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Seriously, where the f*** can you buy a PS5 in Australia? And when will more be available? We asked all the retailers so you don’t have to.
If you’re looking to grab some games or extras for your PS5, you can check out a few of our sale roundups:
Update 3/8: The most recent PS5 hardware drop was a new Grand Touring 7 bundle at EB Games.
Amazon Australia: PS5 Stock
Update 12/7: And they’re gone again. Amazon remains the most reliable drop site of late, so we’ll keep you in the loop if more come up. With Prime Day approaching, we expect further stock drops to come.
Sony Store Australia: PS5 Stock
Image: Sony Store
Update 3/17: And they’re gone. Drops on the Sony store are very infrequent, and typically sell out within literal minutes so be fast. Keep an eye on this page for future drops.
Target Australia: PS5 Stock
Image:Target
Update: 11/5: Target is currently out of stock, but if you bookmark that link, you’ll be ready for their next drop.
Big W: PS5 Stock
Image: Big W
Update 1/6:Stock is gone again. Head to the store page right over here for future drops.
EB Games: PS5 Stock
Image: EB Games / Kotaku Australia
Update 3/8: EB Games has dropped a new bundle with a copy of Grand Touring 7 for delivery in mid-August. If you missed out, keep a link to EB’s preorder page handy for future drops.
JB Hi-Fi: PS5 Stock
Update 7/3: With online orders still not available, your best shot with JB is to call up your local store and ask if you can be added to a pre-order list. Kotaku Australia readers have had success with that in the past; you can find all the phone numbers you need via the JB Store Finder page.
Good luck!
Vodafone
Following in Telstra’s steps, Vodafone announced they’re offering the disc version and Digital consoles through their Customer Care channel.
Vodafone’s page is taking registrations for people who want to add a PlayStation 5 to their existing Vodafone services. You need at least two eligible postpaid mobile, NBN or tablet services with Vodafone to qualify. There’s no saving (or gouging) on the price of the full-size console or the Digital edition, and you can choose to pay it off over 12, 24 or 36 months. It’ll cost $20.83/month on top of whatever you’re already paying Vodafone to get the disc based ps5and $16.67/month for the Digital Edition. You’ll have to call up 1300 728 637 to confirm eligibility and place an order, but there’s no guarantee right now on stock.
The Good Guys: PS5 Stock
Image: The Good Guys
Update 7/3: All out, unfortunately, but hopefully with other retailers getting supply The Good Guys will be able to re-open orders soon. Keep an eye on the store page here for when drops do come through.
The Gamesmen: PS5 Stock
Update: 3/23: All gone for now, but keep an eye out. You never know when The Gamesmen will come in clutch.
Harvey Norman/Domayne: PS5 Stock
Update 7/3: Harvey Norman’s stock is gone for now, and there’s no word on when it’ll be back. Keep an eye on Harvey’s stock page right over here.
Kogan
Update 7/3: There’s currently no stock at Kogan, and no PS5 landing page. Plenty of PS5 games, though.
Jamie Vardy has been pictured for the first time today behind the wheel of his £130,000 Bentley following the sensational Wagatha Christie verdict.
The Leicester City footballer, 35, was pictured looking glum in the front seat of his Bentley Bentayga Azure amid his wife Rebekah’s High Court defeat on Friday – as the couple face an expensive £3million legal bill.
The bombshell libel trial led to a dramatic showdown between two of English football’s most prolific strikers as Wayne Rooney and Jamie went on the attack in defense of their wives.
Former England teammates Wayne and Jamie were once described as ‘close friends on and off the field’ by former England manager Roy Hodson but all that was kicked into touch as the high-profile trial unfolded.
Wayne, 36 dutifully accompanied his wife Coleen for each day of the trial, dressed in sharp suits that matched her formal outfits and the two were photographed purposefully striding into the High Court as they put on a united front.
Jamie, on the other hand, only accompanied Rebekah once during the trial, ironically on the day when his former international colleague Wayne was giving evidence.
Meanwhile, Mrs Vardy could still appeal against the bombshell ruling as she declared herself ‘devastated’ and branded the decision ‘unjust’ and ‘wrong’.
Sources close to Rebekah said that ‘nothing has been ruled out’ and that lawyers were still ‘combing over’ the 75-page judgment as they searched for possible grounds to take Coleen back to court.
The 40-year-old’s reputation is in tatters after she scored one of the worst own goals in British legal history after a High Court judge dismissed her evidence as ‘evasive or implausible’ and said she had deliberately deleted WhatsApp messages central to the case. Her agent de ella was also told she had intentionally dropped her phone de ella in the North Sea.
Jamie Vardy (pictured) has been pictured for the first time today since the sensational Wagatha Christie verdict behind the wheel of his £130,000 Bentley
The Leicester City footballer, 35, was pictured looking glum in the front seat of his Bentley Bentayga Azure amid his wife Rebekah’s High Court defeat on Friday
Rebekah Vardy and her Leicester City footballer husband Jamie pictured together outside the High Court on May earlier this year
Mrs Vardy and her footballer husband have been left with a £3million legal bill after Mrs Justice Steyn ruled in favor of Mrs Rooney in a judgment that said swathes of her evidence given under oath had been ‘manifestly inconsistent’, ‘not credible’ and needed to be treated with ‘very considerable caution’.
Rebekah, who now risks losing a quarter of the £12million fortune she shares with her husband Jamie, said: ‘I am extremely sad and disappointed at the decision that the judge has reached. It is not the result that I had expected, nor believe it was just. I brought this action to vindicate my reputation and am devastated by the judge’s finding.
