Gamer's Outpost Press (Archived)

by Jonathan Lee

GameStop hosted a TikTok contest for employees and among the prizes was a dubious reward: extra work hours during Black Friday.

The contest was posted on the GameStop Conference website, which features competitions for different rewards. One contest, called the “Incisiv TikTok Dance Challenge,” asked store managers to film dance routines with their workers.

It sounded like a fun event, but the reward has raised some eyebrows.

“The winner of the challenge will receive an Echo 8, Echo Auto, $100 VISA gift card and 10 additional labor hours to use during Black Friday week,” the contest rules stated. (thanks, TheGamer).

The language regarding these labor hours are cryptic, and, as Kotaku noted, GameStop hasn’t clarified the offer. Would it have counted towards overtime? Would it have counted as holiday pay? We don’t know.

Gamers on Twitter widely condemned the contest as exploitative and abusive.

“They’re literally making the working class dance for the right to put food on the table,” one user wrote. “This is an ultimate new low.”

“This is absolutely appalling,” another user tweeted. “You want your employees to advertise for you for the privilege to work more hours for you? GameStop can’t die soon enough.”

And this isn’t the first time GameStop has sparked controversy this year. When the United States announced the national COVID-19 quarantine in March, GameStop declared itself as an essential business, to the outrage of its own employees. The retailer closed all its stores later in the month following backlash.

As the United States suffers yet another spike in coronavirus cases, Black Friday is sure to be a fraught environment for GameStop workers. Fall is always the busiest season in video games, but this year’s Black Friday is primed to be especially chaotic.

With the Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5 both releasing this year, eager customers are going to be swarming retailers in a shopping spree that could result in another explosion of COVID-19 infections.

GameStop creating a contest for tired, unsupported workers to compete for more working hours is not putting forth a very good look.

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by Tyler Fischer, ComicBook.com

Terry Marshall, the voice actor behind Grand Theft Auto IV character “Real Badman,” died on November 1. At the moment of publishing, details are scarce. This includes not only the cause of death, but basic information like Marshall’s age. As for the news itself, it comes way of both Marshall’s brother and Rockstar Games. According to the former, Marshall has “departed this physical reality and traded it in for some other dimension.”

As noted, further details are currently scarce. In fact, these are where the details, about both Marshall and his death, end. Marshall’s brother notes the voice actor lived in New York City, but that’s the only other additional detail divulged in the announcement.

“My brother has departed this physical reality and traded it in for some other dimension,” writes Marshall’s brother on both Instagram and Twitter.

Marshall’s death occurred on November 1, but it’s only now that many are hearing about it after Rockstar Games officially addressed the tragedy via its official Twitter account. As you may know, Marshall played Grand Theft Auto IV character Real Badman, also known as Teafore Maxwell-Davies. In the game, Badman is the leader of the posse Yardies.

Of course, when and if more details are provided on both Marshall’s life and death, we will be sure to update the story. In the meanwhile, we would like to extend our deepest condolences to Marshall’s family and friends during this incredibly tragic and difficult time.

Rest in peace, Terry.

by Kris Holt, Engadget

Halo Infinite director and studio head Chris Lee has stepped down from his role on the troubled game. Lee was overseeing the long-awaited next entry in the Halo series, which was supposed to arrive alongside the Xbox Series X and Series S consoles next month. However, Microsoft and 343 Industries have delayed Halo Infinite to sometime next year.

Lee has been with 343 Industries since 2008 and he has worked on several entries in the series, including Halo Reach, Halo 4 and Halo 5: Guardians. He’s still a Microsoft employee and he told Bloomberg he’s “looking at future opportunities. I believe in the team and am confident they will deliver a great game and now is a good time for me to step away.”

There’s been a bit of a personnel merry go round during the development of Halo Infinite. Lee is the second project lead to leave the team in the last two years. Creative director Tim Longo and executive producer Mary Olson departed last year.

Microsoft roped in Halo veteran Joe Staten to oversee the single-player campaign in August. Around the same time, Pierre Hintze, who led the Halo: The Master Chief Collection publishing team, stepped in to lead development of the free multiplayer modes. As such, Lee’s role on the project was somewhat reduced.

