A time of departures | Kaser Focus

For the last two weeks, it feels like at least 40-50% of the news I’ve heard about is about people in the games industry either being laid off or leaving their companies for whatever reason. On the retirement or job-shifting side, we’ve got Jim Ryan of PlayStation, Donald Mustard of Epic, Glen Schofield of Striking Distance, and Hideki Kamiya of Platinum Games. On the layoff side, we’ve seen the “restructuring” of Embracer Group, the losses at Crystal Dynamics and, most recently, the massive layoffs at Epic Games.

The layoffs are of course the more tragic of the losses — it sucks that we continue to see these stories week-in and week-out. It’s been a rough year in the industry, for all that it’s been a great year for games. As gamers, we’re eating well, but as members of the industry that makes and gives us the games, we’re watching fires spring up everywhere. I can only hope — and I very much do — that those affected by the layoffs receive the help they need and find new jobs, and those who are retiring enjoy their new chapters.

In other news, SAG-AFTRA has voted in favor of a video game strike, which would see performers attempting to obtain better protections and pay. Meta has also revealed the Quest 3 headset, a mixed-to-virtual reality headset — I’ll be curious to see if that’s something they can pull off.

In personal news, I’ll be trying out the new update to Cyberpunk 2077 finally, though I can’t guarantee I’ll have the time or patience to play through the entire thing again. It’s pleasing to see Cyberpunk’s tenacity pay off (though perhaps less so when I remember CD Projekt Red has also laid off people recently). I’ll also be playing the Separate Ways DLC for Resident Evil Remake 4. I also want to play something a little cozy, so I’ll likely try out that Paleo Pines game that just came out.

What to play this week

What’s new:

• Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty
• Counter-Strike 2
• EA Sports FC 24
• El Paso, Elsewhere
• Mineko’s Night Market
• Paleo Pines
• Pizza Possum
• Wildmender
• Soulstice
• Overpass 2
• Infinity Strash: Dragon Quest The Adventure of Dai

New on subscription services:

• Amnesia: Rebirth (GeForce Now)
• BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle (GeForce Now)
• Bramble: The Mountain King (GeForce Now)
• Broforce (GeForce Now)
• Don Duality (GeForce Now)
• Doom Eternal (GeForce Now)
• Dordogne (GeForce Now)
• Dust Fleet (GeForce Now)
• Eastern Exorcist (GeForce Now)
• Figment 2: Creed Valley (GeForce Now)
• I Am Fish (GeForce Now)
• Necesse (GeForce Now)
• A Plague Tale: Innocence (GeForce Now)
• Quake II (GeForce Now)
• Road 96 (GeForce Now)
• Spacelines from the Far Out (GeForce Now)
• Totally Reliable Delivery Service (GeForce Now)
• Warhammer 40,000: Battlesector (GeForce Now)
• Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair (GeForce Now)
• These Doomed Isles (GeForce Now)
• Kirby & the Amazing Mirror (Nintendo Switch Online)
• Cypher 007 (Apple Arcade)