🎮 Japan's layoffs, Suicide Squad Season 2, Apex is getting bombed...
Japan’s industry layoffs, Suicide Squad Season 2 is not doing well, Apex is getting bombed on Steam, Tattoo frenzy on The Last of Us Season 2, Metro Awakening detail revealed, Riot’s Smash Bros
Hello friends,
Today is July 11th 2024 and I hope you’ve had a great week 🙌
In today’s news:
🎮 Japan’s industry layoffs
🎮 Suicide Squad Season 2 is not doing well
🎮 Apex is getting bombed on Steam
🎬 Tattoo frenzy on The Last of Us Season 2
🎮 Metro Awakening detail revealed
🎮 Riot’s Smash Bros that never happened
😄 Personal Update
All of this is brought to you in a 5 min format ⏲️
Let’s dig in!
🎮 Japan’s industry layoffs
Apparently, there are none.
I’m not kidding. According to The Verge, Japan has been the most successful in not falling into this long line of layoffs in the game development industry (excluding Tango Gamework). The approximate number of workers let go globally in 2022 was 8,500; last year, in 2023, that number was 10,500. According to the latest data, the total for the first six months alone of 2024 is 10,800. So, how are they avoiding it?
One of the key provisions of the country’s employment law in Japan, specifically on the “doctrine of abusive dismissal,” is that “employers can’t just shed employees.” They can only do so “when the employer can prove that the organization would go bust.” But if a company is found guilty of dismissing employees just for juicing the numbers, the company must reinstate the dismissal.
But it’s not only that, the “executive culture” is also quite different from the West. According to the article, Japanese organizations tend to be run with longer-term horizons and are less fixated on pleasing shareholders than their actual employees.
If you are interested in this topic, I suggest reading the article in full. I’m not sure how much of this is true, especially regarding the corporate culture, but I can’t deny the numbers. If they are avoiding layoffs and already have a lot of laws protecting both the organization and employees, then they are doing something right. And maybe Western companies should take a page out of their playbook.
🎮 Suicide Squad Season 2 is not doing well
Just two days before the release of Season 2, Rocksteady announced that the update will be delayed and that the new stuff will now come July 25.
The studio hasn’t offered any explanation as to why the update is delayed, they just posted this as an update on X:
Update: Task Force X, we’ll be adjusting the release timing for the next season, #SuicideSquadGame Season 2 will now launch on July 25. Thank you for your patience.
I mean, I’m not playing this game, but still is a bit troubling sign. Not the delay itself, it happens all the time and is completely normal. The team is working on bug fixes, updates and whatnot. But the lack of openness with the community is the real concern. The message is lifeless and bland, with no explanation, no reassurance, nothing at all.
In my humble opinion, Rocksteady should really rethink the approach to the community. Not that it matters to Suicide Squad, but in general.
🎮 Apex is getting bombed on Steam
Nothing happens without consequences and now EA Games are faced with a huge community backlash after their overhaul of monetization of Apex Legends.
Shocker, right? Steam reviews are in steady decline and recent reviews are “Overwhelmingly Negative” with most players raising the question of monetization and bringing up issues that haven’t been fixed since day one, like cheaters, bugs, server issues, and balancing disagreements as their other grievances. There is even a Reddit thread gaining tremendous momentum with an “I uninstalled” tag.
It’s going to take a while though for the community to make a dent in Apex’s player base. So far, according to Steam Charts, the online for the game is almost the same, but the update is not even live yet. So I guess that players will start paying attention to that once Season 22 is released in August.
Honestly, I don’t think that this bombing is going to matter to EA or Respawn for this matter and I’d be surprised if they do anything without a major drop in their KPIs. It’s a numbers game after all, right? But as a person who tried this game and decided against playing it, it looks like I’ve made the right choice.
If you haven’t subscribed yet, this button is just for you ⤵️
🎬 Tattoo frenzy on The Last of Us Season 2
As you probably know, TLOU season 2 is currently in production and shooting right now. And we have yet another controversy. Just a few days ago, a bunch of photos surfaced on X from the set in Vancouver, giving us a look at Ellie (Bella Ramsey) and Dina (Isabela Merced).
And of course, people love to point out things that are “wrong” or/and “inaccurate”. So the community started bashing Ellie’s tattoo of all things because it’s not one-to-one with the in-game model.
For some mysterious reason to me, it got the fans upset to a tremendous degree. Mostly because the tattoo has some plot significance, which I’m sure will be covered thoroughly during the season. But IMO it looks like a case of making controversy just for the sake of arguing. I support the unpopular POV that in the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t really matter as long as they can explain it and that a TV adaptation doesn’t have to be one-to-one with the game.
As long as they respect and follow the source material in all the major points of the series, there is no point in nitpicking such details as the position of the ink. After all, Bella is not a replica of Ellie and some accommodations have to be made.
If you are interested in more set shots, here’s the X account with a bunch of them.
🎮 Metro Awakening detail revealed
Thanks to Insider Gaming, we know a little bit more about the next instalment in the Metro series that is unfortunately for VR.
The game is not going to be a continuation of the series but a standalone game set before the events in Metro 2033. Vertigo Games said it features “a very, very personal, emotional story for our protagonist.” They also said they wanted the VR interactions to be as “immersive and diegetic as possible,” including adaptive triggers and haptic feedback. However, they do reassure fans that gameplay will maintain “stealth-combat dynamic.”
Honestly, I would love to play this game but not as a VR experience. Not to offend the VR market, but I think it still has ways to go in both hardware and software sense. I applaud the developers who are not afraid of trying new things and breaking into new markets. But please wake me up when we’ll have full VR immersion.
Pre-orders for the VR game start in September 2024.
🎮 Riot’s Smash Bros that never happened
Mikhail Klimentov (prev. a reporter for the Washington Post) recently shared a bit of light on a 2D fighting game from Riot Games that was cancelled before the game saw the light of day.
Riot Games cancelled work on a prototype platform fighter code-named Pool Party in late May and approximately 70-80 employees were working on the game when it was canned. Sources familiar with the project described the original pitch for Pool Party as a platform fighter in the vein of Super Smash Bros.
However, according to the article, the game was cancelled due to a reassessment of consumer appetite for a Smash competitor. According to sources familiar with the project’s development, executives at Riot were spooked by what they perceived as the failure of MultiVersus. But this title has no relation to 2v2 team-based fighter 2XKO. The developer is still working on it and plans to release it in 2025.
😄 Personal Update
Don’t have a lot of things to talk about in this section other than a lot of work, but I’m managing so far (I think). But it’s been fun so far.
The biggest challenge I have so far is collecting and organizing all the documentation on our project in one place and it’s a lot of documentation. If you’ve ever worked on a game development project, you know how much fun it is 😅
This is why I’m glad I have an extensive Manual QA background as I got used to doing boring documentation stuff. It just takes a lot of time. But somebody has to do it. If not us, then who?
This is all the news I have for you folks today.
Thanks for making it this far! 🙌
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Have a great week!
Alex from Gamedev Relay.
The TLOU feels a bit like people complaining about the song in the Gladiator 2 trailer. I think many people just like to complain because it makes them feel important and involved.