Mom, I Can’t Pause #18: Can We Have One Normal Week?
You know, I thought this week would also be a pretty chill one. I thought we’d get into some more opinion-based discussion once again. But no, Sony just had to drop its own sort of bombshell news. They just had to do that. So, let’s just get straight into that news, and then we’ll jump into some more op-ed style pieces, okay? Sounds good? Let’s do this thing.
Sony Has Acquired Bungie
A lot of people saw something coming from Sony in the near future. After Microsoft’s bombshell acquisition of Activision Blizzard many wondered exactly how Sony would react, if at all. Most expected Sony to remain on the course they were already on by putting out extremely well-made PlayStation exclusive single-player games, while also cutting deals with publishers for certain games to be PlayStation only. In my view, this would have been a fine enough way to react to Microsoft.
That all changed today after Sony announced the acquisition of Bungie, the developers of the ongoing Destiny games, for $3.6 billion. To be fair to Sony: this deal has seemingly been in the works for months and is decidedly not a reactionary move by Sony. That’s not how this works at all. Thankfully, Bungie will retain their independence to a point: Sony will allow them to self-publish their games on whatever platform they wish to. While console exclusivity is always appreciated, there’s very little harm in reaping the benefits of a game studio you own publishing wherever they like. I don’t blame Sony for looking for a cut of that money.
Still, deals like these bring me pause. Microsoft’s acquisition of many studios in the past few years, especially the entirety of Bethesda and Activision Blizzard, are concerning moves. These will just lead to further consolidation within the games industry, furthering the likelihood of a monopoly games publisher. Do we want a future in which Microsoft is similar to Disney? Or Sony similar to GE? Some may argue that we’re already there, that Microsoft has crossed that line with their purchase of ActiBlizz a-la Disney’s purchase of Fox from a few years ago. What’s to stop Sony from purchasing something like a Take-Two? Or Microsoft further consolidating by purchasing EA or Ubisoft next? These aren’t questions that I want to be answered at all, but I can’t help but be afraid of this future. Even if we get good games out of it, good games aren’t enough to remain okay with monopolies. This could all be conjecture, though. Maybe these deals will be better in the long run than not. Hard not to see these deals being less than savory in the near future, though.
There’s No Shame In Bouncing Off Games
This past week, I’ve been trying to place Horizon Zero Dawn in the lead-up to its sequel, Horizon Forbidden West. When the first game came out, I bought it and enjoyed my time with it up until a point. I don’t remember the specific point in-game, but what I do remember is that it was around the time that Breath of the Wild was released. Once that and the Nintendo Switch came out, it was over. I tried playing it again afterward, but I was pretty bored with it. Since then, I kept telling myself “hey, you should eventually try going back to that game! Give it another try!” So, eventually I purchased it again at a steep discount. Game of the Year edition with all the fixings of DLC included, too. It’s sat in my library for a solid two years until I booted it up this week. In my attempts to play it, I found myself bored as all hell. I didn’t give much of a shit about the story and the gameplay wasn’t doing much to engage me. So I booted up God of War again instead and started killing Valkyries. A much better way to spend my time.
Since I bounced off of it though, I can’t help but think about the idea of bouncing off of games as a whole. I feel like there are two schools of thought I have when it comes to this: on one hand, I paid money for this game and I should see it through to the end. Just to get my money’s worth, whatever that means these days. On the other hand, do I really have the fucking time to play through a game that I’m just not enjoying? Who really does in this day and age? I can count on more than two hands the number of games I’ve bounced off of. I only feel bad about a handful of them, and I do my due diligence to at least try to give some of them a fair shake again. Hell, I can name another popular game that I’ve bounced off of just fairly recently: Inscryption. That game is arguably the indie darling of the year, and my interest in it waned as soon as the second act started. Haven’t looked back yet, but maybe I will.
Hell, I could be talking out of my ass here. I could try to power through Horizon if I really put my mind to it, just to see if it gets much better. I really don’t think I will, though. Maybe I’m getting old, but I think games have to do more these days to hold my attention. Not just Horizon, but all games. Gamepass is going to make this “problem” I have even worse, considering that the only thing tethering me to games on that service is the service itself. It’s really a good problem to have, even though I’m certainly not describing it that way! By bouncing off less interesting games, I’ll have more time to play games that I actually do enjoy! It’s the best kind of trade-off, really.
Raven Software Has Chosen Unionization
Well, it’s finally happened. A major games studio in the United States has opted to unionize.
Raven Software, a major Call of Duty studio within Activision Blizzard, has begun the process of unionizing within its QA department. It was only a matter of time that a studio situated in the US would unionize but if it was going to happen, it was almost poetic that it would be within ActiBlizz during this tumultuous time. You may not have known this, but Raven Software’s QA department has been striking for more than a month, up until the team decided to unionize. Specifically, the QA team has been asking for the reinstatement of 12 laid-off contractors who were let go in December. Not once since the beginning of the strike has ActiBlizz responded to the striking employees. Now the team has begun the process of unionization, which leads us into uncharted territory once again.
This unionization process is about to see some ugly business from the higher-ups at ActiBlizz. The union-busting effort that they’re going to put forth is going to be massive. They’ve already begun this effort as managers at Raven have split up the QA team into separate departments, which seems pretty clear cut as a union-busting tactic. This is only the first in what I assume will be a concerted effort to shut that shit down. Plus, there’s the whole “Activision Blizzard is going to be purchased by Microsoft” aspect of all of this. To say that this is going to be complicated is putting it mildly. Still much like Microsoft’s impending purchase, it’s too soon to tell where this will go. I’ll be following this story closely, but I’ll also be forwarding y’all to those much better situated to talk about it. I’ll include some preliminary links here:
The Entire Raven Software QA Unionization Timeline: The Story So Far by Adam Bankhurst
Odds and Ends
- Hey, that Pokemon Legends Arceus game came out! I haven’t played it, yet. Still, there may be some writing about it soon.
- The new Halo series got a trailer ahead of its March 24th premiere on Paramount Plus, a streaming service that seemingly no one has. Still, I’ll be checking it out. I think it looks pretty good, despite the silly ass trailer music! Cortana does look a bit strange, but we’ll get over that quickly I imagine.
- In smaller PlayStation news, there will be a State of Play dropping on Wednesday at 2 PM Pacific time that’s all about Gran Turismo 7. I’ll be checking it out, if only to see if this franchise will be able to reclaim the top spot in the racing genre.