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by Lillian Stone, The Takeout

When I was eight, some kid in my third grade class created a very rude chant based solely on the fact that my name (Lillian) rhymed with another student’s name (Killian). “Lillian loves Killian!,” the kid chanted. “Lillian loves Killian!”

To get ahead of the joke, I decided to confirm the rumor. “Yeah, I do,” I replied calmly. “I do love Killian.” That pretty much tanked the rumor. It also ensured that Killian stayed a full 30 feet away from me for the remainder of the academic year. The moral of this story: If somebody’s teasing you, it’s best to get in on the joke. Lo, the latest XBox marketing stunt: a full-sized XBox refrigerator.

Some background: According to XBox fans, the new Xbox Series X looks a lot like a mini fridge. To get ahead of the joke, XBox made three full-sized, functioning refrigerators shaped just like the Series X. Just look at those oblong dimensions! The brand delivered the fridges by forklift, sending them to YouTuber Justine Ezarik and, oddly, Snoop Dogg. Actually, it’s not that odd—Snoop’s definitely had his fair share of video game cameos. Slashgear reports that XBox will auction off the remaining fridge to one lucky fan.

Admittedly, the fridge is pretty damn cool. It emits that signature XBox green glow and even blares the console’s start-up sound when opened. It’s also decked out with oversized USB ports and a slot for the Seagate Storage Expansion Card, which is apparently a must-have for serious gamers. According to General Manager of Xbox Games Marketing Aaron Greenberg, it’s the “fastest, most powerful fridge” ever made. Seems like the perfect vessel for whatever gamers are drinking these days. Last time I checked, it was Mountain Dew.

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Neil Druckmann sent an email to his team after the positive review scores came in, and he ended it with “f**k the haters.”

by Eddie Makuch via GameSpot

After the review scores for The Last of Us Part II came in–and they were very good–writer-director Neil Druckmann sent an email to his team to thank them for their hard work. Druckmann has now shared some insight on what he said in the email, including his response to the haters.

Speaking to actor Troy Baker, who plays Joel in the game, Druckmann said he originally wanted to send thank-you texts to every developer, one by one. However, the team’s sheer size made that impossible. Instead, he decided to send a message on a larger scale. He ended up using email rather than text.

Druckmann said he was writing a text to art director John Sweeney, with whom he clashed often throughout development, and he began to cry. His reason for crying still isn’t clear to him.

“When the reviews hit, he was one of the first people I thought of to text personally. I’m starting to write this text to him, ‘Dude, I know we didn’t always see eye to eye…’ As I’m writing this text, I’m starting to cry, and I couldn’t even understand why I’m crying. I realize I can’t text everybody on the team–there’s just too many people on the team. I just have to write the whole team an email, and I’m not very good at that stuff.”

Druckmann said he doesn’t remember exactly what he wrote to his team, but it touched on how he was getting too much personal praise when people should understand that making The Last of Us 2 was a team effort. He also told his team that he’s never been prouder of any game he’s worked on.

He also had a message for the haters. As it turns out, he isn’t a big fan of them!

“I don’t remember exactly what I wrote, but I’m writing about my fears like I’m getting too much praise and it’s not being seen enough as a team project–but this is a Naughty Dog game, in every sense of the word,” Druckmann said. “I forget how I ended it, but it was something to the effect of, ‘Review scores are cool, but seeing your guys’ pride is what I live for.'”

“The reviews were awesome, and it’s great to hear people love the game and how much it resonates with them, but nothing comes close to hearing you, or Laura, or John, or any member of the team that has sent me an email since the game has come out to say this is the best game I’ve ever worked on. F**k the haters. Nothing makes me prouder that I’ve worked on in my life than this game.”

Also in the interview, Druckmann spoke about how he does not focus too much on sales. He only hopes his games can make enough money to convince Sony to allow Naughty Dog to keep doing what it does.

“Our job is not to maximize profits or sales,” he said. “The game is selling well, and I don’t care. Just to talk about sales for a second, I just want to sell enough so we can do it again. So Sony will keep trusting us and giving us the creative freedom to do whatever we need to do. And anything beyond that is just gravy.”

For what it’s worth, The Last of Us Part II is a gigantic sales success. The game sold more than 4 million copies in its first three days, setting new PlayStation records.

Naughty Dog is now working on The Last of Us Part II’s new multiplayer/online mode, while the company is also thinking about what might come next like The Last of Us III or something else.

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