‘The judge accepted that publication of Coleen’s post was not in the ‘public interest’ and she also rejected her claim that I was the ‘Secret Wag’. But as for the rest of her judgement, she got it wrong and this is something I cannot accept’.
She added: ‘The case is over. I want to thank everyone who has supported me.’
It comes as Mrs Vardy returned to Instagram on Saturday and posted a picture of her walking away from a camera with the caption: ‘Peace out’ and showing a V-sign towards a camera.
The image shows Mrs Vardy wearing a black jacket with graffitied text reading ‘normal is boring’, along with blue denim shorts and black boots.
Mrs Vardy returned to Instagram on Saturday (pictured) and posted a picture of her walking away from a camera with the caption: ‘Peace out’ and showing a V-sign towards a camera
Rebekah Vardy and footballer husband Jamie (pictured leaving court at an earlier hearing) have been left with a £3m legal bill after Mrs Justice Steyn ruled in favor of Coleen Rooney
Coleen Rooney pictured arriving with husband Wayne to the High Court in London in May earlier this year
It comes as Vardy’s efforts to restore her reputation may include a documentary, a biography and two retail campaigns.
Sources close to Vardy hope a bidding war will break out among production companies, five of which are said to be interested, to create a documentary on the infamous case.
Bidders are expected to offer between £50,000 and £250,000 for her involvement, The Times reports.
Streaming giants Netflix, Amazon and Disney are already believed to be battling it out to broadcast Rooney’s side of the legal battle made by Lorton Entertainment – the same company responsible for the feature film on Wayne.
A source close to Coleen said she could be in line for ‘several million pounds’ for her participation.
Vardy’s Instagram post comes amid reports suggesting that Mrs Vardy has not ruled out a possible appeal despite legal experts claiming she has little hope of being successful and would be better off ‘retiring to a Scottish island’.
Vardy had sued over an accusation she had leaked details of her private life to the press. It came after Mrs Rooney had staged an elaborate sting operation to find out who she was passing on stories about her private life from Ella to The Sun.
Coleen Rooney and Rebekah Vardy together in 2016. The WAGs have ended up in court in the libel trial of the year and Mrs Vardy’s reputation is in tatters after bringing the case and losing
The judge, Justice Karen Steyn, said in her ruling that Coleen had successfully proved her allegation was substantially true.
Mrs Vardy will have to pay her rival’s costs as well as her own, which sources in both camps say comes to between £2million and £3million.
The huge legal bill means the Vardys may be forced to sell their beloved Portuguese villa to cover the costs.
Mrs Vardy relentlessly pursued the case against her Wag rival Coleen Rooney for nearly three years after being accused of leaking private stories about Coleen and her family to The Sun newspaper.
The bombshell verdict from Court 13 of the High Court was handed down remotely online at noon by Mrs Justice Steyn just over two months after the hearing in May. Vardy’s failed libel suit has been branded the most ill-advised in history.
Mrs Vardy had insisted on a full trial in the glare of the international media – and lost.
Legal expert Mark Stephens dashed cold water on any ideas Mrs Vardy may have had in terms of an appeal and described her decision to go to court as ‘ill-advised’.
He told MailOnline: ‘She has got no hope whatsoever of appeal. The judge has made findings on the fact, in order to appeal she has to demonstrate that the judge has erred in law some way – and she has not.
Mrs Vardy will have to pay her rival’s costs as well as her own, which sources in both camps say comes to between £2million and £3million
‘This case was always ill-advised. If you go into a libel courtroom, the lawyers are paid to dissect you. They did it. They damaged both women reputationally.
‘Unfortunately for Vardy the stain will be very long lived. She will be better off retiring to a Scottish island and not saying much ever again.
‘An appeal is going to be throwing good money after bad and this is already an own-goal. What you don’t want is an own hattrick that makes a disaster out of a crisis.’
Media litigator Matthew Dando, a partner at Wiggin LLP, told MailOnline: ‘It is a devastating and damning judgment for Rebekah Vardy that leaves her credibility in tatters. It is hard to imagine a stronger judicial condemnation of her evidence.
‘It will do real damage to Rebekah Vardy’s finances too as she will have to pay Coleen Rooney’s legal costs as well as her own.
‘It is hard to imagine Rebekah Vardy emerging from this with anything less than a fatal wound to her character and credibility’.
The High Court found that Mrs Rooney’s social media post accusing her rival was ‘substantially true’ and that Mrs Vardy ‘knew of, condoned and was actively engaged’ in leaks to the media by her ex-agent Caroline Watt.
It was less than two days ago we thought Fernando Alonso had blown up the driver market. Little did we know how explosive the silly season was about to become.
When Alpine declined to immediately name Piastri as Alonso’s successor — the logical choice given the triple junior champion’s pedigree and standing inside the team — it was clear a twist was coming.
That twist was the manifestation of the long-running rumor that his Mark Webber-led management team was attempting to crowbar him into a seat at McLaren.
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Williams on loan had been shaping up as Piastri’s most likely destination in 2023 while Alpine held on to Alonso, but the backmarker with slim prospects was thought too likely to slow the Aussie’s already disrupted momentum.
Webber thus started lobbying McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl — who was his own team boss in his championship-winning World Endurance Championship campaign with Porsche — to replace the struggling Ricciardo.
Piastri’s social media protest that he “will not be driving for Alpine next year” can only be a sign that Webber is confident he’s got the job done.
But Piastri can claim a set of orange overalls only if F1’s other Aussie isn’t already in them. And so this latest — but not final — chapter of silly season shenanigans begs the question: what’s in store for Daniel Ricciardo?
