The Communications Workers of America (CWA) have today filed charges against publisher Activision—a company with a long track record of alleged union-busting—claiming the publisher violated several workplace laws in relation to the firing of two QA testers.
“Two QA testers expressed their outrage using strong language. In response, management set up disciplinary meetings where both workers were fired.”
The CWA argue that “the use of outbursts and strong language in the context of concerted activity by employees was protected by the National Labor Relations Board” until as recently as 2020, before the Trump administration “systematically rolled back workers’ rights, including modifying the standard for determining whether employees have been lawfully disciplined or discharged after making offensive statements, which ultimately limits free speech rights for employees.”
Activision disagrees. “We don’t allow employees to use profane or abusive language against each other,” a spokesperson for the company, Joseph Christinat, told Kotaku. “We’re disappointed the CWA advocates this type of behavior.”
The charges have been filed against Activision CEO Bobby Kotick directly, and allege that the firings—which took place on February 17—were made “in response to [the employee’s] engagement in protected, concerted and union activity”. The CWA also allege that Activision “improperly denied a request to have a coworker witness the disciplinary meeting which preceded the termination of [their] employment”.
“For far too long, Activision has gotten away with treating its employees, especially QA testers, like disposable work horses. Firing two employees for joining with their co-workers to express concern around hasty return to office policies is retaliation, point blank,” CWA Secretary-Treasurer Sara Steffens says. “When faced with unfair treatment by unscrupulous employers like Activision, workers should have the right to express themselves.”
Update 3/1/2023 9:08 a.m. ET: Added comment from Activision.
Microsoft President Brad SmithPhoto: Valeria Mongelli / Bloomberg (Getty Images)
Earlier today, Microsoft President Brad Smith and Xbox boss Phil Spencer talked briefly to the media about its ongoing attempt to consume Activision Blizzard King, continuing once again to act like the larger spat is mostly about Call of Duty. At one point, Smith said he was carrying a contract with him that would keepCall of Duty on PlayStation after the sale goes through, claiming that it all came down to Sony actually signing the thing. Conveniently, he was ignoring that the hold-up on the contract was happening because, y’know, the deal itself–which could potentially have an industry-wide impact that far outstrips Call of Duty.
For those of you just tuning in, Microsoft has spent the last 12 months trying to buy Activision Blizzard for the astoundingly large amount of $69 billion. However, almost since the moment the deal was announced, regulators and governments around the world, as well as rival companies like Sony, have voiced opposition to the deal. These entities don’t want the deal to go through because it could give Xbox too much power over the industry by owning many of the biggest brands in gaming, such as Starfield and Minecraft (among other issues). And Microsoft has spent the last year jumping from courtroom to courtroom and country to country, trying to convince everyone that one massive corporation buying up another massive corporation is totally good for the industry and not horrible at all. It also keeps trying to get Sony to sign a deal on Call of Duty as a part of these efforts.
So today—as part of this ongoing worldwide tour of courtrooms and regulatory councils—Microsoft execs were in Brussels, Belgium as part of a behind-closed-doors hearing with the European Commission, which (like many other groups) has concerns about the Activision deal. After that hearing, Smith and Spencer held a brief media…briefing (heh) and mostly went over the same things they’ve said before about how Sony is already dominating the game industry and how Microsoft needs Activision Blizzard to compete. All of these arguments were trotted out while also pointing out that Nintendo had just signed a 10-year deal with the company to bring Call of Duty to Switch, a deal that’s come across as Microsoft trying to prove it won’t keep some of its biggest franchises to itself should the deal go through. And if it’s willing to put forth a decade-long deal on Call of Duty, the thinking goes, Microsoft is clearly not trying to build a monopoly through this deal.
It was during this part of the briefing, as reported by GameIndustry.biz, that Smith revealed that he was actually carrying the contract for a similar deal that would keep Call of Duty on PlayStation consoles. It was in an envelope in his pocket.
