Stuff Worth Knowing for the Week of February 20, 2023

Microsoft keeps wheeling and dealing, the Supreme Court hears arguments on Section 230, and AI gives Clarkesworld a headache.

Welcome back to Stuff Worth Knowing! Each week, I'll round up news related to tech, video games, film, television, anime, and more. At the end of each newsletter, there will be a section called On The Calendar, which will include some of those notable dates that are near-term. Oh, and I also launched my Patreon, SavePhile, where my more thoughtful musings on any topic will go.

Video Games 🎮

Microsoft Makes Moves To Close Activision-Blizzard Deal

As I said in last week’s newsletter, this week marked Microsoft’s meeting with the European Commission to address the regulatory body’s statement of objections to the Activision-Blizzard acquisition. To bolster its argument, Microsoft brought a number of corporate partners to the table to make itself look better. 

In statements to regulators, Microsoft’s vice chairman Brad Smith touted a new deal with Nvidia to bring all Xbox games, including Call of Duty in the future, to the GeForce Now streaming platform. He also brought up the recent deal with Nintendo to bring Call of Duty to the Switch and future consoles. 

Smith charged the regulators with favoritism without outright saying so, noting that Sony has an 80% market share in Europe. “Regulators are not here to protect super dominant companies. Believe me, I know,” he stated, according to a Gamesindustry.biz live blog of the hearing. Smith noted that Microsoft wants to make a deal with Sony, but the latter company is not budging at the moment. 

“The European Commission‘s mission is to protect European consumers, not the global market leader. Sony is attempting to undermine that goal, to protect its two-decade dominance in video games. We are confident regulators will find that our proposed merger will enhance competition and create greater opportunities for workers and better games for our players,” Activision-Blizzard said in a statement to Gamesindustry.biz, backing up Smith’s words. 

Why It's Worth Knowing: Microsoft brought (bought?) some new friends to the party, but they weren’t enough to convince Sony or the European Commission. The issue remains Call of Duty, and there’s no breaking in either direction; Sony doesn’t want Microsoft to own one of the biggest franchises in the world, and Microsoft isn’t acquiring Activision-Blizzard without Call of Duty. So, stalemate. 

Shinji Mikami Leaving Tango Gameworks

Early on Friday, TrueAchievements reported on a company-wide email sent to all ZeniMax employees. The email stated that Tango Gameworks founder and CEO Shinji Mikami is preparing to leave the studio behind. 

“I am writing today to let you know that studio head Shinji Mikami has decided to leave Tango Gameworks in the coming months,” said Bethesda senior vice president of development Todd Vaughn in the email. Bethesda later confirmed the news in a statement on Twitter.

Bethesda @bethesda

Mikami began his career at Capcom in 1990, eventually directing the first Resident Evil and working on many of Capcom’s biggest titles, including Dino Crisis, Devil May Cry, Viewtiful Joe, and Okami. Mikami moved to PlatinumGames, working on Vanquish, before leaving to found Tango Gameworks in 2010. Tango GameWorks was immediately acquired by ZeniMax Media.

Mikami’s departure is likely the end of his 33-year career in game development. In an interview with Variety in 2020, Mikami noted that he had moved to “troubleshooting” at the studio, leaving most of the daily development to others. 

Amazon Games Picks Up Another Online Title, NCSoft’s Throne and Liberty

Amazon Games is settling into a pattern of operation. First, it brought over Smilegate’s Lost Ark with a successful Western launch. Then it announced a partnership with Bandai Namco to publish Blue Protocol and then another with Crystal Dynamics to fund and publish the new Tomb Raider reboot. Instead of developing in-house, Amazon is using its resources to bring others’ games to life. 

This week, Amazon Games announced an agreement with NCSoft to bring its upcoming MMORPG, Throne and Liberty, to North America, South America, Europe, and Japan. Throne and Liberty is an MMO focused on large-scale PvP and PvE, similar to Lineage II: Revolution. In the press release for the announcement, Amazon Games vice president Christoph Hartmann noted that the publishing operation is “key” for the company.

