Stuff Worth Knowing for the Week of November 14, 2022

The Twitter nonsense enters its third week, Taylor Swift kicks Ticketmaster in the nuts, and Sonic the Hedgehog's creator gets arrested for insider trading.

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.

Let's jump into this week's fun and frivolities.

Tech ⌨️

Click Yes or No: Another Week In The Epic Saga of Musk

Last week at Twitter was all about executive departures and the back-and-forth operation of Twitter Blue. This week kicked off with new boss Elon Musk deciding to turn off the "bloatware" of microservices on Twitter. This included a key cog in two-factor authentication: the service that sends the two-factor authentication code over text, meaning any user using that and not email couldn't get their authentication code to log in. Oops.

The Verification feature also continued to evolve during the week. According to Platformer, days before the original launch of the updated Twitter Blue, the Trust & Safety team sent a memo warning Musk about the issues that could result from moving away from standard Verification to the paid plan. Those issues did pop up, of course. Despite this, Musk himself said that legacy verification checks would be going away in the next few months.

There was also a whole host of reporting about Musk ignoring warnings from existing employees or firing those that spoke out against him publicly. Musk apparently also combed through the company Slack to find comments against him or supporting previously-fired peers, and then fired them as well.

The harrowing of existing staff came to a head on Wednesday, when Musk sent an email to all staff outlining his vision of "Twitter 2.0". This email touted long hours and an intense work culture as the way forward. All staff had to opt-in by 5 PM the next day, or take three months of severance. Unsurprisingly, a large chunk of the staff decided to take the severance. Some reports pointed to 25% of employees remaining with the company.

This apparently spooked Elon and company, who temporarily closed all Twitter offices until Monday, November 21. Reportedly, the worry was that the outgoing employees would sabotage the service on their way out the door. In a video conference call with Musk and all current employees, some outright decided to hang up and quit during the call.

A number of teams behind critical Twitter infrastructure resigned, leading to many expecting Twitter itself to go down. This prompted hashtags like #TwitterShutdown and #TwitterIsDead to trend on Thursday. The internet collective mourned the looming loss of the service, despite the fact that many of these core problems probably won't come to a head for weeks. Many posted their accounts on other social media platforms, like life rafts on a sinking ship. 

Musk called upon all remaining key staff at Twitter to come in and help him understand the platform, including flying into the San Francisco offices if they had to. Musk also wants a bullet point summary of all code the employees had committed within the past six months. The whole situation is a right mess, akin to Musk punching himself right in the face.

Friday also saw Musk outlining where he'd be taking the platform in the future. First, a FAQ was updated to note that new Twitter accounts can't subscribe to Twitter Blue for 90 days. This is clearly aimed at preventing troll accounts from immediately impersonating key accounts. 

Musk also announced that Twitter would be rolling back previous bans of accounts like Jordan Peterson and Babylon Bee. (Both accounts were suspended over anti-transgender statements.) Musk said that the service's new policy is "freedom of speech, but not freedom of reach," pointing to shadowbanning of "negative/hate tweets". Of course, he didn't outline what constitutes "negative tweets," which is where the key problem lies. Even if Twitter's infrastructure doesn't collapse, some of those folks Musk is letting back onto the platform will make it less welcoming for users and businesses alike. 

Theranos CEO Sentenced To 11 Years In Prison

Years ago, Elizabeth Holmes promised technology that could detect diseases based on a single drop of blood. Her company Theranos touted this tech, aiming to revolutionize the medical world. Whistleblowers ultimately revealed that the technology was a lie. 

Holmes has been in court for fraud and conspiracy since June 2018, with investors claiming that her lies caused them to invest in a mirage. Today, Judge Edward Davila handed down a sentence of 135 months in prison, or just above 11 years. Holmes will have to report to prison by April 27, 2023.

Why It's Worth Knowing: Similar to the FTX debacle that's just getting started, Holmes' case might get investors to stop believing in utter snake oil. Perhaps we shouldn't be throwing millions or billions into a hole that some charismatic asshole promises will sprout a rainbow pointing to a pot of gold. Some honest due diligence should be happening, and it's become increasingly clear that it hasn't been in many cases.

