Epic Games President Mike Capps steps down, continues Epic Exodus of 2012
This year continues to be a baffling turn of events for some of the industry’s larger publishers and developers. Today it was announced that Epic Games’ president, Mike Capps, is planning to step down from the helm of the company, moving to more of an advisory role on the Epic board of directors instead. He cites his unborn child and the ability to do things outside of the games industry as reasons for this new change of pace.
We’ve already seen several higher-ups at Epic walking out the door in 2012. Between this new development, Rod Ferguson’s hop over to Irrational and Cliff Bleszinski’s retirement, you have to wonder the kind of framework they’re leaving for the next “generation” of Epic’s staff. They’ve all been making video games in the same broad theme for a while now; hopefully this new creative freedom will be the burst of fresh air that Capps needs.
[Source: Polygon]
Hitman: Absolution campaign mucks it up again, releases a terribly conceived piece of garbage
Ugh. Ugh. It feels terrible to even cover this, but in the interest of reporting on news that actually happened today, it’s probably worth mentioning. Rock Paper Shotgun reported today on some bizarre sort of marketing backfire that happened with Hitman: Absolution. A Facebook app/experience/horrortorium let people send death threats to their friends, as well as bullying them about their appearance and other perturbed things. Surprisingly enough, people found that to be a terrible thing and yelled at Square Enix, who quickly dropped the app and issued an apology.
I’m really not sure how much further off-base you can get when it comes to marketing something. This isn’t exactly the first issue that we’ve seen with regards to Agent 47’s latest killing spree, but at some point you’ve gotta wonder how far along this particular app was before someone said, “Hey, wait a second: this is kind of creepy!” At this point, I’m starting to wonder just how much more they could ruin the marketing and the Hitman brand with whatever team they’ve got running this show. Shame, Square Enix.
[Source: Rock Paper Shotgun]
Quantic Gaming, world-renowned eSports team, shutting down as a team
Fear not, humble Reader. This isn’t Quantic Dream, the studio behind Heavy Rain or upcoming Ellen Page simulator BEYOND. No, this Quantic is better known as an eSports team that specializes in Starcraft 2, League of Legends and, believe it or not, Call of Duty. It seems they won’t be doing much gaming under that name now, however, as ZAM has reported that the eSports organization will be ceasing operations, based on a tweet from its CEO.
eSports is a tricky business, and one I’m still trying to learn more about, but this kind of thing seems like an unfortunate reality of the competitive gaming scene. When teams rely on sponsorships and championship wins to be able to support a lifestyle that is essentially just playing games for a living, there’s really only a handful of ways to make that work. If you don’t have a top-of-the-class team, it seems like quite the challenge to pursue that full time. With any luck, some of the bigger names on the team will be scooped up and will be able to continue living out a dream.
[Source: ZAM]
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Dyl-Questing – The Best Thing I Read Today: BUS OUT OF HELL
Over on Polygon, Sam Machkovech takes a deep dive into Desert Bus for Hope, looking at both the challenges of setting up a livestream event of that magnitude and the way it brings communities together. Long, long read, but totally worth it.
[Source: Polygon]
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