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Electronic Arts (EA) has unveiled a new studio. Full Circle will be based in Vancouver. Their first project? The next game in the beloved Skate series. Full Circle joins EA Sports and Respawn Entertainment as the publisher’s third developer in Vancouver. Former Xbox Live boss Daniel McCulloch is overseeing the team as general manager. EA also brought back Skate’s core creative leads to shape the next game. Both Deran Chung and Cuz Parry are back in their roles as key designers. Jeff Grubb at VentureBeat has the full story.
The AFL-CIO, the country’s largest labor federation, submitted shareholder proposals asking Activision Blizzard and Electronic Arts (EA) to adopt policies mandating the inclusion of qualified women and people of color in the initial pool of candidates considered for open positions, according to letters sent to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that were obtained by Motherboard. Lawyers from gaming industry giant Activision Blizzard have rejected the proposal. They claim that the proposal submitted by the AFL-CIO is “an unworkable encroachment” on the gaming company’s ability to compete for new talent “in a highly competitive, fast-moving market.” Lauren Kaori Gurley and Patrick Klepek from Vice have the full story.
The Xbox…boy? Xboy? Maybe in an alternate universe somewhere. The Xbox almost had a handheld baby brother according to an interview with former Xbox boss Robbie Bach at The New York Game Awards that happened earlier this week. “During my time at Xbox, there were at least three groups that presented portable Xbox presentations,” the former Xbox boss said. “They always got called Xboy for some reason. Would have been a trademark problem, I’m sure. All three times we decided not to do it.” Oh what could have been. Hirun Cryer at Gamesradar+ has the full story.