Abortion is healthcare and a necessary, basic human right.
An upcoming itch.io bundle is seeking titles to raise funds for the National Organization for Women and the Center for Reproductive Rights in light of the recent overturning of the landmark Roe v. Wade decision by the US Supreme Court. Submissions are currently open. Another bundle, officially partnered with itch.io, is also open for submissions.
Reaching out to and supporting local, on-the-ground, abortion funds is also an efficient way to help, especially in areas where it is needed most.
Various game developers have resounded their own statements in wake of the decision, with varying degrees of both implicity and directness. Bungie intends on covering the travel fees of employees who need to seek services outside of their based location. Other companies like Certain Affinity and Microsoft have also expressed the same intentions as well.
Quebec has officially adopted Bill 96, a new piece of legislation that seeks to tighten rules in order to reinforce French as the official language in workplaces and government offices. The bill is xenophobic and discriminatory, and will shut out many prospective employees from jobs, such as many games developers entering the industry, all while the province is already dealing with a huge labor shortage.
Duolingo’s CEO has also asserted that they are more than willing to move company headquarters from Pennsylvania if local state legislation changes. Although abortion currently can still be legally performed in Pennsylvania, it does not have secure laws in place protecting it compared to its neighboring states in the Mid-Atlantic region.
Head of Xbox Games Studios Matt Booty asserts that there is no crunching at Bethesda. The statement is in response to a comprehensive report by Kotaku that chronicles Fallout 76’s messy development.
Mojang can now block and ban players in private and personal Minecraft servers upon moderator review. These changes are reflected in Minecraft’s latest update.
Blizzard can’t help but keep continuing to acquire other companies to support its own IP.
Meanwhile, Activision Blizzard workers have released a series of demands, asking leadership be held accountable for the issues of sex and gender discrimination that have occurred at the company. The Worker Committee Against Sex & Gender Discrimination is also made up of a former employees.
The Communications Workers of America (CWA) has officially approved of Microsoft’s acquisition of the company. Microsoft has since signed a labor neutrality agreement vowing to recognize the union shop’s rights once the acquisition is complete.
Niantic has canceled several upcoming projects and laid off more than 80 employees. The studio has sadly failed to deliver on the same success they had since Pokémon Go. Harry Potter: Wizards Unite had shut down in January this year.
A weird, crypto-incorporated spinoff of itch.io called w3itch.io called has launched. Or at least is attempting to. The site was quickly scrutinized, and what was most concerning about the project is that it directly ripped off actual listings and projects on itch.io without the creators’ knowledge, on top of listing other game titles that already exist on other platforms.
A Persona 5 Joker and Crow shipping fan zine recently came under heat when one of its moderators was found to have been embezzling its funds. About 27.6k CAD was stolen from the project and allegedly a huge portion of it were specifically spent on gacha rolling in Genshin Impact. The moderator in question has been completely removed from the team.
The previous tensions that were occurring between Gianni Matragrano and John St. John have been resolved.
There was apparently going to be an Epic Donald game.
NieR Automata: The End of YorHa Edition is announced for October 6 on the Switch.
Doom RPG, recently highlighted by Stop Skeletons From Fighting, has been ported to PC!
And finally…
The next Skate game is still in the works.
