appeal. eligible qa workers will be mailed ballots later this month, and votes will be counted in late may: https://twitter.com/...
2022-04-23 View on X
The Verge

The NLRB rules that 21 QA employees at Activision Blizzard's Raven Software unit are allowed to have a union election; they have until May 20 to submit ballots

The employees have until May 20th to submit their ballots  —  Twenty-one Raven Software QA employees have until May 20th …

2022-01-22
NEW: Raven Software QA workers announced this morning that they're officially unionizing. They're asking Activision Blizzard to voluntarily recognize their efforts. https://www.polygon.com/...
2022-01-22 View on X
Bloomberg

A group of 34 QA testers at Activision Blizzard's Raven Software vote to unionize with the CWA, and ask the company to voluntarily recognize their union status

Microsoft Corp.'s planned acquisition of Activision Blizzard Inc. will come with an unexpected and perhaps unwelcome addition: a small group of unionized workers.