“Publishing games that live and grow over time remains a critical piece of our strategy, and delivering games of the highest quality from the world’s most talented developers is one of the cornerstones of our business. The last year has taught us a great deal about publishing and managing a successful live-service game on a global scale, and we’re ready to bring Throne and Liberty players an incredible experience at launch,” he stated. 

Blumhouse Launches A Gaming Division

If you watch horror movies, you likely know of Blumhouse Productions. The production company made a name for itself by producing cheap — but still critically and financially successful — horror films. These films include the Paranormal Activity franchise, The Purge series, Get Out, and the recent M3gan. Now the studio is turning its eye toward video games.

Blumhouse Games will keep the same ethos as its film division, partnering with indie developers to produce horror games with budgets under $10 million. Former Iron Galaxy producer Zach Wood will lead the studio as president. 

“We’re in the scary story business. We do films, we do TV and there is this massive, growing segment in media and entertainment called gaming. The space is hundreds of billions of dollars; we’re in a great position to try and access it,” Blumhouse president Abhijay Prakash. According to Bloomberg, Blumhouse Games is looking to invest in 15 games over three to four years. 

Why It's Worth Knowing: Blumhouse has had a ton of success in films and Prakash was recently brought in as President to expand that success to other markets. Moving into games is the next logical move and I wouldn’t be surprised if the studio also pivots to mediums like comics and novels. Netflix just signed a deal to adapt Boom! Studios’ comic series Something Is Killing The Children, and there’s no reason for Blumhouse not to get in on that action. 

The Ukrainian Government Wants Platform Owners To Ban Atomic Heart in Ukraine

This week saw the release of Atomic Heart, the first-person shooter from Russian developer Mundfish. The title came out on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on February 21, 2023. Reviews likened it to a Russian spin on the BioShock series. That’s partially because it’s from a Russian developer.

Of course, Russia is still in conflict with Ukraine. As such, the Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Affairs says that it wants platform holders to ban the game. 

“Regarding the situation with the release of the game Atomic Heart, which has Russian roots and romanticizes communist ideology and the Soviet Union, The Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine will send an official letter to Sony, Microsoft, and Valve requesting a ban on selling digital versions of this game in Ukraine,” said Ukraine Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation Alex Bornyakov in a statement to Ukrainian tech website Dev.au (translated via PCGamesN.

That last bit is key, as the government wants the game banned on platforms in their own region. That said, it has also urged those platforms to limit the distribution of the game in other countries as well. The statements cite the potential for money received from purchases of the game to be used for the Russian side of the war. It’s unlikely that the platforms will comply with further bans, but it’s possible the game will be delisted in Ukraine.

Tech ⌨️

The Supreme Court Hears Arguments In Two Section 230 Cases

This week, the Supreme Court had to hear arguments in two cases that involve the internet. In both cases, the Court’s rulings could change the internet as we know it, and it’s clear the older Justices on the court might not be equipped to make such decisions. One of the Justices even noted as much.

“We're a court. We really don't know about these things. You know, these are not like the nine greatest experts on the internet,” Justice Elena Kagan said during the oral arguments for the first case, according to Business Insider. 

The two cases are (with links to SCOTUSblog coverage):

Gonzalez v. Google - This case finds its start in an Islamic State shooting in Paris in 2015. One of the victims was student Nohemi Gonzalez. Her family argues that Google violated laws by promoting and not removing Islamic State videos on YouTube, which ultimately led to the attack.

Twitter v. Taamneh - This is a similar case. The family of Jordanian citizen Nawras Alassaf, who died in an Islamic State attack in 2017, argues that Twitter, Google, and Facebook all failed to get rid of terrorist-related content on their platforms. 

Why It's Worth Knowing: Section 230 protects many of the biggest social media companies from liability for what users post on their platforms. One can argue that lack of liability may make them lax in terms of any sort of moderation, but without those protections, the internet will look vastly different. Moderation will be much harsher if the platform can potentially be on the hook for the content. 

