'Call of Duty: Warzone' studio will try to unionize without Activision Blizzard's blessing

Activision Blizzard had until 6PM ET on January 25th to voluntarily recognize Game Workers Alliance, a group of Raven Software employees that recently gathered the votes to unionize, backed by Communications Workers of America. That deadline passed without recognition from Activision Blizzard, and Raven employees will now move forward with plans to file for a union election through the National Labor Relations Board.

“At Activision Blizzard, we deeply respect the rights of all employees to make their own decisions about whether or not to join a union,” an Activision Blizzard spokesperson said. “We carefully reviewed and considered the CWA initial request last week and tried to find a mutually acceptable solution with the CWA that would have led to an expedited election process. Unfortunately, the parties could not reach an agreement.”

In a series of tweets, GWA confirmed its plans to file with the NLRB. 

“This was an opportunity for Activision Blizzard to show a real commitment setting new and improved standards for workers,” one tweet read. “Instead, Activision Blizzard has chosen to make a rushed restructuring announcement to try and hinder our right to organize.”

Events have been unfolding quickly here, so let’s break it down by day:

  • January 21st: More than 30 quality assurance testers at Raven Software announced they’d gathered enough signatures to unionize, a move that would make Game Workers Alliance the first union at a large-scale North American video game studio. Raven is owned by Activision Blizzard and focuses on supporting Call of Duty: Warzone, so this is about as AAA as it gets. Union signatories asked Activision Blizzard leadership to voluntarily recognize GWA by January 25th.

  • January 22nd: Raven workers ended a weekslong strike against Activision Blizzard, awaiting union recognition from executives. The strike began on December 6th, in response to layoffs of 12 QA testers at Raven — all of whom had signed their names to the unionization effort, according to The Washington Post.

  • January 24th: Raven head Brian Raffel sent an email to employees announcing “organizational change” that would dissolve QA as a team and transfer those workers to various departments across the studio. This is known as “embedding” and it’s not uncommon at AAA studios. Raffel said embedding was the next logical step in a process that began “several months ago.”

“As we look ahead at the ongoing expansion of Call of Duty: Warzone, it’s more important than ever that we foster tighter integration and coordination across the studio – embedding will allow for this,” Raffel wrote. 

The timing of the announcement and the focus on QA testers has concerned activist groups, union signatories at Raven and Activision Blizzard employees who have been fighting for cultural change at the studio since last year. Activision Blizzard is the subject of a lawsuit and multiple investigations into allegations of systemic gender discrimination and sexual harassment, and employees have walked out multiple times, calling for longstanding CEO Bobby Kotick to resign.

It’s unclear how the restructuring at Raven will impact the union going forward, but the worry is that this move will impede members’ ability to coordinate with each other. CWA said on Twitter that the announcement was “nothing more than a tactic to thwart Raven QA workers who are exercising their right to organize.”

The CWA thread continued, “When Management uses meaningless buzzwords like ‘alignment,’ ‘synergy,’ and ‘reorganization,’ they are sending a message to workers: ‘we make all the decisions, we have all the power.’”

An Activision Publishing spokesperson provided the following response to questions about the timing of the reorganization: 

“This is the next step in a process that has been carefully considered and in the works for some time, and this structure brings Raven into alignment with the best practices of other prominent Activision studios. It is also a milestone in our broader plan to integrate QA more into the development process as our teams strive to deliver best in class coordination in real-time, live service operations.”

All of which brings us to today. Activision Blizzard employees have a supermajority of votes in favor of unionizing, and they’re bringing their case to the NLRB. This can be a protracted process, and the longer it takes, the more leverage Activision Blizzard leadership will have.

Cornell professor of labor and employment law Risa Lieberwitz told The Washington Post that the structural changes shouldn’t interrupt the unionization process, but added that the timing “raises the question of whether [Activision Blizzard] are retaliating against the QA employees because of their union activities.”

The full statement from an Activision Blizzard spokesperson about the failed unionization talks with CWA follows:

At Activision Blizzard, we deeply respect the rights of all employees to make their own decisions about whether or not to join a union. We carefully reviewed and considered the CWA initial request last week and tried to find a mutually acceptable solution with the CWA that would have led to an expedited election process. Unfortunately, the parties could not reach an agreement.

We expect that the union will be moving forward with the filing of a petition to the NLRB for an election. If filed, the company will respond formally to that petition promptly. The most important thing to the company is that each eligible employee has the opportunity to have their voice heard and their individual vote counted, and we think all employees at Raven should have a say in this decision.

Across the company, we believe that a direct relationship between managers and team members allows us to quickly respond and deliver the strongest results and opportunities for employees. As a result of these direct relationships, we’ve made a number of changes over the past couple years including raising minimum compensation for Raven QA employees by 41%, extending paid time off, expanding access to medical benefits for employees and their significant others, and transitioning more than 60% of temporary Raven QA staff into full-time employees. We look forward to continuing a direct dialogue with our team and working together to make our workplace better.

