IGN has spoken to 26 current and former employees that have worked at Bungie within the last decade. Their accounts of the studio’s work culture encompass a wide range of experiences. They span overt sexism, boys’ club culture, crunch, and HR protection of abusers, as well as more complex stories of microaggressions, systemic inequalities, and difficulties in being heard. However, interviewees also include a number of more recent employees who, despite their own hurts, truly believe the studio is slowly but steadily improving, are candid about the immense challenge of trying to turn such a massive ship in a better direction, and whose accounts of change line up with statements made to IGN by Parsons in response to this piece.
… When people objected to his demeanor, he told them they needed thicker skins, and to learn how to take criticism. He called one woman on the team an “unmanageable bitch.” Another source said he was “literally the worst person I’ve ever worked for.”
He was eventually let go, but was replaced by what our sources say were similarly antagonizing men. One lead frequently made sexist remarks, but also complained about “reverse sexism” and on at least one occasion made homophobic remarks to a queer colleague. He would openly mock his team members’ ideas in meetings then play his mockery off like a joke, and would frequently take credit for work others had done. …
It seems like the company genuinely tried to change, but some of the old guards, the old employees (not only the execs) are still racists / transphobes / misogynists. While the PR touts that it’s diverse and a safe workplace is not in line with the actual things happening. It reeks like a boys club. That was in 2021, probably going to take more time for the company to change and remove those festering toxic people.
A 100%, some of the things that you hear from the industry are crazy. If you offered me twice my current salary to be a developer in the AAA videogame industry, I wouldn't take it.
Not a game developer, but one aspect is that developers outside of the gaming industry function VERY differently to the point where there is little in the way of transferable knowledge.
For example, most games are made in C/C++ because performance is a serious concern, but management will absolutely shit themselves if you try to make a web service in that language due to security concerns. The only language with any serious overlap is C#, as that is the scripting language used in Unreal Engine and Unity.
Some app developers use game engines for non-game apps (eg: Duolingo uses Unity) but that's about it.
I understand that video games dev and Web dev does not overlap but the developer field is more vast than just Web. For example embedded development uses a lot of C/C++ so knowledge would be transferable there.
I would also say that even though the engines or framework is not the same, surely there are human skills that can be transferred like managing a project, solving problems, algorithms, performance analytics and debugging.
But that’s only my theory and I have no experience on switching field like that
You've got a very valid point with embedded devices. Although there are some big differences in that software for embedded devices typically also act as the operating system, something games stopped doing years ago.
For everything else you mentioned, you're mostly correct but there are complications. The problem is, it can be hard to sell those skills at an interview.
Yeah, embedded is exactly where I’m trying to transfer to, but good luck getting embedded jobs in Los Angeles that aren’t military or otherwise require a background check.
Game platforms… I probably shouldn’t say this, but I wish there was only one," Yoshida said, translated by IGN. "It would be better for both the developers and the players.
I think if he meant one standard like DVD and companies like Sony or Microsoft would make the dvd player. Other companies can join in. We would have choice and competition. And the one game would work the same on any device.
Not even, you still have to consider different components and operating systems, sometimes even what versions of the OS people are running since it’s not always cross compatible.
Then who gets the licensing costs for the Dev kits? Who gets the 30% cut of the digital store? Who gets the cut of accessories sold? Each game sold? Who’s responsible for updating the OS?
The console market works how it does because they sell the tech at a loss and make up money on the ongoing sales. The 3DO tried the open source model in the early 90s and ended up with ridiculously pricey consoles as all the manufacturers needed to make their profit upfront. Eventually, there will be no price difference between a console and a PC if equivilent specs.
While I think this is a good thing, now there’s only Dota 2, Valorant, Apex Legends, League of Legends, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, Rainbow Six Siege, Rennsport, StarCraft II, Street Fighter 6, Counter Strike 2, Rocket League, Tekken 8, PUBG Battlegrounds, Call of Duty Warzone, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege X, Overwatch 2, PUBG Mobile, Rennsport, Honor of Kings, Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, MLBB, Free Fire, EA Sports FC 25, Teamfight Tactics, Crossfire, and Chess with grandmasters left…
Posts links to Nexus mod for oblivion mods. More than Half are reshade presets. I state that more than half are reshade presets. You state reshade is nowhere to be found?
You can simply not use any of the AI features. The studio claims the genAI is a model trained solely on material their artists and devs created for this exact purpose and it runs locally, and as far as I know there is nothing in the game that uses genAI other than what the players can generate.
I still don’t feel good supporting it, personally. If everyone else is enjoying it, that’s cool, but I’ve got plenty of other games that don’t dip their toes into areas I’m not personally comfortable with. So for me it’s a non starter.
I do not understand what Sony and Nintendo have against their own fans. I know that Japanese companies generally only give a shit about Japan, but come on guys. The majority of your fans are all over the globe.
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