David Eddings, the original voice actor for Claptrap from the Borderlands series who isn’t returning for Borderlands 3, has shared some new insight into the situation–and it is dramatic. After Randy Pitchford, the CEO of Borderlands developer Gearbox Software, called him “bitter and disgruntled,” Eddings spoke up again today. He shared his side of the story, which includes a claim that Pitchford physically assaulted him in a hotel lobby at the Game Developers Conference in 2017.

“I was fine moving on after Gearbox,” he said. “But when my former boss starts mouthing off about various aspects of my employment, including ‘how highly compensated’ I was and how ‘generous’ he is, I feel obligated to correct the record.”

In the Twitter thread, Eddings said he had “mixed feelings” when Gearbox asked him in 2018 if he would come back to voice Claptrap for Borderlands 3. He said he was willing to “put differences aside and do something cool for Borderlands fans with my friends at Gearbox.”

Eddings said he offered to do the Borderlands 3 voicework for “free” in exchange for Gearbox paying him past royalties for his work doing the voice of Claptrap in the previous Borderlands titles. As reported previously, Eddings did the voicework for Claptrap on Borderlands 1 and 2 when he was an employee at Gearbox, so he did not draw any additional payment.

Eddings also brought up a significant claim against Pitchford: that Pitchford assaulted him in 2017. Eddings said Pitchford “physically assaulted me” in a hotel lobby during GDC 2017. The alleged misconduct reportedly took place at the Marriott Marquis hotel in downtown San Francisco. The situation surrounding the alleged assault is unclear, and Eddings did not say if he filed a police report. Whatever the case, Eddings said he offered to do the voicework for Claptrap in Borderlands 3 if Gearbox gave him the requested backpay and an apology for the reported assault. It appears that didn’t happen.

“Personally, I think Randy’s been on the tilt the last few years. He’s not the victim he portrays himself to be. I even blocked him a couple years ago for stalking me on social media. Enough is enough,” Eddings said.

He went on to mention again the reported $12 million that Pitchford is alleged in a lawsuit to have received as a secret bonus paid to him instead of going to the Gearbox development team’s bonus pool. Eddings said it was “conspicuous” that Pitchford would talk about Edding’s salary but not mention the alleged $12 million payment that, in Eddings’ words, Pitchford “siphoned away from the employee royalty pool.” Eddings added, “Gearbox employees are asked to take lower salaries with the promise of royalty shares.”

2K Games, the publisher of Borderlands 3, has not publicly commented on the lawsuit in question, which was filed by a former Gearbox lawyer at the tail end of 2018. 2K Games is owned by Take-Two Interactive, which handles the legal matters for its subsidiaries.

Here is Eddings’ full Twitter thread on the subject:

Eddings was a decade-plus executive veteran at Gearbox before he left in 2017 to take a job at Rooster Teeth, where he currently serves as Head of Game Publishing. According to Pitchford, Eddings was terminated, but the specifics surrounding his departure from Gearbox are unclear. Whatever the case, Eddings appears to be directing his misgivings solely at Pitchford. He says Gearbox is “full of amazingly talented game developers,” adding that it’s unfair to blame the developers “for the actions of one person.”

According to Pitchford, Eddings was paid “handsomely” during his time at Gearbox. And regarding the invitation to return as Claptrap in Borderlands 3, Pitchord said Gearbox offered him two times the standard union voice acting rate, which Eddings refused for the reasons mentioned above.

Pitchford has yet to respond to Eddings’ comments today. GameSpot has contacted 2K Games in an attempt to get more details. Keep checking back with GameSpot for the latest.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/borderlands-3-original-claptrap-voice-actor-makes-/1100-6466695/

A new Minecraft game is in the works, it appears, and it might not be what you expect. The company today posted a teaser video for what looks like a Minecraft augmented reality game.

The brief teaser video shows some kind of Minecraft AR game similar to Pokemon Go or Harry Potter: Wizards Unite with its blending of real and virtual world elements. Whatever it is, it looks like it’ll be announced on the Minecraft website on May 17. Check out the teaser below, and yes, the man (who looks strikingly like Xbox pioneer J. Allard) does not appear to give the woman back her phone. We don’t know why.

At E3 2015, Microsoft showcased a stunning Minecraft experience for the company’s AR HoloLens headset. But given that the new teaser video doesn’t show anyone wearing an AR headset, it looks like the Minecraft AR game could be more akin to the aforementioned Niantic games in its headset-free blending of the real and digital worlds.

According to noted Microsoft insider Brad Sams, who has accurately reported on unannounced Microsoft stories before, the Minecraft AR game is code-named “Genoa.”

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told The New York Times in 2015 that one of the reasons Microsoft spent $2.5 billion to acquire Minecraft and developer Mojang was due to the potential benefits of marrying Minecraft and augmented reality. “Let’s have a game that, in fact, will fundamentally help us change new categories,” Nadella said. “HoloLens was very much in the works [when Microsoft announced the deal in 2015], and we knew it.”

