Efforts to organize workers in the U.S. video game industry advanced Friday as quality assurance staffers at Call of Duty studio Raven Software say they intend to form a union.
Why it matters: Their group, the Game Workers Alliance, would be the first union at a major American video game maker, one that is set to become part of Microsoft should the tech giant’s planned $69 billion acquisition of Raven parent Activision go through.
QA workers at Raven have been on strike since December to protest Activision’s decision to drop a dozen QA contractors.
34 members of the QA staff voted to form GWA in affiliation with the Communication Workers of America.
The union won’t be official unless Activision voluntarily recognizes it or the group is certified through an election overseen by the National Labor Relations Board.
The big picture: The multi-billion-dollar global game industry, which employs tens of thousands of workers, is largely non-unionized, with some exceptions mainly in Europe.
For years, challenging work conditions, including workplace misconduct, crunched development cycles and limited project-to-project job security have sparked developers' interest in unionizing.
Scandals at Activision Blizzard last year led some workers there to begin unionization efforts, a process that is adjacent to the QA-focused GWA effort.
In December, North American indie studio Vodeo unionized with support from management.
Details: In a tweeted list of its principles, GWA said it will focus on solidarity, sustainability, equity and diversity.
“We strive to foster work environments where Quality Assurance Testers are respected and compensated for our essential role in the development process,“ the group writes.
GWA also signaled that it will push for “realistic” development timelines, saying abbreviated ones are unhealthy for workers and hurt game quality.
What they’re saying: “Activision Blizzard is carefully reviewing the request for voluntary recognition from the CWA, which seeks to organize around three dozen of the company’s nearly 10,000 employees,” a company spokesperson said.
Gamers and games media are scrutinizing a 46-word tweet from Microsoft gaming CEO Phil Spencer to see if it indicates that new releases of Activision flagship franchise Call of Duty will continue to come to PlayStation, should Microsoft successfully buy Activision.
Why it matters: If Call of Duty leaves Sony’s platforms, millions of players would have to seek the game on PC or Xbox, devices they may not own.
With $30 million in fresh funds, health monitoring startup Casana is readying to debut a toilet seat that takes your vitals.
Why it matters: Casana’s clinical commode is part of a broader trend that is seeing health care move out of the doctor’s office and into the home — or bathroom.
The prominent climate tech-focused VC firm Energy Impact Partners has raised $200 million — and is aiming for more — for a new fund to support "early-stage, revolutionary technologies" across several industries.
Driving the news: EIP announced the launch of the Deep Decarbonization Frontier Fund yesterday with a target of $350 million.
Microsoft is pitching investors and regulators that its $68 billion Activision Blizzard deal is all about the metaverse, that nebulous buzzword taking the tech world by storm.
What they're saying: By my colleague Stephen Totilo's count, Nadella used the word "metaverse" at least five times in his conference call discussing the deal. Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick mentioned the metaverse four times, while Microsoft gaming chief Phil Spencer used the term twice.
NFTs remain a contentious topic for developers, according to the State of the Game Industry survey, with a majority claiming their companies aren't interested at all.
The details: The survey states that 72% of respondents related to cryptocurrency and 70% of respondents related to NFTs have no interest in either.
Employees say most video game companies are not addressing misconduct and toxicity directly with their employees, according to a new survey.
Driving the news: Games Developers Conference (GDC) organizers released their 10th edition of the State of the Game Industry on Thursday, an annual survey that takes the temperature of developers across the industry.
Max Levchin, the PayPal co-founder who now runs buy-now-pay-later pioneer Affirm, says he doesn't understand the stock market's ups and downs. But he isn't sweating it.
What he's saying: "In terms of operating as a public company, I heard lots of CEOs tell me everything changes or everything's very different," Levchin told Axios' Ryan Lawler during the Axios Pro kickoff event on Thursday. "I think we're one of the exceptions, in the sense that we were already a very regulated entity, we were already auditing ourselves."
YouTube has deactivated two channels linked to the Oath Keepers militia group whose members have been charged in relation to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, the company told Axios.
The big picture: Social media platforms that were used to plan or promote the Capitol attack have moved with varying degrees of speed to bar the accounts involved.
The Federal Aviation Administration said Thursday it had approved nearly 80% of the U.S. commercial fleet to perform low-visibility landings at airports with new 5G services after fears of signal interference limited 5G rollout.
Why it matters: The FAA approvals will help provide more certainty after the agency raised fears that 5G signals could reduce the accuracy of certain equipment, known as radio altimeters, that helps planes land and take off in inclement weather.
A bipartisan antitrust bill targeting "self-preferencing" by major tech platforms is on its way to the Senate floor, after the Senate Judiciary Committee favorably voted on it Thursday.
Why it matters: Today's vote puts the bill one step closer to President Biden's desk. If passed, it would mark a major blow to tech companies, which could completely change the way they operate.
Autograph, an NFT collections startup, announced that it's raised $170 million in new venture capital funding co-led by Andreessen Horowitz and Kleiner Perkins.
Why it matters: If the dollar amount isn't enough — after all, it seems as if every NFT-based startup is raising money right now — the company is co-founded by Tom Brady.
The Automated Ball-Strike system (ABS), the tech powering what's colloquially known as robo-umps, is inching ever closer to the big leagues.
Driving the news: The independent Atlantic League — which has partnered with MLB since 2019 — last week announced it was doing away with robo-umps after testing them for the past season-and-a-half.
Big Tech CEOs, including Apple's Tim Cook and Google's Sundar Pichai, have been jawboning lawmakers as a Senate committee takes up a key antitrust bill Thursday.
Why it matters: The bill prompting this lobbying frenzy could upend how tech's giants do business, and tech's critics see this as a "now or never" moment for Congress to check the industry's power.
The overlap between Super Bowl LVI and the 2022 Winter Olympics in a few weeks will be a historic sports moment for sports fans and NBC, which has the broadcast rights for both marquee events this year.
Why it matters: If the double-header wasn't challenging enough, producing the two events simultaneously in the middle of a pandemic will definitely create "operational challenges," NBC Sports chair Pete Bevacqua said Wednesday during a media event, "but I think the advantages far outweigh disadvantages."
The personal data of more than 515,000 "highly vulnerable people" were compromised in a cyberattack on a contractor used by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the organization said Wednesday.
Why it matters: The attack compromised data from at least 60 Red Cross and Red Crescent National Societies worldwide. As of yet, there is no indication that the information has been leaked, according to the ICRC.
