This week in gaming: Riot Games settles its discrimination lawsuit, Epic Games gives more financial control to developers, Campo Santo says goodbye to its own project, and more!
In the spirit of keeping our readers up to date with what’s happening in the video game industry, the Doublejump Digest is a brief collection of the major news stories from the past week. Keep an eye out for the Digest every Sunday night, and head on into the archive for news from weeks gone by!
FROM DOUBLEJUMP
- John found a delightful new roguelike when reviewing Black Future ‘88.
MAJOR NEWS
Riot Games settles gender dismination suit with US$10M payout:
According to the Los Angeles Times, League of Legends developer has agreed to pay approximately 1,000 past and present female employees for breaches of the California Equal Pay act in an out-of-court settlement for a lawsuit brought upon by a pair of female employees. The plaintiffs alleged that Riot failed to protect female employees from the company’s toxic, pro-masculine culture and the harassment and discimination brought on by male co-workers. The judge has yet to approve the settlement as of this writing.
Epic now lets developers choose their own payment services:
Epic Games has updated its Epic Games Store policy to now allow developers to use third-party payment services to manage in-game purchases instead of using the company’s own one.
“We support developers’ right to choose among the best stores, in-app payment processors, online services, and engines, and to mix and match these components as they wish,” CEO Tim Sweeney added (via Gamasutra).
In even better news for developers, Epic Games will not take a cut of revenue from in-game sales using third-party payment services.
Campo Santo’s next game is on hiatus:
Jake Rodkin, co-founder of Firewatch studio Campo Santo, has confirmed that his studio has halted development on its next project, In the Valley of Gods, as several former team members are working on other projects for parent company Valve Software.
“As we integrated ourselves into Valve it became clear there was a lot of valuable work to be done on Half-Life: Alyx. Some of us starting lending a hand, and have since become full-time on the project as it approaches launch,” he told Polygon. “Similarly, some ex-Campos are working on Dota Underlords, some are on Steam, and so on.”
Rodkin reiterated that Campo Santo may return to developing In the Valley of Gods in the future, and that the studio will “find an exciting way to let fans know” when it does.
Report: Microsoft is working on a disc-less Project Scarlett version:
Kotaku has reported that, despite Microsoft commenting to the contrary, anonymous sources have confirmed that Microsoft is actually working on a less powerful, disc-less version of its upcoming Project Scarlett console codenamed “Lockhart”. The system would be closer in raw processing power to a PlayStation 4 Pro but would boast an SSD to help speed up load times to make up for its less powerful architecture.
YouTube eases up on equating real-world violence with game violence:
Google updated YouTube’s Policy on violence to remove the age restriction on videos showing violent footage from games as the company no longer equates them to be as impactful as real-world violence.
“Starting on 12/2, scripted or simulated violent content found in video games will be treated the same as other types of scripted content,” the company wrote. This will mean that videos featuring violent game footage will no longer be automatically age-restricted, but YouTube still retains the right to demonetise such videos and can enforce age-restrictions on videos where “violent or gory imagery is the sole focus” (i.e. death scene montages, gore montages, etc.)
Resident Evil 3 Remake leaks ahead of an official reveal:
Eurogamer has confirmed that the PlayStation Network Resident Evil 3 Remake box art and game listing that Gamstat posted are indeed legitimate and that we should expect to see Capcom make an official announcement a The Game Awards next week.
NOTABLE GAME RELEASES
- Darksiders Genesis (PC)
- Life Is Strange 2: Episode 5 (PC, PS4, & Xbox One)
- Phoenix Point (PC)
VIDEOS AND TRAILERS
Destiny 2: Shadowkeep – Season of Dawn Trailer:
Saint-14 is back, and he needs our help!
Tekken 7 – Ganryu Announcement & Release Date Trailer:
The legendary sumo returns next week.
Tekken 7 – Fahkumram Character Announcement Trailer:
Muay Thai returns to the Tekken arena.
Tekken 7 – Leroy Smith Release Date Trailer:
Leroy Smith is “MC Attitude Adjuster”.
Persona 5 Royal – Release Date Reveal Trailer:
March 31 ain’t that far away!
OTHER NEWS
- A US congressman has plead guilty to using campaign funds to buy Steam games: Polygon
- Battlefield V’s Community Games custom playlists are going live this coming week: Eurogamer
- The Metal Gear Solid movie’s Director has teased an updated script for the film: DualShockers
- PUBG is available to stream through PlayStation Now: GamesRadar
- 343 Industries is letting PC Halo Reach players disable anti-cheat measures to enable modding: Polygon
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