HitRecord on Beyond Good & Evil 2 #nospec Backlash
Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s collaboration organization HitRecord is teaming up with Ubisoft but some people skeptical of the idea.
Just like many other exclusive news from E3 2018 press conference has gotten us excited, developer studio Ubisoft had a couple of them in their fold. Teaming up with an online collaborative production company HitRecord owned by actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt for their upcoming action-adventure game Beyond Good & Evil 2 have all the enthusiastic fans thrilled for a rare chance of contributing to this project but this also invokes criticism from many industry professionals.
During the discussion, fans are asked to participate creating art assets and making music that will be used in the actual game. This use of fan-made assets has some amateurs and professionals of the art community concerned over the issue of payment. While Gordon and Ubisoft allowed artists and musicians to take part and showcase their talent, people were commenting on whether or not they are getting paid for using their work as it was omitted in the initial announcement.
Seeing everyone making remarks over the matter, Gordon almost immediately took Twitter to clear out things and their intention of paying the patron.
Assuring that each backer would get paid whenever their work used for the game would earn money from it did not really cleared out the frustration that came out from many specialized individuals. He cleared out that his platform is not for industry professionals to earn a living from and they just don't pay in crumbs. Depending on their amount of input for the finished product, some of those benefactors earn in hundreds and some even ends up making tens of thousands for their effort.
HitRecord's partnering up with Ubisoft for Beyond Good and Evil 2 is not just another regular collaboration project. It opens up a new door of opportunity for the contributors to be involved in certain parts of the game and get paid a kind of compensation from a budget sum of $50,000. It will be spread among everyone who has their work included in the completed game. However, for a multibillion-dollar publisher like Ubisoft, that amount is relatively small for a project like this.
This ridiculous payment sum clearly points out that both companies are not looking to hire anyone but get a work done by the involvement of group of community artists and that is where many professionals have a problem. This program seemingly looks an awful lot like "spec work" or "speculative work", where an artist works on a project which may or may not earn him a payment. A lot of big-name companies try to rip-off artists with this absurd practice and concerned artists are against this initiative.
The following video is a fine example from Canadian design agency Zulu Alpha Kilo on how "spec work" is totally unacceptable and absurd.
It's been quite long that a lot of agencies and individual professionals have taken a stand against this irrationality and some of them are even using the #nospec hashtag on social media as well. Though in most cases, companies don't give you any form of control over your own original work, Gordon-Levitt's HitRecord works on how to monetize it and give you a cut under a non-exclusive license. The content creator reserves the full right to do whatever they please with it or however they use it.
That actually makes things trickier, because despite you owning the rights to your contribution, the end work is a result of many collaborators and produces a unique product which they have the right to sell. The $50,000 esteemed budget is for music and visuals of nine categories for BGE2 has already amassed more than three thousand submissions. So, the above-mentioned prize is a small piece of cake for a selected many to take a bite from and a huge sum of unpaid labor for others not making a cut.
Just like many other exclusive news from E3 2018 press conference has gotten us excited, developer studio Ubisoft had a couple of them in their fold. Teaming up with an online collaborative production company HitRecord owned by actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt for their upcoming action-adventure game Beyond Good & Evil 2 have all the enthusiastic fans thrilled for a rare chance of contributing to this project but this also invokes criticism from many industry professionals.
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| HitRecord on Beyond Good & Evil 2 #nospec Backlash |
During the discussion, fans are asked to participate creating art assets and making music that will be used in the actual game. This use of fan-made assets has some amateurs and professionals of the art community concerned over the issue of payment. While Gordon and Ubisoft allowed artists and musicians to take part and showcase their talent, people were commenting on whether or not they are getting paid for using their work as it was omitted in the initial announcement.
Seeing everyone making remarks over the matter, Gordon almost immediately took Twitter to clear out things and their intention of paying the patron.
You are super right. Huge oversight. I think script got trimmed at last minute and we fucked that up. It’s hugely important to me that @hitrecord pays artists fairly. Since 2010 we’ve paid community almost $3 million https://t.co/oauU4IUiyE— Joseph Gordon-Levitt (@hitRECordJoe) June 11, 2018
Assuring that each backer would get paid whenever their work used for the game would earn money from it did not really cleared out the frustration that came out from many specialized individuals. He cleared out that his platform is not for industry professionals to earn a living from and they just don't pay in crumbs. Depending on their amount of input for the finished product, some of those benefactors earn in hundreds and some even ends up making tens of thousands for their effort.
HitRecord's partnering up with Ubisoft for Beyond Good and Evil 2 is not just another regular collaboration project. It opens up a new door of opportunity for the contributors to be involved in certain parts of the game and get paid a kind of compensation from a budget sum of $50,000. It will be spread among everyone who has their work included in the completed game. However, for a multibillion-dollar publisher like Ubisoft, that amount is relatively small for a project like this.
 |
| Joseph Gordon-Levitt at E3 |
This ridiculous payment sum clearly points out that both companies are not looking to hire anyone but get a work done by the involvement of group of community artists and that is where many professionals have a problem. This program seemingly looks an awful lot like "spec work" or "speculative work", where an artist works on a project which may or may not earn him a payment. A lot of big-name companies try to rip-off artists with this absurd practice and concerned artists are against this initiative.
The following video is a fine example from Canadian design agency Zulu Alpha Kilo on how "spec work" is totally unacceptable and absurd.
It's been quite long that a lot of agencies and individual professionals have taken a stand against this irrationality and some of them are even using the #nospec hashtag on social media as well. Though in most cases, companies don't give you any form of control over your own original work, Gordon-Levitt's HitRecord works on how to monetize it and give you a cut under a non-exclusive license. The content creator reserves the full right to do whatever they please with it or however they use it.
That actually makes things trickier, because despite you owning the rights to your contribution, the end work is a result of many collaborators and produces a unique product which they have the right to sell. The $50,000 esteemed budget is for music and visuals of nine categories for BGE2 has already amassed more than three thousand submissions. So, the above-mentioned prize is a small piece of cake for a selected many to take a bite from and a huge sum of unpaid labor for others not making a cut.
