Stuff Worth Knowing for the Week of June 26, 2023
Taking it easy for a holiday weekend. Microsoft vs. the FTC enters week two, Google is cheating ad clients, and SAG-AFTRA extends contract talks.
Welcome back to Stuff Worth Knowing! Each week, I'll round up news related to tech, video games, film, television, anime, and more.
Sadly, we don’t have a full newsletter this week. Holiday weekends are rough, and trying to finish off the newsletter in its standard format just wasn’t happening. Speaking of format, I think I will be changing it in the future, if only so I don’t have to spend the 6-7 hours it takes to write this whole thing on the weekend.
Video Games 🎮
Week 2 of Microsoft vs. The FTC: The legal sparring between Microsoft and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) finished this week. The week included testimony from Activision-Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, and Sony Interactive Entertainment president Jim Ryan. Following testimony and closing arguments, both Microsoft and the FTC filed their updated proposed findings of fact with the court.
Here’s the relevant bullet points from the week:
Xbox Considered Buying Sega, Bungie, Niantic, and IO Interactive
Xbox Made “Tradeoffs for Cloud and Content in Gaming Over Console Volume”
Sony’s Lawyers Fail To Properly Redact Docs: The Last of Us Part II and Horizon Forbidden West Cost $200+ Million Each
Microsoft CEO Hates Exclusives, But Says Sony Defined The Competition
Canadian Regulator Disagrees With Microsoft Statements of Worldwide Deal Support
Now Judge Jacqueline Corley of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California has to weigh both sets of arguments and decide whether to approve the FTC’s preliminary injunction against the deal.
Skullgirls Developer Makes Content Changes, Get Review Bombed On Steam: Developer Hidden Variable Studios made a few changes to indie fighter Skullgirls this week, focused on minimizing “allusions to real-world hate groups” and toning-down the sexualization of some of the younger characters. The changes went live this week, leading to a review bomb on Steam, landing the game at “Overwhelmingly Negative”.
Ubisoft Remaking Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag: Ubisoft is going through some struggles in terms of game development and its answer seems to be “more Assassin’s Creed”. Apparently, Ubisoft is working on a remake of Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, the pirate-themed entry in the series. Skull and Bones developer Ubisoft Singapore is apparently helping with the remake, which makes sense given that the studio handled the ocean simulation in the original game. That work led to the multiple game, which has been delayed again and again over the years.
Tech ⌨️
Google Might Be Cheating When It Comes To Ad Sales: One of the bigger stories this week was a report from the Wall Street Journal diving into how Google might be misleading clients about ad placements. The WSJ’s story is based on data from Adalytics, which states that clients who are paying for TrueView ads aren’t getting what they’re paying for. According to Adalytics, while clients are paying for full-screen TrueView ads in front of YouTube videos, many of the actual ads are muted, obscured, or not attached to any relevant video content. It pegs the costs in “billions of digital ad dollars” for clients.
The EU Reaches Provisional Agreement On New Data Act: On Tuesday, the European Council of the European Union reached a provisional agreement for its planned Data Act. The act is meant to regulate how companies handle user data in the EU. It allows users to migrate their data between different services. That said, it’s also aimed at allowing businesses to share data, leveling the playing field between larger international companies and smaller, local businesses.
Google Shelves Augmented Reality Glasses Project: Usually Google launches a device or service and then kills it a few years down the line due to disinterest. Now the cycle is speeding up. According to Insider, Google has decided to shelve Project Iris, its planned consumer-level augmented reality glasses project. Instead, the company will focus on building software for other companies to use, and chipping in on an augmented reality headset in partnership with Samsung and Qualcomm.
The FTC Wants To Ban Fake Reviews: This week, the Federal Trade Commission proposed a new rule to prevent companies and marketers from creating fake reviews, deleting real consumer reviews, and paying for positive reviews. The rules would also be aimed at social media, preventing companies from buying fake followers or views.
Reddit Threatens To Remove Mods From Protesting Subreddits: A few weeks back, a number of subreddits went dark to protest Reddit’s paid API changes, which led to a number of Reddit apps shutting down. For some subreddits, those blackouts have continued. This week, Reddit sent messages to mods of those subreddits, threatening to remove those mods if their communities weren’t reopened.