The May 17 reveal date for the new Minecraft AR game is not random. It presumably aligns with the Minecraft 10-year anniversary celebration scheduled for the same day. Minecraft’s creator, Markus “Notch” Persson, is being excluded from the event over his “comments and opinions.”

The official Minecraft Twitter account cheekily reacted to the Minecraft AR news today with the thinking face emoji.

In addition to the rumored new Minecraft AR game, Microsoft is working on a Minecraft dungeon-crawler called Minecraft Dungeons. The title, which doesn’t have a release date, appears to take a more linear approach rather than the open-ended sandbox nature of the mainline game.

Minecraft remains one of the most popular games on Earth. By Microsoft’s latest count, it had 91 million monthly players, which is many millions more than Fortnite has.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/a-minecraft-ar-game-is-in-the-works-it-seems/1100-6466691/

Following their surprise appearance in the wild last week, Azelf, Mesprit, and Uxie have made their way into Raid Battles in Pokemon Go. The Legendary Pokemon will appear in Gyms from now until May 27, but which one you’ll be able to catch will depend on where you live.

Just as when they first appeared in the wild, each of the three Legendary Pokemon is currently exclusive to a specific region. Azelf is appearing throughout the Americas and Greenland; Mesprit is available across Europe, Africa, and the Middle East; and Uxie is only spawning in the Asia-Pacific region.

Each of the Legendary Pokemon will appear in their respective parts of the world until May 27. It’s unclear if Niantic plans to rotate them after that point, as it has done in the past with other region-exclusive Pokemon. However, the developer teases that players will have a chance of coming across the Legendaries in the wild in their regions even after their Raid event ends–although you’ll need to be “extraordinarily lucky” in Niantic’s words, suggesting the odds of finding one will be incredibly low.

Azelf, Mesprit, and Uxie were first introduced in Pokemon Diamond and Pearl for the DS. Together the Pokemon are collectively known as the lake trio, so named due to the fact that each one guards a different lake in the Sinnoh region. All three of the Pokemon are pure Psychic-types, which makes them vulnerable to Dark, Bug, and Ghost Pokemon like Tyranitar, Gengar, and Scizor.

In other Pokemon Go news, Niantic is kicking off a Detective Pikachu event in the game this week to celebrate the live-action movie’s theatrical release. From May 7-17, Pokemon that are featured in the film, such as Bulbasaur, Jigglypuff, and Snubble, will appear in the wild and in Raid Battles. You’ll also have a chance of finding a Shiny Aipom and a special Pikachu wearing a detective’s hat.

Shortly after the Detective Pikachu event ends, Niantic will host Pokemon Go’s next Community Day. That event is set for Sunday, May 19, and will star the Gen 3 starter Torchic as its featured Pokemon.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/pokemon-go-azelf-mesprit-and-uxie-now-available-in/1100-6466682/

Last year, five lawsuits were filed against Riot Games for the company’s violation of the California Equal Pay Act, citing how in-house sexism was affecting the workplace and creating a “bro culture.” According to Kotaku, this past April, Riot filed a forced arbitration for two of them. In response, Riot Games’ employees are preparing for the first of several planned walkouts.

An estimated number of 100 employees are set to participate in the walkout today. To Kotaku, one employee said, “I’m walking out as a symbolic action to signal to leadership that I care about this issue. I hope leadership takes the time to seriously listen to the issues.”

In response to the walkout, a Riot representative told Kotaku, “While we will not make a change to our policies while in active litigation, last Thursday we announced that we’ve made the call to pivot our approach. As soon as active litigation is resolved, we will give all new Rioters the choice to opt-out of mandatory arbitration for individual sexual harassment and sexual assault claims. At that time, we will also commit to have a firm answer on potentially expanding the scope and extending this opt-out to all Rioters. We are working diligently to resolve all active litigation so that we can quickly take steps toward a solution. As we have been for the past week, we will continue to listen to Rioters regarding their thoughts on arbitration and we’re thankful for everyone that has taken the time to meet with leadership about this issue.”

“It’s been eight months since the original [Kotaku] article was released and so far I haven’t seen a single outcome of our diversity and inclusion efforts at Riot,” one Riot employee told Kotaku. “I haven’t seen a single metric or number to indicate things have improved and I haven’t seen a single project get finished.”

Another employee told Kotaku, “I think having executives get up for two hours and do the classic, roundabout series of denials helped other Rioters wake up to the fact that this is actually happening here. The impression most Rioters got is that [the executives] do care about it, a bit. They care about being publicly humiliated.”

This walkout is the first major protest seen in the game industry since the bulk of Crytek USA quit for being underpaid back in 2014. The gaming landscape of today is very different from previous years, as talk of studio employees unionizing has become a larger focus amongst the many reports of crunch and other poor working conditions within the industry. The shift has put many studios under the microscope, including big names like Fortnite‘s Epic Games and Mortal Kombat 11‘s NeatherRealm. In response, numerous teams, such as Apex Legends‘ Respawn, are sticking to certain development practices in regards to updating their games in order to avoid putting their employees through crunch.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/100-riot-employees-set-to-walk-out-in-protest-toda/1100-6466680/