An Amazon warehouse under construction.

bloodymonday

Amazon has instituted a new program where it offers its own employees thousands of dollars to leave the company. But it doesn't want them to take the money. According to CEO Jeff Bezos, the offer is a tactic to ensure the company's employees want to work there, but his program differs significantly from the Zappos one it's compared to.

In a letter to shareholders issued Thursday, Bezos said that the program is inspired by the Amazon-owned Zappos, which has long offered its employees money to quit in order to weed out the ones who don't value the Zappos mission above a few thousand dollars.

Back in 2008, Zappos said 97 percent of its employees did not take the offer to quit. However, Zappos' program differs slightly in that it only offers the money to customer service employees, enticing them to quit with $3,000 after a four-week training program and one week of work.

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The address where The Fire Station's equipment was confiscated, according to police.

New York is pirate radio central. There are dozens if not hundreds of illegal radio stations operating without a government license in the state. They’re especially easy to find in New York City, where licensed stations often complain that bootleggers are hijacking their frequencies.

Twist the dial in Brooklyn and you’ll hear reggae, dance hall, and the news from St. Thomas coming in over the airwaves, broken up by commercials for barbeque at Frankie’s. Occasionally, you’ll pick up a signal on your cell phone and hear DJs bantering faintly in Spanish or Yiddish in the background.

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It's been almost a year since Electronic Arts' David DeMartini said he wanted Origin, EA's content distribution and DRM platform, to be the the Facebook to Steam's MySpace; to take what Steam has done exceptionally well, and do it better. Now that EA Sports head Andrew Wilson has taken the reins of Origin, the goalposts have reverted to last year's aims.

"Part of the reason why I think it came back in to me was my history with Origin," Wilson said, speaking to GamesIndustry International. "And the ability to take a step back and say OK, now that we have the plumbing what does 'make your EA games better' mean? What does 'make it easier to access those games' mean? What does 'enhanced gameplay' mean? What does 'connect with friends' mean in the context of Origin, and what does that mean for the PC, for console, and for mobile? Really coming back to our roots as a service for gamers, versus anything else that it may have been perceived to have been over the last few years by virtue of its various permutations or changes in direction." 

I'm curious, too, because the elephant in the room is Steam's continued success and its users' contentedness. Then again, Origin isn't slouching, for the grief it gets. We reported earlier this year that Origin, the number one iOS publisher worldwide, has over 39 million registered users. Steam was at 54 million late last year. 

To try and get back in the community's good graces, Wilson intends to "re-establish Origin as a service to gamers, not as a means to drive transactions." That it needs to be re-established as thus is troubling. "We think of Origin, in this new world, as the gracious host of the party," Wilson explained. "It's not the center of attention; it's not the DJ, it's not the dance director, it's just a gracious host. It's someone who greets you at the door and ushers you in to where you want to go and points you in the direction of your friends so that you can go and party with them together." 

Can Origin win your heart? Host your party?

EA's Wilson: Origin is not about transactions, it's about service [GamesIndustry International]

Early this morning we caught wind of bankruptcy-like "civil rehabilitation proceedings" at Index Corporation, the Japanese parent company of Persona-makers Atlus. But their subsidiary, Atlus USA, says they're "unaffected" by those proceedings and will be carrying on day-to-day activities.

Atlus USA is a California-based publisher that localizes and distributes both their Japanese parent company's games and various other games from Western countries. Their next game, Shin Megami Tensei IV, is out in North America on July 16. However, since Atlus USA does not develop games, any changes to the company's Japanese studios will inevitably impact their business here.

We reached out to the company today for comment, and Atlus USA boss Naoto Hiraoka sent over the following statement:

Currently, Index Digital Media, Inc. and the ATLUS brand are unaffected by the Index Corporation proceedings in Japan. We’re carrying on day-to-day activities, business as usual. Shin Megami Tensei IV and Dragon’s Crown are still releasing on July 16 and August 6 respectively, and we’re licensing and publishing third-party titles such as R.I.P.D: The Game and Daylight. We want to thank all of our fans for their outpouring of support.

We'll let you know if and when we learn more.

Fez creator Phil Fish has fiercely criticized one-time co-publishing partner Microsoft for doing "nothing" to help sell his game.

"Microsoft was our publisher on X360, and they did nothing. No promotion, no festivals," wrote Fish in a Twitter stream earlier today. "Not a single mention in a newsletter or conference. They put us up on their shitty dashboard and somehow fuck that up too. They put us up on the game marketplace with no cover image.

"The file was missing for a whole week," he added. "The first week, the most important week. That's what we got from our publisher Microsoft Game Studios. When you went to buy Fez, there was just a big empty rectangle with a file missing icon in the middle, for a whole week."

Fish, who heads up...

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