Bernie Sanders Says the Game Industry Should Unionize
In a tweet earlier this week, senator and presidential candidate Bernie Sanders vocalized his support of video game industry unionization, praising labor organizations like Game Workers Unite for helping lead the movement.
"The video game industry made $43 billion in revenue last year," wrote the official Bernie Sanders account on Twitter. "The workers responsible for that profit deserve to collectively bargain as part of a union. I'm glad to see unions like @IATSE and the broader @GameWorkers movement organizing such workers."
Sony Santa Monica Hiring for Roles With ‘Knowledge of God of War’
If Sony Santa Monica's job listings are any indication, the developers behind IGN's 2018 Game of the Year-winner God of War may be staffing up for development on a God of War 2018 follow-up — or a game really similar to it.
Recently posted Santa Monica's job listings, for roles like Combat Designer, list under required knowledge and skills that candidates "must have knowledge of God of War (2018) and be able to speak about the combat systems, mechanics and enemies."
God of War: Ragnarok?
The Witcher 3 on Switch’s Biggest Changes Are Actually UI Adjustments
The Witcher 3: Complete Edition was announced for Nintendo Switch during E3 2019 last week, and developer CD Projekt Red says it is “proud” of the port quality even with certain parts of the game having to be altered to get it running on the system.
In an interview with VGC, CD Projekt Red’s Alvin Liu said that they “understand that there were hardware trade-offs” when porting it as a Nintendo Switch game, including having to reduce foliage in the scenery and lower some of the draw distances, but that he thinks “it still looks amazing.”
Astral Chain’s Co-op Mode Makes the Switch Exclusive More Difficult
Astral Chain, the upcoming Nintendo Switch game from PlatinumGames, has optional local co-op, but it allegedly makes the game more difficult.
Astral Chain’s director Takahisa Taura revealed this information in an interview with Kotaku, saying (via a translator) “You may have noticed that the characters are connected by a chain... when you’re controlling two characters, that chain allows you to see where the other character is in relation to the one that you’re controlling.”
Phil Spencer: Xbox Focus Is on Software and Services, Not Console Sales
Head of Xbox Phil Spencer believes the future – and present – of measuring success in the video game business is by focusing on software and services, not hardware. In an interview with Kotaku at E3 2019, Spencer alluded to Google Stadia in asserting his belief that "the consoles are not where the profit in this side of the business is made."
"The business is selling software and services," he said. "The business is not how many consoles you sell. The consoles are not where the profit in this side of the business is made, which is where the whole: ‘Who’s selling more consoles’ at any one time as the kind of root good of who is doing well in the business is just not true. You have other companies entering gaming who don’t even have a console as part of their equation. It’s all about how many games are people playing. And how much people are spending playing those games and how often they play."
Why Has Flashpoint’s Batman Been Working With Bane?
The latest issue of Batman finally addresses one of the series' biggest lingering mysteries.
Warning: this article contains spoilers for Batman #73!
Batman #72 tied much of the series together, with the Thomas Wayne of the Flashpoint universe deducing Bane's master plan to finally break Batman. Thomas figured out how everything - from the emergence of Gotham and Gotham Girl to Booster Gold's disastrous birthday present to Catwoman abandoning her fiance - has been part of that complex plan. What that issue didn't reveal is why Thomas would align himself with Bane against his own son.
LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga Preview: A Beautiful New Direction
Initially I imagined LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga was a compilation of sorts, featuring updated versions of previous LEGO Star Wars games while filling in the gaps of unrepresented films with new content. This simply is not the case. All nine main Star Wars movies are equally represented with brand new levels and objectives along with the freedom to play in the order you choose. As the E3 demo showed, a cool rotating episode select menu allows anyone to play whichever episode they want from the start. If I don't want to play Attack of the Clones, great. The option is mine!
BotW 2 Exists Because the Team Had ‘Too Many Ideas’ for DLC
The team behind The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild opted to create a sequel rather than an entirely new Zelda game due to the amount of DLC ideas it had for the 2017 original.
Speaking with Kotaku, series producer Eiji Aonuma said DLC was a great way to "add more elements to the same world" as Breath of the Wild, "but when it comes down to technical things, DLC is pretty much data — you’re adding data to a preexisting title. And so when we wanted to add bigger changes, DLC is not enough, and that’s why we thought maybe a sequel would be a good fit."
When asked if the sequel was initially planned as an expansion, Aonuma said the team was only brainstorming DLC ideas at first, until it became clear they had greater ambitions. "This is too many ideas, let’s just make one new game and start from scratch," he said.
Disney Pixar Announces New Animated Movie Soul
Disney and Pixar have announced a new animated film, Soul, to be released in exactly one year.
Announced on Twitter, the film is described as “a journey from the streets of New York City to the cosmic realms to discover the answers to life’s most important questions.” Soul is set to arrive in theaters on June 19, 2020.
One year from today, @Pixar Animation Studios will take you on a journey from the streets of New York City to the cosmic realms to discover the answers to life’s most important questions. Disney & Pixar’s “Soul” arrives in theaters on June 19, 2020 pic.twitter.com/xkaFGcKhzI
Amazon’s Wheel of Time Series Casts Its Moiraine
Amazon has officially cast the first actor in its upcoming Wheel of Time TV series adaptation. IGN can confirm that Rosamund Pike has landed the role of Moiraine Damodred, the character who is being positioned as the lead in this telling of Robert Jordan's iconic fantasy series. Pike will also serve as a producer on the show.
Additionally, Amazon revealed that Brandon Sanderson, who wrote the final three novels in the Wheel of Time book series after Jordan's death in 2007, will serve as consulting producer on the series alongside Jordan's widow, Harriet McDougal.
Pike is a notable casting choice for the Amazon series, known best for her roles in Gone Girl, Jack Reacher, and Die Another Day. Her character, Moiraine Damodred, is one of the most respected magic users in the world of Wheel of Time, and plays a pivotal role in the story's central throughline to find the Dragon Reborn, a character who is fated to defeat the evil force known as the Dark One. See Pike side-by-side with artist Dan dos Santos's depiction of Moiraine from the Fires of Heaven e-book cover below: