The CEO of Nintendo Russia has been issued a formal warning after an investigation on allegations of abuse
Yasha Haddaji, was given a formal warning after an investigation found that he had been verbally abusive and bullying to employees. Ryan Craddock of Nintendo Life is reporting that the incident that caused Nintendo Europe to investigate was a viral video showing Mr. Haddaji swearing at his employees and threatening to fire them during a broadcast for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. This video prompted some of his employees to come forward with issues and behavior they’ve had from him that ranged from violent outbursts to in some cases sexual harassment, which prompted Nintendo of Europe to investigate. Though some of the more serious claims couldn’t be proven because insufficient evidence, Mr. Haddaji has issued an apology for his behavior and expressed remorse. I hope that for the employees under his care that this is the end to a sad and avoidable chapter in their careers, and I hope that for Mr. Haddaji this is a learning situation that he won’t soon forget.
EA ends development of Star Wars title
EA has canceled development on the proposed open-world Star Wars game that was once being developed by Visceral Games, before being moved to EA Vancouver, after Visceral’s closure. Jason Schreier of Kotaku is reporting that EA Vancouver, the studio that mostly supports games like FIFA and Battlefront had been working on converting the linear, action-driven game being directed Uncharted director, Amy Hennig, into an open-world game. Well, it seems that after some Q&A and discussion, it was decided to scrap the game’s development completely in favor of a smaller-scaled project in the Star Wars universe, which will likely come out sometime in 2020, when the next generation of consoles are rumored to be released. Honestly, I hope that the folks at EA revisit this decision because an open-world Star Wars game sounds like a lot of fun to this gamer.
BEWARE Fortnite players: Security hole allows hackers to take over accounts
As the video below shows, a cybersecurity firm, Check Point Software Technologies is reporting that through a bogus link in chat, hackers can gain your login info, log into your account, buy items with a player payment information, and even listen to a player’s conversation through their microphone. The hole was found back in November, and Epic Games were immediately alerted to the problem, which they have fixed this month. Thank goodness!
Just a few thoughts…
- I wonder—if this video hadn’t have been released, 1) would the employees have felt emboldened to come forward about the abuse that they were suffering, for their fear of not being believed, and 2) would Nintendo of Europe have even listened to their complaints about this CEO?
- I would have loved to have played an open-world Star Wars game that takes place during the time period between episodes six and seven, or one that takes place during the time between the old republic days and episode one. Heck, I’d love to the get a Darth Bane Star Wars game. He is canon after all. Hell any game made with Amy Hennig leading it, I’ll play. She killed it with Uncharted. She knows how to craft amazing stories, and I have no doubt that the Star Wars game she was making would have continued the trend.
- I know that bugs and glitches happen, but this massive security hole of Fortnite’s had the potential to ruin people’s lives. I am really hoping that other gaming companies are looking at this situation, and are making sure they don’t have the same or similar holes.
