Layoffs and weird PR emails

Let’s all take a breath. Even though the cold winter weather is starting to melt, the layoffs in the video game industry are still ongoing. Amidst the turmoil of these last few months, there are still things to be excited about: new games and hardware, the evolution of established franchises, and plenty of small teams preparing surprises to shake up the status quo. Look all bad things Just one example of the positive momentum in video games at Playdate (more on that next week).

Breathe in, breathe out.

Now let’s go back to the news cycle:

This week’s stories

Cuts at PlayStation

The layoff crisis in video games is not slowing down, and the latest company to announce drastic layoffs PplayStation. On Tuesday, Sony laid off nearly 900 people from its PlayStation division and completely closed its London Studio, which built the co-op multiplayer game for the PS5. Insomniac, Naughty Dog, and Guerrilla all lost staff despite being behind some of the platform’s most successful games in recent memory. First-party studio Firesprite also suffered layoffs, and live service reportedly had to cancel its Twisted Metal project. It’s only March, but there have already been over 7,000 video game workers He was fired in 2024; more than last year 9000 people lost jobs due to layoffs in the industry.

Happy Pokémon Day!

February 27th was Pokémon Day and in celebration, Nintendo announced two new games: Pokémon Legends ZA and Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket. Pokémon Legends ZA Located in Lumiose City, you may recall Pokémon X and Y It’s similar to the features on the 3DS and Mega Evolutions. Pokémon Legends ZA In 2025, the Switch will be a hit. Another title, Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket, is a mobile game that should be available on Android and iOS devices by the end of the year. It’s exactly what it sounds like — Nintendo puts a physical card-opening mechanism inside your phone, complete with flashy animations and addictive sound effects, when you remove the digital packaging. You will also be able to participate in quick battles. Nintendo has clarified this Pocket It won’t have NFTs, but it’s described as “free to start,” so expect microtransactions.

Random PR collection

It’s been a weird and slow week in Engadget video game land, so I thought we’d have some fun with this episode. As tech reporters, we get ridiculous emails from startups and PR agencies every day, and while we don’t cover many of the products on offer, some of the messages themselves deserve a moment in the spotlight. A lot of the sounds we get are just silly or tone-deaf, but some are downright dystopian. Honestly, I thought you all might enjoy seeing some of the oddities that hit our inboxes.

It’s all for fun – I just appreciate communications teams trying to sell their products in creative ways. The real enemy here is, as always, capitalism.

So here are some emails that popped into my inbox recently that got me thinking:

Unsurprisingly, this little doodad comes with replaceable scent cartridges, though it’s not clear how exactly. buy these right now. Smells include gunshots, explosions, racing cars, blood, sports arenas and other brotastic flavors.

Is this… beautiful? Definitely a fun take on the future of immersion here, isn’t it? Or have I completely lost the plot. Both could be true.

Ma’am, this is Engadget.

This was for the game Brotherhood of the Cosmic Wheeland it was a surprise big dildo. I thought the whole email was really cute – it featured a giveaway in partnership with a popular adult toy company and it was tasteful. Brotherhood of the Cosmic Wheel does sexy game and he’s drawn to a planet-sized muscular behemoth, so it all made sense. It just didn’t fit into our general news feed, you know?

I find this email charming because it’s a traditional, infomercial-style email with lots of unnecessary exclamation points and parentheses. i respect But seriously, we’re still doing it Torment thing? Then you’ll ask me if this lawnmower can work Crysis and jokes about Leeroy Jenkins and here I am in 2024, begging for some new references.

The best part about it is that after I added it to my stupid email list, we actually did hit this as news at engadget dot com. Who’s kidding now? (This is me).

I asked to be removed from this list.

Bonus content

• In more layoff news, Until Dawn studio Supermassive Games has laid off about a third of its workforce, or about 90 employees, and the team is being reorganized. Also, Die Gut Fabrik, the indie studio that created Sportsfriends, Johann Sebastian Joust and Saltsea Chronicles, has stopped production amid financial problems, and its developers are looking for other work.

• Nintendo does He is suing Yuzu, a popular and long-running emulator that allows players to port their Switch games to other platforms. Nintendo claims the app “facilitates piracy on a massive scale” and says it illegally circumvents DMCA protections. Nintendo wants Yuzu shut down and the company wants damages.

• Final fantasy 7 rebirth finally comes out on February 29 and our view Live now from Mat Smith. It’s a really great Final Fantasy backgammon and I really liked it Rebirth.

Now playing

Home Security Hotline is the perfect game to play on your desktop, PC, so you can let the mid-90s PC interface take over your senses. In this game, you take calls from people complaining about pests and paranormal creatures invading their homes, and use a detailed information guide to figure out what’s going on and help them solve the problem. Or, you get it wrong and get fired when a family of three screams for their lives on the other end of the line. There’s also a wider meta-horror in the background, and I’m having a wonderful, scary time sorting it all out. Home Security Hotline does now on Steam.