A game developer known primarily for making best-selling and critically acclaimed single-player games pivoted in a new direction following a meeting a few years ago where an executive wrote the word “Fortnight [sic]” on a dry-erase board and circled it three times without offering any elaboration or direction.
The developers worked tirelessly to create, we assume, a good, well-designed video game, that was either based on a popular intellectual property or an original universe. Unfortunately, there is no way of knowing, as the press release announcing the game shifted its language to thank all the fans for their support in the middle of the first paragraph before revealing any actual details about the game’s content.
The three-minute announcement trailer, featuring a maudlin cover of Avril Lavigne’s “Sk8er Boi” by Tom Waits, was pulled offline one minute after publishing, which meant no one was able to watch long enough to see gameplay or even learn the game’s title. Reports indicate, however, that the trailer’s budget exceeded the total cost of the game’s development. Experts on the internet are currently scrambling to figure out how to discuss the game critically, as Steam active player count stats were never available.
Two days after issuing the whiteboard assignment, and after sending a total of three e-mails written with the aid of ChatGPT, the executive left the company and accepted what he referred to as a “measly $500 million great job departure fee” as was required by his contract. He was later heard on a podcast bragging about how he “never had and never would” play a video game in his life.
