Media Molecule to reduce workforce

People fact-checked social media posts more carefully and were more willing to revise their initial beliefs when they were paired with someone from a different cultural background than their own, according to a study my collaborators Michael Baker and Françoise Détienne and I recently published in Frontiers in Psychology.

A second independent games and culture website has been announced today: Second Wind, formed by ex-Escapist employees Nick Calandra and Ben Croshaw. 

Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar has issued a stern warning to social media platforms today, emphasising their legal obligations in the fight against deepfakes and all other forms of misinformation. The trigger for his message was the shocking actress Rashmika Mandanna deepfake video that went viral. Originally, the video showcased Zara Patel, a British-Indian influencer, but it had been manipulated to replace her face with Rashmika Mandanna using deepfake technology.

There are several major social media cases facing the US Supreme Court this term, all having to do with the First Amendment. The decisions the court issues will effectively create a new legal regime where none existed before. The first major issue, on the constitutionality of public officials blocking other users, shows how hard this is going to be for justices who have not yet fully understood how the architecture of social media platforms can change society.

Ubisoft has lots of reasons to be proud of its mega-successful Assassin's Creed series, but you wouldn't know that from how they've treated poor Ezio on Twitter recently. To celebrate Halloween yesterday, the official Twitter account for Ubisoft in the Netherlands asked fans whether they were team trick or treat, under which was a soulless AI-generated Halloween-themed monstrosity.

Insomniac's first Spider-Man game had a social media feed you could view on the map, seeing what everyone in New York City thought of the web-slinging menace. There were people asking if he ever ate his own webs, celebrating Wilson Fisk's downfall, sharing fan fiction, and poking fun at the Daily Bugle. But if you look at the map on Spider-Man 2, you'll notice there's no social media.

Spyglass Media Group and Sony Pictures have teamed up with AI and metaverse company MeetKai to create a horror metaverse experience for the upcoming horror film Thanksgiving.

has released updated social media guidelines that place new restrictions on the ways in which content creators are allowed to discuss and share footage of the gaming giant’s hardware and software. The move comes a day after the company unveiled controversial changes to its guidelines on how Nintendo games can be used in tournaments, drawing backlash from many in the competitive gaming scene.

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Media Molecule, the PlayStation Studios developer best known for its work on LittleBigPlanet and the PS4 game creation title, Dreams, has confirmed that the roles of staff within “certain departments of the studio” have been put at risk. It stated that starting this process was a “difficult decision”. 

Media Molecule, the developer behind Sackboy, is apparently planning to lay off dozens of staff members and reduce its headcount by around 15 to 20%. As reported by GLHF, Media Molecule will be laying off roughly 20 employees to make its headcount from 135 to 115 which has already been discussed internally through meetings.

Dreams developer Media Molecule, part of PlayStation Studios, announced today that the studio will suffer layoffs. GLHF (part of Sports Illustrated) reports that this will impact about 15-20% of staff.