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IN THE NEWS: UNOPENED VINTAGE SUPER MARIO BROS. TITLE SELLS BIG AT AUCTION
DALLAS (AP) — It's been a treasured game for many youngsters for decades. And now an unopened copy of a vintage Super Mario Bros. title has fetched a decent-sized fortune at auction. During an auction this past Friday, an anonymous bidder bought a sealed Super Mario Bros. game for $114,000. Heritage Auctions, based in Dallas, says the price eclipses the previous record for a video game, which was $100,150. That was paid earlier this year for a sealed title of the same game. The latest Super Mario Bros. copy was part of a collection of video games from the 1980's and 1990's that sold to various buyers for a total of nearly $700,000. Other titles in the batch included “Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!,” a 1987 game inspired by the former former heavyweight boxing champion. It sold for $50,400.
IN THE NEWS: UBISOFT DITCHES TOP EXECS AFTER INTERNAL MISCONDUCT PROBE
PARIS (AP) — It's game over for some top executives of the French gaming company Ubisoft. The firm is parting ways with its creative director and two other execs. The departures come after an internal investigation of misconduct and amid media reports of sexual harassment and other forms of workplace abuse. In announcing the staff changes, Ubisoft is promising it will have zero tolerance for “toxic” behavior at the company. In a statement yesterday, Ubisoft's CEO Yves Guillemot said his company, which makes titles like “Assassin’s Creed,” “has fallen short in its obligation to guarantee a safe and inclusive workplace environment for its employees.” And the CEO promises to make further ”profound changes" to improve workplace culture at Ubisoft.
ON THE WEB: FACEBOOK TRACKING BECOMES MORE APPARENT AFTER APP CRASHES
CYBERSPACE (AP) — It's something people who have Facebook on their phones kinda knew: the app tracks you, even when you aren't using it. But that became clearer than ever this past Friday when smartphone users saw apps like Tinder, Spotify and Pinterest crash. When users tried to fire up those apps, they wouldn't launch. The problem was fixed quickly, not by the app makers, but by Facebook. The social networking site blamed the problem on a glitch in its software developers kit. Apps use SDKs to integrate their products with Facebook. While using a Facebook login makes it easier to sign on to such apps, it also lets app developers send data to Facebook. In turn, Facebook keeps tabs on you. In March, the video conferencing service Zoom was sued in California for sharing user data with Facebook, a practice it now says has stopped.
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