MORE MOTORSPORTS
NO DEAL: Piastri denies he’ll race for Alpine next season, but Enstone hits back
REVEALED: How F1 star’s exit left team blindsided — and the big ‘question’ hanging over Aussie
ALONSO OUT: Why the two-time champion is moving to the second-worst team on the grid
Ricciardo pulls off epic double pass | 00:46
OPTION 1: STATUS QUO
The first alternative is what’s officially the case at the moment. With McLaren unwilling or unable to comment, with Alpine insisting Oscar Piastri will drive for Enstone next season and with Piastri himself not divulging what he expects to be doing next season, the official information is that Ricciardo and Lando Norris will drive for McLaren in 2023.
And that’s not just a matter of ignoring what’s being written between the lines of Piastri’s contract denial and Alpine’s slapdash press statement attempting to stake its claim on the young Aussie.
Ricciardo has a contract through to the end of next year, and reportedly the options to break it are entirely on his side of the ledger — a reminder of just how highly rated he was when he joined McLaren for last season.
Without termination triggers, McLaren would need Ricciardo to decide to walk away before it would have a vacancy to offer to his younger compatriot.
And we know what Ricciardo’s said about the prospect of wrapping up his deal early.
“I am committed to McLaren until the end of next year and am not walking away from the sport,” he
If he has to say in it, he’s going nowhere.
Of course that doesn’t preclude him from changing his mind in changed circumstances — more on that below.
It also doesn’t mean he can’t be paid out in full if McLaren wants to move him on.
But Woking would only undertake such a costly exercise if it were guaranteed Piastri’s services, which is also not a given.
Alpine is clearly attempting to lay claim to the 21-year-old despite his intention to drive elsewhere, and while its legal standing is unclear, there’d be precedent for him getting stuck with Enstone.
Jenson Button attempted to join Williams in 2005 despite BAR insisting it had the right to exercise an option on his contract to retain him. F1’s Contract Recognition Board — set up specifically to handle these sorts of situations — ruled in favor of BAR, keeping the Briton tied to the team.
So while all signs point towards Piastri taking up a seat at Woking, it’s never over until it’s over.
OPTION 2: RETURN TO ALPINE
But with McLaren apparently clear in its intention to switch Ricciardo out for a younger alternative, the eight-time race winner may admit the writing is on the wall and seek employment elsewhere.
Conveniently enough, in those circumstances the best available seat would be at Alpine.
Would it be embarrassing to return to the team he spurned after only one season racing there?
It all depends on perspective.
The Renault that Ricciardo left at the end of 2020 is a different team to that we know at Alpine now, and those changes are deeper than just the name. The old management has been cleaned out, replaced by Laurent Rossi at the top as CEO and Otmar Szafnauer as team principal, neither of whom would hold a grudge for his departure from him.
‘He f****** hit me’ – Dan & Stroll crash | 00:32
When Ricciardo decided he’d walk away, there was also considerable speculation that Renault was considering ending its Formula 1 project after progress up the field had proved substantially more difficult than hoped.
Instead it decided to change tack and brand it with the name of its specialty sports car business, and just this year the team said it was increasing its headcount to 900 staff, which is in line with the sport’s frontrunners after years of trying to tackle F1 on the cheap. It’s also investing considerably in capital works at the factory.
Combined those things address many of the reasons Ricciardo will have been tempted away from Enstone, and the team has proven since that it’s at a minimum not slipping backwards. The appeal of racing for McLaren has also obviously been substantially discoloured by his unhappy experience adapting to the car.
He’d also have the opportunity to rebuild his reputation, which was at stratospheric levels at the end of his tenure at Enstone, having built the car around him in a relatively short period of time.
And considering Alpine is ahead of McLaren in the constructors’ standings — admittedly in part because Ricciardo isn’t scoring as heavily as Norris — he’d technically be trading up.
OPTION 3: TAKE A PUNT ON A SMALLER TEAM
If returning to Alpine were too bitter a pill to swallow but Ricciardo definitely wanted to continue racing in Formula 1, there are several teams with openings for 2023.
Alfa Romeo is yet to re-sign Zhou Guanyu, Mick Schumacher is still uncommitted to Haas and neither Williams driver is signed up for next season, though Alex Albon reportedly has an option on his contract the team is poised to exercise.
Ricciardo: I’m not done with yet | 16:38
AlphaTauri is expected to recommit to Yuki Tsunoda once Red Bull finalises its new commercial terms with Honda after its overnight announcement of a renewed technical partnership.
Alfa Romeo is the most attractive given widespread speculation it’s close to agreeing to a sale to Audi, which will turn it into a works constructor. It’s also in decent shape as it is at the moment considering its low base in recent years and is on track for one of its most lucrative point scores ever.
It would also facilitate Zhou’s return to Alpine, which brought him through the junior categories alongside Piastri.
Haas is less likely despite rumors Schumacher is looking to move elsewhere on the grid given his low prospects of a Ferrari call-up. Williams, meanwhile, would be least attractive of all given it’s a long-term project. The team is reportedly in talks with reigning Formula E champion Nyck de Vries to replace Nicholas Latifi.
OPTION 4: REMOVE
The last option will be the most crushing to contemplate for fans of the forever likeable Aussie, but Ricciardo may decide to call time on his F1 career after 232 starts and at least eight wins and 32 podiums.
McLaren was supposed to be the team that delivered him back to the front of the grid and into title contention, but not only has he not been able to achieve the highs he managed at previous squads, but McLaren itself has failed to fulfill its competitive ambitions .
Even under new regulations the chasm between the frontrunners and the midfield remains wide. The prospects for upwards mobility among the teams is still limited.
And with all the leading teams committed to their drivers for the medium term, Ricciardo may decide it’s not worth continuing in the infinity of the midfield and turn his attention to other pursuits.
