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Daily Briefing: Wednesday 9th June
🕑 Added 2021-06-09 13:01:03 +0000 UTCInvestment group says Bobby Kotick still gets paid way too much
CtW Investment Group are back at it again with new claims that, despite the recent high-profile reduction in his salary and bonus options, Bobby Kotick just makes way too much money as Activision CEO. This carries on an argument that began back in June 2020 - when CtW first implored Activision stockholders to reject an improved compensation package for Kotick.
- Kotick's new contract cut his salary and bonus potential by about half, but CtW say it still isn't good enough. They argue that the contact's two-year term is "too short to significantly impact his total pay for an extended time." The group are once again calling on stockholders to not only vote against the "Say on Pay", but also to block the re-election of the chair of Activision's Compensation Committee.
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart devs praise "crunch free" development
Reviews for the shiny new PS5 exclusive are live now and the game appears to be a critical success. The more impressive thing at this stage though is that, according to certain devs, Rift Apart was achieved without resorting to crunch.
- Two devs (an animator and a game designer) took to Twitter to praise Insomniac Games for enabling a "completely crunch free" development cycle. The pair say that they never had to crunch during the project and that management were actively involved in making sure employees didn't consistently work late. Two devs is hardly a large sample size of course, but this story is much more encouraging than the ones that normally emerge around blockbuster development.
Nintendo just pulled the Switch's most recent update
Nintendo issued the Switch's 12.0.3 update yesterday but took it offline shortly afterward for an as-yet undisclosed reason. As far as various specialist outlets can tell - this is the first time Nintendo have ever un-lived a public update.
- The update wasn't anything too exciting either - Nintendo's official site shows it to be just a standard suite of stability improvements - but its removal is still curious. One explanation currently doing the rounds among the community is that the update was messing with the Switch's ability to download games, which would definitely warrant swift action if true.
Lost Judgment producer says worldwide release presents a serious challenge
The fact that the upcoming Yakuza spin-off sequel Lost Judgment is releasing simultaneously worldwide is a first for the Series, and one which has heaped a lot of extra pressure on developers Rya Ga Gotoku Studio. The worldwide launch "triples the struggles" for the team, according to the game's producer Kazuki Hasokawa.
- In a recent interview, Hasokawa told Inverse that previously the team only had to focus on creating and marketing games for the Japanese Market. But now they have to think about "how to convey the appeal of the product in each region" in a way that goes beyond localisation. Still, Hasokawa says the team are up to the challenge and, with Lost Judgment releasing in September, we'll see how right he was.