The Shout-Out: Here’s a video from YouTube law channel LegalEagle explaining the ins-and-outs of the Supreme Court’s potential decisions.

Tencent Cuts VR Hardware Over Lack of Potential Profit

This story technically happened last week, but it’s definitely worth knowing, so it goes in this week’s newsletter. According to Reuters, Tencent Holdings is abandoning its plans to enter the virtual reality market. The company established a division dedicated to extended reality in June of last year, hiring up people to staff it. 

Apparently, Tencent took a look at Meta’s recent losses in the space and decided the investment was too costly without a guarantee of profit. Reuters’ sources say that Tencent’s XR division was not expected to turn a profit until 2027 and many of the gaming projects weren’t promising. 

Many employees in the division have apparently been told to seek other employment opportunities. The XR unit will remain, but with a smaller footprint. Of course, without the hardware, the unit will likely have to turn to producing software for headsets from other companies. If if the games weren’t promising before…

Meta Follows Twitter, Testing Paid Verification For Instagram and Facebook

It seems Twitter isn’t the only company looking for money under couch cushions. Meta lost $13.7 billion on its Reality Labs division in 2022, and it has to make up that money elsewhere. Following Twitter’s launch of Twitter Blue, Meta has announced that it will be piloting Meta Verified, a subscription service offering verification and other services on Facebook and Instagram. 

The pilot service will start in Australia and New Zealand, with a cost of $11.99 per month on the web and $14.99 per month on mobile. Those who subscribe will get a verified badge, proactive account monitoring for potential impersonators, increased visibility for posts, and a support service that will connect you with actual people. 

“As we test and learn, there will be no changes to accounts on Instagram and Facebook that are already verified based on prior requirements. Long term, we want to build a subscription offering that’s valuable to everyone, including creators, businesses and our community at large. As part of this vision, we are evolving the meaning of verified accounts on our apps so we can expand access to verification and more people can trust the accounts they interact with are authentic,” said the company in the announcement post. 

Why It's Worth Knowing: It seems the future of social media is paid verification. More blood from the stone, since incessant advertising and selling personal information don’t seem to be bringing in enough money. 

This Week in Twitter: Twitter’s Internal Slack and Jira Services Stop Working

In his quest for efficiency, it seems that Twitter owner Elon Musk has found the opposite. According to Platformer, the company’s internal Slack and Jira services stopped working. Without Slack, employee communication halted, and without Jira, most code couldn’t be shipped either. For a tech company, that means nothing could get done.

Apparently, the issue was once again down to money. “We didn't pay our Slack bill. Now everyone is barely working. Penny wise, pound foolish,” one employee wrote on the anonymous chat app Blind.

Musk is still promising new features, like making the Twitter algorithm open source, but it’s becoming harder to deliver those features with fewer employees and no infrastructure. And the layoffs, which were supposed to end in November of last year, have continued. Twitter laid off more employees in sales and engineering this week, according to The Verge. 

AI 🤖

U.S. Copyright Office Removes Copyright For AI-Generated Art

AI-created content is moving very quick, far faster than governments’ ability to legislate said content. Back in September, the U.S. Copyright Office approved the registration of a graphic novel called Zarya of the Dawn, created in part by Kris Kashtanova. While Kashtanova wrote the comic, the art was created using the AI service Midjourney. 

Now, the U.S. Copyright Office has removed part of the copyright protection. In a letter sent to Kashtanova and their legal representation, while the protection will remain on the text of the story, the copyright on the art has been removed.

“We conclude that Kashtanova is the author of the Work’s text as well as the selection, coordination, and arrangement of the Work’s written and visual elements. That authorship is protected by copyright. However, as discussed below, the images in the Work that were generated by the Midjourney technology are not the product of human authorship,” the Office. 

While Kashtanova said that they noted the use of Midjourney in the application, the U.S. Copyright Office disagrees. “Because the application had not disclosed the use of artificial intelligence, the Office determined that the application was incorrect, or at a minimum, substantively incomplete,” they stated. The Office argues that the work needs to be created by the author for copyright protection to be valid.