But can you really imagine Ricciardo, at just 33 years old and in what is conventionally regarded as the peak age for a driver, wrapping it up?
“The more people ask me [about retirement]I’m like, ‘F*** that, I want to stay longer!’,” he told RacingNews365 in May.
“What’s my shelf life? I still think there’s a good handful of years left in me competitively.
“It’s relative as well to competitiveness [and] desire.
“I think I’ve still got the desire in me for a good handful of years, results aside.”
Whether he gets that handful of years remains to be seen — and if he does, the significant matter of where he spends them is still unclear.
Investment NSW CEO Amy Brown has conceded Trade Minister Stuart Ayres’s input to the appointment of the New York trade posting carried “some weight”.
A parliamentary inquiry into the appointment of former deputy premier John Barilaro to the lucrative trade role has entered its fourth hearing just hours after Ayres resigned from cabinet.
Brown is facing questions for a second time.
Department secretary Amy Brown (right) during the inquiry into the appointment of John Barilaro as Senior Trade and Investment Commissioner to the Americas, at NSW Parliament. Sydney, NSW. 2nd August, 2022. Photo: Kate Geraghty (Kate Geraghty)
In her opening statement, Brown said: “Any conversations I have with Minister Ayres were, therefore, influential on my decision. But, in my view, it did not amount to undue influence because, at all times, I felt the decision was mine.” , ultimately mine to make.”
Labor’s Daniel Mookhey later asked, “Surely the minister (Ayres) praising John Barilaro to you, after the applications have closed, would you have carried some weight with you?”
Brown also admitted Ayres wasn’t kept at “arms length” from the decision making and regularly sought his opinion.
“Objectively speaking, arm’s length is not a fair characterization of how the process was (done),” she said.
“A lot of it was actually initiated by me, because I felt the need that I had to keep checking, partly because of this gray area that we were in around public service.
“Broadly speaking, I wanted to make sure he (Ayres) was comfortable.”
The inquiry will continue for the remainder of Wednesday.
NSW Trade Minister Stuart Ayres resigns
It comes as Ayres today resigned from cabinet and his role as deputy Liberal leader, Premier Dominic Perrottet announced.
Ayres has faced intense scrutiny for any role he had in former deputy premier John Barilaro’s application for a high-profile trade envoy role to New York, and whether it was consistent with ministerial standards.
Ayres has consistently denied he breached any ministerial standards.
Minister for Enterprise, Investment and Trade, Tourism and Sport and Western Sydney Stuart Ayres has resigned. (Dominic Lorimer)
While he will remain an MP for Penrith, Ayres has stepped down as deputy leader of the NSW Liberals, as well as his ministerial roles (his portfolios included Enterprise, Investment and Trade; Tourism and Sport; and Western Sydney).
Perrottet said Ayres’ ministerial roles will be reassigned and announced in “due course.”
The premier said the independent review of Barilaro’s appointment had raised questions about Ayres’ contact with the recruitment process for the New York trade job.
“The draft review that I have seen, relating to those matters with respect to Mr Ayres, raises questions,” he said.
“It raises questions in respect to the ministerial code of conduct. I am the custodian as premier of the ministerial code of conduct.”
NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet has announced Trade Minister Stuart Ayres has resigned. (Nine)
“The issues in the review go directly to the engagement of Mr Ayres with a department secretary in respect to the recruitment process,” Perrottet said.
An investigation will now take place into whether Ayres breached the ministerial code of conduct. The premier said he would take action when that investigation is completed.
Ayres had been under fire for his handling of the former deputy premier’s appointment, following accusations he used discussions with NSW CEO Any Brown to promote Barilaro’s standing as a candidate.
He rejected that accusation, saying he was only receiving updates of the process.
Former NSW trade minister Stuart Ayres had been under intense scrutiny over the John Barilaro affair. (9News)
When asked directly by reporters whether Ayres had “lied” or “misled” him, Perrottet said he did not believe that was the case.
“What is important is, the information that comes to light is acted on, and that’s what I have done,” he said.
“I will make this very clear, Mr Ayers denies any wrongdoing at all. He denies any wrongdoing,” Perrottet said.
Perrottet stressed that Ayres had denied any wrongdoing.
Ayres became the second NSW cabinet minister to stand down this week after Perrottet sacked Fair Trading Minister Eleni Petinos on Sunday after allegations she bullied staff.
Political photo ops that captured the attention of punters on social media
Kansans secured a huge win for abortion rights in the US on Tuesday night when they voted to continue to protect abortion in the state constitution.
The race was called by a host of US groups like NBC News, the New York Times and Decision Desk HQ.
The move will be seen as a huge loss for the anti-abortion movement and a major win for abortion rights advocates across America, who will see the result as a bellwether for popular opinion.
Kansas – a deeply conservative and usually reliably Republican state – is the first US state to put abortion rights to a vote since the US supreme court ruled to overturn constitutional protections for abortion in late June.
The state will remain a safe haven for abortion in the midwest, as one of the few states in the region where it remains legal to perform the procedure. Many other states have undertaken moves to make abortion largely illegal since June.
Joe Biden issued a statement welcoming the result. “This vote makes clear what we know: the majority of Americans agree that women should have access to abortion and should have the right to make their own health care decisions,” the US president said.
The Kansas state senator Dinah Sikes, a Democrat, cried as the vote came in, and turned to her friends and colleagues, showing them goosebumps on her arm.
“It’s just amazing. It’s breathtaking that women’s voices were heard and we care about women’s health,” she told the Guardian, after admitting she had thought the vote would be close. “But we were close in a lot of rural areas and that really made the difference – I’m just so grateful,” she said.
