blast-o-rama. • issue 068 • 2022-12-11
blast-o-rama.
issue 068 • 2022-12-11
it’s beginning to look a lot like christmas
Hello and welcome once again to my weekly newsletter. As I write this on Saturday, I’ve just wrapped up all the presents for the year, they’re under the tree, and if it weren’t for the Soccer on the TV, I’d say this was a 100% Christmas-y feeling sort of day.
Understandably, the past few years, while Christmas has occurred, the holidays themselves haven’t felt like the Christmas I think of. But this year, everything is feeling a bit closer to normal, and I’m feeling the holiday spirit running through me. It’s funny how just a simple date can hover over you and guide your emotions, but that’s where I’m at as I write this. Bring on the Egg Nog.
another bleak glimpse of the world of video game development
I never enjoy reading these sort of stories, but I feel a need, both as someone who loves the format, and wishes for its workers to get treated better, to read — and just as importantly — spotlight stories like the one published this week about the development of Diablo 4 by the Washington Post.
Posted just hours before the game had its latest glitzy trailer premiered at the 2022 Game Awards, accompanied by a musical performance by Halsey, the Post gives a look at a game in the crux of crunch, with six months until release date. It’s not a great look, but if you’re a video game fan, an absolute need to read to understand how the sausage is made.
“Diablo IV” had multiple internal, unannounced release dates. At one point, 2021 was floated as an internal goal. A more specific date emerged — December 2022 — after the title was publicly announced in 2019 at the company’s annual gaming convention BlizzCon.
Developers appealed for more time to avoid massive cuts to the game. After moving the date to April 2023, the team felt it still needed more time and was able to get the June date approved. The June date feels harder to move, several employees say.
“We’re at the point where they’re not willing to delay the game anymore,” said a current Blizzard Albany employee. “So we all just have to go along and figure out how much we’re willing to hurt ourselves to make sure the game gets released in a good enough state.”
also from across the web
Other reads I enjoyed this week:
- Every “chronically online” conversation is the same - Vox
- What Are The Twitter Files, And Do You Need To Care About Them? - Defector
- 45 Things We Learned from the ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ Commentary - Film School Rejects
- Meredith Gran looks back on 15 years of Octopus Pie - Popverse
- The Seven Circles of Meeting Hell – Rands in Repose
- Ke Huy Quan’s True Hollywood Comeback - Vanity Fair
- Alex Horne of ‘Taskmaster’ Is Always Thinking Up Tasks - Gawker
- Fox Sports’ US World Cup coverage is an unmissable abomination - The Guardian
- The race to build a better Twitter - The Verge
thanks for reading.
We’ll be back with you next week. And maybe, just maybe, I’ll dust off my movie reviewer cap to tell you what I think about the latest adventure in Pandora. We’ll see…
-Marty