it's starting right now. i just checked the IGN stream and the hosts are two moids and two foids (male)

anything you're looking forward to? if we get Elden Ring DLC announcement i'll probably be happy. might even buy it and do a replay where i try to get farther than the Altus Plateau after 80 hours and then give up.

I think we can all agree the genre's long since peaked. What are the best ones? Ignoring anything Early Access, those don't count.

If the danger of being a woman in a world of violence is depicted right in GTA6, I think Rockstar will be the ones to finally instill a high level of empathy for women that men have never had https://t.co/BmTeiBxcb7

— Sethical (@Sethical_) December 6, 2023

!chuds !g*mers !nooticers

A Baldur's Gate 3 mod that was made to turn all queer romances into heterosexual ones was deleted by Nexus Mods after backlash for being ‘queer-erasure.'

The mod was discovered as part of a package of mods the creator insisted “ensures that the gender and sexuality of world NPCs match medieval status quo,” with many designed to remove LGBT characters and characters of color from the game.

The ‘Ser Aylin' mod was the one that sparked massive outrage on the Baldur's Gate 3 Subreddit, as it gender-swapped Dame Aylin and changed her voice to a male voice using AI in an effort to ‘disguise' her lesbian relationship with Isobel.

Nexus Mods responded to the backlash by removing the Ser Aylin mod and banning its creator for the following reasons:

“This appears to be a throwaway account created to upload a mod that attempts to skirt our community guidelines. The mod in question appears to reduce diversity in Baldur's Gate 3 by taking a same-s*x couple and swapping the gender of one of the partners to make them heterosexual.

We are for inclusivity, we are for diversity. If we think someone is uploading a mod on our site with the intent to deliberately be against inclusivity and/or diversity then we will take action against it. The same goes for people attempting to troll other users with mods deliberately to cause a rise.

We aren't the authority on what users can and cannot mod. Us removing a mod only means it cannot be found at Nexus Mods, nothing more, nothing less. As a private business, we have a right to choose what content we do and do not want to host on our platform. Respect this right the same way you want respect for your rights.”

The real question should be will they remove a mod that turn hetro characters into gays ?

I have tetris effect, the new yakuza gaiden and I managed to get dsda-doom on it with all my pwads

I barely play video games nor know what's good. My steam account is from 2003 and was barely touched after half life 2 so I don't know what good computer games are

I got this thing so I have some extra entertainment when I camp and it's been good so far for that purpose

Just when I thought community notes couldn't get any worse, you do something like this...AND TOTALLY REDEEM YOURSELF pic.twitter.com/4p2wtyf3I4

— I,Hypocrite (@lporiginalg) December 6, 2023

Bungie Devs Say Atmosphere Is ‘Soul-Crushing' Amid Layoffs, Cuts, and Fear of Total Sony Takeover

The Destiny 2 and Marathon developer may not be able to cling to the last of its independence forever.

One month after a major round of layoffs impacted roughly 100 Bungie employees of 1,200, those remaining at the Destiny developer say the cuts, as well as other cost-cutting measures, came alongside an apparent scramble by studio leadership to avoid a total Sony takeover.

As it currently stands, Bungie is (on paper) a fully independent subsidiary of Sony. But its board of directors has been divided since the takeover in July of 2022. Among its current members are PlayStation Studios head Hermen Hulst, Sony senior VP Eric Lempel, Bungie co-founder Jason Jones, Bungie CTO Luis Villegas, and Bungie CEO Pete Parsons. The board as a whole is split between Sony and Bungie representatives, with Parsons serving as a tiebreaker vote. But speaking to IGN under condition of anonymity, multiple current and former Bungie employees described a department meeting that took place shortly after the layoffs, in which leaders hinted that this shared power may not last forever.

Sony did not respond to IGN's request for comment on this piece. Bungie declined to comment.

