Not just the U.S.
Avalanche Studios has their headquarters in Sweden and they’re closing their studio in Canada (per this article). Additionally, Phoenix Labs (Dauntless & Fae Farm) is a Canadian game developer and they just let go of a significant number of developers and cancelled all future projects (about 3 weeks ago): pcgamer.com/…/dauntless-developer-phoenix-labs-la…
While Microsoft was the one shutting down multiple Game Developers last month, those studios are also based all over:
Tango Gameworks - Japan
Alpha Dog Games - Canada
Arkane Studios - (Headquarters in France, but shutting down their Studio in the U.S.)
Roundhouse Studios - U.S.
Well… good thing I’ve been buying what I can through GOG… but this is terrible news, especially with the way Microsoft has been shutting down gaming studios recently.
Edit: meh, this just sounds like clickbait:
The leak comes from an unknown and unreliable source in the gaming industry.
Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard faced regulatory challenges, making the merger with Valve unlikely.
There’s a place for AI in NPCs but developers will have to know how to implement it correctly or it will be a disaster.
LLMs can be trained on specific characters and backstories, or even “types” of characters. If they are trained correctly they will stay in character as well as be reactive in more ways than any scripted character could ever do. But if the Devs are lazy and just hook it up to ChatGPT with a simple prompt telling it to “pretend” to be some character, then it’s going to be terrible like you say.
Now, this won’t work very well for games where you’re trying to tell a story like Baldur’s Gate… instead this is better for more open world games where the player is interacting with random characters that don’t need to follow specific scripts.
Even then it won’t be everything. Just because an LLM can say something “in-character” doesn’t mean it will line up with its in-game actions. So additional work will need to be made to help tie actions to the proper kind of responses.
If a studio is able to do it right, this has game changing potential… but I’m sure we’ll see a lot of rushed work done before anyone pulls it off well.
@sugar_in_your_tea proposed this theory the other day, and I think it makes a lot of sense. A lot of journalists are feeling threatened by the onslaught of LLMs so I would expect to see a lot more news attempting to shine a negative light on LLMs in any way possible.
That makes sense, but I haven’t seen any official announcement from Steam saying that they did this. Only speculation from random people. Any documentation I can find just seems to point to this being a decision that’s made by the company releasing the game (or in this case Sony as the publisher).
I doubt that Steam is still trying to block additional countries given that Sony has already announced that the PSN account requirement is being withdrawn.
“Generally it’s not a good idea to tell people to refund and leave negative reviews when you’re a community manager. TIL,” Spitz said. “I appreciate all the support and I appreciate even more that everyone can play the game again without restrictions. I knew I was taking a risk with what I said about refunding and changing reviews. I stand by it. It was my job to represent the community, that’s what I did.”
They added: “I wanted to work for Arrowhead because they’re my all-time favorite studio. I got that chance. I’m thankful for that opportunity. I’d happily continue working for them if I had the choice, but that isn’t up to me or anyone else in here. I can walk away happy and I don’t want anyone causing trouble on my behalf, especially not to people I still have a lot of care and respect for.”
This definitely sounds like Sony wanted them out and Arrowhead wanted them to stay.
Arkane Austin (Tap for list) Blade (Marvel game (not?) in development)
Redfall
Deathloop
Prey
Prey Digital Deluxe
Prey Mooncrash
Dishonered
Dishonered 2
Dishonered Death of the Outsider
Dishonered Dunwall City Trials
Dishonered The Knife Of Dunwall
Dishonered The Brigmore Witches
Dishonered Void Walker’s Arsenal
Arx Fatalis
Tango Gameworks Hi-Fi Rush
Ghostwire Tokyo
The Evil Within
The Evil Within 2
Alpha Dog Games Wraithborne (iOS, Android)
MonstroCity: Rampage (iOS, Android)
Ninja Golf (iOS, Android)
Mighty DOOM (iOS, Android)
Just Cause developer Avalanche Studios Group is closing the Montreal studio it acquired just 8 months ago (www.pcgamer.com) angielski
Fae Farm Developer Phoenix Labs Lays Off Over 100 People (insider-gaming.com) angielski
Crazy rumour suggests Microsoft are preparing $16 billion offer for Valve (www.altchar.com) angielski
Do we have someone on our side in the committee? O.o (StopKillingGames UK petition) (lemmy.zip)
petition.parliament.uk/petitions/659071www.stopkillinggames.com
Ubisoft insists yet again that its uncanny AI-generated 'NEO-NPCs' will make games 'more alive and richer', whatever that means (www.pcgamer.com) angielski
Helldivers 2 remains delisted in 177 countries and territories even as Sony backs down on PSN requirement, Arrowhead CEO says 'I won't rest in my desire to have it available everywhere' (www.pcgamer.com) angielski
Making good, profitable games 'will no longer keep you safe': industry expresses fury and heartbreak over closure of Hi-Fi Rush and Prey studios (www.pcgamer.com) angielski
Helldivers 2 Community Manager Seemingly Gone After PlayStation Login Meltdown (kotaku.com) angielski
Microsoft Closes Redfall Developer Arkane Austin, Hi-Fi Rush Developer Tango Gameworks, and More in Devastating Cuts at Bethesda - IGN (www.ign.com) angielski
Unity adding a fee for devs for each time a game is installed, after certain thresholds (www.gamesindustry.biz) angielski