Bobby Kotick Is On One, Rockstar Explosions & AI On Steam: All The News From January 18-21

Welcome to Recap, our twice-weekly feature on Aftermath where we round up what’s been going on around video games, the internet and beyond.

Rockstar North's offices were rocked by an explosion on Sunday when a boiler malfunctioned. Nobody was hurt.

Police have cordoned off Rockstar north after explosion, reportedly caused by malfunctioning boiler

An explosion has been reported at Rockstar North, police and the fire department are on the scene.

Eurogamer.netConnor Makar

George RR Martin says he has no plans for anyone else to finish the A Song of Ice and Fire series if he dies before they're done. Which, whatever man, live your life!

Game of Thrones Writer George R.R. Martin Says There’s No Plan if He Dies Before Completing Winds of Winter, and the Series Simply ‘Won’t Be Finished’ - IGN

George R.R. Martin has said that if he never completes Game of Thrones sequel Winds of Winter (or the book after that), there’s no plan for anyone else to step in. Instead, his Song of Ice and Fire series simply “won’t be finished.”

IGNTom Phillips

Bobby Kotick is absolutely on one.

Former Activision CEO Bobby Kotick says lawsuit opposing Microsoft-Activision deal was secretly meant to help The Embracer Group (Embracer, “humbled,” denies involvement)

In a grievance-filled legal filing, Kotick also vows to “shine a light on the gross misconduct of the activists who invented the false narrative of misconduct at Activision… “

Game FileStephen Totilo

The former head of the Assassin's Creed franchise, Marc-Alexis Cote, is suing Ubisoft for CAD$1.3 million, alleging that despite the company claiming his change of job had been voluntary, in fact Ubisoft had 'decided to transfer the leadership of the Assassin's Creed franchise to someone else'.

Former Assassin’s Creed franchise lead sues Ubisoft for “constructive dismissal”

Marc-Alexis Côté has requested CAD $1.3 million in severance pay and moral damages

GamesIndustry.bizSophie McEvoy

Cyberpunk 2077 developers CDPR have filed a takedown notice against a VR mod for the game, after its creator refused the studio's requests (as per CDPR's 'fan content guidelines') to make the mod free.

CD Projekt Red takes down Cyberpunk 2077 VR mod

The DMCA hammer slams down on modder

Polygon.comAimee Hart

Valve has quietly changed the rules on AI disclosure for games on Steam. Where previously games had to list any and all uses of AI, there's now a divide between what you no longer need to fess up to (basically coding that Valve says would make development more "efficient") and what you do (anything that's public-facing, like art or writing). Seems almost impossible to police and delineate, but what do I know!

Interestingly, PC video game platform Steam just significantly rewrote - but did NOT remove - its 'does your game have AI in it?' dev disclosure form. The headline is that Valve's making it clearer… | Simon Carless | 34 comments

Interestingly, PC video game platform Steam just significantly rewrote - but did NOT remove - its ‘does your game have AI in it?’ dev disclosure form. The headline is that Valve’s making it clearer that ‘AI powered tools’ (like code helpers) do not trigger the need to disclose any use - “Efficiency gains through the use of [AI powered dev tools] is not the focus of this section.” Otherwise, devs still have to disclose two different types of AI use: - “AI to generate content for the game”, whether it be the game itself, the store page, or marketing materials. (A freeform box allows devs to describe this purely in text form of their choosing.) - “AI content generated during gameplay” - a simple tickbox on whether the game itself generates AI-created “images, audio, text and other content”. Valve’s labeling decision is an outlier on game platforms, but fits with their internal rules on how they would want to be informed if they were a player. | 34 comments on LinkedIn

LinkedInSimon Carless