IGN is unionizing
Xbox holds an internal meeting after 'Starfield' on PlayStation 5 rumors swirl
What a week in video games it’s been. As promised, here’s your weekly Updater newsletter.
IGN employees announced on Tuesday that they want to form a union. About 80 editorial and creative employees wish to join NewsGuild-CWA, with the majority of them signing union authorization cards.
“At least some part of why it happened now has to do with the current instability in games, entertainment, tech, and media alongside larger waves of unionization across them,” IGN senior reporter Rebekah Valentine told Updater when asked why employees were organizing now. She added that while generative AI isn’t the reason IGN began to unionize, it is a hot topic of discussion amongst her colleagues and it’s “something we all want protection from.”
Online media has become “less and less financially viable to staffers, many of which must live in some of the most expensive cities in the world to do their jobs,” IGN wrote in a press release.
The gaming and entertainment website had 479 million monthly readers in December, it stated in a press release, quoting third-party analytics site SEMRush. As IGN puts it, “there are countless irons in countless fires” at the publication.
Have a news tip? You can email me at shannon@flashinfics.com or text 9178805792 on Signal.
Will Xbox exclusives migrate to the PS5?
Amid rumors swirling about Xbox exclusive Starfield making its way over to the PlayStation 5, Xbox chief Phil Spencer posted on Monday, “We're listening and we hear you. We've been planning a business update event for next week, where we look forward to sharing more details with you about our vision for the future of Xbox. Stay tuned.”
The company held an internal Tuesday townhall where Spencer told employees that there were no plans to stop making consoles, and that Xboxes would continue to be part of a strategy that involves multiple kinds of devices. Xbox did not immediately return a request for comment.
A metaverse in everything but the word
Disney is buying a $1.5 billion stake in Fortnite maker Epic Games. CEO Bob Iger told shareholders on a Wednesday earnings call that Spider-Man has been Disney’s licensed games biggest success so far.
When an analyst on the call asked about Disney’s spotty record with video games in the past, Iger elaborated a little further on what he thinks Epic can do with Disney. He envisioned the companies creating a “world that could live next to Fortnite and be completely interconnected with it.”
In short, it sounds like a metaverse, the buzzword of yesteryear, but you’ll note that language is conspicuously missing from Disney’s press materials and earnings remarks. Iger goes on to describe what potentially sounds like a version of Disney+ or TikTok: “You could imagine the creation of short form videos, or maybe we may even use the platform to actually distribute some of our content.”
“IP-holders like Disney are wise to move slowly into novel spaces,” said Joost van Dreunen, a lecturer on the business of games at the NYU Stern School of Business, “Following the success of the [Epic] LEGO collaboration, Disney has its proofpoint to re-enter the games industry in a big way and have some skin in the game. Previously, Disney fell short of delivering on expectations when it built its own online multiplayer universe Disney Infinity. A collaboration with Epic Games addresses a lot of the concerns that previously emerged when Disney tried to go it alone.”
Last December, when I interviewed Epic Games’ Fortnite ecosystem executive vice president Saxs Persson, he did drop the ‘M’ word.
“Can we make the Lego metaverse?” he asked rhetorically, while visiting New York at a Epic x Lego partnership event. He described Lego fans being able to play interchangeably in Fortnite spaces. “Digital play is fundamental to Epic. Fortnite Creative, that’s our sandbox. We understand the value of that and what it’s meant to our community.”
Bonus links
This week, PlayStation held a Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth State of Play that attracted just over a million viewers on YouTube. Hayes Madsen has the story on how Square Enix is going in a new direction with its demo
If you haven’t already, you should read this excellent essay about Persona 3 Reload’s queer character representation by Robin Bea
Speaking of, Inverse is hiring a new part-time video games writer! Apply here to work with me, alongside the impeccable Hayes and Robin
Layoffs are still happening across the video game industry, impacting smaller studios this past week.
On Wednesday, SAG-AFTRA announced a new video game agreement for indie studios to get access to union talent. I spoke with union reps yesterday to get a better sense of what the deal means for indies. In short, it gives smaller studios what SAG-AFTRA describes as a slightly more affordable way to hire union voiceover actors, stunt actors, and more. Since the definition of ‘indie’ has been contested, this agreement specifically covers games with production budgets of $250,000 to $15 million.
U.K.-based freelance writer Aamir Mehar attended a BAFTA masterclass from Final Fantasy director Yoshinori Kitase about how to craft video games. This sounded like an intriguing experience, so I commissioned him for a story. Mehar writes:
I’m sitting right at the back of a packed screening room, eyes locked on a giant two-handed sword with sharp obsidian edges and an unwieldy shape that make it look more like an obelisk than a weapon. Set against the black background on an illuminated stage, it looks as though it was plucked straight from a fictional universe — which is exactly the intent. This replica is Cloud Strife’s “buster sword,” the impossibly huge weapon carried by the series’ protagonist that has come to visually define Final Fantasy VII. I wonder how many people in the audience wished – as I wished – they could hold and lift it, to pretend for just a moment that they’re the hero of a tale that changed video games.
I’m always looking for more scene reports like this, so if you’d like to pitch Inverse a freelance story, please email me at shannon@inverse.com.
Former Kotaku and Inverse writer Ashley Bardhan has this beautiful piece on Alisa, a lo-fi horror game come to the Switch and other places. Her words, as always, are delectable: “Alisa's boobs does not operate by earthly physics, but by horny imagination,” Bardhan writes. “But I can look past all that since Alisa, voiced by Croes' real-life girlfriend, always seems amusingly sleepy as she roughs up her Wonderland.”
And now for your weekly dose of gaming business news: Chinese conglomerate Tencent is taking a hard look at its mobile game offerings. It’s reportedly working on a mobile version of Elden Ring, according to Reuters, and is axing a Nier game, possibly due to hefty fees.
That’s all folks! Happy Lunar New Year to those who celebrate, and I’ll catch you in the next issue.