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“We haven’t agreed on a deal with Sony, but I hope we will,” Smith said, “I hope today is a day that will advance our industry and regulation in a responsible way. Sony can spend all its energy trying to block this deal, which will reduce competition and slow the evolution of the market. Or they can sit down with us, and hammer out a deal.”
Of course, bringing the actual contract with you on your trip to Europe is clearly just a way to dramatically remind people that Sony isn’t playing ball and is pushing back against the proposed Activision deal over concerns that it could lose access to Call of Duty, a series Sony in the past has called “essential.” And to be clear: Even after signing that deal, Sony could still lose Call of Duty after the initial decade if Xbox doesn’t offer up another, similar contract in 2033. ( It’s also just weird to bring it with you, beyond using it as a prop, unless Smith thought Sony was going to rush the stage at that moment and sign…) And it’s also another example of Microsoft acting like everyone is concerned about Call of Duty just because Sony seems to be focused mostly on that part of the deal.
In fact, at one point during the briefing, Smith literally said that the “number one concern that people have expressed about this acquisition is that Call of Duty will be less available to people.”
That’s a wild thing to say! And it just ignores all the other valid issues people and governments have with this deal, like how it could make the industry smaller and more susceptible to collapse, how it could position Game Pass as a more powerful force that could begin to hurt studios that don’t make deals with Xbox, or just the basic reality that—historically speaking— corporate mergers are awful for consumers.
In other news involving this seemingly-never ending saga, Microsoft also confirmed it had signed a 10-year deal with NVIDIA to allow GeForce NOW players to stream Xbox PC games and Activision PC games, including the all-important CoD, if the deal is approved and happens. This, along with the Nintendo deal, is clearly being promoted heavily by Microsoft, right before today’s hearing, as evidence that the company is not going to lockdown Call of Duty or other Activision Blizzard games to one platform or service.
Spencer even tweeted about the deal, adding that the company is “committed to bringing more games to more people – however they chose to play.” Well, unless you want to play Bethesda’s next big RPG, Starfield, on a PS5. Then uh…tough luck!
Via Axios’ newsletter, a series of court documents have been filed over the last couple of weeks detailing some of the legal skirmishes currently playing out between Microsoft, who want to complete the blockbuster deal, and Sony, who are one of a number of companies and organisations who absolutely do not want this to happen.
These particular filings are about Sony’s attempts to fight the proposed sale, and that as part of their defence Microsoft is entitled to “discovery”, which is basically just letting them get hold of a load of documents and emails from certain Sony executives. Both companies have been haggling over the number of executives this will include and the scope of the discovery for ages, but things took a turn earlier this month when Microsoft accused Sony of first stalling, and then not providing all the information they might need:
Sony Interactive Entertainment (“SIE”)—whose gaming business has dwarfed Xbox’s for 20 years—is not an ordinary third party in this action. At great expense and over an extended period, SIE has deployed delegations of executives, large teams of outside lawyers, and highpriced economists to persuade regulators here and around the world to block Microsoft Corp.’s
(“Microsoft’s”) proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard King. SIE’s efforts are paying off: The FTC’s complaint in this action is chock-full of allegations about the effects the deal will have on SIE’s business. This case is as much about SIE as it is about Xbox and Activision. Timely discovery from SIE is therefore critical to Microsoft’s defense.
Though SIE’s motion for an extension of time complains about the breadth of the subpoena and the length of the extensions already granted for it to respond to that subpoena, Microsoft already told SIE it would consent to a fourth extension of time to negotiate issues related to the scope of the subpoena’s requests. But Microsoft believes that court intervention is required now on one issue: whether SIE will collect and produce documents from certain custodians.
In response, Sony said that they hadn’t supplied all the information Microsoft were requesting because they were being asked for way too much, including things like access to internal performance reviews, something Sony say “is obvious harassment”, and that “even in employment cases courts require a specific showing of relevance before requiring production of personnel files.”
Judge D. Michael Chappell has agreed with Sony, saying the company “has demonstrated good cause for the requested relief” and agreeing that the scope and depth of Microsoft’s requests had gone too far.
