Long Live The King

The king has returned. Epics force reduction is ... well ... epic. 3 strikes and your out and we have a new platform to stream to ... sort of.

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Show Notes

The king of MMO game development has returned to his castle after leading a successful quest into the gaming wilderness. That's right, the one and only Chris Metzen has returned to Blizzard entertainment to be creative director of World of Warcraft.
https://www.xfire.com/chris-metzen-returns-creative-director-world-of-warcraft/
https://www.pcgamer.com/chris-metzen-returns-to-blizzard-full-time-to-create-the-next-generation-of-adventures-in-world-of-warcraft/

Epic Games Inc., the company behind global megahit Fortnite, the Epic Games Store, and the wildly popular Unreal Engine, is laying off 16 percent of its current workforce. This report, first coming from Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, sees almost 900 employees losing their jobs.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/28/tech/epic-games-layoffs-fortnite/index.html
https://kotaku.com/epic-games-store-fortnite-unreal-engine-layoffs-1850882501

So in the two weeks since we last recorded, the SAG-AFTRA union voted to strike against the Interactive Media Agreement which is escentially the video game industry. The union did go on strike and earlier this week negotiations broke down without an agreement. So what is the current state and where does this leave upcoming titles?
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/sag-aftra-members-authorize-video-game-strike-1235598617/
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/sag-aftras-talks-with-video-games-industry-ends-with-no-resolution/1100-6518071/

Oh Elon, what are you up to? The pllatform formerly known as twitter ran a test this week that showcased a game streaming event. So how did it go and do we think we will be moving to X in the future?
https://indianexpress.com/article/technology/tech-news-technology/twitter-x-live-video-game-streaming-feature-demo-8965109/
https://www.themarysue.com/x-streaming-is-twitch-style-live-game-streaming-coming-to-twitter-answered/

Just EA doing EA things in the most condecending fashion. FIFA 24 launches and players are up in arms about it already. Here's why.
https://kotaku.com/ea-fifa-24-fc-loot-box-ultimate-team-pack-odds-scam-1850891916

Last episode we talked about AI and how that will impact video games. Well those concerns came to fruition this week and although not in thee video game world, they will have impact on the games we play in the future.
https://www.ign.com/articles/tom-hanks-warns-fans-beware-dental-plan-ad-featuring-ai-version-of-him
https://www.ign.com/articles/robin-williams-daughter-calls-out-disturbing-ai-recreate-late-fathers-voice

Review

Steamdeck Revisited - Diddi