The “No” campaign – which was protecting abortion rights – was strongly ahead in the referendum with 62% of the vote with the majorityof ballots counted. That means millions of dollars lost for the Catholic church who contributed more than $3m trying to eradicate abortion rights in Kansas, according to campaign finance records.
Kansans turned out to vote in heavy numbers on Tuesday, in a referendum brought by the Kansas Republican legislature that was criticized for being misleading, fraught with misinformation and voter suppression tactics.
After failing to get a more directly named referendum, “Kansas No State Constitutional Right to Abortion”, on the ballot in 2020, Republicans switched tactics, naming this amendment “Value Them Both”.
The vote was scheduled for August, when voter turnout is historically low, particularly among independents and Democrats, and the wording on the ballot paper was criticized for being unclear.
“The ballot mentions a state constitutional right to abortion funding in Kansas, but that funding has never really been on the table,” Mary Ziegler, a US abortion law expert from the University of California, Davis told the Guardian on Monday.
Kansans for Life, one of the main backers for a “yes” vote, told church congregants on 27 July that removing protections for abortion in Kansas would prevent late-term abortions, lack of parental consent and tax payer funding for abortion, despite none of these being the law in Kansas. Abortions in Kansas are limited to 22 weeks in cases of life threatening or severely compromised physical complications.
It was a tense and bitterly fought campaign that saw churches vandalized and yard signs stolen, in a state where abortion doctor George Tiller was murdered by anti-abortion activists in 2009.
But on Tuesday night scenes of retirement broke out at a watch party for the victorious No campaign in Kansas City. “We’re free!” shouted Mafutari Oneal, 56, who was manning the bar after the vote was called and a rush of drinks orders came in.
“I don’t want no government telling me what to do. I’m so happy,” she said.
In a speech just after victory was sealed, Rachel Sweet, the campaign manager for Kansans for Constitutional Freedom, said the win had come against all the odds.
“We knew it was stacked against us from the moment we started but we did not despair – we did it, and these numbers speak for themselves,” Sweet said.
“We knocked tens of thousands of doors and had hundreds of thousands of phone calls … We countered millions of dollars in misinformation,” she said. “We will not tolerate extreme bans on abortion in our state.”
Ashley All, the spokesperson for KCF, who led the ‘No’ campaign alongside Planned Parenthood and the ACLU told the Guardian that the key to driving voter turnout was not seeing abortion as a partisan issue in Kansas.
“We demonstrated Kansas’ free state roots,” she said. “It will be interesting for other states to watch this and see this is not a partisan issue. Everyone from Republicans, to unaffiliated voters to hardcore libertarians came out to say: ‘No, we don’t want the government involved in what we do with our bodies’,” she said.
An Australian crypto company valued at $3.5 billion is facing a fierce backlash after sacking 17 per cent of its staff from its gaming division, while continuing to “hire aggressively” after raising $280 million in funding in March.
The crypto platform, which is an Australian unicorn called Immutable, could be hit with legal action as the union questioned the validity of the redundancies.
The union called Games Workers Australia has disputed the number of staff members that were fired claiming it was at least 30 roles, while Immutable has insisted just 18 workers were let go.
The staff came from the company’s flagship video game Gods Unchained and were advised of the redundancies 24 to 48 hours before being told to leave.
Staff were fired from roles including video effects artists, senior engineers and a marketing director and the process involved a 30-minute company wide meeting last Monday.
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‘devastating news’
Game Workers Australia, a branch of Professionals Australia, said it is supporting staff from Immutable Games Studio who received the “devastating” news that they would be made redundant.
“Based on information we have received, Game Workers Australia believes there are at least 30, but potentially more, job losses at Immutable,” said Professionals Australia CEO Jill McCabe.
“Immutable has provided varying reasons to their employees as to why the redundancies were necessary.
“While some employees were advised that the reason for their redundancy was due to individual performance metrics, others were advised the cause was due to an organizational restructuring or the non-alignment of their role to business goals.
“While staff were advised that they were able to request information about other roles in the company, their were given the impression that they would not be suitable for these roles.”
However, an Immutable spokesperson said the restructure was a “difficult choice” and was performed to meet business goals, while individual performance was not a reason for any redundancies.
They added individual staff were given the opportunity to respond to the redundancies and most were found unsuitable for redeployment to vacant roles.
Hiring 80 more roles
Concerns have been aired that Immutable is still hiring for similar roles that were made redundant such as product managers and engineers.
An Immutable spokesperson said the restructure impacted 6 per cent of the total number of employees at the company and it continued to “hire aggressively”.
“As we grow, the nature of the expertise the company needs is changing. We needed fewer artists, unity engineers and card designers and are hiring more tokenomics experts, blockchain engineers and crypto product managers,” they said.
“We have established new roles for Gods Unchained which we will be hiring for over the next six months; in total we will be hiring more new roles into Gods Unchained than were made redundant.
“Immutable is growing from 280 employees today to over 360 by the end of the year.”
The company started the year with just 120 employees and has already more than doubled, they added.
Game Workers Australia also claimed that Immutable provided no opportunity for employees to respond to the company’s intention to make them redundant and most of the redundancies were advised and executed within 24 to 48 hours.
“Sadly, the experience of game workers at Immutable is emblematic of the broader problems across Australia’s growing $3 billion games sector,” Ms McCabe said.
“While game workers are highly qualified and skilled, wages are unsustainably low, the hours are long, and unpaid overtime is common.
“Many people burn out of our industry and leave before even making it to five years.”
But the Immutable spokesperson defended its process and said the company “followed a fair and consistent process in relation to the restructure that is in line with legal obligations”.
Earlier this year, Immutable’s founders James, 30, and Robbie Ferguson, 25 were one of 13 new entrants that placed on the Australian Financial Review rich list with an estimated combined wealth of $1.01 billion.