Go everywhere with your kids This must-have bundle nets you either of Gladly’s award-winning Anthem2 or Anthem4 All-Terrain Stroller Wagons as well as must-have accessories like a parent cupholder, a removable storage basket, extra-large canopies, a nap system, quilted comfort seats, a cooler bag with a padded shoulder strap, and a travel bag.
All of which is only mildly interesting, I know, but I bring this up mostly so we can just link to both Microsoft and Sony’s motions, which are full of some incredible self-owns, like Microsoft saying PlayStation’s success “has dwarfed Xbox’s for 20 years”, along with some very funny wordage in Sony’s filing, like the way they say Microsoft’s subpoena was, like, “truly massive”.
While The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom is one of the most hotly-anticipated video game sequels of all time, that’s not the only reason it’s notable this week. It is also, sadly, the first Nintendo game to hit the $70 threshold.
While physical copies of the game have previously been available for preorder at places like GameStop for $60, Nintendo’s press release for the game following tonight’s Direct confirms that the cheapest version will be selling for $70. Preorders for the game at that $60 pricepoint suddenly stopped being accepted by retailers on Tuesday night.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom: An epic adventure across the land and skies of Hyrule awaits. In this sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, you’ll decide your own path through the sprawling landscapes of Hyrule and the mysterious islands floating in the vast skies above. Can you harness the power of Link’s new abilities to fight back against the malevolent forces that threaten the kingdom? In addition to the standard version, which will be available at a suggested retail price of $69.99, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Collector’s Edition will release on launch day at a suggested retail price of $129.99, and includes a physical version of the game, an artbook with concept art, a Steelbook case, an Iconart steel poster and a set of four pin badges.
That would make it the first ever Nintendo game to hit that $70 threshold, at least as a recommended retail price, which is a bummer for us as consumers (since wages aren’t increasing in line with the inflated cost of…everything) but also expected from a business (because all their costs have gone up). This is why it’s called an inflation crisis, baby!
Back in November, Nintendo responded to Sony’s decision to increase the price of the PS5 by saying “it won’t take such actions at this moment, but will continue monitoring situation and carefully consider (whether we need to take the option).”
While that Switch hardware increase hasn’t materialised—yet—maybe recouping an extra $10 per copy of a game expected to sell millions will help Nintendo’s bottom line, especially since the company just saw its share prices tumble after analysts predicted the aging Switch is “rushing to end of its lifecycle at a faster-than-expected pace,” and that without news of replacement hardware on the horizon things might just get worse.
Today, Microsoft filed a revised response to the United States Federal Trade Commission’s lawsuit intended to stop the tech giant from buying up Call of Duty publisher Activision. The initial filing contained multiple arguments claiming the FTC itself and its court system were unconstitutional. But now Microsoft has yanked that language out of the doc and claimed it was all a mistake. Y’know, just your average oopsie of calling a large government agency unconstitutional.
Last year, Microsoft announced its plans to consume Call of Duty and World of Warcraft publisher Activision Blizzard for a whopping $69 billion. Since then, Microsoft and Activision Blizzard have faced pushback and legal roadblocks around the world as various government agencies and regulatory committees investigate if the massive deal would give Microsoft an unfair advantage against its competitors. As you would expect, Microsoft and Activision Blizzard have fought back and spent 2022, filing responses, docs, and court paperwork in an effort to make its deal happen.
In a press release put out by the FTC last month, the agency announced a lawsuit against the merger and reasoned that Microsoft would be able to stifle its competitors by making games Xbox exclusives and manipulating prices, should the deal go through. Microsoft fought back via a response that contained a lot of arguments, including the assertion that the FTC itself was actually unconstitutional.
However, as reported by Axios, today Microsoft refiled its response to the lawsuit and has omitted the section arguing that the FTC’s lawsuit was “invalid because the structure of the Commission as an independent agency that wields significant executive power” violates Article II of the US Constitution. In that same section of the original filing, Microsoft also argued that the lawsuit and legal proceedings being carried out by the FTC were “invalid” because the FTC’s official complaint violated Article III of the U.S. Constitution. Oh, and Microsoft’s legal team also claimed that the FTC’s “procedures” violated the company’s “right to Equal Protection under the Fifth Amendment.”
