General Gaming News.

[FakeSympathy]

 

[Bedinsis]

I don't follow.
Halo is a major IP; of course there will be more games in the series.
Or is it that 343 Industries will be developing them that has you upset?

 

[XsjadoBlaydette]

Dead Space Remake is so terrifying even the dev team struggles to play it

Dead Space Remake is reportedly so scary, even members of the development team are struggling to play it. In an intervi…

www.eurogamer.net

Ah yes, people with no financial stake in the game doing well who've the threat of any negative repercussions for lying or embellishing are great sources.

Let us know when you find them, ta.

 

[XsjadoBlaydette]

Wait but no it was just as painful for Phil as it was for everyone losing their ability to make rent tho!

Phil Spencer admits Xbox layoffs were "painful choices"

Xbox boss Phil Spencer has reached out to Xbox staff across the company, acknowledging that it's been "a difficult week…

www.eurogamer.net

So very. Very. Painful.

Oops, dropped a completely unrelated link, sorry.

Microsoft under fire for hosting private Sting concert for its execs in Davos the night before announcing mass layoffs

The tech giant’s party in the exclusive Swiss ski resort was labeled “seriously bad executive symbolism.”

fortune.com

Microsoft has come under fire after details of a get together it held in Davos, Switzerland, left the company’s workers more than a little stung.

The Wall Street Journal reported this week that Microsoft hosted an exclusive event for around 50 people at the Swiss ski resort on Tuesday evening, with sources telling the publication that attendees had been treated to a live performance from iconic musician Sting. The party’s theme was sustainability, according to the WSJ.

It is unclear whether Microsoft paid Sting to perform at its event on Tuesday evening, but according to booking agency AAE Music it can cost upward of $500,000 to hire the artist for a private gig.

Invitees to the event—which the WSJ described on Wednesday as “intimate”—reportedly included some of the company’s most senior executives.

The next day, Microsoft announced it was slashing 10,000 jobs—almost 5% of its workforce—citing “macroeconomic conditions and changing customer priorities.”

It marked the largest round of layoffs at the company since 2014. Toward the end of last year, the company announced it would be letting 1,000 workers go.

In an email to employees on Wednesday, CEO Satya Nadella said some workers would be told that day that their jobs would be cut, adding that the downsizing would be completed by the third quarter of 2023.

“We will treat our people with dignity and respect, and act transparently,” he said. “These decisions are difficult, but necessary.”

“We’re living through times of significant change,” Nadella also told his workforce. “We’re seeing organizations in every industry and geography exercise caution as some parts of the world are in a recession and other parts are anticipating one.”

Microsoft is just the latest behemoth of the tech sector to announce sweeping job cuts. Amazon, Twitter and Salesforce are among a plethora of tech firms who also announced layoffs in recent months.

‘Seriously bad’
Some Microsoft employees told the WSJ that the turn of events between Tuesday and Wednesday was not a good look for the tech giant.

As details emerged around the company’s gathering in Davos—where wealthy and powerful people from all over the world are gathering for the World Economic Forum’s annual flagship conference—the firm also faced criticism on social media, with some dubbing the firm’s moves “hypocrisy” and a “bad look.”

Rita Gunther McGrath, a professor at Columbia Business School and author of The End of Competitive Advantage, said in a tweet that Microsoft’s week had left the firm’s reputation somewhat tarnished.

“I’m a big fan of Satya Nadella, but this is seriously bad executive symbolism,” she said.

Angus Norton, CEO of Seattle-based Bodhi Venture Labs and a former VP at Microsoft, said of the tech titan’s PR blunder that “the optics aren’t good.”

“I think it’s easy to forget that the term ‘job cuts’ = ‘livelihoods impacted’,” he said in a LinkedIn post on Thursday. “Behind every ‘cut’ is a human being, a family, a mouth to feed.”

Representatives for Microsoft declined to comment when contacted by Fortune.

 

[CriticalGaming]

Microsoft saw EA buying all these studios and killing them after they make a bad game, and thought.....what if we buy them and destroy them before any games every come out.

