Today on Headline
RePLAY: EA’s future plans on its Origin service, layoffs strikes Slant Six
studios and the banhammer descends on Diablo
III cheaters.
Electronic Arts’ Origin
platform is constantly compared to Valve’s Steam by users; primarily that it
should be more like its competitor. EA’s response is a simple one: provide
better service, but be different.
“The easy response to
that is, ‘Well, give us a few more years, and maybe we’ll be better than Steam,’”
Origin SVP David DeMartini told Gamasutra. “That said, right no we’re not. …Steam
took eight years to get where it is. We’re not going to take eight years, but
we’re going to get there and go beyond.”
DeMartini says while
EA wants Origin to be comparable to Steam, the goal is not to become a clone of
its industry competitor. “There’s one Steam. I think what people want to see
is, they want to have another viable option. They want us to differentiate in a
way that sets us apart.”
“What I is [for]
Origin to be differentiable and better as a service, which is similar to what
Steam does.”
|Source: Gamasutra
Success does not guarantee
the lack of cost-cutting, the developer of Resident
Evil: Operation Raccoon City learned, as it announced that more than a
quarter of its 96 employees were going to be temporarily laid off.
“Regretfully, we can
confirm that there have been some temporary layoffs at our studio,” read a
statement from Slant Six Games. “We must stress that these are temporary
layoffs, which means we are working very hard on new business prospects so we
can reinstate every single person affected. As an independent and close-knit
studio it is very difficult but necessary business measure due to the current
project cycle demands.”
A Slant Six representative
told GameSpot that the affected employees were given the option of taking a
severance package or accepting a temporary layoff as the studio searches for
additional projects. Those that chose being temporarily laid off will be able
to collect employment insurance and retain their extended benefits for 13
weeks. However, if the studio is unable to rehire them, the layoff becomes permanent.
The representative continued
by saying that most of the 26 affected employees chose the temporary layoff
option.
|Source: GameSpot UK
After issuing a
warning about impending bans on Diablo
III cheaters, Blizzard made good on its threat and slammed the banhammer on
a good several thousand players today.
“We recently issued a
round of account suspensions and bans to several thousand Diablo III players who were in violation of the Battle.net Terms of
use for cheating and/or using botting or hacking programs while playing,” said Community
Manager Jonathan “Zarhym” Brown on the official forums.
“In addition to
undermining the spirit of fair play that’s essential to everyone’s enjoyment of
the game, botting, hacking, and other such exploitative behavior can contribute
to stability and performance issues with the Battle.net service,” he continued.
“As always, maintaining a stable, safe, and fun online-gaming experience for
legitimate players is a top priority for us, and we’ll be continuing to keep
watch on Battle.net and take action as needed.”
|Source: Blizzard
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