Film, Television, and Streaming 🎞️

Ticketmaster Gets Lit Up For Botching Taylor Swift Ticket Sales

On Tuesday, Taylor Swift fans flooded Ticketmaster, preparing to buy tickets for the artist's upcoming "Eras" tour. The site crashed under the weight of the Swifties, and even once it was back up, purchasing tickets wasn't easy. The company also cut another planned sale period for the concert tour in response. Ticketmaster trended on social media, with fans lighting up the company for issues past and present.

"There are a multitude of reasons why people had such a hard time trying to get tickets and I’m trying to figure out how this situation can be improved moving forward," said Swift on Instagram in response to the issues. "I’m not going to make excuses for anyone because we asked them, multiple times, if they could handle this kind of demand and we were assured they could. It’s truly amazing that 2.4 million people got tickets, but it really pisses me off that a lot of them feel like they went through several bear attacks to get them."

It also caught the attention of a United States Senator. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota sent an official letter to Michael Rapino, president of Live Nation Entertainment, Ticketmaster's parent company. Klobuchar noted that the crash pointed to "the state of competition in the ticketing industry and its harmful impact on consumers." She recalled previous testimony made by Rapino during a 2011 Senate hearing, stating that the company promised to have an easy-access, rock-solid platform, something that's clearly not the case given the Swift situation.

Why It's Worth Knowing: Ticketmaster is one of the only places you can buy tickets in the United States, and Taylor Swift is one of the biggest acts worldwide. The failure this week is putting all eyes on Ticketmaster and acting as a focal point for everything folks hate about the service. Klobuchar mentions Live Nation failing to live up to the requirements of its consent decree, meaning some legal issues could be coming down the pipeline. According to the New York Times, the Justice Department already had an investigation into Ticketmaster and the Swift problem just shines further light upon the company.

Walter Hamada Signs Production Deal With Paramount

DC Studios is under the stewardship of James Gunn and Peter Safran, but the old boss is making moves in Hollywood. Former DC Films president Walter Hamada has signed a production pact with Paramount. Hamada will handle Paramount's horror division, similar to what he did at Warner Bros.' New Line Cinema for years. While there, Hamada produced the profitable The Conjuring franchise and the It films.

Why It's Worth Knowing: Paramount Pictures outperformed with the year's biggest film to date, Top Gun: Maverick, but it also had a number of solid hits in horror, including Smile and Scream. The two films grossed $103 million and $81 million domestically, which isn't a ton until you look at their production budgets of $17 million and $24 million. 

If Hamada can pull off what he did at New Line at Paramount, it can help prop up the bottom line for the studio. Horror is cheap and profitable, and when it really hits the money just rolls in. Hamada and company also used horror to find new directorial talent. Directors like Andy Muschietti and David F. Sandberg started in low-budget horror before jumping over to superhero films like The Flash and Shazam.

This dovetails with the next item…

James Wan and Jason Blum In Talks Merge Companies

On Wednesday, the New York Times reported that producers Jason Blum and James Wan are in talks to merge their production companies, Blumhouse and Atomic Monster. Blumhouse is behind horror franchises like Paranormal Activity, The Purge, Insidious, and Jordan Peele's horror projects. Atomic Monster has produced The Conjuring universe — see the connection with the previous story? — Lights Out, and Malignant. The newly-merged company will continue to work with NBCUniversal.

Why It's Worth Knowing: Wan will reportedly remain involved with his Warner Bros. franchises, but it remains to be seen how long that'll last. With Hamada and Wan out, Warner Bros. Discovery will have lost key architects behind its horror division. Not only did they make profitable horror, they were also kingmakers, finding solid directorial talent. Another part of the producing team that brought those horror franchises to WB is Peter Safran, who is now busy as the new co-boss of DC Films. So who fulfills that role now?

Yellowstone Season 5 Debuts As The Most Watched TV Show of 2022

While shows like House of the Dragon, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Succession, and Euphoria might get far more conversation on the internet, there is a leviathan that many aren't aware of. Taylor Sheridan has created a whole empire around Yellowstone, the story of the Dutton family and their ranch. According to Nielsen, the show reached 15.7 million viewers for its premiere on Sunday. 

"Taylor Sheridan has done it again with nearly 16 million viewers watching Yellowstone’s return on Sunday night, solidifying its status as the number one show across all of TV," Paramount Networks CEO Chris McCarthy told Deadline. "The premiere night was up across all demos, most interestingly with younger viewers up nearly 60%, proving this franchise still has a lot of room to grow."

