Game Bytes: Riot’s $100M Settlement And Tesla’s Passenger Play Problems
December has come and gone and with it lots of holidays as well as some gaming news. The past few weeks have been rather slow with news as most are talking about the end of the year and which game is taking home the Best of 2021 title. There was some news regarding Tesla, Ubisoft, and Riot Games.
Tesla is under investigation for its feature entitled “Passenger Play,” which the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is saying will be unsafe for drivers. Tesla’s Arcade Mode allows owners to select from a collection of games to play on the large tablet display in the center of the dashboard, including Cuphead, Stardew Valley, The Battle of Polytopia, Beach Buggy Racing 2, Cat Quest, Chess, and more. Owners can also play games with a controller as well as use the touch screen while the car is in motion. Passenger play was a feature that used to only be usable while the car was in park but now seems to work when it is in drive and could lead to many accidents if used incorrectly.
A new report says employees are leaving Ubisoft at unprecedented rates. According to Ubisoft the rate is not out of the norm, but it is the highest rate of employees leaving the company to date. Some of the suspected reasons for leaving include low pay, “frustration” with Ubisoft’s creative direction, an increase in opportunities elsewhere, and of course the allegations of widespread workplace abuses at Ubisoft that surfaced last year. This loss of employees has been leading to some of Ubisoft’s upcoming games being stalled in development despite the already impactful pandemic delays.
League of Legends developer Riot Games has settled its gender discrimination class-action lawsuit for a total of $100 million. Riot will pay $80 million to members of the class-action suit, while $20 million will go to the plaintiffs’ legal fees. The suit started in 2018 and was set to be settled in 2019 for $10 million, but California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing blocked the agreement by filing an argument with the court for a much higher settlement. Both sides of the lawsuit have signed the $100 million agreement, which will now go to a judge for approval. If it gets approved, approximately 1,065 women employees and 1,300 women contract workers since November 2014 will be eligible for compensation.
We are closing out this year of gaming with some awesome games. Alien: Isolation (iOS, Android), Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade (PC), Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breach (PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, PC), KeyWe (Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One) and The Gunk (Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PC) were all released on the 16th of December, with Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance (PC) coming out on the 17th. Among Us: Crewmate Edition (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch), and Lacuna (PlayStation 4, Xbox One) came out on the 21st, right before the holidays. Coming out to start January will be Deep Rock Galactic (PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4) on the 4th and many more highly anticipated titles to come.
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