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‘Apex Legends’ developers’ new studio embraces remote work
Gravity Well will foster an anti-crunch culture, according to its founders.
Respawn: Titanfall's server stability is in Microsoft's azure hands
Titanfall will be propped up by dedicated servers. As much was made known last June, but what may not be so clear to players is that post-launch hiccups are primarily Microsoft's responsibility. Respawn engineer Jon Shiring recently explained to Engadget how Respawn used Microsoft's "Azure" cloud computing technology to handle elements of Titanfall like AI hosting and physics calculations. "One of the really nice things about it is that it isn't my problem, right?" Shiring said of potential server issues at the game's launch. "We just say [to Microsoft], here are our estimates, aim for more than that, plan for problems and make sure there are more than enough servers available -- they'll know the whole time that they need to bring more servers online." Shiring said that during the game's lengthy beta program, the game's European servers filled up, and players were quietly transitioned to East Coast US data centers, indicating the developer's contingency plans in the event its launch is wildly popular tomorrow. Titanfall, a multiplayer-only game, is so reliant on the Azure servers that Respawn opted to not launch the game in some regions, such as South Africa. Shiring also noted in late January that server-side updates for the game won't cause downtime for players. Our review of Titanfall will be supplemented with our first of many State of Service reviews, so expect to hear more about how the game's online play holds up after it launches. [Image: Electronic Arts]
Report: Three more leave Infinity Ward
IGN reports that three more staffers have left Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 developer Infinity Ward. Programmer Jon Shiring and senior animator Bruce Ferriz independently confirmed that they were leaving IW, with Ferriz heading to Big Red Button Entertainment and Shiring not providing more information. "I'm not trying to create spectacle, I just wanted to avoid the LinkedIn nonsense," Shiring said of his move, referring to two former IW employees who were discovered via LinkedIn to have left the studio. Lead designer Mackey McCandlish has also confirmed (via Twitter) that he's leaving the studio after "a great 8+ year run." This news comes just one day after the ousted IW co-founders announced the creation of Respawn Entertainment and a partnership with ... ahem ... EA Partners. As of this writing, no ex-Infinity Ward employees have joined the new venture.