Declaration of Dependence

While the exact details of Sony's deal to acquire Bungie remain unknown to the public or employees, sources say they were told by leaders that the current split board structure is contingent on Bungie meeting certain financial goals. If Bungie falls short of certain financial thresholds by too great an amount, Sony is allowed to dissolve the existing board and take full control of the company. And with Destiny 2 expansion The Final Shape delayed into the next fiscal year and Bungie still investing heavily on Marathon, many employees understand that Bungie is struggling to meet the necessary targets to keep its last vestige of freedom. Such a takeover wouldn't necessarily be shocking given its 2022 acquisition, but it would nevertheless be a stunning development for a company that has historically prided itself on its independence.

It was with this threat looming that Bungie leadership - not Sony, according to Parsons - made the choice to lay off roughly 100 employees last month. But the cost-cutting at Bungie isn't limited to just personnel. Multiple current employees confirmed to IGN that the company has implemented numerous other cost-cutting measures recently, including a studio-wide hiring freeze, reduced travel budgets, elimination of holiday bonuses, keeping its annual Bungie Day virtual, delaying its weeklong company “Pentathalon” event to next December, and reducing numerous morale events such as cooking and knitting classes from monthly to quarterly. Bungie is also pausing or fully ending benefits like annual employee compensation adjustments to meet market rates, its new hire lunch program, employee donation matching, its peer recognition program, and gift cards for employees birthdays. And yearly studio performance bonuses this year will only be the contractually obligated 80% minimum, after being above 100% for good performance several previous years running.

Along with the recent layoffs, this has resulted in a massive decay in morale within the company, according to IGN's sources, one of whom told us that the mood within the studio has been “soul-crushing” over the last month. And it doesn't sound like management is making any significant efforts toward improving the atmosphere, either. According to those still with the company, employee frustration and sadness in the days and weeks following the layoffs was met with a surprising amount of indifference or even outright flippancy or hostility from management. Several people we spoke to told us that leaders had reiterated, across multiple meetings, that they couldn't guarantee there wouldn't be more layoffs, with two specifically confirming previous reports that chief people officer Holly Barbacovi outright stating that layoffs were a “lever” the company would pull again.

“We know we need Final Shape to do well,” one source told IGN. “And the feeling at the studio is that if it doesn't we're definitely looking at more layoffs.”

Others said they were rebuffed repeatedly and discouraged from even discussing the layoffs whenever they tried to ask questions. Employees in one department recalled a post-layoffs Q&A session where a department head was asked if leadership taking salary cuts to prevent layoffs had been considered, only to respond that Bungie was “not that type of company.”

What's more, sources we spoke to pointed out that many of the Bungie employees who were laid off were beloved community leaders within the studio, including many who had spearheaded employee inclusion and support efforts. Several people we spoke to expressed anger at the layoff of Bungie general counsel Don McGowan, who played a key role in Bungie winning an historic suit against a player who harassed a Bungie developer. Others laid off included a noticeable number of members of Bungie's DE&I clubs, including co-heads of Pride@Bungie, Women@Bungie, and Accessibility@Bungie. When combined with other recent resource cuts, these dismissals have led to fears these clubs might be shut down. While researching this article, IGN noted that the public news articles announcing Women@Bungie and Accessibility@Bungie on its official blog were no longer accessible on the Bungie website, though it's unclear exactly when or why this happened, or if it's just an unintentional, recurring bug with the blog.

"I'm angry. I'm upset. This isn't what I came here to do,” one person said. “It feels like many higher ups aren't listening to the data and are like, ‘We just need to win our fans back, they still like us.' No. They don't...We got rid of some of our most knowledgeable beloved folks who have been here for 20+ years. Everyday I walk in afraid that I or my friends are next. No one is safe."

Bungie, Eroding

Another anxiety sources discussed with us was that many of the reductions made at Bungie recently were part of a broader move toward outsourcing. Multiple individuals across various departments told us they'd heard discussions within their teams of plans to increase outsourcing both before and in the wake of the layoffs.

