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Written by Jeff Drake
When Rock Band initially launched in 2007, Harmonix touted it as a platform for players going forward. While subsequent launches and peripherals joined the mix in the succeeding years, the main pillar for that claim is the developer's steadfast support of the Rock Band platform through its aggressive downloadable content schedule. Today, however, the studio announced the end of Rock Band 4 downloadable content.
The news comes more than two years after Harmonix was acquired by Fortnite and Unreal Engine developer Epic Games. Epic has since leveraged the studio's expertise for a side game within Fortnite called Fortnite Festival, which utilizes gameplay similar to the Rock Band. In the time since the studio's acquisition, the developer has closed the online servers for Rock Band 3, ended post-launch support for Fuser, and now, has ended Rock Band 4's more-than-eight-year run of weekly DLC.
According to Harmonix, the final DLC, which is scheduled to release on January 25, will reflect the team's feelings about this news. "We deliberated long and hard about how to frame the last blast of RB DLC of this era," Harmonix product manager Daniel Sussman wrote in a blog post. "The last two weeks will feature some tear-jerkers that sum up our feelings about this moment."
Today, which is the second-to-last release for this run of DLC, includes Elton John's "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" and The Troggs' "Our Love Will Still Be There." When Harmonix closed out Rock Band 3 DLC in 2013, its final release was Don McLean's "American Pie."
The developer trailblazed forward compatible downloadable content, even leaping across console generations and rolling over the majority of its base-game songs into future entries. Outside of a break that started in April 2013 and lasted until Rock Band 4 launched in October 2015 (save for a random week in January 2015), Harmonix has supported the Rock Band series through weekly DLC drops since 2007. To date, Harmonix has released more than 3,000 songs through downloadable content.
If you'd like to read more about Harmonix's ambitions and legacy, check out this old feature I wrote in 2013 about how Harmonix sparked a DLC revolution with Rock Band. For more on the future of Harmonix under Epic Games, check out our interview with Harmonix founder and head Alex Rigopolous here.
What are your thoughts on this announcement? Do you still buy Rock Band DLC or even play the game? How many DLC songs do you own? Sound off in the comments below!
Until Dawn Movie Adaptation Announced, Annabelle: Creation's David F. Sandberg To Direct
Written by Wesley LeBlanc
Developer Supermassive Games' branching-narrative horror, Until Dawn, which exclusively hit PlayStation in 2015, is the latest video game to get the film adaptation treatment. The Hollywood Reporter reports that Shazam! and Annabelle: Creation director David F. Sandberg will direct the Until Dawn movie.
It, Annabelle, and The Nun screenwriter Gary Dauberman is "doing a pass on the script," which was originally written by The Invitation writer Blair Butler, according to THR. This Until Dawn movie adaptation is being produced by Screen Gems and PlayStation Productions, two divisions within the wider Sony company. It is described as an R-rated horror movie.
Notably, Until Dawn used various movie and television actors for its cast, including Rami Malek, Hayden Panettiere, Jordan Fisher, and more. There's no word about whether this adaptation will bring back any of them to reprise their roles.
While Sandberg is perhaps best known as the director of both Shazam! and Shazam: Fury of the Gods, his moviemaking starts in horror; he made Closet Space and Lights Out (adapted from his Lights Out short film) in 2016 before directing Annabelle: Creation in 2017. His latest movie was Shazam: Fury of the Gods, which hit theaters last year.
This Until Dawn movie will join a slew of other PlayStation Production adaptations, including last year's Gran Turismo movie, The Last of Us TV series for HBO (with a second season arriving next year), and Peacock's Twisted Metal show, which has been renewed for a second season. These adaptations join a bigger effort of bringing video games to the silver screen and TVs at home, including 2023's The Super Mario Bros. Movie, and 2022's Halo: The Series (Season 2 promises the fall of Reach storyline and premieres next month).
For more, read Game Informer's review of Until Dawn, and then check out our thoughts on its PlayStation VR spin-off, Until Dawn: Rush of Blood. Supermassive released a spiritual successor to Until Dawn in 2022 called The Quarry – read Game Informer's review here – but its next game is Little Nightmares III, which is due out sometime this year.
[Source: The Hollywood Reporter]
Do you think Until Dawn will make a good video game adaptation? Let us know in the comments below!
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Written by Bobby AnhaltThunderful Group, The Company Behind 2023's SteamWorld Build, To Lay Off Roughly 100 People
Written by Wesley LeBlanc
Thunderful Group, the company behind games like 2023's SteamWorld Build and Lego Brick Tales, has announced plans to lay off roughly 20 percent of its workforce, as first reported by GamesIndustry.biz. Kotaku notes that 20 percent of the company's workforce is about 100 employees. As for why, Thunderful CEO Martin Walfisz cites the company's need to reduce costs.
"Since I joined as CEO in the fall of 2023, we have evaluated the current business and the future position of Thunderful," the company told GamesIndustry.biz. "To ensure and strengthen the viability of the group, we have found no alternative other than to reduce costs and focus the business on areas with the best future growth and profitability prospects.
"It has been difficult to make these decisions, and it saddens me that we will have to say goodbye to many skilled colleagues and partners. Nevertheless, I am convinced that this is a necessary direction for Thunderful and that these changes will make the company a stronger player in the market."
Thunderful says it hopes the layoffs and the financial effects of them will be reflected in the company's second half of 2024. It is admittedly hard to care at all about this company's finances in the second half of 2024 when about 100 people are either now or soon-to-be jobless, but alas – thanks Thunderful.
These Thunderful layoffs join a string of layoffs that happened last week. We learned Unity would be laying off 1,800 people by the end of March, and that Twitch was laying off 500 employees. Discord also announced it had laid off 170 employees. Just today, Game Informer covered layoffs happening at PTW, a support studio that's worked with companies like Blizzard and Capcom. And all of these layoffs, which total more than 2,500, have happened just this year. Last year, more than 10,000 people in the games industry or games-adjacent industries were laid off.
In January of last year, Microsoft laid off 10,000 employees amidst its ongoing $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, which it completed in October.
Striking Distance Studios, the team behind 2022's The Callisto Protocol, laid off more than 30 employees in August of 2023. That same month, Mass Effect and Dragon Age developer BioWare laid off 50 employees, including long-time studio veterans. The following month, in September, Immortals of Aveum developer Ascendant Studios laid off roughly 45% of its staff, and Fortnite developer Epic Games laid off 830 employees.
In October of last year, The Last of Us developer Naughty Dog laid off at least 25 employees, and Telltale Games also underwent layoffs, although an actual number of affected employees has not yet been revealed. Dreams developer Media Molecule laid off 20 employees in late October.
In November, Amazon Games laid off 180 staff members, Ubisoft laid off more than 100 employees, Bungie laid off roughly 100 developers, and 505 Games' parent company, Digital Bros, laid off 30% of its staff.
In December, Embracer Group closed its reformed TimeSplitters studio, Free Radical Design, and earlier in the year, Embracer closed Saints Row developer Volition Games, a studio with more than 30 years of development history. A few weeks before the winter holidays, Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering owner Hasbro laid off 1,100 employees.
The games industry will surely feel the effects of such horrific layoffs for years to come. The hearts of the Game Informer staff are with everyone who's been affected by layoffs or closures.
[Source: GamesIndustry.biz]