#gamefam studios

[tailschannel]

Sonic Speed Simulator developer settles labour complaint amid concerns of discriminatory workplace practices

Major concerns continue to cloud Gamefam Studios, the developer of Sonic Speed Simulator, after it was uncovered that the company reached a settlement in a legal complaint that claimed abusive labour practices.

The legal complaint

Gamefam retaliated against employees who discussed about their conditions of employment, like wages and working hours, alleged former Ultimate Driving programmer Joshua DeBoer in a legal complaint to the United States Board of Labor Relations in January 2023. It claimed that the studio breached section 8 of the nick-named "Wagner Act", a law meant to protect employees from unfair labour practices.

"I took no pleasure in doing this, and I did it because I want what's best for my coworkers - which is a fair rate of compensation for their work, and proper working conditions."

In a thread on Twitter, DeBoer claimed he was met with "immediate hostility when trying to address working conditions", after a discussion about his rank with the company's CEO, Joe Ferencz. As a result, the programmer was suspended with pay for a week, revoked work communications, and barred to exercise stock options.

Tails' Channel understands that the case reached a settlement in late March 2023, in that Gamefam agreed to reimburse DeBoer $5,000 USD in unpaid quarterly bonuses, and to publish an internal notice about the protected rights under the National Labor Relations Act.

"We will not in any like or related manner restrain, interfere with, or coerce you in the exercise of your above-stated rights guaranteed under Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act," read the notice.

The community reaction

After revoking a temporary ban to all Sonic Speed Simulator discussion, the unofficial Sonic the Hedgehog subreddit community again issued a new ban, permanent this time, until "SEGA decides to partner with a different developer."

"Punishing employees for discussing wages is both illegal and unacceptable," the subreddit's head moderator announced late Tuesday.

Speed Sim staff "caught in the crossfire"

When asked about the Sonic the Hedgehog community's reaction to the settlement, DeBoer told Tails' Channel that he "felt really bad" for the present and past staff members of Speed Simulator.

"They put their hard and soul into the Sonic project to make a great first splash into Roblox with Sonic and SEGA - and it showed," said DeBoer. "And now they're getting caught in the crossfire because of the generalized disdain towards Gamefam as a whole."

No response from the studio

The news followed last year's fallout of widespread allegations of discriminatory labour practices at Gamefam Studios. Sonic Prime voice actor Deven Mack were among those who voiced concerns amid the "#SonicSweatshopSimulator" trend on Twitter.

Gamefam initially denied wrongdoing, and claimed that they loved their teammates and community. The studio has yet to respond to Tails' Channel's attempts for comment.

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Update: Portions of the story were tipped by a current Tails' Channel team member. We understand that the member was employed by Gamefam Studios as a community moderator for Sonic Speed Simulator. The contents enclosed were solely those of the individual and no other third party. In all cases, the contents did not influence the writer's editorial decision-making. Steps have been taken to separate the individual from participating in editorial decisions related to Tails' Channel News coverage of Speed Simulator.

[creatureconnorstellation]

[true-blue-sonic]

I wonder if Sega has reconsidered the canonicity of Rivals since they put Metal Sonic 3.0 in Sonic Speed Simulator(around the same time as the Silver and Espio story in IDW too)

That is interesting, I was not aware of that! It certainly could mean they are aware of that the Rivals games exist and which characters appear in there. Though, SSS does seem to be made by an American-focused company, as Gamefam Studios is located in America. Is there still such a divide between Sega of America and Sega of Japan going on? If SoA is mainly focusing on this game, we have no way of knowing if and how SoJ is involved. I'm also curious to what extent Sega has an influence on what characters are featured, since there are a lot of them from all sorts of various past Sonic media (I'm impressed by the sheer amount of callbacks !). As such, I'm not sure if it shows Sega is truly reconsidering Rivals' canonicity, because multiple of those various character skins(?) also stem from universes that are not part of/canon to the games, such as Sonic X. But it does indicate Rivals is perhaps not fully forgotten!

