Welcome to the
Game Replay, the thrice-weekly look back at the wider world of gaming by the staff of
MacNN. In today's edition, gaming luminary Peter Molyneux becomes the victim of a retirement hoax following a Twitter account hack, the CEO of Bungie is replaced just one week after a report claimed there were internal issues at the
Destiny developer, GOG takes on Steam by offering early access sales for games still in development, and Sony's attempts to register "Let's Play" as a trademark has been blocked yet again.
Bungie CEO Harold Ryan leaves role, replaced by COO Pete Parsons,
A major management change has occurred at Bungie, with the CEO and studio president stepping down. Former CEO Harold Ryan is leaving his role, after being employed by the company for the last 15 years, and is being replaced by the former COO Pete Parsons.
Initially spotted
by GamesIndustry.biz, Parsons writes in a
statement "I want to personally thank Harold for his friendship, passion, hard work, and dedication in helping make Bungie the great company it is today. As a team, we have celebrated many victories and weathered many storms."
Parsons continued with a message to the players of
Destiny. "I want you to know that my number one priority, and Bungie's, is and always has been to deliver great games that we can all share together. I believe that
Destiny is a one-of-a-kind experience. I also believe you have yet to see our studio's best work."
While the relatively brief statement includes Parson's comments, there is neither an explanation for why Ryan is stepping down, nor any comment from Ryan himself.
Bungie recently came under fire after a
report claimed the developer was struggling to develop future downloadable content for
Destiny. Internal communications and repeated delays in releasing content were claimed in the report, along with the suggestion the second game in the franchise may arrive far later than previously thought.
Peter Molyneux Twitter account hacked, fake retirement announcement posted
A well-known game developer was the subject of a Twitter hack, which was used to spread a hoax message claiming he had retired. Peter Molyneux, gaming luminary and founder of 22 Cans, discovered his Twitter account had been breached, and for a brief period, was claiming to followers that Molyneux was stepping away from game development, and was pulling
Godus from the Steam store in the near future.
Colin Gallacher of 22 Cans
told Polygon "Those tweets were not legitimate," confirming Molyneux was a victim of an attack. "The tweets posted were not by Peter himself and do not represent the views of Peter. Basically – Peter is not retiring and
Godus is not being pulled from the store."
Aside from the claimed removal of
Godus and the retirement, the hoax messages declared Molyneux's "biggest mistake" was the Xbox 360 game Fable 3, which "pushed me and my team to the limits."
Molyneux has since regained control of the account, removing the messages and
confirming the hoax. "Ahh my account has been hacked," posts Peter, commenting that readers could tell "cos they know how to spell," and reiterating "I am not retiring, not closing
Godus."
GOG attempts to compete against Steam by launching own "early access" program
Online store GOG is taking on one of competitor Steam's major features: early access of games. The store has
revealed it will be offering customers the ability to play games long before they are formally released for sale, but GOG is attempting to make its version of early access more amenable to gamers.
First, GOG claims it is "hand-picking only the games we can truly stand behind," offering only the most requested Community Wishlist games and what it believes are promising titles after evaluation. The first wave of early access games consists of just five titles, including
Project Zomboid and Starbound.
As part of the same scheme, GOG is offering a 14-day "no questions asked" policy for the games, giving players a chance to try out what has been developed so far and decide for themselves if they want to continue playing it. The
GOG Galaxy client also allows players to roll back updates for games to an earlier state, restoring it before an update with a bug was applied, as well as to earlier states in the game's development to compare it with the final release.
Law firm letter effectively ends Sony's attempts to trademark "Let's Play"
Sony's attempts to register the term "Let's Play" as a
trademark has effectively been brought to an end by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). A letter sent to the USPTO by The McArthur Law Firm managed to convince the government body that the term was generic and "merely descriptive" when applied to game streaming.
The letter included more than 50 examples of the term's use in gaming and streaming,
reports Eurogamer, including the Wikipedia listing and a Reddit forum as proof. The USPTO's ruling advises the registration is refused "because the applied-for mark merely describes a feature of the applicant's services," namely the PlayStation 4's live streaming capabilities.
McArthur Law Firm claims the rejection is "far more lethal" to the effort to register the trademark than the earlier rejection. "Given the strength of this evidence, we are confident that Sony will not be able to overcome this rejection. The term 'Let's Play' is now forever in the public domain."
The previous rejection by the USPTO was based on an existing mark for "LP Let'z Play," which had a potential for confusion with Sony's attempted registration.
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