Morning DLC: Video Game News & Rumors 1/28/2016
"Gamasutra has learned that Gameloft has shut down yet another studio: This time, its New Zealand location has been closed.According to an affected staffer, the studio laid off “around 160 people” in the shutdown. Gamasutra has spoken to two different staff members who were affected by the closure."
Though you may not be familiar with that particular studio’s titles (which included Zoo Rescue and My Little Pony), it’s still sad to see so many affected by a shutdown. It sounds like Gameloft’s been closing locations like crazy lately (seven last year), but also opened a new studio in Nigeria. Gameloft as a whole is responsible for some mobile titles in the Assassin’s Creed and Tom Clancy series. Hopefully as a whole they can stay together through what’s obviously a tumultuous time.
"The studio behind Destiny has a new CEO. Pete Parsons, who has been with Bungie since 2002 – most recently serving as the company’s COO – will take over for Harold Ryan, who is stepping down from his role as studio president."
In Parsons’ statement, he talks about the future of the Destiny series, and how we haven’t yet seen their “best work”. With the recent buzz about Destiny microtransactions (notably debunked by Bungie) it will be interesting to see what changes and additions, if any, are in store for the current game before its sequel makes its appearance. Best of luck, Mr. Parsons.
"A bug in the level creator for Super Mario Maker has necessitated a day and a half of online downtime.Nintendo has sent notices on their various websites advising that an unspecified bug in the “Create” mode has necessitated a stop on all online services. The maintenance is currently slated to end at 8 p.m. Eastern tomorrow night (1 a.m. GMT on Friday morning)."
The update is over now, but wow. That must have been a big issue. Apparently, the bug involved downloading a level someone else had made, editing it, then playing the uploaded level in Course World with the edits in. This would allow players to complete difficult levels with simple fixes and tricks…aka, illegitimately. This video shows the glitch, though not how to do it (and you can’t anymore, anyway):
Good on Nintendo for knocking that out as quickly as they did.