One team where those discussions have already become reality is in Quality Assurance [QA]. While outsourcing QA is extremely common practice industry-wide, Bungie historically has also enlisted an army of in-house, embedded QA testers working within individual teams. It's a set-up the studio has prided itself on for years now, but QA sources within the studio are now afraid that strategy is on its way out. We previously reported that Bungie's QA team saw a rash of mysterious departures in the months before the layoffs, and also noted a team-wide culture shift toward a general pool of testers consisting of both in-house and outsourced individuals. Former and current QA department members at Bungie tell us that in the last year, the team has seen increasing workloads and responsibilities, with more and more disciplinary actions taken for seemingly minor infractions. They also perceive growing hostility from team and company leadership, including a meeting in which QA was said to be referred to by leaders as “non-developers.” In total, sources tell us that over 10% of Bungie's internal QA department was either fired or laid off between early October and early November, including both the reported layoffs and the departures leading up to them.

In a year that will go down in gaming history due to the sheer number of layoffs and studio closures, Bungie's situation nonetheless stands out, and not for good reasons. It's a well-known, long-standing studio that, despite historic culture problems, had managed to cultivate an increasingly positive community of fans around a beloved game while improving its own internal culture by gradual degrees. But in the wake of an acquisition that shocked many Bungie employees we've spoken to, and which seemed out of character with the studio's independent streak, it feels to many like that's all falling apart. Beloved colleagues have been laid off, benefits are vanishing, and many feel the “more people-oriented” (as one source put it) culture of recent years is being torn to pieces by the very Bungie leaders that touted it for so long. And seemingly all so those same leaders can retain a vestige of control over a company that's already been sold away anyway.

“Folks still there are very much feeling ‘us vs them' between leadership and workers,” one person said. “That trust has been eroded.”

Given their recent actions, the question of whether or not Sony will finally manage to swallow Bungie whole in a few months seems less and less important than the question of what Bungie's current management will do to lead the company forward today.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to [email protected].

G*mers

FRICK MIAMI

by the way

Today the final, final, final patch for the base game dropped. It gave night city working metro stations and some other crap. If you passed on the game when it came out because it was unplayable shit (it was) do yourself a favor and go back, the game is 100% certified kino since the first actual final, final, patch (2.0) when they basically fixed everything (skill trees and UI included). 90% chance it'll be in your top 3 of the year.

I vaguely remember this thing releasing on Playstation and thinking the idea was neat but I have no idea about the PC release or anything beyond a surface level about the game other than some reviews saying it's a keylogger.

Console peasants again beta testing games

🚨🇮🇱 GTA 6 is HARAM ZIONIST PROPAGANDA #BanGTA6 pic.twitter.com/AViVr19bfo

— Jackson Hinkle 🇺🇸 (@jacksonhinklle) December 5, 2023

If we being honest most gta devs are pro Palestinian they changed the male white character into bipoc

The whole game will be about mayo's bad oppressing bipocs and because of it they are criminals but they good because they fight the system and corpos. In gta V glowies we're already bad guys. A bit like new saint row.

But I get the game if they let me dress the hoe in skimpy clothes that's my political statement

In nee yakuza game you can turn dragon of dogima into cutie twink

!g*mers get in here

It will mean you'll be able to buy cheaper games on third party store like cd keys

Like you can pre order avatar for 60 euro on cd key when on psn store it's 79,99

The Game Awards’ Future Class members demand awards show recognize Gaza crisis https://t.co/bATaCsBavC pic.twitter.com/JqxZ7bV9Gi

— Polygon (@Polygon) November 28, 2023

Video games?

How about we focus on the games

The white guy in Israel wants us to stop talking about war crimes

I bet this “white guy in Israel” has more Arabic blood coursing through his veins than most people who signed that terrorist sympathizing letter ☺️

Talking down on literally every non-zionist person sure is a thing y'all like doing. It's like you think the people in your weird ethno-state are superior beings to everyone else...

Bruhh the self proclaimed SJW is complaining about the Jooz

I see a lot of people saying that politics have nothing to do with thegameawards Games are political. Saying otherwise is by itself a political statement. We game devs are human, it should be sufficient as an argument to denounce the loss of so many innocent lifes.