[achampnator]

✨ New in #SonicSpeedSim as of 3 October 2022: Metals. "A strange mysterious meteor crashed into Green Hill with specimens of unknown origin. Help Tails beat Dr. Eggman in recovering the necessary parts of these mysterious specimens before he does," said Gamefam Studios. https://www.instagram.com/p/CjQqaUdtm9yBOQr9Rjlo4PvKeTDq9BjMEO1B5c0/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[reportwire]

Sonic the Hedgehog’s Next Game Is a Roblox Exclusive

Sonic the Hedgehog’s Next Game Is a Roblox Exclusive

While Sonic Frontiers may be the next Sonic the Hedgehog game that nostalgic fans are clamoring for, a whole new generation just saw the blue blur enter into a world they’re much more familiar with. Gamefam Studios, a developer that works exclusively inside of Roblox, has partnered with Sega to bring the hedgehog into the multiplayer game officially. RELATED: TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge Developers…

[newsfact]

Sonic the Hedgehog is coming to Roblox

Sonic the Hedgehog is coming to Roblox

GamesBeat Summit 2022 returns with its largest event for leaders in gaming on April 26-28th. Reserve your spot here! Roblox game developer Gamefam has teamed up with Sega to bring Sonic the Hedgehog to the Roblox platform for the first time. Gamefam, an independent studio which makes its own games on top of Roblox, will collaborate with Sega of America to launch Sonic Speed Simulator, a new game…

[koliasa]

Roblox is so lucrative that it has attracted professional studios like Gamefam

https://koliasa.com/roblox-is-so-lucrative-that-it-has-attracted-professional-studios-like-gamefam/ Roblox is so lucrative that it has attracted professional studios like Gamefam - https://koliasa.com/roblox-is-so-lucrative-that-it-has-attracted-professional-studios-like-gamefam/

[thedailybuzzus]

Roblox is so lucrative that it has attracted professional studios like Gamefam https://thedailybuzz.io/tech-news/roblox-is-so-lucrative-that-it-has-attracted-professional-studios-like-gamefam/

[dizzedcom]

Gamefam aims to be the first big gaming company built on Roblox

Gamefam aims to be the first big gaming company built on Roblox

Roblox went public yesterday after seeing tremendous growth in 2020, which isn’t just good news for the company’s employees and investors — there are also startups like Gamefam hoping to take advantage of the platform’s success. Roblox has a whole ecosystem of millions of developers and creators building on its game platform, and some are banding together to create their own teams and studios.…

[tailschannel]

Sonic Speed Simulator players can unlock the brand new "Grind Shoe" skin in this week's update.

In addition to "new features" to earn Red Star Rings, there's a new auto-run mode feature, and a reported return of Android Anomaly and Hologram Havoc.

This was yet another major update for Speed Simulator following allegations against the game's developer, Gamefam. The studio claimed no wrongdoing, but they have yet to directly address the concerns or respond to our request for comment.

[un-enfant-immature]

Gamefam aims to be the first big gaming company built on Roblox

Roblox went public yesterday after seeing tremendous growth in 2020, and that’s not just good news for the company’s employees and investors — there are also startups like Gamefam hoping to take advantage of the platform’s success.

Roblox has a whole ecosystem of millions of developers and creators building on its game platform, and some are banding together to create their own teams and studios. (We profiled several of those teams earlier this year in an article about the company’s creator accelerator.) But Gamefam founder and CEO Joe Ferencz said his startup is “the first and only fully-dedicated, professional game publishing company on Roblox.”

Founded in 2019, Gamefan currently has 37 full-time employees and eight live games, including Ultimate Driving and Hot Wheels Open World, and Ferencz said there are another 10 in development. Collectively, those games are seeing 48 million monthly visitors and generating six figures in monthly revenue.

Ferencz described the team as “gaming industry professionals working hand-in-hand with the top up-and-coming Roblox creators.” For example, Ultimate Driving creator TwentyTwoPilots also serves as Gamefam’s creative director.