 

[BrawlMan]

Wait but no it was just as painful for Phil as it was for everyone losing their ability to make rent tho!

Phil Spencer admits Xbox layoffs were "painful choices"

Xbox boss Phil Spencer has reached out to Xbox staff across the company, acknowledging that it's been "a difficult week…

www.eurogamer.net

So very. Very. Painful.

Oops, dropped a completely unrelated link, sorry.

Microsoft under fire for hosting private Sting concert for its execs in Davos the night before announcing mass layoffs

The tech giant’s party in the exclusive Swiss ski resort was labeled “seriously bad executive symbolism.”

fortune.com

Microsoft...I am fucking done. I don't want even want to think of bothering with your Series X, since this is how you're all going to act. None of you are victims.

 

[FakeSympathy]

Hey, at least xbox isn’t under Don Mattrick anymore.

Because i swear he would’ve burned the xbox to the ground a long time ago

 

[Dreiko]

Granblue Fantasy Versus is getting a sequel with rollback and crossplay! GBVS:Rising is a thing~




Also it has a very extensive lobby mode, including a thing that kinda looks like that platformer that was free on ps+ that's like mario party. Not for me but if you like that sort of thing they have a trailer for it too!




Can't wait to see what new moves everyone gets, from the trailer I spot Narmaya having a new overhead-looking move, and of course Gran goes blue too now.

 

[FakeSympathy]

Actual dialogue in Forspoken. Suffice to say I’m glad I didn’t preorder or was planning on buying it

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

I wonder how Random Black Gamer feels about this now. He was one of the few defenders of this game. I remember when Max_Dood tried to defend this game giving it a 7 out of 10, only to change his mind about nearly a month later. Steve still tried to defend it and say "it's fun", but he clearly was in pain trying to over defend it and make excuses on why he was still playing.



I actually remember that article...

What happened to you Phil? Or was the Phil we (thought we) knew, ever real to begin with? I asked this, and I'm not even a big Microsoft fan. I did respect Phil Spencer, but that's becoming less and less day by day.

It goes to show they never knew wtf they were gonna do, if Halo was basically the golden goose of the brand.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Actual dialogue in Forspoken. Suffice to say I’m glad I didn’t preorder or was planning on buying it

Hey AAA game developers: you’d probably wind up making better games if you, like, actually focused more on the game part instead of trying to make interactive movies.

Anyways -

Two Red Flags PS5’s ‘Forspoken’ Has Raised Already

Forspoken is a soon-to-be-released blockbuster title from Square Enix, one that represents a major console exclusive for PS5 in 2023. But I am starting to grow increasingly skeptical of this game, as every day feels like it’s bringing some new red flag.

www.forbes.com

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Microsoft under fire for hosting private Sting concert for its execs in Davos the night before announcing mass layoffs

The tech giant’s party in the exclusive Swiss ski resort was labeled “seriously bad executive symbolism.”

fortune.com

How about that…really couldn’t find a more appropriately named artist in this situation regarding the hit to Microsoft’s increasingly precarious reputation.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

Microsoft under fire for hosting private Sting concert for its execs in Davos the night before announcing mass layoffs

The tech giant’s party in the exclusive Swiss ski resort was labeled “seriously bad executive symbolism.”

fortune.com

Obviously those executives felt so bad about having to fire all those people that they needed a private concert with a multi-platinum recording artist to feel better.

 

[Dreiko]

Honestly I never got the hype with Forespoken, it didn't look interesting from the get go, it had a distinct lack of coolness about it. I think this is more about there being barely any new exclusive ps5 games to talk about so it just existing was noteworthy in and of itself. But when you have GoW5 on the ps4 playing just fine it kinda ceases to matter that this is a ps5 exclusive.

Hey AAA game developers: you’d probably wind up making better games if you, like, actually focused more on the game part instead of trying to make interactive movies.

Anyways -

Two Red Flags PS5’s ‘Forspoken’ Has Raised Already

Forspoken is a soon-to-be-released blockbuster title from Square Enix, one that represents a major console exclusive for PS5 in 2023. But I am starting to grow increasingly skeptical of this game, as every day feels like it’s bringing some new red flag.

www.forbes.com

Or they could just make good interactive movies at least, something like Asura's Wrath where they go all the way into the playable anime concept instead of trying to pretend to have a full game alongside it.