Tech sector bloodbath
Immutable’s staff are the latest casualties in the tech sector, which has seen a spate of companies firing staff as conditions get tougher.
Australian healthcare start-up Eucalptys that provides treatments for obesity, acne and erectile dysfunction fired up to 20 per cent of staff after an investment firm pulled its funding at the last minute.
Debt collection start-up Indebted sacked 40 of its employees just before the end of the financial year, despite its valuation soaring to more than $200 million, with most of the redundancies made across sales and marketing.
Then there was Australian buy now, pay later provider Brighte, that offers money for home improvements and solar power, which let go of 15 per cent of its staff in June, with roles primarily based on corporate and new product development.
Another buy now, pay later provider with offices in Sydney called BizPay made 30 per cent of its redundant workforce blaming market conditions for the huge cut to staffing in May.
Earlier this year, a start-up focused on the solar sector called 5B Solar, which boasts backing from former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, also sacked 25 per cent of its staff after completing a capital raise that would inject $30 million into the business
As a live sound engineer, artists rocking up with their own set of in-ear monitors is becoming the new norm. Live electronic acts who want to hear their low-low bass frequencies accurately as well as bands who want a really loud mix on stage without running into feedback issues from all the live microphones will bring or spec an in-ear monitoring system for their live performance .
In the past, in-ear monitoring systems were reserved for large scale touring acts due to their expensive initial cost not being financially viable for local and semi-professional musicians. As times have changed, wireless audio systems have become more streamlined, easier to implement and most importantly, pretty affordable for even small-time local acts.
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With artists yearning for a simple to implement, high-quality in-ear monitoring system for live performance and rehearsals, along comes the new 3000 Series IEM from Audio-Technica. This affordable wireless in-ear monitor system comes packed with an ATW-T205 stereo transmitter, an ATW-R3250 stereo receiver, and a pair of ATH-E40 in-ear monitor headphones which is enough to kickstart your journey into taking control of your monitor sound.
Modeled after their popular 3000 series wireless UHF microphones systems, the form factor of this product is sleek and professional. The all black aesthetic paired with OLED displays on both receiver and transmitter gives a clear and accurate readout of all the essential data necessary for operating the system including name, battery level, frequency, group and channel selections and if there is audio being transmitted. The stereo transmitter is rack-mountable which makes it a viable option to integrate into a touring setup while concurrently being small enough to be discrete if deployed on stage.
The receiver features multiple screen display options that provide the information you need depending on the setting. For example, if you’re the sound engineer and you don’t need the artist to see information about what specific frequency is set, you can display the channel name instead which means they will always know which receiver is theirs. The lightweight enclosure features a double-sided latch for opening the battery compartment which will prevent you from accidentally opening it mid gig.
Audio-Technica have added professional level features to this set, with the transmitter able to automatically scan and find suitable frequencies for wireless audio use, not to mention the inbuilt high and low frequency EQ shelf, limiter, gain, and balance controls on the receiver . There’s a mono balance mode which allows you to mix the left and right channels in mono on each receiver which enables the artist to customize the level between two different audio signals which could be their vocals and the band’s instruments, for example.
The bundled in-ear monitor headphones, ATH-E40s, utilize Audio-Technica’s proprietary dual phase push-pull drivers which provide a high level of clarity and definition while concurrently isolating you from the outside environment. There are multiple silicone eartips which made them fit securely and comfortably inside my ears during testing. The sound these earbuds carried through the wireless system was immense, a well-balanced sound that provided immersion across the full frequency spectrum whilst not ever hyping the high or low frequencies. A unique part about these in-ear monitor headphones is the easily detachable cable which first, prevents you from breaking the sometimes fragile IEM cables getting snagged on something and secondly, making the cable easily replaceable and interchangeable. Not only that, but these have a standard 3.5mm headphone jack on the output with a low impedance (12 ohms) which means they can double as your everyday headphones by simply plugging into any consumer grade device (like your phone).
With an inbuilt network connection, the IEM Transmitter included in the bundle can be controlled remotely using Audio-Technica’s wireless manager software. With the software you can rename your transmitters, scan the frequency band to look for used frequencies, and finally, and most importantly, generate a coordinated frequency plan to avoid these used frequencies and send that information to the transmitters. This can save you time and effort testing to find frequencies that don’t generate interference or intermodulation between different frequencies, a real winner in terms of usability and functionality.
Using the receivers with high-quality rechargeable batteries I was able to use the system for just over six hours continuously, which would allow you to use them for soundcheck and the gig without worrying about it dropping out on you. I also experienced no dropouts during testing walking around my home out onto the street about 50 meters away, which has almost convinced me to get a set for my home studio so I can walk to the other end of my place and listen to a mix I I’m working on while cooking a meal!
Perhaps a great part of this set is how easily it can scale to suit your needs. Say you’re a solo performer and you purchase one for yourself and then you decide to start performing with another musician. You can simply purchase another receiver and you’re both able to access the same monitor mix. You could even set up two separate mixes and send them in mono to the one receiver and now each of you can have independent mono mixes with a single transmitter, the monitoring possibilities are vast.
All in all, this in-ear monitoring system from Audio-Technica is a quality professional product that will appease both small and large scale implementations for artists and venues. The robust construction paired with solid RF connectivity options and most importantly, clear and precise audio transmission that drive the included IEM’s fantastically, makes the 3000 Series IEM system from Audio-Technica a fantastic choice for those in the market for upgrading their audio monitoring.
Head to Audio-Technica for more information. For local inquiries, reach out to Technical Audio Group.