Ferencz himself has worked as a manager Ubisoft and Mattel, where he worked on franchises including Hot Wheels, and where he recalled seeing the emergence free-to-play mobile gaming: “I said to myself, ‘The next time there’s this big platform shift, I want to be a part of this.'” The rise of Roblox and user-created games provided him with that opportunity.

Image Credits: Gamefam

At the same time, Ferencz said he was excited about the opportunities that Roblox provides to escape from the “orthodoxies” of free-to-play gaming, where the economics often drive game design decisions.

“Roblox truly is the metaverse for this younger generation,” he argued. “What they are finding here is something that transcends gaming, it’s human co-experience. What that means is that each game needs to have a very distinctive and attractive immersion to it in way that mobile free-to-play doesn’t.”

Of course, part of Roblox’s appeal is the fact that individual creators don’t need to work with large teams or publishers, but Ferencz said, “Superstar developers and creators are thinking about bigger and bigger games, the sophistication is really evolving at a rapid pace.” That, in turn, means bigger teams, and “when you have bigger teams, you have more process, you need to know how to structure high-performing teams and drive positive teamwork between people.”

“As the business gets bigger, you need people focused on the business opportunities, dedicated marketing functions, a dedicated live operations team,” he continued. “That’s what we offer.”

Ferencz and Gamefan’s business team have been involved in the Roblox platform for several years now, but he admitted, “Although we get it, we don’t get it exactly the way people who have been playing on it since they were 10 and developing for it since 15 get it … We respect that and lean into that.”

So one of the key elements to the Gamefam approach, he said, is to make sure the creators are driving the game development process.

“We believe that there needs to be a visionary or a team of visionaries on each project, and that they need to decide what is right,” Ferencz said. “There will then be a team around them that is part of a consensus process, that the visionaries are responsible for bringing along for a ride.”

And as he thinks about Gamefam’s future, Ferencz said the company could eventually publish games on other platforms. Don’t expect it to happen anytime soon, though.

“Our focus is UGC gaming, and Roblox is the only place that matters in UGC gaming today,” he said. “We plan to build a huge brand and media business hand-in-hand with the Roblox platform. In the long term, if other platforms become relevant, then course we will be looking to evaluate and expand on those platforms —but the truth is, right now we couldn’t be more all about Roblox.”

A multiverse, not the metaverse

[isfeed]

Gamefam aims to be the first big gaming company built on Roblox

Gamefam aims to be the first big gaming company built on Roblox

Roblox went public yesterday after seeing tremendous growth in 2020, and that’s not just good news for the company’s employees and investors — there are also startups like Gamefam hoping to take advantage of the platform’s success. Roblox has a whole ecosystem of millions of developers and creators building on its game platform, and some are banding together to create their own teams and studios.…

[tailschannel]

A new update featuring Android Shadow was pushed out in a weekend content drop for Sonic Speed Simulator, an officially-licenced Roblox game that was broiled in controversy after allegations of ill treatment at Gamefam Studios, the game's developer, were brought to the spotlight.

This was, again, another major update for the game following the developer's refutation, but they have yet to directly address the concerns or respond to our requests for comment.

[tailschannel]

The Sonic subreddit to reallow Sonic Speed Simulator discussion after a month-long ban in response to alleged crunch

The /r/SonicTheHedgehog subreddit community announced that they will reallow Sonic Speed Simulator content on their platform, following a discussion with a Gamefam representative.

"If any further controversy erupts regarding Gamefam's treatment of their employees, though, we will reinstitute the ban," read the message.

Last December, the subreddit were among the first to respond to concerns about the alleged "crunch culture" at Gamefam Studios, the developers behind the official Sonic game for Roblox.

The studio claimed no wrongdoing, but the subreddit mods enacted a complete ban of Speed Simulator content anyways. It was the first time in its decade-long history that such a ban was in place.

The developers did not respond to Tails' Channel's request for comment.