General gaming discussion

Retr0gamer · 01-04-2020 4:23pm

Pretty amazing humble bundle on at the moment with 100% of proceeds going to organisations fighting covid 19

https://www.humblebundle.com/conquer-covid19-bundle?partner=eurogamer

pixelburp · 01-04-2020 7:05pm

Well, looks like Gearbox employees are getting shafted out of potential bonuses; the latest insider dig from Jason Schreier. Reads like the typical goalpost shifting companies like to do around Bonus Time, but AFAIK this is typical of US salaries. Low baseline, with the dangling carrot of a big bonus to fund plans. Capitalism!

https://kotaku.com/sources-despite-huge-sales-borderlands-3-developers-a-1842617645

01-04-2020 7:17pm

This looks quite good tbh!

Retr0gamer · 01-04-2020 7:28pm

pixelburp wrote: »

Well, looks like Gearbox employees are getting shafted out of potential bonuses; the latest insider dig from Jason Schreier. Reads like the typical goalpost shifting companies like to do around Bonus Time, but AFAIK this is typical of US salaries. Low baseline, with the dangling carrot of a big bonus to fund plans. Capitalism!

https://kotaku.com/sources-despite-huge-sales-borderlands-3-developers-a-1842617645

So developers being punished due to ****ty management decisions.

gizmo · 01-04-2020 8:27pm

In addition, before Gearbox could receive any royalties from publisher 2K, Borderlands 3 would have to recoup not just the game’s entire budget (around $95 million) but also the budget for all of the downloadable content (for a sum closer to $140 million), thanks to a contract that the two companies had signed.

An interesting deal that yea, would probably eat into royalty cheques in the short term.

Pitchford also told Gearbox developers that if they weren’t happy with the royalty system, they were welcome to quit, according to those who were in the meeting.

Annnnnnnnd you can get into the ****ing sea.

Still, yesterday’s news combined with word of Pitchford’s hefty bonus has upset a number of Gearbox employees, some of whom say they expect an exodus in the near future.

And stay there.

pixelburp · 01-04-2020 9:31pm

gizmo wrote: »

An interesting deal that yea, would probably eat into royalty cheques in the short term.

Annnnnnnnd you can get into the ****ing sea.

And stay there.

Game development is in such dire need for unionisation, but for now there's little to zero chances of it happening. I feel for the double punch of Corona and now having your expected bonus disappear, as the goalposts move. And as the CEO pockets a contractual bonus. Can see a serious brain drain at Gearbox, assuming the market doesn't contract from the aforementioned Corona.

Grumpypants · 02-04-2020 9:02am

The goal posts didn’t really move. They were promised a share of the profits. It’s a great deal, one that isn’t common in the industry. Imagine being able to buy a house with your bonus!! I was able to buy a new tumble dryer with mine!

The mistake they made was to look at Borderlands 2 sales and how much they made then, and based the Borderlands 3 bonus on that without factoring in the increased cost in making the game.

They don’t get a share of the sales, it’s the profits. The game has to make a profit. Because it cost more it will take a bit longer to make a big chunk of profit. But don’t worry about them they have 2-3 years of big cheques every 3 months.

As much as I dislike Randy. He just reset their expectations and I’m sure his comments were more along the lines of if you don’t want a big bonus cheque every 3 months you can leave than how it was twisted in that article.

It was a very poorly written article. Continuously referencing sales records for the game and trying to conflate that with the reduced bonus. As if they had made a record breaking game but suddenly management went back on a promise.

But that’s Jason for you.

gizmo · 03-04-2020 1:04am

Several Gearbox employees told Kotaku that company management promised them six-figure bonuses following the launch of Borderlands 3.

This wasn't a mistake made by employees, they were explicitly told by management what to expect. They're also used to dealing with inflating budgets as both the development cost and team size required to ship the sequel was twice that of the original game.

He said the game had been more expensive than expected, the company had grown significantly larger than it had been in the past (it now operates a second studio in Quebec, Canada), and that their sales projections had been off-base.

