Video game actors vote to strike, Unity's walk-back, and the Xbox data leak
It's a week of gaming shakeups--SAG-AFTRA performers vote to authorize a strike, Unity rolls back its revenue plans, and there were some glaring discrepancies in last week's leaked Xbox documents.
This week, Laine has surprisingly good things to say about the widely panned Hannah Gadsby exhibit at Brooklyn Museum, while Joost is ragged from a rainy weekend cooped up with the children.
This week’s episode has it all: corporate mea culpas, idiotic document leaks, and the piercing shriek of voice actors telling the game industry to pay up (and put down the AI).
Listen in.
After recapping Unity’s efforts last week to squeeze every drop of value out of their user base no matter the cost, Laine and Joost highlight Unity’s thoughtful rollback of many components of the plan. What hasn’t changed, though, is Unity’s ongoing plan for revenue share with its top-performing users. Laine and Joost raise questions about Unity as a platform vs. Unity as a tool, and if the user base is ultimately satisfied with their concessions.
Last week, a slew of confidential documents leaked from Microsoft’s hearings with the FTC, including internal correspondence, financial data, and roadmaps. Joost, predictably, had a field day. But he also may have discovered that Microsoft’s been talking out of both sides of its mouth with regard to how much it will support Activision’s strength in mobile. Is it possible *gasp* that a multi-billion dollar company might have been less than honest with anti-trust regulators (yes, Laine wrote that…)? Beyond Microsoft not having its stories straight, Joost closely reads the data for plenty of other clues to Microsoft’s future ambitions for cloud gaming.
Last but never least, SAG-AFTRA has authorized game performers like voice actors and motion capture artists to strike if negotiations with America’s biggest game companies continue to fizzle. The Nanny named Fran even declared, “It’s time for game companies to stop playing games.” Game performers want increased pay, expanded safety protections (screaming is dangerous work!), and the same protections regular actors are seeking to prevent their livelihoods from being eaten by generative AI. As Laine sums up the vibe bluntly: “Good.”
And congrats to Niftski, for breaking their own Super Mario Bros. speed-running record. It’s 4 minutes and 54 seconds of your life you’ll definitely enjoy.
Bonus Content: if you’ve never seen The Nanny episode where Drescher’s character refuses to cross a picket line, you should.