Microsoft last week announced plans to acquire Activision Blizzard for $69 billion, a deal that’s poised to change the video game landscape completely. One day after that news dropped, Activision said in an SEC filing that there were no unionization efforts underway at the studio, though it had previously warned Raven employees to “consider the consequences” of signing union cards.

The Original iBeer iPhone App Was Making Its Developer $20,000 A Day

Remember back in the early days of the smartphone where smartphone apps were kind of a novelty? This led to the creation of many weird and fun apps that were designed to basically show off what a smartphone could do. One of those apps is the iBeer, an app that mimicked the action of drinking a pint of beer when you tilt your phone.

Now in an interview with Mel magazine, the original creator of the app, Steve Sheraton, has shared additional details on how the app came about, and how much money it was making at its peak.

According to Sheraton, he revealed that the original iteration of the app was first created for the Palm Pilot, but since the device did not have an accelerometer, it was basically a video that users had to time perfectly to replicate the effect. Sheraton later brought it onto the iPhone where he sold it as a video, and all of this was before Apple had the idea for the App Store.

Once they did, Sheraton said that they saw his video and encouraged him to turn it into an app. “The accelerometer is constantly measuring the phone’s angle versus the horizon. so by tethering the line between the liquid and the foam to the horizon, you can move your phone in any direction and it looks like it’s filled with liquid.”

Sheraton claims that the app shot to first place on its very first day and stayed there for about a year, where at its peak it generated anywhere between $10,000-$20,000 a day. The app is still around but Sheraton has since left its development to the company he helped form.

The Original iBeer iPhone App Was Making Its Developer $20,000 A Day

, original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

Thailand First Nation In Asia To Move To Decriminalize Marijuana

It remains unclear if possession of marijuana will still be subject to arrest.

Logitech G413 SE mechanical gaming keyboard deserves a deeper look

<img width="1280" height="720" src="https://cdn.slashgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/logitech-g413-se-1-1280×720.jpg" class="webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image" alt="" loading="lazy" style="margin: auto;margin-bottom: 5px;max-width: 100%" data-attachment-id="708935" data-permalink="https://www.slashgear.com/logitech-g413-se-mechanical-gaming-keyboard-deserves-a-deeper-look-25708934/logitech-g413-se-1/" data-orig-file="https://cdn.slashgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/logitech-g413-se-1.jpg" data-orig-size="1440,810" data-comments-opened="0" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="logitech-g413-se-1" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="

Logitech

” data-medium-file=”https://cdn.slashgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/logitech-g413-se-1-1280×720.jpg” data-large-file=”https://cdn.slashgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/logitech-g413-se-1-1280×720.jpg” />Mechanical keyboards are no longer the novelties they were a few years back. Loved by both hardcore typists and gamers, these input devices have become more varied and also more expensive compared to the run-of-the-mill keyboards you’ll find in any store. Logitech, however, wants to challenge that status quo and is now offering the G413 SE mechanical gaming keyboards at … Continue reading

Facebook-backed Diem Association may be close to dissolving

It’s looking more and more likely that Diem, Meta’s ill-fated cryptocurrency previously known as Libra, will never actually materialize. The Diem Association is reportedly “weighing a sale of its assets as a way to return capital to its investor members,” Bloombergreports.

It’s unclear what assets the Diem Association owns, but the report notes the group is talking to bankers about selling its intellectual property and finding “a new home for the engineers that developed the technology.”

If a sale were to happen, it would seem to be the final nail in the coffin for Diem, the cryptocurrency project that Mark Zuckerberg has championed. Plans to get the stablecoin off the ground have stalled for years amid regulatory pushback and lawmaker concerns. After first launching as Libra, several high-profile partners pulled out in 2019.

Last fall, Facebook started a small pilot of Novi, the cryptocurrency wallet formerly known as Calibra. But the fact that Novi was forced to launch without support for Diem — it used a different stablecoin called the Pax Dollar — was a sign that Diem’s future remained uncertain. Longtime Facebook exec David Marcus, who oversaw the social network’s crypto plans, said at the time that Facebook remained committed to Diem. “I do want to be clear that our support for Diem hasn’t changed and we intend to launch Novi with Diem once it receives regulatory approval and goes live,” he wrote. Marcus announced a month later that he was leaving Facebook. 

A representative for the Diem Association said that Bloomberg’s reporting contained unspecified “factual errors,” but declined to elaborate or comment further.

This Is How iPhones Can Be Used To Unlock Hotel Room Doors

Last year, an update to Apple Wallet made it so that hotels could give guests digital keys to their rooms so that they can unlock their hotel rooms using nothing but their smartphones. For those who are wondering how it works, a video uploaded by tech reporter Rich DeMuro shows how it will work.