 

[CriticalGaming]

. I think this is more about there being barely any new exclusive ps5 games to talk about so it just existing was noteworthy in and of itself

Why are people still trying to act like the Ps5 doesnt have any games? Bro the shitty gameless console is THAT way *points at the black refrigerator*

 

[BrawlMan]

Why are people still trying to act like the Ps5 doesnt have any games? Bro the shitty gameless console is THAT way *points at the black refrigerator*

• The PS2 has no games. For the first 6 to 8 months.
• The GameCube has not enough games or too many "kiddy" games.
• The original Xbox has too many shooters (that one's kind of true).
• The PS3 has no games. For about nearly 2 years.
• The Wii has no games. It did, but they came out at a slow rate and by 2011 a majority of developers and and publishers were straight-up done with the console.
• The Wii U has no games. It did, but not everybody appreciated it, or felt it was behind the times.
• The PS4 has no games .
• The Xbox One has no games and focuses on TV/Sports too much. The TV and streaming part was actually true.
• The Switch has no games or too many ports of Wii U games or seventh generation games. I remember when certain people on this site we're tooting that horn way too much. That pretty much became less true by 2018.

You're always going to have people who love to exaggerate certain things or cherry pick, because of dumb console rivalry and such, or ignorance. No I know covid has been tough on everything, but at least Sony & Nintendo still puts out stuff. Nearly everyone not under Microsoft's giant and greedy idiotic hands have more output going on.

 

[XsjadoBlaydette]

Ooh cool more Steamworld game.

SteamWorld Build is 'SimCity meets Dungeon Keeper' and it's out this year

Thunderful Games has unveiled SteamWorld Build - the latest entry in its acclaimed, genre-hopping SteamWorld series - w…

www.eurogamer.net

Thunderful Games has unveiled SteamWorld Build - the latest entry in its acclaimed, genre-hopping SteamWorld series - which promises to serve up a mix of "SimCity with Dungeon Keeper" when it comes to PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, and Switch later this year.

Build is the SteamWorld series' first 3D outing and challenges players to construct a city while also sending their workers to explore foe-packed mines below ground in order to keep a steady supply of building resources incoming.

Thunderful says there'll be a narrative component to the whole thing - the ultimate goal is to build a rocket to escape the planet before it shatters (events in Build run concurrently to those in SteamWorld Dig 2) - and you can get a closer look at its intriguing action in the studio's announcement livestream, as well as in Christian Donlan's very encouraging initial impressions.




Build's livestream unveiling was accompanied by teases of further SteamWorld titles in development, and while Thunderful didn't elaborate during its latest broadcast, previous announcements from the studio have given us a pretty good idea of what's still to come.

SteamWorld Headhunter - a "stylised and colourful, third-person co-op action adventure" - was announced in 2021, and a company earnings report shared last May revealed Thunderful also has a city builder (now revealed as Build), a mobile puzzle title, and a turned-based tactical shooter/strategy game on the way.

That report pointed to a 2023 release for Headhunter and the mobile game, with the shooter due next year. Thunderful says it'll have more details on its other SteamWorld projects at a later time, and while we wait for those - alongside a firm release date for the newly announced city builder - PC players can pass the time with a demo version of Build now live on Steam.

 

[Hawki]

How it started:


How's it going:


(Not exactly news, but Engage is nearly out, and it's pointless to moan at FE's direction this late in the game, but meh.)

 

[CriticalGaming]

(Not exactly news, but Engage is nearly out, and it's pointless to moan at FE's direction this late in the game, but meh.)

Nearly? It's out homie, go get yourself some fire.

 

[meiam]

How it started:


How's it going:


(Not exactly news, but Engage is nearly out, and it's pointless to moan at FE's direction this late in the game, but meh.)

The FE franchise thouroughly left me behind since the SNES/GBA days(which, tbf, they apparently were losing cash). At the same time since apparently child grooming is an integral part of new FE experience, I'm okay with that.