This will remain evergreen

Trvth bomb

i've seen folks ask why a video game awards show should have anything to say about Gaza. it's about legitimacy. a huge cultural institution backed with money and power saying "this is a real thing that is happening. we should demand safety and dignity for Palestinians"

Lol, lmao

As they should. The whole show will, otherwise, be an embarrassment to an industry that's usually so well spoken on other important crises. Everyone that gets on that stage, and gets in front of the mic, has a responsibility.

Imagine committing a terrorist attack killing thousands and getting near unfettered support from a whole group of people, that know nothing, across the world lol

it is a function of privilege to keep politics out of the things you enjoy, so you can immerse yourself fully. many don't have that privilege. And can't just put down a cause. It's life or death. The least we can do is stand together in demanding justice for Palestine.

Literally the opposite of reality

will you nerds shut up i think it's a great idea that a class is trying to bring awareness to the conflict happening and the fact that everyone is like “we should just focus on games” let's focus on the thousands of people dying actually

all of the "keep politics out of my games" shitters in the comments are the reason why no one takes g*mers seriously

Such an inflated sense of self-importance

"Hey guys, Hamas hot dropped into our Marshmello concert and downed all the unarmed innocent players. That was not very poggers of them, so let's hope Team IDF gets that Victory Royale in Gaza and makes it back to Tomato Town in time for Dino Nuggies n Choccy Milk! GG EZ NO RE"

Trying to imagine the scenario where historians later recall how a statement at a videogame awards show contributed to peace in Israel/Palestine. It's tricky, but perhaps I'm just lacking imagination.

Everyone pretending they care know this is rage bait, right? Platforms like Polygon are going defunct left and right and this is a desperate attempt at staying relevant. Try that "critical thinking" that's constantly boasted about.

The Vault Boy imagery will get an origin story in the ‘FALLOUT’ series.

(Source: https://t.co/WonAaFWZBB) pic.twitter.com/NE67kfYBn5

— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) November 28, 2023

As a 25 year old fan of the franchise, this show will probably bring me to tears if it remains faithful.

I've spent the last 3 to 4 days trying to think of a joke or meme to go with this but I legitimately can't. Life is a parody of itself

Bro doesn't even have a name and is getting an origin story 😭

"Someone drew it"

Wow yes tell me the story of Vault Tec's pre-war graphic design department Show me the guy who drew it in design school, show me his college girlfriend, who's his mom Give me a full season on his frustration with the marketing department's edits This is the content I crave

"oh tom, you love vaults so much. youre such a vault boy!"

"wait. say that again"

There is no need to expand on the "lore" of everything, it just makes the setting bloated.

why the frick is that needed what does it contribute to the franchise at all. this is like that episode of young Sheldon entirely dedicated to explaining why Sheldon says "bazinga"

(https://x.com/Gomgabbar/status/1729672659481309405)

The origin story is they hired a graphic designer to make a logo and picked the one they liked best. Why does Vault Boy need a gritty origin story. Stop doing this.

I mean, he's a corporate mascot. Will "origin story" just be Vault-Tec coming up with him, or will we find out he's like based on some guy's dead son or something?

My hype for the game is zero. We are living in different era today compared to when other gta's.

GTA was very satire series. GTA was first major AAA game that included a gay character and even in title and then showed his peepee it made fun of him. GTA as whole was making fun of American life style. Can you imagine gta6 making fun of obese folk and tranies ? No, because that will hurt someone and everyone is wholesome and loved even tough that statement is a lie. You playing in rdr2 a guy that respects waman and ain't racist. Todays racist would been seen like ultra liberals at time that rdr2 is happening.

GTA is like Borat. Borat 1 haha at east, Borat 2 respect waman, waman also funny and haha at republicans.

Average gta g*mer is 13 year old locos vatos who want to play his scarface power fantasy and now they want him to play Latinx girl