Activision has partnered with Burger King once again to celebrate the launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.
18.10.2023 - 14:49 / destructoid.com / Mat Piscatella / David Baszucki / Jason Schreier
The COVID-19 pandemic drastically shifted how employees work in several industries, including gaming. As the world recovers, different studios have been trying different strategies to adapt to changed employee expectations. This becomes obvious when you compare Insomniac and Roblox Corporation.
Insomniac has been having a great week thanks to the good reviews Spider-Man 2 has been getting. As everyone celebrates another impressive achievement from Insomniac, journalist Jason Schreier revealed that the studio allows employees to work from wherever they want.
Fun fact: Spider-Man 2 developer Insomniac Games allows employees to work from anywhere they'd like https://t.co/zbcdNGJWtH
Some commenters did point out that there are some restrictions regarding which US states and Canadian provinces this is allowed in, though it appears possible in most of North America.
Roblox Corporation has also been having a fantastic time on the PS5 recently. According to games industry analyst Mat Piscatella, in its launch week it “ranked 3rd in percentage of PlayStation players that played the title at least once,” putting it behind only Fortnite and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.
On the same day as Schreier’s Tweet, Roblox CEO David Baszucki released a public post revealing that several remote workers are going to be asked to return to work at the headquarters in San Mateo. Baszucki explains that while the option to continue to support remote work was considered, it was decided that “Roblox is an innovation company and we needed to get back to working in person.”
The higher-ups were also concerned about the “many cohorts, such as our new college graduates and people early in their careers, who typically learn through social contact and would miss out on this mentorship.” Employees asked to return to in-person work have until January 2024 to decide.
Those who agree will be assisted with relocation costs, while those who choose not to will have until April 15th, 2024 to transition out of their full-time roles, though they will receive “a severance package based on their individual level and term of service, along with six months of healthcare coverage for everyone on their policies”
Though Roblox and Insomniac have addressed the same issue differently, it is possible to see both positives and negatives in either approach. Concerns about whether remote work can facilitate the kind of innovation birthed from in-person teams are valid, though the return to on-site work will be a drastic change for many employees who have gotten used to their work-from-home lifestyle.
Insomniac’s approach seems to give employees more freedom but it’s worth remembering, as Schreier points out, that remote work can result in greater
Activision has partnered with Burger King once again to celebrate the launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.
A new season of Football Manager is upon us, meaning wannabe Pep Guardiolas across the globe will look to assemble the best players that the beautiful game has produced.
It always kind of felt like Elden Ring's super hard megaboss Malenia was a transplant from Sekiro, FromSoftware's fast-paced, parry-focused ninja action game. Her aggressive swordplay could just about do laps around my sluggish Tarnished—she almost seems to demand a Wolf's precision.
In a groundbreaking achievement, NASA astronauts Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral O'Hara embarked on their maiden spacewalk, forging history as the second-ever all-female astronaut duo to perform an Extravehicular Activity (EVA). This remarkable event took place on November 1 outside the International Space Station (ISS).
By Andrew Webster, an entertainment editor covering streaming, virtual worlds, and every single Pokémon video game. Andrew joined The Verge in 2012, writing over 4,000 stories.
Women make up just between 24% and 30% of the video game industry’s workforce, depending on the research source. However, year after year, from players to developers, female representation has been growing throughout games at all levels of experience.
There have been an awful lot of layoffs across the game industry in 2023, but against that bleak backdrop this week's cuts at Bungie came as a shock. Fans are mourning the loss of a number of long-term employees, particularly composers Michael Salvatori, who wrote countless memorable tracks for both Destiny games as well as earlier Bungie projects going all the way back to Myth: The Fallen Lords, and Michael Sechrist, the composer of Deep Stone Lullaby, which we called «the most gorgeous piece of game music that you've never heard.»
Yesterday, Canada banned the use of WeChat and Kaspersky's suite of security apps on all government-issued mobile devices. The apps will be uninstalled and any attempt to download them again will be blocked.
It’s not an official theme or anything, but this week’s TV is all about fighting. There’s the two sides of superhero coming-of-age stories on Prime Video alone: the season finale of Gen V and the season premiere of Invincible. Over on Netflix there’s Blue Eye Samurai, a new show about one woman’s quest for revenge in Edo-era Japan, while on Paramount Plus the new Taylor Sheridan-produced show about Bass Reeves (David Oyelowo) is sure to bring on some Wild West violence. Throw in Love Island Games, and it seems like no matter which platform you turn to, you’re gonna get some clashes.
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's director, Naoki Hamaguchi, says there's a "big surprise" planned for the original JRPG's most iconic twist, and it's far from the first time fans – myself included – have been given reason to sweat over what's to come.
This year's CitizenCon was a two-day event and apparently the biggest show Cloud Imperium Games has put on for its cautionary tale about scope creep in MMO form. It wasn't all engine demos and new ships for Star Citizen, however, with Cloud Imperium's singleplayer game, Squadron 42, finally ready to be shown again.
Fired workers will get a severance package.