Open Fallout

Good Afternoon. With our friends in the US celebrating Thanksgiving this week, what are you thankful for?

The 21-year-old solo developer of Lethal Company is thankful for hitting 100k concurrent players over the weekend and is looking forward to future updates to his $10 title.

—Derek Neville, Jason Liu, Tim Rhyne

MAIN QUEST: A Recap of OpenAI’s Weekend Rollercoaster

If you’ve been following the newsletter for the past few months then you know that it’s no secret that many developers are looking to incorporate generative AI in their production process. While the use of such technologies is still in its infancy, it’s still a core topic in employee <> employer tension within the gaming industry.

Over the weekend, the company at the epicenter of Gen AI ousted their CEO, Sam Altman, and then considered hiring him back again. It was quite the circus. Here’s a timeline of key events:

• Thursday:

  • Sam received a text on Thursday from Co-Founder and Board Member Ilya Sutseker to schedule a call for Friday

• Friday:

  • Greg Brockman, President, was removed from the Board

  • Sam Altman firing made public

  • Microsoft reaffirms their commitment to OpenAI

  • Brockman quits

• Saturday:

  • Investors pressure Board to bring Altman back

• Sunday:

  • Discussions between Altman and the Board breakdown

  • Emmett Shear installed as CEO (Twitch Co-Founder)

• Monday:

  • Altman and Brockman join Microsoft

  • 650/770 OpenAI employees sign letter threatening their departure

Step back: It sounds like Altman has landed a permanent gig as a ‘CEO’ at Microsoft, which would make him a peer to Phil Spencer. While Microsoft already has a strategic relationship in place with OpenAI, bringing Altman in house could further strengthen their position in gen AI, which can have positive knock-on effects for the gaming org.

HUD

• 💰 Starting tomorrow Blizzard will be putting restrictions on WoW token purchases. Players will no longer be able to purchase a WoW token from the Auction House or in-game Shop for gold if they have not spent real-world money to purchase and consume a minimum of 30 days of game time since 2017.

• 🚫 Fortnite’s island age rating feature went into effect late last week, giving all user-made islands their own content & age rating. However, developer Epic received backlash as certain cosmetics (which also have their own ratings) could not be used on islands with a lower age rating. Epic responded to the criticism saying they missed the mark and are working on solutions.

• ⏪ Riot Games has changed course on its plan to charge $10 for players to change their Riot ID. As part of League of Legends original plan to transition from using Summoner names to Riot IDs, players would only be able to change their Riot ID once a year at the cost of $10. Following community backlash, the $10 cost has been eliminated and the time restrictions have been lowered to 3 months.

MAJOR W

• 👷 A former Gearbox employee’s LinkedIn may leaked that both Borderlands 4 and Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands 2 are in development.

• 🎥 League of Legends Worlds 2023 broke the record for being the most-viewed esports tournament ever after only the first match, with almost 6 million concurrent viewers. This number is likely even higher, as it does not include Chinese viewership.

• 📆 The new extraction shooter from PUBG Studios, Project Black Budget, is now scheduled to be released in the 2nd half of 2024, according to the latest financial report from parent company Krafton. This puts the game on the early side of its original 2024-2025 release window.

• 🎂 To celebrate Half-Life’s 25th birthday, Valve has released previously cut content, put out quality-of-life updates, and made the game free on Steam.

F IN THE CHAT

• 👎 It appears much the anticipated Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic remake is no longer happening. First announced in 2021, the remake has been moved between studios by Embracer Group, scrubbed from social media by Sony, and now left out of earnings calls by Embracer Group.

• ⚖️ Pokémon GO developer Niantic is moving to have the lawsuit against it dismissed and moved to arbitration prior to a hearing scheduled in the case for tomorrow. The plaintiffs, 2 former employees, argue that because the case involves sexual harassment it must be heard in court.

CAREER CORNER

• Global Brand Manager, Magic: The Gathering — Wizards of the Coast (Bellevue, WA)

• Project Coordinator, Analytics — Rockstar (New York City, NY)

• Brand Marketing Coordinator, Apex Legends Esports — EA (Redwood City, CA)

HIVE MIND

Was this email forwarded to you?

Subscribe to Loading Screen today and turn your gaming knowledge up to 11!