Departure: Yoshinori Ono steps down from current project
Yoshinori Ono, one of the lead producers of the Street Fighter franchise, is stepping away from his current project because of health reasons. On his Twitter account, Ono announced that he would be temporarily away from his post so he can recover from an illness that he has not specified.
Ono has been at the helm of the Street Fighter x Tekken title, which was released for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 platforms on March 6.
The producer, despite his illness, promised that he will provide “constant support” to the project and that the development team is “working wholeheartedly” for the update patches that will be released for the game soon.
We wish Yoshinori Ono fast recovery from his illness.
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Cruelty: RPG designer claims that game publishers treat developers badly
RPG designer Brian Fargo—the brains behind Wasteland and CEO of Inxile—claims that many developers are scared to talk about how they are treated by game publishers. This, he says, is because developers are afraid that they might not get work in the future.
In a Ripten interview, Fargo also says that developers are suffering from the unfair practices of game publishers. “There is more tension than you can believe,” he confesses. “You would not believe the stories you hear about how developer are treated by publishers these days. It is abysmal.”
It is quite understandable that these issues are practically hidden from the gaming public. Fargo goes on to claim that if game developers are more vocal about their complains, they might be blacklisted by publishers. “Because they are afraid to talk, because they’ll never get another contract if they do. That’s why… It’s really bad,” he adds.
To prove that he is telling the truth, Fargo cites an example. “Look at the most recent one with those poor guys at Obsidian. They did Fallout: New Vegas, the ship date got moved up and, who does the QA on a project? The publisher… so if a product goes out buggy, it’s not the developer’s fault.”
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Legal Issue: EMI sues Def Jam Rapstar for eight million dollars
Def Jam Rapstar, which was developed by 4mm Games and Terminal Reality, is being accused by record label EMI of using unlicensed songs. The giant music label claims that the developers have failed to obtain the rights for many of its songs.
According to New York federal court documents (as obtained by The Hollywood Reporter), EMI claims that over 54 tracks were infringed upon by the developers and is demanding that the accused pay damages of $150,000 per work (with a total of over eight million dollars). On top of the damages, EMI is also demanding an unspecified share of the puzzle title’s net profit.
EMI is a part-owner of songs such as “I’m So Hood” by DJ Khaled, “This is Why I’m Hot” by Mims, “Got Money” by Lil Wayne, and “Harder Better Faster Stronger” by Daft Punk.