The budget of the game has been known for a long time. The expenditure required to drive company growth has been known for a long time. The game has been out for six months, sales projections would have been constantly updated since based on pre-order numbers, first month sales, holiday sales, subsequent release on Steam and also the release of the first DLC pack.

And yet it's only now that Pitchford told his employees that their bonus checks would be significantly lower than they hoped?

Speaking of sales data, thanks to Take 2's end of year financial call we know they've already sold close to 8m copies putting them around two month's ahead of Borderlands 2 in terms of sales. Not to mention the additional benefit of the deal struck with Epic for the PC release which would further reduce the time to reach profitability.

Retr0gamer · 03-04-2020 9:04am

But based on Randy Pitchfords previous form he is a very trustworthy fellow. And has a thing for squirting teens.

03-04-2020 9:18am

Jim Sterling triggers him something fierce

It's brilliant

Please continue Jim

04-04-2020 11:30am

https://www.inquisitr.com/5976248/god-of-war-cory-barlog-randy-pitchford/

‘God Of War’ Director Cory Barlog Blasts Gearbox And CEO Randy Pitchford

Well then :P

04-04-2020 11:31am

Cached Link to the Tweet as it was deleted

https://web.archive.org/web/20200401214718/https:/twitter.com/corybarlog/status/1245464074432819200

pixelburp · 07-04-2020 12:07pm

Latest Digital Foundry video is an interesting one, featuring a chat with two of the devs behind the port of Doom64 - yet another example of NightDive Studio doing God's work. They make some mention of the nature of the studio's KEX engine, and it sounds more like a wrapper than an explicitly entity engine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WUbyZaPRm0

Minime2.5 · 07-04-2020 3:56pm

Anyone know why we have seen any footage of Elden Ring yet. It was slated for june 2020 release . That def wont be happening id say. Cant see it coming this year at all

Varik · 07-04-2020 5:00pm

Thought I'd pop this here since a lot of people did this to play Red dead 1 on PC.

Sony added the PS4 spider man game to their PS now streaming service, there's a 7 day trail available. Game is there until July 7th.

Mr Crispy · 07-04-2020 8:12pm

Minime2.5 wrote: »

Anyone know why we have seen any footage of Elden Ring yet. It was slated for june 2020 release . That def wont be happening id say. Cant see it coming this year at all

I'd say it has definitely been delayed with everything that's happening, but I wouldn't rule out a 2020 release yet. It's probably just that some firms are taking a "wait and see" approach to release dates, rather than committing to a new date which then can't be met due to circumstances outside their control.

J. Marston · 07-04-2020 8:30pm

George RR Martin is attached to it. Be prepared to wait.

Potential-Monke · 07-04-2020 10:29pm

Varik wrote: »

Sony added the PS4 spider man game to their PS now streaming service, there's a 7 day trail available. Game is there until July 7th.

They've also added Just Cause 4 and The Golf Club to PS Now.

Retr0gamer · 09-04-2020 4:02pm

Anyone else interested in Disaster Report 4?

Can't actually wait to get back to my PC to give it a go.

There's been far too little of these types of games lately. Games with ideas that far outstrip the teams ambitions and end up janky yet really interesting and fun. I'd rather play these games than some of the polished but soulless triple A games out there.

I really enjoyed the first game on PS2 despite its flaws but never got to play the second game.

MOH · 09-04-2020 4:12pm

Has anyone watched Mythic Quest: Raven's Banquet?

It's written by a bunch of the Always Sunny crowd - Rob McElhenny is in it, created by him, Charlie Day and Megan Ganz.
McElhenny is the head of games company as their flagship WoW equivalent gets its first major expansion.
Cricket is in it too, and F Murray Abraham is surprisingly funny as a George RR Martin type.

