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last week’s column It was a bit harsh, I admit. It came from a place of sadness and frustration. I wish I could tell you this week has been great, but honestly, it wasn’t much. We have so many stories about layoffs in the industry, it’s just not fun to hear. Also, Monkey Island and God of War both seem to have made tensions between players and game makers. It wasn’t all bad this week—but man, it wasn’t great.
To start with the bad news, both Unity and Niantic announced layoffs this week. Niantic has laid off more than 80 of its employees and canceled many unfinished projects. According to a spokesperson (via On the edge), which means “focusing on our top priorities, including Pokémon Go and choosing new experiences.” Meanwhile, Unity is said to have laid off 4% of its employees (or at least those “affected” by the layoffs), that is, more than 200 people. This is part of an ongoing planning process, the company said in a statement.
In other big news, Ron Gilbert has shut down all talk of Return to Monkey Island on his website. According to his post, “People are mean and I have to delete personal attack comments… I will not post information about the game on my blog anymore. The joy of sharing chased away from me. I read the comments. Assuming the ones I read survived deletion – yes, it’s not good. Most people aren’t happy with the new art style, and you wouldn’t think it would make anyone. . . noiseless.
Earlier this week, God of War fame’s Corey Barlock denied a rumor that Ragnarok’s release date would drop. He asked players to be patient and said he will share information about the game as soon as it becomes available. Meanwhile, Gilbert silenced comments about Return to Monkey Island, revealing that Sony Santa Monica Cinematics producer Estelle Digani had teased TMs asking for a Ragnarok release date. Both of these events upset Barlock.
Guys, don’t do this. This is not good. I know Earlier spoke harshly with publishersMostly because I think they rely too heavily on fans’ insults to the paper about the reasons behind the postponement of the match. But, in my opinion, there is a difference between criticizing a game developer or publisher for not having a more realistic production schedule, and attacking the developer for not dropping a game trailer when you thought it would. I don’t care if God of War Ragnarok is what you live for or if the art of Back to Monkey Island makes your tear ducts burst. This is no reason to be mean to the people who make the game.
Good news, though: We had a beautiful Nintendo Direct Mini earlier this week. We didn’t get to see much, but there was still some news of the selection. One, we get it character themes On the switch, as well near automata. And HarvestellaSquare Enix’s new farming sim (oh my god, did you just write that sentence?) is fun. So here are some of the highlights this week.
What are you going to play this week
what’s new:
New in subscription services *:
- Far Cry 5 (Xbox Game Pass)
- Beasts of Maravilla Island (Xbox Games with Gold)
- Thrillville: Off the Rails (Xbox Games with Gold)
- Mega Man: Willy Wars (nintendo switch online)
- Comix Region (Nintendo Switch Online)
- Target Earth (Nintendo Switch Online)
- Zero Wing (Nintendo Switch Online)
- Haunted Palace (Prime gaming)
- Suzerain (Prime Gaming)
- Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark (Prime Gaming)
- Fishing: North Atlantic (Main Games)
- Five Nights at Freddy’s: Breach of Security (Stadia Pro)
- Centipede Recharge (Stadia Pro)
- The Rest (Stadia Pro)
- WMD Worms (Stadia Pro)
- Roguebook (Stadia Pro)
- Fast and Furious: The rise of spy racers in the SH1FT3R (Stadia Pro)
- Aloath – Heroes of the Four Kingdoms (GeForce now)
- Disgaea 6 complete (now GeeForce)
- Share Card (now GeeForce)
- KartCraft (now GeForce)
- Hotline Miami (now GeeForce)
- NASCAR 21: Ignition (now GeeForce)
- My Bowling 3D + (Apple Arcade)
* Starting this week we are adding Apple Arcade to this list
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