Axios Gaming

Intense fan resistance to an unpopular policy change proposed by Dungeons & Dragons publisher Wizards of the Coast appears to have been successful.

Driving the news: Wizards is abandoning plans to create a new "1.2" license for use of its content by third-party creators, the company announced Friday. It will keep its older license, 1.0a, in effect.

• It will also offer much of its content — including 403 pages of classic D&D systems and stats called the SRD 5.1 — through a Creative Commons license.

Be smart: This is no small thing. The license governs what third parties, from fans to small businesses, can create using the foundations of D&D's systems.

• Such content is widely popular and considered the lifeblood of much of the scene, beyond Wizards' official creations.

Catch up quick: A proposed change to the license — including a controversial profit-sharing structure and requirements to register all creations — leaked via a Jan. 5 Gizmodo report and led to outrage in the D&D community.

• After more than a week of near-silence, Wizards began retreating, dropping royalty plans and registration requirements but still pushing for a new license.
• Last week, the company began soliciting feedback through a survey that was expected to extend into next month.

What they're saying: "The feedback is in such high volume and its direction is so plain that we're acting now," executive producer Kyle Brink said in a statement to the D&D community.

• Out of 15,000 users who have submitted comments so far, 88% don't want to publish any content under the 1.2 terms, and 90% said they would have to change some aspect of their business to accommodate those terms.

The big picture: Wizards of the Coast parent company Hasbro said Thursday it was laying off 1,000 people after reporting a preliminary decline in overall fourth-quarter revenue.

• But it anticipates $339 million in revenue from Wizards and its digital entertainment brands for the quarter, up 22% from the year before.
• Fan unrest would have put such a forecast in jeopardy, as D&D fans rallied throughout January to show their displeasure about the license change by canceling their paid subscriptions to D&D's online portal.

Go deeper: Fan revolt rocks Dungeons & Dragons scene

Approximately 40 workers at Ubisoft’s Paris studio gathered Friday afternoon to strike for the rest of the day, a worker who attended the meeting tells Axios.

Why it matters: It was the first labor stoppage of its kind at the embattled publisher of Assassin’s Creed and Just Dance.

• Workers began gathering in the studio’s cafeteria around 1pm for a group discussion about the state of the company, the pressures of intense development cycles, and how to coordinate actions to resist policies that can overwork developers.  
• The "main topic was mostly around 'what's next,'" the attendee who spoke anonymously for fear of retaliation said. "What will we face in the next 18-24 months will be hard."
• In a shared statement, the workers told Axios that recent development cycles for Ubisoft Paris productions, including Just Dance and Ghost Recon, had led to developer burnout.
• The attendee estimated the turnout constituted more than 15% of the development studio, where series such as Ghost Recon are developed. (It is not to be confused with Ubisoft’s nearby corporate headquarters.)

Catch-up quick: Organizers at French trade union Solidaires Informatique called for the afternoon strike this month, saying company CEO Yves Guillemot “is trying to shift the blame” for Ubisoft's financial struggles.

• Ubisoft announced on Jan. 11 that it was canceling three more games and looking for $200 million in cost reductions in the next two years.
• Guillemot also sent a memo to the company’s thousands of workers saying that “the ball is in your court” to hit deadlines and help the company turn things around.
• Guillemot later apologized to staffers for that remark, acknowledging that management was also responsible, Kotaku reported.

Between the lines: The Ubisoft Paris strike was conducted as a group strategy discussion, not a protest.

• There were no signs or chants akin to one of gaming’s few prior labor stoppages at Blizzard Entertainment in July 2021.

The bottom line: “This strike has helped build the next strikes to come,” said the attendee in Paris.

• “If Ubisoft management doesn't want to hear from us, they might understand that it's the workers who decide when games are released."
• A spokesperson for Ubisoft declined to comment on the strike.

📺 The HBO adaptation of The Last of Us has been renewed for a second season, according to the cable network. It may adapt the game’s grim sequel, one of the show’s creators has said, but that’s not confirmed.

🎩 A Pokémon called Kadabra, which has been omitted from the popular collectible card game for two decades, is slated to return after a magician dropped his legal objections to the card, PokéBeach reports. In a statement to the site, Uri Geller gave some credit for his about-face to pressure from his granddaughters.

I love dramatic skies, and so do readers of this newsletter who responded to my calls for favorite screenshots with one gorgeous vista after another.

I'm featuring two of those today:

• Above, reader Juan sent in a shot from 2015's Mad Max: "I think I had finished upgrading the car at this point and was able to get into more difficult areas near Gastown." I can second Juan's appreciation for the scenery in the game, which includes some short, stunning hot-air balloon rides.
• Below, reader Blair shares a shot from God of War Ragnarök: "I loved the lighting of the scene and how epic Kratos & Atreus' boat looked sailing around the frozen lightning bolt. I figured adding in the logo would be a good move because of how emblematic of the game as a whole this capture was, and I really love the way it came out."

Got a screenshot you'd like to show off? Send it in. I'm going to run more items like this in future newsletters.