This Week In Twitter: Twitter Makes Things Worse: Twitter’s problems started on Friday, when the service made it impossible to see tweets unless you were signed in. This was followed by the addition of a rate limit: users could only load up a certain number of tweets before the service would stop working. Musk stated that the rate limits were aimed at preventing data scraping. The limit started at 300 tweets per day for new unverified accounts, 600 for unverified accounts, and 6,000 tweets for verified accounts. That jumped to 400/800/8000 and then 500/1000/10000 over the course of a few hours. Of course, this needed to happen because many prolific accounts burst through the limit in a few hours. It also means that when something does pop-off on Twitter, it can quickly eat up the rate limit if you try to keep up, making Twitter useless for that purpose. Smart.
Film, Television, and Streaming 🎞️
SAG-AFTRA Extends Contract Negotiations To July 12: With the threat of a strike on the table, the Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) continues to negotiate with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). The current contract ended on June 30, but both sides agreed to extend talks to July 12. If talks fall through, SAG-AFTRA will join the Writers Guild of America (WGA) on the picket line. Over 1,000 members have already signed a letter stating they were ready to strike if all their demands were not met.
Paramount+ Cuts More Shows, Including Inside Amy Schumer, Allegra’s Window, and Nickelodeon Content: Last week, Paramount+ threw some of its shows into the cut content hole, including Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies, Star Trek: Prodigy, The Game and Queen of the Universe. This week, those shows were followed by Inside Amy Schumer, Tell Me a Story, Allegra’s Window, and a bunch of Nickelodeon shows. Basically, Paramount is joining Warner Bros. Discovery and Disney in removing content in order to save a little bit of money. Terrible.
DC Studios Finds Its Superman and Lois Lane: DC Studios has slipped right under a potential SAG-AFTRA strike, finishing the casting process for the leads of Superman: Legacy. The new Clark Kent is David Corenswet, from Netflix’ Hollywood. Lois Lane is Rachel Brosnahan, who recently finished her run as the star of Amazon Prime’s The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. The new film is currently scheduled for July 11, 2025, with DC Studios’ co-boss James Gunn writing and directing.
Layoffs
National Geographic Lays Off All Staff Writers: The Disney-owned magazine has gotten rid of all its staff writers this week, cutting a total of 19 positions. In the future, articles will be handled by editors on staff and freelancers. National Geographic magazine will also no longer be sold at newsstands starting in 2024. It’s simply the complete gutting of a historical outlet covering the interesting corners of our beautiful world.
Niantic Cuts 230 Staff Members And Cancels NBA and Marvel Games: The development studio behind Pokemon Go has decided to narrow its focus. The studio will be sunsetting NBA All-World and stopping production of Marvel: World of Heroes. At the same time, Niantic will be laying off 230 employees. This follows reports that Pokemon Go is down to some of its lowest revenue levels in the last five years.
Daedalic Entertainment Exits Game Dev After Game Failure: Earlier this year, Daedalic Entertainment launched The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, a game that didn’t get the best reception. Now it seems that the studio is laying off 25 employees and leaving game development entirely. Daedalic was acquired by French publisher Nacon in April 2023. The remaining parts of the studio will be focused on publishing.
On My Mind 🧠
“AI Is Killing The Old Web”: This op-ed in The Verge this week starts with an absolutely killer summation of the current web, even if the reset of the article isn’t as dire.
In recent months, the signs and portents have been accumulating with increasing speed. Google is trying to kill the 10 blue links. Twitter is being abandoned to bots and blue ticks. There’s the junkification of Amazon and the enshittification of TikTok. Layoffs are gutting online media. A job posting looking for an “AI editor” expects “output of 200 to 250 articles per week.” ChatGPT is being used to generate whole spam sites. Etsy is flooded with “AI-generated junk.” Chatbots cite one another in a misinformation ouroboros. LinkedIn is using AI to stimulate tired users. Snapchat and Instagram hope bots will talk to you when your friends don’t. Redditors are staging blackouts. Stack Overflow mods are on strike. The Internet Archive is fighting off data scrapers, and “AI is tearing Wikipedia apart.” The old web is dying, and the new web struggles to be born.
Well worth a read.