Now all of that is gone and Microsoft tells Axiosthat it probably shouldn’t have been in that initial doc in the first place.
“The FTC has an important mission to protect competition and consumers, and we quickly updated our response to omit language suggesting otherwise based on the constitution,” Microsoft public affairs spokesperson David Cuddy told Axios. “We initially put all potential arguments on the table internally and should have dropped these defenses before we filed.”
Microsoft says it appreciates all the “feedback” it received about its arguments claiming the FTC itself was unconstitutional and are “engaging directly with those who expressed concerns” to make the company’s position on the matter “clear.” In other words, the FTC probably didn’t take too kindly to be called unconstitutional and you probably shouldn’t anger the people suing you and trying to stop your whole big merger from happening.
Call of Duty Warzone 2.0 players are about to get what they wanted…sort of. The red-hot online shooter is getting Combat Records with its Season 01 Reloaded midseason update, which will go live December 14. Sounds good. But the catch is, it’s starting fresh: no information from the games you completed before that date will be counted toward your stats.
Traditionally, all the Combat Record does is log your and other players’ performance, including total time played, kill/death ratios, killstreaks, and other competitive stats, and players have beenwanting it to come to Warzone 2.0 since the game came out in November. However, a new blog Activision dropped today about the forthcoming patch revealed that the eagerly awaited feature comes with a significant caveat.
“Record will only be from the activation date forward, and will not include statistics from Season 01 launch through Season 01 Reloaded (November 16 to December 14),” read the update blog.
Kotaku reached out to Activision for comment.
For competitive players, this news comes down like a heavy slap in the face—nothing you do until December 14 will be officially documented. If you pop out your most impressive killstreak and no Combat Record is around to write it down, did you even have a killstreak?
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Personally, I’m not sure if this one is as bad as some fans aremaking it outto be. But I can understand their frustration, especially when considering the fact that Combat Record is a typical CoD feature that was missing from launch. It also doesn’t help that Warzone 2.0’s launch was one of this year’s most clunky and bugged. As pleasurable as the free game is to actually play, fans’ goodwill clearly has its limits.
But in the dark age between now and December 14, when stats will finally start being recorded, you can focus your attention to anticipating other midseason updates Warzone 2.0 is getting, like a Rocket League-inspired Warzone Cup with ATVs. Or you could, you know, try to just enjoy playing the game.
A group of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II players have been breaking the game’s movement system and their latest creation is something they’re calling the “G Walk.” The trick looks very frustrating to play against, leading to some controversy among the game’s community over the new exploit.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II was released last month across nearly all platforms and quickly became one of the biggest games of the year. And just this month, the game’s highly anticipated Warzone 2.0 spin-off mode launched to similar praise and player hype. Sure, the campaign seems bad and filled with some terrible moments—like a section where players point their rifle at an unarmed person to “deescalate” the situation—but the online portion of this year’s edition of the annual Activision shooter seems to be a hit with fans. And one group of players is using Modern Warfare II’s movement controls to create impressive, scary, and very fast techniques to up the competitive ante.
As spotted by Jake Lucky on Twitter, Modern Warfare II clan “Euphoria” are breaking the game right now. Their latest creation, which they’re calling “G Walking,” turns the normally human soldiers in Call of Duty into wild, speedy goblins that hop and crawl around maps like kids who have had way too much sugar on Halloween night. As you might expect, moving around this fast at such a weird posture makes it challenging for other players to land a shot on these out-of-control monsters. (As of now, the group has yet to share publicly how to pull off this new move.)
