In The News
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After almost a year, the voice actors’ strike against major game developers is over. “The Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) voted to end the strike, which has been in effect since October 21,” VentureBeat’s Dean Takahashi reports. Negotiations succeeded with “a new bonus structure that provides additional payments to performers.”
Here’s your hot take of the week: “Game developers are secretive because being open can lead to too much toxicity.” That’s designer and programmer Charles Randall’s opinion on why developers keep so much of what they’re doing hidden from the public, Kotaku’s Jason Schreier reports. You can read the full thing here.
Showtime’s in trouble. Its website had a script running “in the background that’s used to hijack visitors’ CPUs to mine cryptocurrency,” Gizmodo’s Rhett Jones reports. The script is now gone. Showtime has only declined “comment” on why it was there in the first place.
Indie titles for the Nintendo Switch are reportedly coming out slower than anticipated due to issues with Unity. GamesIndustry.biz’s Christopher Dring writes that “Developer Playtonic has issued an update on its anticipated release of Yooka-Laylee for Switch … The Switch edition was (and still is) due to arrive this year, but it has become dependent on help from the engine provider. It’s not the only game to suffer a similar fate.”
Happy (slightly belated) birthday to Halo 3! It came out Sept. 25, 2007. To celebrate, “Microsoft is launching a limited-time playlist in Halo 5: Guardians. The Halo 3 Classic Throwback playlist features Halo 3 maps remade with Halo 5’s Forge tools,” GameSpot’s Eddie Makuch reports.
This may not be surprising. PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds hit a new concurrent record at 1.5 million players.
There’s another encyclopedia out for Legend of Zelda. “Next April the ‘Goddess Collection’ gets its third and final volume in The Legend of Zelda Encyclopedia, a comprehensive guide to the series from the first game to Twilight Princess HD,” Kotaku’s Mike Fahey writes. It’ll cost you $39.99.
Game developer Rich Vogel has left BattleCry Studios to join Certain Affinity.