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Sony Studio Firesprite Faces Allegations of Toxic Work Environment in Recent Report

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There are some issues at Sony Studio Firesprite, which was acquired by the platform holder in 2021. Despite relocating to costly new premises in Liverpool, a recent report by Eurogamer portrays a bleak situation for the company. It is said to be experiencing a significant loss of employees and faced the sudden departure of managing director Graeme Ankers in May.

The team in the UK that was developing Horizon Call of the Mountain for PSVR2 faced layoffs earlier this week. There are allegations that the Twisted Metal reboot they were working on has been cancelled due to this. Allegedly developing a major PlayStation series, possibly a follow-up to Until Dawn, the team is reportedly facing numerous setbacks.

According to a report by Eurogamer, a significant number of employees have departed the studio in the past few months. This exodus follows a bonus distribution from Sony last year, intended to incentivize staff retention post-acquisition. Following the departure of several previous managers, the Japanese company has reportedly brought in staff from XDev to take charge of the team, a move that has been labeled as “nepotism.”

These new leaders have reportedly been involved in an internal investigation, facing allegations of ageism and sexual discrimination. According to reports, Sony denied these accusations as a misinterpretation, but it seems that some individuals did consult outside legal experts to delve deeper into the issue and reportedly received compensation in exchange.

According to sources who spoke to Eurogamer, the main issue seems to be a slow decline in the studio’s culture. “Sony’s decision to acquire a studio and heavily interfere with its operations could potentially lead to a downward spiral, hindering the completion of its ongoing projects,” a source claimed.

The platform holder has not responded to these allegations yet. It is important to mention that not all individuals quoted share the same perspective. One individual mentioned a positive aspect, highlighting a focus on inclusivity and diversity in the workplace. It can be challenging to accurately gauge the actual seriousness of the situation.

Sony has a reputation for being tough on its UK-based developers. This week saw the closure of its long-standing London Studio, adding to a list of British teams that have also shut down, such as Evolution Studios, Guerrilla Cambridge, BigBig Studios, Liverpool Studio, and others. Hopefully, Firesprite can regain their momentum before it becomes a critical issue.

As Editor here at GeekReply, I'm a big fan of all things Geeky. Most of my contributions to the site are technology related, but I'm also a big fan of video games. My genres of choice include RPGs, MMOs, Grand Strategy, and Simulation. If I'm not chasing after the latest gear on my MMO of choice, I'm here at GeekReply reporting on the latest in Geek culture.

Gaming

Ubisoft says that future Assassin’s Creed games will need more time to be made

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As Assassin’s Creed Shadows is about to sneak up on people in November, Ubisoft says that the time between developing games needs to be longer to find the “right balance.” Shadows has been in development for four years, longer than any other game in the series up to this point. That includes the huge open-world epics Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla.

Shadows lead producer Karl Onnée (thanks, GamesIndustry.biz) says that the latest AC game took 25% longer to make than Valhalla. He says this is necessary to keep the quality of the series that it is known for: “It’s always a balance between time and costs, but the more time you have, the more you can iterate.” You can speed up a project by adding more people to it, but that doesn’t give you more time to make changes.

Onnée says this has as much to do with immersion and aesthetics as it does with fixing bugs and smoothing out pixels. This is because the development team needs time to learn about each new historical setting: “We are trying to make a game that is as real as possible.” We’re proud of it, and the process took a long time. In feudal Japan, building a house is very different from building a house in France or England in the Middle Ages. As an artist, you need to learn where to put things in a feudal Japanese home. For example, food might not belong there. Get all the information you need and learn it. That process takes a long time.”

You’ll have to wait a little longer for Ubisoft to work on each game. Are you okay with that? In what part of Shadows are you now? Is it interesting to you? Leave a comment below and let us know.

 

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You can now pre-order Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP on PS5

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You can now pre-order Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP, a remaster that Dragami Games and Capcom both created. You can now pre-order the PS5 game on the PS Store for $44.99 or £39.99. If you have PS Plus, you can get an extra 10% off the price.

The company put out a new trailer with about three minutes of gameplay to mark the start of the pre-order period. Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP is a remaster of Grasshopper Manufacture’s crazy action game from 2012. You play as Juliet, a high school student who fights off waves of zombies.

The remaster adds RePOP mode, an alternative mode that swaps out the blood and gore for fun visual effects. It also adds a bunch of other features and improvements that make the game better overall. You can expect the graphics and sound to be better as well.

The game will now come out on September 12, 2024, instead of September 12, 2024. Are you excited to get back to this? Please cheer us on in the section below.

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This Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 zombies trailer is way too expensive

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Is there really anyone who is following the story of Call of Duty’s zombie mode? We’ve known about the story in a vague way for a while, but we couldn’t tell you anything about it. It looks like the “Dark Aether” story will continue in Black Ops 6, but we don’t really know what that means.

For those of you who care, here is the official blurb with some background: “Requiem, led by the CIA, finally closed the last-dimensional portal, sending its inhabitants back to the nightmare world known as the Dark Aether, after two years of fighting zombie outbreaks around the world during the Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War timeline.”

Wait, there’s more! “Agent Samantha Maxis gave her life to seal this weird dimension from the inside out.” Even worse things were to come: senior staff members of Requiem were arrested without a reason by the Project Director, who turned out to be Edward Richtofen.

Black Ops 6 will take place about five years later, and it looks like it will show more about Richtofen’s goals and motivations. The most important thing is that you will probably be shooting an unimaginable number of zombies in the head. This week, on August 8, there will be a full reveal of the gameplay, so keep an eye out for that.

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