| Hi everyone, it's Jason. Today we're talking about fan rage in the video game community, but first... This week's top gaming news: - Niantic Inc., the maker of Pokemon Go, canceled four projects and cut 8% of its staff, or about 85-90 people.
- Unity Software Inc. laid off 200 people. More tech companies are starting to feel the heat of this economic downturn.
- Sony is diving into PC gaming hardware with new headsets and monitors, released under the brand name Inzone.
On Tuesday, the team behind the upcoming video game Return to Monkey Island put out a new trailer to showcase gameplay. By Thursday, thanks to angry gamers, they'd sworn off the internet entirely. Return to Monkey Island, which revisits the classic 1990s point-and-click adventure series, has received some criticism for its art style — namely, that it doesn't resemble its predecessors. Fans accustomed to the crisp pixels of old Monkey Island games aren't pleased with the abstract, stylized new faces of familiar characters like Guybrush Threepwood and Elaine Marley.  Some gamers didn't like the new graphics in Return to Monkey Island Source: Terrible Toybox They're of course welcome to their opinion. (Personally, I think the game looks gorgeous.) But, as is tradition on the internet, a bunch of gamers took things too far, inundating series creator Ron Gilbert with insults and attacks. "Legit the ugliest game I've ever seen," wrote one ostensible fan. Others wrote less printable comments. It got so bad that Gilbert decided to close the comments on his personal blog, writing that "people are just being mean," and he had to delete some particularly heinous replies. "Play it or don't play it but don't ruin it for everyone else," Gilbert wrote. "I won't be posting any more about the game. The joy of sharing has been driven from me." This is something of a tradition among gamers, who regularly send death threats and angry messages to video game developers (and journalists) who displease them. One Kotaku headline in 2012 read: "Another Day, Another Death Threat From Gamers to The People Who Make Video Games." Similar toxicity has surrounded God of War Ragnarok, a highly anticipated game from Sony Group Corp. that has been a bit of a marketing mystery. Originally announced in 2020 for release in 2021, the PlayStation exclusive slipped to 2022 and has not been shown at all this year.  God of War Ragnarok Source: Sony Rumors earlier this month suggested that God of War Ragnarok was delayed once again, but Bloomberg reported that the game was on track for November and that the release date would be announced soon. A couple of other Twitter leakers jumped in with their own rumors, and studio creative director Cory Barlog returned to Twitter after a long hiatus with a series of cryptic teases. But June came and went without an announcement. Sony had originally planned to give a release date and start taking pre-orders for God of War Ragnarok on Thursday, according to people familiar with plans, but there was nothing. It's not yet clear why. Even before that, however, gamers were getting irate and restless. They sent nasty messages to employees of Sony Santa Monica, the development studio that makes God of War, demanding a release date. Even people who no longer work there were included in the abuse. All because people haven't learned the release date for a video game they haven't yet played. This kind of behavior isn't just abhorrent, it's also counter-productive. Making games is a difficult endeavor that straddles the line between creativity and technology, and toxicity from gamers can be a drain on morale, driving developers to burn out and sometimes even leave the industry entirely. Personally, I think that every time a gamer sends a death threat, God of War Ragnarok should be delayed an extra week. That way, it'll never come out. I've been really into AI: The Somnium Files - nirvanA Initiative, a strangely titled Japanese mystery game by beloved writer and director Kotaro Uchikoshi. This game, a sequel to 2019's AI: The Somnium Files, starts off with a supernatural dilemma: half of a dead man appears out of thin air in the middle of a televised quiz show. Six years later, the other half appears. What follows is a twisty, dark saga with smart writing and a very fun cast of characters. Games Done Quick, a biannual charity marathon in which people play video games as fast as they can, is running this week and concludes this weekend. Check out the archive if you want to catch up on any of the games they played. A brief Nintendo Direct revealed a few cool new things: the Persona games are coming to Switch, Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope is out this October, and a cool-looking game called Harvestella blends Stardew Valley with Square Enix's aesthetic style. One hardcore Nintendo fan spent more than $40,000 buying up shares so he could ask the president for a sequel to F-Zero, one of his favorite franchises. | 
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