Why It's Worth Knowing: We’re still navigating the waters of AI-generated content. This is the first salvo in terms of AI getting legal protection. It’ll be a long road and there will be actual legal cases filed in the U.S. and around the world, but here at the outset, it seems those who have a problem with AI-generated content have a win. 

Clarkesworld Closes Submissions Entirely Due to AI-Written Entries

Ever since 2006, Clarkesworld has been one of the best places for new science fiction and fantasy authors to gain a foothold and make a name for themselves. The magazine had an open submissions process, with editors reading every story submitted and even paying those who had their work published. On Monday, Clarkesworld founder and editor Neil Clarke announced that submissions to the magazine were closed. 

“Closing submissions means that we aren't considering stories from authors at this time. We will reopen, but have not set a date,” said Clarke in further tweets. “We could easily implement a system that only allowed authors that had previously submitted work to us. That would effectively ban new authors, which is not acceptable. They are an essential part of this ecosystem and our future.”

“The people causing the problem are from outside the SF/F community. Largely driven in by "side hustle" experts making claims of easy money with ChatGPT. They are driving this and deserve some of the disdain shown to the AI developers,” he added. “Our guidelines already state that we don't want ‘AI’ written or assisted works. They don't care. A checkbox on a form won't stop them. They just lie.”

Clarke told NPR that by the time they closed submissions on February 20, the team had received 700 legitimate submissions and 500 machine-written ones. He also noted that the quality of the writing from the submissions was “very poor”. Clarke acknowledged that he does not currently have a plan for how to weed out the AI-generated submissions.

Film, Television, and Streaming 🎞️

Warner Bros. Discovery Signs Deal To Make More The Lord of the Rings Films

Warner Bros. Discovery is sitting on a ton of debt and its financial performance isn’t much better. In its financial earnings report for the fourth quarter of 2022, the company posted a net loss of $2.1 billion with streaming making up $217 million of that loss. And it still has $49.5 billion in debt to work through. I honestly don’t know how the company makes a real dent in that. 

WBD is trying to make some money by leaning on its stronger brands, including DC Comics, Harry Potter, and Game of Thrones. It’s apparently also hoping that The Lord of the Rings can be counted among those pillars. WBD has signed a deal with The Embracer Group, who acquired the rights to the Lord of the Rings last year, to produce more films set in the universe. 

Amazon still holds the television and streaming rights, but WBD has the chance to recapture the glory days of Peter Jackson’s trilogy. Of course, that means it needs to find the right projects and the right filmmakers. 

“But for all the scope and detail lovingly packed into the two trilogies, the vast, complex and dazzling universe dreamed up by J.R.R. Tolkien remains largely unexplored on film. The opportunity to invite fans deeper into the cinematic world of Middle-earth is an honor, and we are excited to partner with Middle-earth Enterprises and Embracer on this adventure,” stated Warner Bros. film bosses Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy.

Superhero Watch: Ant-Man Quantumania Tumbles In Second Weekend, As Shazam 2 Head For An Anemic Start

Warner Bros. Discovery is betting on DC Comics as one of its big brands, but things aren’t looking great for superhero films at the moment. First, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania Is heading toward a $30 million second weekend, a huge drop from the $105.5 million made in its debut weekend. (With the holiday, the four-day weekend came to $120 million.) It seems poor reviews are catching up to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Still, that’s at least better than the tracking for Shazam! Fury Of The Gods, which will open in theaters on March 17, 2023. The Shazam sequel is currently tracking for an opening weekend of $35 million. That’s quite a ways below the $53.4 million opening for the first film, and way below the competition from Marvel. If Shazam! Fury Of The Gods flops, then DC Studios still has The Flash, Blue Beetle, and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom for the rest of the year. Hopefully those can do better, because otherwise DC has nothing for 2024.