The title, although clunky, refers to the 12 Thai boys and their football coach who were rescued from the caves in northern Thailand in July 2018. A more appropriate title might be 10,000livesas that’s how many people helped with the rescue effort.
Inevitably, a lot of people are left out of Ron Howard’s gripping, generally accurate re-creation of the story. The screenplay is by English writer William Nicholson, whose credits include Gladiator, unbroken and Everest. The casting gives us Colin Farrell as John Volanthen and Viggo Mortensen as Rick Stanton, the two British cave rescue divers who found the children four kilometers inside the cave. They had by then been trapped for 10 days, without food.
Colin Farrell (left) as John Volanthen, Joel Edgerton as Harry Harris and Viggo Mortensen as Rick Stanton in Thirteen Lives, which was filmed in Australia and Thailand.
About halfway through the 147-minute film, Joel Edgerton joins the other divers as Australian diver/anaesthetist Dr “Harry” Harris after Volanthen realizes they will have to sedate the boys to get them out. Craig Challen, diving partner of Harris, played a significant part in the rescue, but he’s nowhere to be seen.
Three other British divers have significant roles: Kevin Spink as Josh Bratchley, Tom Bateman as Chris Jewell and Paul Gleeson as Jason Mallinson. Nicholson leaves out the rest of the Australian contingent, not to mention the Chinese, Czech, Finnish, Danish, Belgian, French, Canadian, Indian, Israeli, Japanese, Dutch, Russian and Ukrainian divers who went into the cave to help. There were more than 100 divers in those caves, most of them Thai.
Howard has said he tried hard not to make a white-men-to-the-rescue film, and to some extent he succeeds. Thai Navy SEALs have a major presence. The Thai actors speak Thai with subtitles rather than casting actors who can speak English.
The politics of national pride play a major part in the story. Howard makes sure we see the Thais working in every facet of the rescue, including a heroic, largely civilian effort to stop the flow of water into the cave from above the boys. The two men who died were Thai rescue divers. Howard recreates the death throes of Saman Kunan, the retired SEAL who came back to help, in agonizing detail.
Much of the film was shot in Australia during the pandemic. Howard could not go to Thailand for scenes shot there. Apparently he directed by Zoom, which must be some kind of first. His work by him, as ever, is fabulously efficient — keeping tight rein on the sentiment, but not so tight that we miss it — and building tension to an agonizing, almost paralyzing degree. Even when we know the outcome, Howard succeeds in squeezing every drop of dramatic tension out of the narrative.
The AFL community has reacted with disgust after former Adelaide footballer Eddie Betts published a confronting recollection of his experience at a pre-season camp with the Crows in early 2018.
The leadership camp, following the Crows’ 2017 AFL Grand Final loss to Richmond, thrust the club into the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.
A number of players and officials left the club in the wake of the camp, and now Betts has detailed behind-the-scenes information in his upcoming autobiography The Boy from Boomerang Crescent.
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The four-day camp on the Gold Coast left Betts feeling “like a piece of me was brainwashed”, with excerpts being reported by Nine Newspapers.
Betts alleged that confidential information he shared in counseling sessions had been misused, writing that the camp misappropriated sensitive Aboriginal cultural rituals.
Following the ordeal, the three-time All-Australian Betts said he approached the Crows and voiced his concerns with the camp, only to be dropped from the leadership group three weeks later.
Betts said the camp had a major impact on his form and left the star forward questioning his place in the game. He left the Crows and returned to Carlton at the end of 2019 before retiring at the end of 2021.
Adelaide board member Mark Ricciuto, who represented the club for 15 seasons, responded to the damning allegations on Wednesday morning.
“He’s been one of the greats of the club,” Ricciuto told Adelaide’s Triple M Breakfast with Roo, Ditts and Loz.
“Player welfare is always number one no matter what’s going on, you always want everyone to be happy, so it’s very sad.
“I think the club has been on record at times to say that they acknowledge that it wasn’t handled perfectly. It had all good intentions but didn’t go perfectly.
“We all love Eddie and hopefully Eddie is getting over that… certainly the club moved on from that and are looking towards the future and have made a lot of ground since back then. It has come up in Eddie’s book and that is fair enough.”
Betts’ revelations have angered the footy community. Former Swans star Ryan Fitzgerald, who is a huge Crows fan, tweeted: “Really uncomfortable to read. Particularly the insensitivities around Eddie’s past of him. He is such an integral part of the AFC and their history, so rejected that he left feeling like that.”
Ex-Melbourne captain Garry Lyon also reacted. “When you read those words from Eddie, there is no debate about how it impacted on him,” he told SEN Breakfast.
“He talks about the Indigenous players, the cultural differences or sensitivities that weren’t adhered to. That’s Eddie … and that’s unequivocal, right? You can’t argue with any of that.
“Everyone’s own experiences have been caught up in this and from an Indigenous point of view, a lot of it since Eddie said that cultural sensitivities weren’t adhered to – and that is very, very real.
“In the end, it was untenable. We talk about the atmosphere and environment … take apart who you agree with and you don’t agree with, the fact of the matter is it split the club down the middle. When you get the (Rory) Sloanes and the (Taylor) Walkers, who have their recollection, and then you’ve got Eddie and others I would imagine… no wonder it destroyed that joint.
“You’ve got a section of the football club – and I’m not just putting this at the feet of Walker and Sloane, there may be others in the same boat – saying, ‘I got so much out of this, it was good’. And then on the other hand, right at the other end of the scale, you’ve got, ‘No, it ripped me apart, it ripped my relationship apart’.
“No wonder then from a footy club point of view and trying to stay together and on the same page, it ended up where it was.
