Sacred Symbols+, #419 | On Nintendo vs Palworld, the ZeniMax QA Strike, and a Ubisoft Lawsuit (Patreon)

Welcome back to Sacred Symbols+! Today, I (Colin) am once again joined by Last Stand Media's legal analyst and friend-of-the-show Rick Hoeg, and we've convened today to discuss a trio of interesting topics pertaining to our beloved games industry. For starters, we finally have an update to the pending legal action between Nintendo and Pocketpair, the Japanese developer behind the popular game Palworld. What's going on there, and how are things shaping up for both sides? Next, we take a brief foray into the world of labor strikes, as ZeniMax's 300-strong QA union, first organized just last year, organized a one-day walkout to protest back-to-the-office orders and an increasing reliance on outsourcing. Are we only seeing the beginnings of true labor unrest in the games space? Finally, we end our conversation on a peculiar lawsuit filed earlier this month in California, a potential class action against publisher Ubisoft for taking its 2014 offering The Crew offline, making it totally unplayable. Will we ever settle upon the difference between buying a product outright and merely (though perhaps unknowingly) licensing it, or are we doomed to be stuck in a time loop?

Timestamps:

0:00:00 - Intro

00:03:48 - Nintendo vs. Pocketpair update

00:40:56 - ZeniMax QA Union walkout

01:00:02 - Ubisoft sued over The Crew