Why It's Worth Knowing: Yellowstone has been a quiet performer for Paramount, despite the studio losing the streaming rights to NBCUniversal's Peacock. Season 5 is now airing on Paramount+. The studio also tapped Sheridan for 1883, a Yellowstone prequel that aired in December 2021 and the upcoming 1923, another prequel coming to the service in December 2022. The latter show stars Helen Mirren and Harrison Ford, a testament to the increased star power Yellowstone can draw upon. (The main series stars Kevin Costner as the patriarch of the Dutton clan.)

Roku Lays Off 7% of Its Workforce, Around 200 Employees

The season of layoffs continues unabated. This time, it's Roku that's firing a decent chunk of its workforce. According to Variety, Roku is cutting 200 employees in the United States, which is around 7% of its overall workforce. In a recent earnings call for Q3 2022, Roku CEO Anthony Wood pointed towards a weaker holiday season and future uncertainty in the ad market, where Roku makes a good bit of its revenue. 

Video Games 🎮

Embracer Group Moves Volition Under Gearbox, Delays Dead Island 2

This week, Embracer Group released its second fiscal quarter 2022 report. Net sales increased 190% compared to the same quarter in 2021, landing at SEK 9,569 million ($899.6 million). The company only offered EBIT and adjusted EBIT for profit numbers, and I honestly dislike using those measures.

Moving on, there were a couple of key news items that popped up in the financial report. First, the reboot of Saints Row did not meet the company's full expectations. Despite the studio making improvements to the game, Embracer has decided to move Volition under Gearbox. According to the document, "This is the first internal group transfer where we transfer a major studio between operative groups, but it is not necessarily the last."

Dead Island 2, which was scheduled for February 3, 2023, has been pushed back to April 28, which is outside of the 2022-2023 financial year. Overall, Embracer has 234 PC or Console games in development to be released by the end of March 2026. This number includes 25 AAA games, according to the full report.

Why It's Worth Knowing: Embracer Group is one of the largest publishers worldwide. Everyone talks about the moves Tencent or NetEase makes, but Embracer has built a huge base of studios. In the company's own words: "Over the past several years, we have invested significantly in creating one of the largest providers of PC/Console content in the industry. We have close to 10,000 developers creating games, many based on Embracer’s deep and growing catalog of IPs. Our efforts in this regard have created significant collective value which we are now starting to realize." With that in mind, it's good to keep an eye on what Embracer is doing.

Sonic Creator Arrested For Insider Trading

Yuji Naka, the mind behind Sonic the Hedgehog, was arrested on Friday by Japanese authorities. The news broke on Japanese news site Fuji News Network, with Bloomberg's Takashi Mochizuki spreading the news on Twitter. (Further translation of the news story comes from Gematsu.) 

The arrests center around the actions of former Square Enix employee Taisuke Sazaki. As an employee, Sazaki received information about Dragon Quest Tact, a mobile game being developed by Square Enix and independent studio Aiming. Sazaki, Naka, and another employee, Fumiaki Suzuki, bought shares in Aiming ahead of the game's announcement. Boilerplate insider trading right there.

Naka's tenure at Square Enix was rather short, only working for the publisher between 2018 and 2021. Just long enough to develop Balan Wonderworld, a stunning flop of a game, and apparently set himself up for an arrest. 

Comics and Manga 💭

DC Comics Launching "Dawn of DC" in 2023

Infinite Frontier was just launched in 2021, touting the endless future of DC Comics, but the publisher is doing the same for 2023. Coming out of the Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths and DC Universe: Lazarus Planet events, the publisher will be kicking off new storylines in existing titles and launching 20 more titles. The name for the launch initiative is "Dawn of DC".

The branding will start in Action Comics #1051 in January, with writers Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Dan Jurgens, and Leah Williams. Other titles listed in the press release include Superboy: The Man of Tomorrow, Green Lantern: Hal Jordan, Green Lantern: John Stewart, Green Arrow, Cyborg, Shazam, and a new book focused on the Superman-adjacent Steel. 

The teaser image also hints at a Batman-centric event coming in the middle of 2023. "Knight T-" will likely focus on the Dark Knight and his growing family.