Today's News:
* Activision Blizzard is currently dealing with more workplace related issues following the poor reception from employees over a recent internal Q&A meeting, according to Game Developer. This meeting reportedly was led by Blizzard president Mike Ybarra and covered employee issues with stack ranking which Ybarra downplayed as being a problem, AB's newest mandate requiring staff to return to partial in-office work, and staff being told they would only receive 58% of their profit sharing bonus for the year. Ybarra also reportedly managed to upset those in AB's quality assurance and customer service departments after comments he made that was implied to be hinting at potential pay cuts or lack of raises and layoffs in those departments.
Link:
https://www.gamedeveloper.com/cultur...es-devs-fuming ,
https://www.destructoid.com/blizzard...eeting-report/
* Firaxis Games announced earlier today on Twitter that a new game in the Sid Meier's Civilization series is currently in development.
Link:
https://twitter.com/CivGame/status/1626582239453540352
* Firaxis Games also announced that longtime game director Jake Soloman and studio lead Steve Martin both have recently left the company after 20 year careers there. Soloman and Martin stated on Twitter that the reasons for their departures was due to them both wanting to go in a new direction for their careers.
Link:
https://www.destructoid.com/firaxis/
* Indie developer Ghost Ship Games, developer of Deep Rock Galactic, announced on Twitter that they have recently launched a new publishing department called Ghost Ship Publishing to help publish indie games from outside the company.
Link:
https://twitter.com/GhostShip_Games/...53169255297024