This Week Microsoft has announced that it will be laying off 10,000 employees across all divisions. This decision was made in response to a predicted incoming worldwide recession, and a loss of revenue post-Covid after their services have been seen being used less as people get back to normal life. What does it mean for the employees? Well, Microsoft has also announced severance for those affected by the layoffs, as well as 60 days notice before termination, 6 months of continued healthcare, and support in finding new work. - Article by GameRant
Stellaris has announced it’s first major Story Pack release adding new content, new mechanics and new story elements.
Stellaris: First Contact Story Pack - For countless ages, your people have looked to the stars with wonder - is there anybody else out there? When we meet, will they be friends or enemies? Will we be the ones to discover them, or are they already here, hiding in plain sight? The First Contact Story Pack focuses on the experiences of these Pre-FTL civilizations, both from the point of view of the civilizations themselves as well as from the observers. Observation has been revamped with new enhanced systems relating to civilization Awareness, Diplomacy, and Espionage. New Insights can be learned from observing civilizations that have not been corrupted by the galaxy as a whole. - (Steam, coming soon)
Ubisoft employees are being asked to strike over their CEO’s tone-deaf comments in a leaked email to staff. The email tasked employees with buckling down, stating “the ball is in your court” after a series of flopped titles, and a rough year of lower-than-expected revenue. - Article by Kotaku
In another harsh blow to Ubisoft, it seems as though the game company has been reaching out to other companies in the industry in an attempt to be merged with, or acquired. Reception so far hasn’t been great as some have reported, and it seems Ubisoft is being laughed out of the room. - Article by KitGuru
Atypique Studio has had trouble getting their game into the hands of a broader audience for their game Noara: The Conspiracy, and the game is suffering because of it, as Long queue times have been a regular complaint of the games’ players. What does a small team of developers do?
Noara: The Conspiracy - Since the tragedy of the Last Moon, the Lands of Noara are once again under threat. Take up arms and dive into this competitive turn-based game, build your army, react in real time to your opponent's actions and try to win the game! - (Steam, available now)
The minimum PC requirements for upcoming PS5-to-PC ports of Returnal and Forspoken have some intense system requirements. The discussion here is: are these requirements justified? Is this an engine issue? Or is this just an age-old tale of PC ports getting a severe lack of optimization? The XBOX Series X and Playstation 5 are using modified AM4 APU’s designed by AMD. So why would a reasonable processor, a reasonable dedicated graphics card, and a solid state drive in a PC perform so poorly in comparison? - Article by Kotaku
Netease has requested an extension of time to settle the contract between Netease and Activision Blizzard in hopes they can continue their relationship with the creators of popular titles such as World of Warcraft and Overwatch. Netease has been the dedicated Chinese publisher of Activision Blizzard titles for years, however, recently Activision Blizzard (for no publicly known reason) has denied renewing Netease’s publishing contract between the two gaming companies. Chinese law requires games to be published by a Chinese company, meaning the US based company Activision Blizzard’s title cannot have continued distribution in China without this contract. This means for Chinese players of these titles, that they will become unavailable at the end of the current contract. Netease employees aren’t taking this lightly. - Articles by Wowhead and GameRant.