I've watched 3 eps so far and it's finding its feet, seems reasonably on point.
Maybe the biggest negative is it's co-produced by Ubisoft (who apparently got one of their development teams to develop the non-existent game used in the show, which sounds a bit soul destroying)

Zero-Cool · 09-04-2020 4:58pm

Episode 5, what a masterpiece. Even if people don't want to watch a while season of something, go download episode 5, it's a stand alone ep about a couple who make a game in the 90's, just brilliant.

Loved the rest of the season too, can't wait for season 2.

OptimusTractor · 09-04-2020 9:16pm

MOH wrote: »

Has anyone watched Mythic Quest: Raven's Banquet?

It's written by a bunch of the Always Sunny crowd - Rob McElhenny is in it, created by him, Charlie Day and Megan Ganz.
McElhenny is the head of games company as their flagship WoW equivalent gets its first major expansion.
Cricket is in it too, and F Murray Abraham is surprisingly funny as a George RR Martin type.

I've watched 3 eps so far and it's finding its feet, seems reasonably on point.
Maybe the biggest negative is it's co-produced by Ubisoft (who apparently got one of their development teams to develop the non-existent game used in the show, which sounds a bit soul destroying)

That awkward moment when Ubisoft/any games studio put more effort into a fake game than..... a real one.

Gunmonkey · 09-04-2020 9:20pm

OptimusTractor wrote: »

That awkward moment when Ubisoft/any games studio put more effort into a fake game than..... a real one.

Well its probably the fact they tasked a single studio to make the game, rather than chop it up between 10 or so like they usually do for their main games.

Zero-Cool · 09-04-2020 9:26pm

Cyberpunk rated by vast majority of ratings boards. Anyone know how far along a game has to be before being rated? I'm guessing a fully playable game allowing subwoofers to experience the story start to finish?

https://twitter.com/AdamBadowski/status/1248255878710595585?s=19

Zero-Cool · 09-04-2020 9:45pm

Fuh king cool! My favourite car from GTA was in the latest episode of Better Call Saul.

https://twitter.com/GTASeries/status/1247914912631922695?s=19

marcbrophy · 09-04-2020 10:25pm

Zero-Cool wrote: »

Fuh king cool! My favourite car from GTA was in the latest episode of Better Call Saul.

https://twitter.com/GTASeries/status/1247914912631922695?s=19

Brilliant

Varik · 09-04-2020 10:26pm

Zero-Cool wrote: »

Cyberpunk rated by vast majority of ratings boards. Anyone know how far along a game has to be before being rated? I'm guessing a fully playable game allowing subwoofers to experience the story start to finish?

https://twitter.com/AdamBadowski/status/1248255878710595585?s=19

Though it was just a reel of typical content and some notes.

Potential-Monke · 10-04-2020 7:38am

Is Charlie Day in that Mythic Quest thing? I've heard the lads mention it, didn't know he was attached to it. If he is in it in any way, shape or form, I can't watch it. His voice goes through me.

Zero-Cool · 10-04-2020 7:45am

Potential-Monke wrote: »

Is Charlie Day in that Mythic Quest thing? I've heard the lads mention it, didn't know he was attached to it. If he is in it in any way, shape or form, I can't watch it. His voice goes through me.

No, he's just a producer.

Grumpypants · 10-04-2020 9:23am

MOH wrote: »

Has anyone watched Mythic Quest: Raven's Banquet?

It's written by a bunch of the Always Sunny crowd - Rob McElhenny is in it, created by him, Charlie Day and Megan Ganz.
McElhenny is the head of games company as their flagship WoW equivalent gets its first major expansion.
Cricket is in it too, and F Murray Abraham is surprisingly funny as a George RR Martin type.

I've watched 3 eps so far and it's finding its feet, seems reasonably on point.
Maybe the biggest negative is it's co-produced by Ubisoft (who apparently got one of their development teams to develop the non-existent game used in the show, which sounds a bit soul destroying)

Watching it alright. It is pretty good but I think it has too many "in jokes" that you might miss if you don't work in the industry as they are pretty subtle.

Silicon Valley had in jokes too but I think they still made the jokes funny enough that if you hadn't experienced it in your own life the premise was still funny enough to stand on its own.

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