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Sensory Sweep Studios founder jailed and fined $1.2 million for failing to pay wages
Dave Rushton, the founder and president of Utah-based Sensory Sweep Studios, has been sentenced to 12 months in prison and fined a total of $1.2 million in unpaid wages to more than 100 employees, according to the Associated Press.This judgment resolves a lawsuit filed in 2009 by the US Department of Labor, which enjoined the sales of several Sensory Sweep Studios games after employees claimed they hadn't been paid in more than 100 days. Additionally, the employees alleged that their 401(k) money had been stolen by the company. Rushton has already served jail time for other charges relating to Sensory Sweep. In 2010, Rushton plead guilty to one third-degree felony charge of failing to file taxes and one second-degree felony charge of "engaging in a pattern of unlawful activity," says the Salt Lake Tribune. In addition to prison, the sentence also included a 72-month probation and 200 hours of community service.Sensory Sweep Studios was primarily responsible for developing ports and licensed games for the Nintendo DS, such as Need for Speed: Most Wanted and Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends: Imagination Invaders, though it also developed some console games such as Alvin and the Chipmunks, or the XBLA version of Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting.
Suit: Sensory Sweep owes employees over $2 million
While other companies have laid off employees, Sensory Sweep Studios opted to do the right thing, to make the brave choice and not fire their beloved staff. But, according to the US Department of Labor, the employees have had to make some sacrifices too. Namely, their paychecks.Shockingly, the unpaid workers, rather than being happy just to have a job, are complaining about the $2 million they're reportedly owed. The nerve! The government has now filed an injunction to keep titles associated with the unpaid labor from being released, including: My English Coach (Ubisoft, for Nintendo) Gluco Boy II (Bayer Medical Group, for Nintendo) TNA Impact/Wrestling (Midway, for Nintendo DS) Drama Queens (Paramount, for Unknown) Tale of Desperaux (Atari, formerly Brash, for PS2 and Wii) The Bigs (2K for Nintendo) Scentient (an in-house game for 360) So, not only are these workers ungrateful for their employment, they're keeping us from the sequel to Glucoboy: The Game That Stabs You Until You Bleed. Shameful.
My Japanese Coach: Konnichiwa and beyond
Just as we did with My French Coach, we're taking a long, hard look at the recent My Japanese Coach -- but with one key difference. This time, instead of just lowly little me, slaving along with some knowledge of French, this time I'm struggling with a language I know very little of, and I'm working with a "partner" who knows quite a bit of Japanese already.Before tearing into Ubisoft's latest DS language trainer, if asked, I would have struggled to produce ten words in Japanese, and one of those ten would have been in the title of this post (and another would have been sushi). Perhaps that's exaggerating; after all, I did know a bit more than the fact that I prefer nigiri to sashimi, such as the words for red, blue, and green, and words like "please." My Japanese Coach-partner -- also known as my husband -- has always been very good about teaching me words when I ask. I suppose that makes me 1% more knowledgeable about the Japanese language than the average person pulled off the street.And that fraction means absolutely nothing, I learned, when you sit down to study a language like Japanese with any tool, even My Japanese Coach. %Gallery-28607% #ninbutton { border-style: solid; border-color: #000; border-width: 2px; background-color: #BBB; color: #000; text-decoration: none; width: 100px; text-align: center; padding: 2px 2px 2px 2px; margin: 2px 2px 2px 2px; } .buttontext { color: #000; text-decoration: none; font: bold 14pt Helvetica; } #ninbutton:hover { text-decoration: none; color: #BBB; background-color: #000; } NEXT >>
Bury the Shovelware: Jackass the Game
Licenses can be lethal. But as in all facets of life, prejudice shouldn't rule our thoughts. Every title should be given a fair chance. And yes, the same ought to apply to a game based on a television program in which Johnny Knoxville artificially inseminates a cow. To be honest, I was really hoping to be pleasantly surprised by this game. While Jackass was never the Jeopardy! of its time, it has swiped at least a chuckle or two from nearly all who bear witness to its inane displays of consenting human mutilation. This kind of brainless nihilism could easily lend itself to an arcade-style video game: small challenges with cheap thrills. Maybe Sensory Sweep could deliver a unique collage of pain and amusement. Perhaps it could be a truly unique experience, going against the grain of nearly every other game in history and rewarding the player for injury and humiliation, not sustainment or style: the true anti-parkour. But I might be expecting too much from something titled Jackass the Game. Yes folks, you guessed it ... we've got shovelware. %Gallery-11123%
