Weekend Highlights (January 31 – February 1)

Gaming company stocks tumbled amid news about Project Genie, the head of the Ashes of Creation developer studio resigned in protest against the board's actions, and Epstein files noted mentions of a former GTA producer—here are the main events in the gaming industry over the past weekend.

Late last week, Google announced the expansion of access to Project Genie—an experimental prototype of a generative AI based on Genie 3 for creating small virtual worlds. The corporation decided to open up the neural network to AI Ultra subscribers in the United States. Following this, videos appeared online with worlds inspired by GTA, The Legend of Zelda, DOOM, and other games, leading to a drop in gaming company stock prices. As reported by media outlets, Nintendo's shares fell by 4.79%, CD Projekt's by 8.9%, Take-Two Interactive's by 10.5%, Roblox's by 12.8%, and Unity's by 22.5% in just one day.
A dark period has fallen upon Intrepid Studios, which recently released the MMORPG Ashes of Creation in early access. Its founder, Steven Sharif, announced on Discord that he is stepping down. He admitted that he decided to leave the team as he lost control over Intrepid Studios some time ago—it is currently managed by the board of directors. He stated that senior managers are issuing directives that he strongly opposes. Sharif added that along with him, most of the leading specialists also submitted their resignation letters, after which the board of directors expressed an intention to carry out mass layoffs. Sharif did not disclose the exact scale of the layoffs, but rumors suggest that all Intrepid Studios employees might be affected. Moreover, it is claimed that developers allegedly will not receive their salaries for the last month due to the studio's dire financial situation. Intrepid Studios' management has not yet commented on Sharif's statement or the ensuing rumors.
The U.S. Department of Justice released a new batch of documents regarding the Jeffrey Epstein case. Among other things, they contain accusations against former GTA producer Leslie Benzies—according to one of the victims, he committed sexual assault against her. Additionally, the woman claimed that Rockstar Games co-founder Sam Houser was at least aware of the situation. It is noteworthy that she did not file any lawsuits against Benzies, and whether this claim was investigated remains unclear.
A long-standing legal battle over loot boxes in FIFA games (now EA Sports FC) concluded in Austria. The country's Supreme Court ruled that loot boxes in the Ultimate Team mode do not constitute a gambling mechanism and do not turn FIFA into a gambling game. After analyzing the gameplay, the court concluded that winning matches depends not only on the luck of the drawn cards from the loot boxes but also on gamers' skills, meaning there are no violations in the franchise. It is worth noting that in 2020, a group of Austrian gamers filed a lawsuit against Electronic Arts and Sony, which processed payments in FIFA on PlayStation, demanding compensation of no less than 20,000 euros.