And just as quickly as the goblins themselves, players have begun responding to the videos of Euphoria members G Walking. Some find it funny, others find it scary. But many are annoyed by what Euphoria is doing, claiming that it ruins matches and makes it harder for casual players to just hop on for a few hours and play. Members of Euphoria have mostly laughed at the complaints–and in their defense, they are just using controls and mechanics that exist in the game to do this wild shit. If anything, developers Infinity Ward need to patch these exploits out of the game if the studio doesn’t want this to become the new meta.
I personally remember playing the original MW2 back in 2009 and running around doing the annoying Javelin suicide glitch that would kill everyone around you when you died. It was very annoying and was quickly patched out of the game. And before all that nonsense, I remember getting into weird spots on Crash in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 using janky-level geometry and tricky jumps. If anything, stuff like G Walking and the groups’ other movement exploit— Superman Hopping— is just tradition at this point.
Rep. Mike Garcia on the campaign trailPhoto: Myung J. Chun (Getty Images)
While it’s normal for prominent business people to donate to both sides of the political aisle, so that whoever wins an election they can call in some favours, as the Republican Party lurches further to the right some of the candidates being supported are deserving of a bit more scrutiny than usual.
As Axios report, the race for a US House seat in California’s 27th District—part of the city of Los Angeles—is expected to go down to the wire on Tuesday, after the 2020 election saw Rep. Mike Garcia win by just 333 votes. His rival this week (as it was in 2020) is Democrat Christy Smith, and to help the incumbent over the line three wealthy donors have handed Garcia $50,000.
Garcia’s campaign, and Kotick’s support of it, deserve extra scrutiny because like so much of the Republican party in 2022, he’s not just a conservative guy. Garcia, a MAGA devotee, was one of 139 representatives who, in January 2021, even after witnessing the violence at the Capitol on January 6, voted to object to the Presidential Electoral College results from two states, in effect protesting the democratic election of President Joe Biden, and giving what has been described as his “tacit support” to an insurrection.
Sarah Schachner, one of the most prolific and well-known composers working in video games, has issued a statement today saying that she will no longer be creating any music for Modern Warfare II or Warzone.
Schachner, whose credits as a composer and musician include the Assassin’s Creed series (Unity, Black Flag, Origins & Valhalla), Far Cry, Need for Speed, Bioware’s Anthem and Call of Duty games (Infinite Warfare, Modern Warfare & Modern Warfare II), posted the statement on Twitter, saying that she “can no longer continue to compose music” for Activision’s latest shooter.
“Over the past couple of months the working dynamic with the audio director has become increasingly challenging and I don’t see any path forward”, the statement says. “As of now, I am unsure of the status and release plan for the soundtrack as it’s been taken out of my hands.”
Those soundtrack plans have been the subject of fan curiosity ever since the game’s release, since it’s rare for a major blockbuster like this to come out and not have its official album accompany it. Schachner’s statement suggests that her “challenging” dynamic with the audio director (which Variety reports is Stephen Miller) is at least partly down to this soundtrack release, as she adds “what will be released on the soundtrack is not my artistic intent in regards to mixing and mastering”.
You can read the full statement below:
I am sad to say I can no longer continue to compose music for MWII / Warzone. Over the past couple of months the working dynamic with the audio director has become increasingly challenging and I don’t see any path forward. As of now, I am unsure of the status and release plan for the soundtrack as it’s been taken out of my hands.
While I don’t have any control over how the music is presented in-game, what will be released on the soundtrack is not my artistic intent in regards to mixing and mastering. Mike Dean was a part of the creative vision for the album as well as mixer Frank Wolf. We have soundtrack masters in hand from Mike which unfortunately you will never get to hear.
I would like to acknowledge the incredible hard work of the audio team as a whole, and I hope you still enjoy it because I put so much work and effort into it. The score features some wonderful performances by musicians Baseck, Brain Mantia, and M.B. Gordy. I’m truly appreciative of the outreach so far and I feel a responsibility to the fans to remain authentic in my approach with the game and its sound which I have been a part of creating for many years.