Basically it’s as easy as you might think. All users need to do is hold their iPhones against the hotel room’s lock and if it’s the correct room, it will unlock, as simple and straightforward as that. While digital keys aren’t exactly new, one of the advantages of this particular system that uses the Apple Wallet is that there is no need to unlock your iPhone or launch an app.

Right now, a lot of hotels use key cards that use either tap on their door lock or insert into the door to unlock. It’s usually an extra step where you have to take the key card out of your bag or wallet, insert it into the lock, pull it out, and then open your door. This method appears to be a lot more straightforward thanks to the implementation of NFC rather than Bluetooth.

It also works to the advantage of the hotel because it means that they might have to deal with less lost keys which they will have to replace and reprogram. To date, only Hyatt hotels have adopted this upgrade but we expect that in the future, more hotels could follow in their footsteps.

This Is How iPhones Can Be Used To Unlock Hotel Room Doors

, original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

Apple Publishes Guide On How To Stay Safe With The AirTag

Apple’s AirTag is a relatively inexpensive accessory that’s useful for keeping track of your bags or keys. However, in the recent months we’ve started to see an uptick in disturbing reports of how it can be used for stalking and theft, so much so that we have to wonder if the usefulness of the AirTag might be overshadowed by the potential dangers it poses.

So much so that it appears that Apple felt the need to publish a safety guide on its website that will help users and answer questions regarding the safety of using its products, and also what kind of action to take when it comes to their safety and privacy.

For users who might have used Apple’s products for a long time and are familiar with the software, this guide probably won’t really tell you anything you didn’t already know. However, for those who are new to Apple’s ecosystem or who have never really explored too deeply into what Apple’s software has to offer, this guide could be useful if you want to learn how to protect yourself against unknown sign-in attempts, apps that can access your location, and more.

It still doesn’t really change the fact that the AirTag can be used as a tool for stalking or stealing, but hopefully it makes users more aware of the fact and what they can do to try and protect themselves. Hopefully future updates to the AirTag’s software will offer up more robust tools to deal with the problems we’ve been hearing.

Apple Publishes Guide On How To Stay Safe With The AirTag

, original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

Substack Testing Out Native Video Support

If you use Substack to send out newsletters, you might be interested to learn that the company has announced that they have started to test out allowing users to natively embed videos in their newsletters.

This means that users no longer need to use YouTube or link to third-party video platforms and can include video directly in their newsletters. This is useful for Substack creators who are trying to keep their content exclusive to their followers.

According to the company, “With this feature—currently in private beta—you can upload or record videos directly into a Substack post. You can then make videos available to everyone or only paid subscribers. The videos will be playable directly on the web in your Substack post, and they will appear in the email versions as clickable images.”

For those who are unfamiliar with Substack, it is basically a newsletter distribution platform. One of the main draws of the service is that it allow users to monetize their newsletters, so it’s kind of like paying for a digital subscription so that creators can earn money from people who subscribe to their newsletters by offering up exclusive content.

By allowing creators to natively upload videos to Substack, it helps with that air of exclusivity, versus embedding YouTube links in which non-subscribers could potentially watch videos meant for subscribers. It is currently being tested out and should eventually be available to creators.

Substack Testing Out Native Video Support

, original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

These Comics Highlight The Unfair Ways Society Views Moms Vs. Dads

Artist Mary Catherine Starr illustrates some frustrating parenting double standards that still exist today.

NVIDIA’s ARM acquisition may be dead in the water

<img width="1280" height="720" src="https://cdn.slashgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/NVIDIA-logo-building-header-1280×720.jpg" class="webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image" alt="" loading="lazy" style="margin: auto;margin-bottom: 5px;max-width: 100%" data-attachment-id="708917" data-permalink="https://www.slashgear.com/nvidias-arm-acquisition-may-be-dead-in-the-water-25708828/nvidia-logo-building-header/" data-orig-file="https://cdn.slashgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/NVIDIA-logo-building-header.jpg" data-orig-size="1440,810" data-comments-opened="0" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="NVIDIA logo building header" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="

Sundry Photography/Shutterstock

” data-medium-file=”https://cdn.slashgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/NVIDIA-logo-building-header-1280×720.jpg” data-large-file=”https://cdn.slashgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/NVIDIA-logo-building-header-1280×720.jpg” />Way back in September 2020, NVIDIA announced its intention to purchase semiconductor manufacturer ARM for $40 billion. Fast forward almost a year-and-a-half later and now there’s word that NVIDIA might be backing away from the acquisition. While neither company has confirmed the notion that NVIDIA is getting cold feet, it wouldn’t be shocking considering that the acquisition has faced scrutiny … Continue reading