Citing concerns over racist and transphobic material, Dungeons & Dragons publisher Wizards of the Coast is trying to take back an old game to prevent its publication, according to a report in Polygon. It’s a complicated situation, but the game, Star Frontiers New Genesis, is a reboot of a classic 1982 game with some…
Patreon, a platform that helps creators to generate more income from their work, has laid off 80 employees, or around 17 percent of its total headcount, amid the global economic slowdown and fears of a recession. The company is closing its Berlin office, which housed sales and marketing employees. Patreon is centralizing those operations in the US. A Dublin office is also shutting down and Patreon will offer nine engineers there the option to relocate to the US in order to centralize resources. An office in Porto, Portugal will remain open to provide support to creators and users in Europe.
The layoffs have impacted four teams — Go-to-Market, Operations, Finance and People — CEO Jack Conte wrote in a letter to employees. Patreon will offer affected workers at least three months of severance and those in the US will receive COBRA healthcare coverage through the end of the year. The company will also offer resources to help them find a new job and waive a one-year equity vesting cliff for pending stock options.
Last week, Patreon let go five members of its security team for different reasons. Conte said this “was part of a longer-term strategy to continue distributing security responsibilities across our entire engineering team, bring new areas of expertise into Patreon internally, and continue partnering with external experts.” However, he noted that the company is ramping up its investment in security.
Conte wrote that the layoffs are part of a restructuring that will see Patreon plow more resources into its product, engineering and design departments. However, the company is scaling back recruitment and the size of its operations.
“I’m more confident than ever that the world needs a better economic system for creative people, and Patreon will keep building that system for creators over the decades ahead,” Conte said. “However, the pandemic introduced volatility to the broader trend, starting with a rapid acceleration during COVID lockdowns. In response, we built an operating plan to support this outsized growth, but as the world began recovering from the pandemic and enduring a broader economic slowdown, that plan is no longer the right path forward for Patreon.”
This is just the latest in a long line of recent layoffs at notable tech companies. Apple, Google, Meta, Peloton, Netflix, Snap, Paypal, Unity and others have all reduced their headcount or pumped the brakes on recruitment in recent months.
Starbucks plans to spend $450 million next year to make its North American stores more efficient and less complex.
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners has a lot of weird baggage attached, from its connection to the controversial and divisive CD Projekt game to being the latest in the legacy of Studio Trigger. But Netflix’s latest anime acquisition has a lot to love… and a few things to love a little less.
Climate change-fueled natural disasters, from wildfires to floods, are affecting more Americans every year. Many people are caught off guard by emergencies in their communities, but there are ways to prepare that can help you protect your life and health when the worst happens.
Patreon is laying off about 80 employees, comprising 17% of the subscription platform’s staff. The news first came in an Instagram post from Jack Conte, the creator loyalty company’s CEO and in a blogpost on the company’s site, on Tuesday.
Meta’s moving to combine two integrity teams in charge of moderating different types of content under one roof. The company says it’ll boost efficiency, while reports say the move is also part of an effort to cut down costs. The significant reorganizing comes as some workers continue to fear the prospect of potential…
You read that headline right. For a limited time only, you can purchase an emerald necklace allegedly derived from the Musk family jewel mine.
Emojis make our lives a lot easier. From actually serving to represent how we’re feeling to being the punchline to an inside joke, emojis has revolutionized how we text, tweet, and communicate. With that, Adobe just released a trend report that surveyed 5,000 respondents from across the United States in order to …
Flickr is adding a new virtual photography category to help users find and categorize images they capture in their favorite video games. Previously, the platform only offered three content categories: photos, illustration and art, and screenshots. The company notes the third and final one didn’t quite meet the needs of one of its fastest-growing communities, which is why it’s making the change.
“By putting your work into one of these categories, you can use filters to limit your search results by interest,” Flickr explains in a blog post spotted by PetaPixel. “For instance, virtual photographers will be able to filter by ‘virtual photography’ while conducting site-wide searches if they only want to see that kind of work, while avoiding real-world photography or other art and illustration.”
The addition is an acknowledgment of just how popular virtual photography has become. We’re at the point where most games either ship with a photo mode at launch or the feature is added after release. Many developers have also started to frequently share the best captures from their communities. For instance, Hideo Kojima retweets Death Stranding photo mode images almost every week, as do studios like CD Projekt Red and Guerrilla Games.
おはようございます😗#DeathStrandingpic.twitter.com/DA2DitZ582
— あ〜！タピオカ〜おぅ（笑）ピスタチオやけどなっ😁🤘 (@s_731731) September 12, 2022
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