“If you are told, whether you’re black or white or otherwise, ‘These camp people want to speak to you and they say to step aside from everyone else privately and we want you to have a conversation where you are open and vulnerable’ … And I go, ‘OK. In terms of building me as a better player and a leader, I’ll share and I’ll give you these really sensitive things that, to me, are important’. Then to have that thrown back in my face, that’s not cultural for me.
“How it affects me and someone else might be different based on culture, but that’s a betrayal for me.”
speaking on SEN SA Breakfastformer Port Adelaide star Kane Cornes questioned Adelaide’s leadership, calling out Crows star Rory Sloane for his public remarks after the camp when he said it made him a better husband and a better father.
“The question is, all of the people who have defended the camp and have said nothing went on, including the Crows fans, including Mark Ricciuto, including the club, what do they do now? Details have come out, Eddie Betts was abused about his mother, ”Cornes said.
“The saddest thing for me, the two most popular players at Adelaide are Tony Modra and Eddie Betts. No one made the Adelaide Oval stand up when they went near the football in Crows history like Eddie Betts. No one has been more popular.
“That’s the echelon that Eddie Betts is held in. To read how he was treated by his own football club, of which he is an icon, that was the saddest part for me.
“We do now have a blow-by-blow account which is pretty harrowing that your most popular player in club history was treated like an animal on this camp.
“I think it’s embarrassing for Rory Sloane and Taylor Walker to now hear that that was a rehearsed line and that they were all told and indoctrinated into saying it had made them a better father and husband and child. And to see Eddie Betts relay that that was actually rehearsed, it does not paint Rory and his leadership of him in great light.
“There’s a lot of egg on the face of Crows supporters, the footy club and a few players that were there.”
The Crows were cleared of any work health and safety breaches after an independent investigation into the training camp by SafeWork SA.
A photographer has shed some light on Kalgoorlie-Boulder’s famous skimpy barmaids in a new exhibition, which was 18 months in the making as she documented the nightlife in pubs in the historic gold mining city.
Known as Mellen, a pseudonym of her real name, the photographer originally from Sydney shares her anonymity in common with skimpies who typically work under an alias.
The scantily clad barmaids arrived on Kalgoorlie-Boulder’s pub scene in the 1970s and have since become part of the hard-working, hard-drinking culture of mining towns across Western Australia.
While one Kalgoorlie pub briefly flirted with the concept of male skimpies, or so-called himpies in 2018, the job has predominantly been the domain of young women working on a fly-in fly-out basis.
Most wear lingerie or bikinis and sometimes go topless, but all of the skimpies pull beers and chat to patrons to keep the amber fluid flowing.
As Mellen explains, the idea for her skimpy exhibition was born when she was hired as the house photographer for Kalgoorlie’s aptly named Gold Bar nightclub where she befriended many of the skimpy barmaids.
“It just gave me a license to photograph the girls working … with their consent of course,” she says.
“Then I started going to some of the other venues once I started to get to know the girls, follow them around and take their photos… I hadn’t seen many pictures of them around.
“It’s behind closed doors yet such a widely known thing about Kalgoorlie that I thought, why not meet some of the girls and see if they’d be interested in having their portraits taken?”
Photographer Mellen set out to tell the stories of some of Kalgoorlie-Boulder’s skimpy barmaids.(Supplied: Mellen)
More than money
Her photography work has garnered her hundreds of followers on Instagram, where her handle @nophotosofthegirls reflects the signs that typically hang behind the bar of every pub with skimpies on duty.
More than a dozen skimpies gave their permission to be included in the photographic exhibition, underlining the trust Mellen built over more than a year.
Each image in the exhibit has a QR code linking to interviews she recorded with the skimpies that detail some of their personal experiences on the job.
“There’s a lot of different stories to how the women have gotten into this profession,” Mellen says.
“The common themes were the camaraderie between the women, and of course the money, but there’s a lot of jobs where you can make a lot of money, so it’s got to be more than that, especially these days.
“Maybe back in the 70s when women weren’t allowed to work in the mines, but these days there are so many other elements — the self-confidence was another common trait.”
Authentic portrayal of skimpies
The exhibition is a mixture of documentary photography and portraiture.
Mellen says she did not want to portray the industry as glamorous, but as authentically as possible.
“I try and get a balance of what is real, not too glam, but also a nice portrait,” she says.
Photographer Mellen says she set out to tell the stories of the women as authentically as possible.(Supplied: Mellen)
“I love the one-on-one interaction of taking a formal portrait, but to be able to capture what’s going on is also a pretty amazing privilege.”
The project has also sparked Mellen’s interest in the history surrounding skimpies in a city that was home to Australia’s biggest gold rush in 1893.
“I have been looking at the history while doing the project, just to try and get a bit more depth of my understanding so I could represent it in a well-rounded way,” she says.
“I am from Sydney and we don’t have skimpies over there, so it was just something that stuck out as a bit unusual for so many venues to have skimpy barmaids here.
“I had been living here a year before I stepped foot in a pub … we have rough and tumble pubs in Sydney, but I didn’t find it [skimpies] jarring at all.”
The exhibition at Kalgoorlie’s Black Crow Studios is open until August 14.
Update 12/7: And they’re gone again. Amazon remains the most reliable drop site of late, so we’ll keep you in the loop if more come up. With Prime Day approaching, we expect further stock drops to come.
Update 7/3: With online orders still not available, your best shot with JB is to call up your local store and ask if you can be added to a pre-order list. Kotaku Australia readers have had success with that in the past; you can find all the phone numbers you need via the JB Store Finder page.
Update: 3/23: All gone for now, but keep an eye out. You never know when The Gamesmen will come in clutch.
Update 7/3: Harvey Norman’s stock is gone for now, and there’s no word on when it’ll be back. Keep an eye on Harvey’s stock page right over here.