Layoffs 👷

Meta Planning Even More Layoffs

Back in November of last year, Meta laid off a staggering 11,000 employees and instituted a hiring freeze. At the time, it was intended to be the only near-term layoffs at Meta. Now however, things have changed. According to the Washington Post, Meta is now planning more layoffs that could affect “thousands of employees”. 

Not only will the company be cutting jobs and projects, but some management-level staff will be pushed down into lower-level positions. Like the other major social media CEO, Zuckerberg is now obsessed with “efficiency,” which really just means broad cuts to save even the slightest hit to his immense wallet. 

NPR Cutting 10% Of Its Workforce

It’s always odd when an organization has to report on its own layoffs, but on Wednesday NPR announced that it would be laying off “roughly 10%” of its workforce. Revenue will apparently fall short of the $300 million annual budget by around $30 million. The reason? It seems the company is seeing a steep drop in ad revenue, especially for its podcasts.

“We're not seeing signs of a recovery in the advertising market," said CEO John Lansing. "Nothing is nailed down yet except the principles and what we know we have to reach."

The layoffs come after a hiring freeze and elimination of travel. The organization is still committed to podcasting and Lansing vows to not have the cuts disproportionately fall on folks of color. Unlike some CEOs, Lansing did consult with unions representing NPR workers before announcing the job cuts. 

Kroenke Sports & Entertainment Cuts Its Esports Division

Kroenke Sports & Entertainment, who owns the Los Angeles Rams, the Denver Nuggets, the Colorado Avalanche, and the Colorado Rapids alongside several sports venues, decided that its fledgling esports group, The Guard, was no longer worth pursuing. The company laid off most of The Guard on Wednesday, with some employees having recently moved to Los Angeles for work.

According to the Esports Advocate, Kroenke will continue to operate its esports teams, including Overwatch League team L.A. Gladiators and Call of Duty League team L.A. Guerrillas. Their time is limited though: Kroenke is searching for buyers for both teams. If it doesn’t find any by the end of this season, both teams will be shuttered.

Kroenke Sports & Entertainment was worth $8.4 billion in 2019, according to Forbes. Owner Stan Kroenke himself is worth $12.9 billion. 

It hasn’t been a great time for esports as a whole, as indicated by this tweet:

Keeg @KeegMGMT

Esports in 2023: @TheGuard dead @eUnited dead @TorrentHQ dead @FaZeClan 20% staff laid off, stock down 60% @100Thieves 15% staff laid off @OpTic staff cuts @Immortals staff cuts @TeamLiquid staff cuts @nerdstreet financial trouble and 25% staff cut @riotgames 46 jobs cut

On My Mind 🧠

Space Battleship Yamato and Galaxy Express 999 Creator Leiji Matsumoto Passes Away: Historic Japanese creator Leiji Matsumoto passed away at the age of 85 last Sunday. In Japan, he’s well known as the creator behind series like Space Battleship Yamato, Captain Harlock, and Galaxy Express 999. Over in the West, fans will know Space Battleship Yamato as Star Blazers, or recall Matsumoto’s work from his animated collaborations with Daft Punk for their Discovery album. A true creative force.

Steam Announces All Of Its 2023 Sales: In an interesting move, Valve has announced all of the Steam sale dates for 2023. The list was meant for developers, but this also means Steam users have a chance to pre-plan for upcoming Steam sales. The full list includes:

• Mystery Fest: February 20 - 27

• Spring Sale: March 16 - 23 (major seasonal sale)

• Puzzle Fest: April 24 - May 1

• Sports Fest: May 15 - 22

• Next Fest: June 19 - 26

• Summer Sale: June 29 - July 13 (major seasonal sale)

• Stealth Fest: July 24 - 31

• Visual Novel Fest: August 7 - 14

• Strategy Fest: August 28 - September 4

• SHMUP Fest: September 25 - October 2

• Next Fest: October 9 - 16

• Return of Steam Scream Fest (Halloween): October 26 - November 2

• Autumn Sale: November 21 - 28 (major seasonal sale)

• Winter Sale: December 21 - January 4, 2024 (major seasonal sale)

At least once a month, a sale of some sort is incoming!