A co-creator of AlphaGo, the landmark AI program from Google DeepMind, is the latest prominent researcher from the company to depart and seek significant funding for a new startup, according to people familiar with the matter.

Halo co-creator Marcus Lehto says leaving PvP multiplayer out of Halo: Campaign Evolved was a mistake. Lehto, who was the original art director for Halo: Combat Evolved, said split-screen multiplayer should have been included and mocked the decision on “lack of oversight and poor planning.” “Split screen MP in Campaign Evolved should have been included. There’s little excuse aside from lack of oversight and poor planning that led to this misstep. So sad this wasn’t included.” He later clarified that he was specifically talking about the remake not having PvP. “So sad this wasn’t included,” adding that it would be “awesome” if PvP were eventually added.

Fallout co-creator Tim Cain has seen a big change in how many people play video games today. Many gamers no longer make up their own minds by playing the games or reading regular reviews and instead let influencers tell them what to think. “Many gamers don’t even look to influencers for reviews; they look to influencers to be told how to think about the games,” “So people don’t form opinions from the online video; they’re handed an opinion from the online channel they’re watching.” He added that more and more people give up their own judgment, like “I don’t want to think about it. You tell me what I should think about it.” Cain has returned to full-time game work at Obsidian Entertainment. He said this influencer culture now shapes how games are made

Path of Exile co-creator Chris Wilson says developers have tried some pretty funny ways to deal with dataminers. One method was adding fake game files to confuse dataminers, Wilson says he tried this himself while working on Path of Exile. But in the end, he says it was a “pretty wasteful process” because devs were spending time making fake stuff instead of working on the actual game. Still, he admits it was “very good” for trolling. Wilson also explains that completely stopping datamining is extremely difficult. Encryption can help before a game is released, but once players have the game, the files have to be accessible for it to work.

Marginal Revolution co-creator @atabarrok says that AI replacing all jobs (which he doesn't think will happen) is a rich man's problem. "People are worried AI is going to do all the jobs. But this means we are going to be fabulously wealthy." "Even without any jobs, just being fabulously wealthy — we'll figure things out. This is the sort of problem you want to have." "This is not like a natural disaster, which destroys wealth. This is a tsunami which creates wealth." "Yes, it could be a tsunami in the sense that it's going to be very dramatic. But it's going to be very dramatic in the sense of like, Santa Claus coming and leaving us stuff under the Christmas tree. That's drama we can handle." "It won't be without problems. But problems where the pie gets bigger are problems we can solve." "It's problems when the pie gets smaller, when we are forced into a zero-sum society of one person versus another, that's when society breaks down." "But not when the pie is getting bigger. We'll figure out ways to make sure everyone gets a decent slice. We can solve the problem of dividing it up with everybody being happy. I'm much less worried about that." From his appearance on the show in May.

Tim Cain, co-creator of Fallout, has a simple warning for people starting a career in games: don’t expect a stable job. Cain has talked about how the industry has changed over the decades like the 1983 video game crash until the huge growth during COVID followed by the massive layoffs For Cain, this is nothing new and believes making games has always been unstable because art and technology constantly change. Generative AI is making things even more uncertain. It is affecting how studios think about development costs, jobs and investment while the industry is already in a difficult period. His advice to developers is to have a backup plan, learn skills that could also be useful outside gaming, or become very good at a specific area that makes you valuable to a studio. Cain also believes future developers will look back at today’s industry and say we had it easy. It is not an optimistic message, but his main point is that developers should understand the industry they are entering and be prepared for change.

Pierre Coffin, co-creator of the Minions, explains that all minions are male, as he could not image them being female “Seeing how dumb and stupid they often are, I just couldn’t imagine Minions being girls”

Meet Nadia Pugh Mincey, co-owner and co-creator of Ever After Wine. Along with her co-founder Kelly Rhodes, Nadia created the space to build community and bring a piece of her travels back to her hometown of Elk Grove.   Purple Promise | @phoonglawcorp |