EA’s “most polished” Madden in years continues to walk a rough road. Madden 23 received its massive October title update on Thursday, and with it a lot of welcome tweaks to underlying gameplay. But despite a bevy of bug fixes, many fans still feel like EA isn’t been honest about the current underwhelming state of the game and what they see as the prioritization of microtransaction gambling over making sure regular modes are glitch-free.
“Today may have saved Madden 23,” Madden YouTuber Zirktober tweeted yesterday shortly after the October patch notes were published online. By the end of the day, players had discovered a major bug. Upgrading any of the game’s “Most Feared Monsters” players would automatically lock players out of Madden Ultimate Team, the game’s highly monetized competitive online mode.
“Do not upgrade any Most Feared Monster Maker players as it can lock your account out of Ultimate Team,” EA announced that evening. “We are currently working on fixing this issue and unlocking any players impacted.” A few hours later the bug was fixed and players could use the upgrades again without fear of being locked out, though EA still seemed unclear on the precise source of the issue. “We have disabled chemistry options on Monster Makers for the time being as we are investigating an issue,” it tweeted.
While the interruption ultimately ended up being just momentary, it was still a perfect encapsulation of the rollercoaster ride fans have been on since Madden 23 launched back in August. Initial reviews were mostly positive, followed by a harsher assessment by some players, including a few NFL pros. Content creators rallied around a brief “pack strike” to protest the high price and piss-poor odds of getting great players out of Madden Ultimate Team’s card packs. By the beginning of October, some wondered if Madden 23 could still be saved, or if it might end up being remembered as one of the worst iterations of the annualized money maker in several years.
First, the good news. Madden 23’s October Title update does address some core complaints in recent weeks. A recalibrated slider seems to be addressing the maddening number of super-human interceptions players were previously witnessing. A disconnect issue leading to lots of lost progress in Franchise mode was also seemingly fixed. CPU teams should no longer randomly end negotiations with players. Some players got new face scans. And there were plenty of teaks to blocking, catching, and other core gameplay mechanics.
“While not every issue has been resolved today, more fixes are coming with future updates as we continue to actively work to bring you the best possible experience. We value and appreciate your feedback,” EA wrote. “Our team is consistently taking it into consideration and working on delivering updates all season long.”
This Is Popular Stranger
But the story with Madden is never as simple as one of total disaster or complete redemption. The title update also claimed to add the Jets’ new alternate black helmets, but several players have been getting glitched white versions instead. Franchise mode is also still a mixed bag. While some players report finally being able to progress in their seasons after previously hitting a wall of crashes and disconnects, others are still encountering the dreaded draft loop bug that sends them back to the beginning of a season whenever they finish a game.
Another particular sore spot remains Madden 23’s field passes, a battle pass system similar to the one free-to-play game Apex Legends added just this year. Its three tiers—Season, Competitive, and Fear—have given players issues ever since launch. Even now, they don’t always track players’ stats correctly, meaning players don’t get rewarded for completing an objective when they should. As YouTuber This Is Popular Stranger points out, just getting a pass open can be a chore, with some players still getting flooded with error messages when they try to access it. And then there are the missing rewards.
Some players weren’t getting rewards for House Rules matches, while others weren’t getting Trophy Packs for winning season-length Super Bowls. Coins, used to buy packs without spending real money, also went missing. EA acknowledged the issues at the end of last month, but players are still waiting to hear how it will be addressed. Meanwhile, Solo Battles, a main objective for collecting other rewards, were broken for a week, leaving many players to miss out. It’s a big problem for a game in which the only alternative is to shell out money on randomized card packs.
“I wonder if EA just doesn’t realize what a HUGE issue broken rewards is,” Madden streamer Kmac tweeted earlier this week. “It’s been THREE WEEKS now and they’re just dropping new promos like nothing is wrong. There’s no incentive to play Madden. No one can afford the new cards dropping.”
It’s the stinginess of the card packs—the backbone of Madden’s most popular online mode—paired with the lack of acknowledgement of ongoing bugs and lost rewards that’s continuing to foment discontent within the community.
“A lot of people were like, ‘Is the Pack Strike over?’ ‘The content’s really good, it felt like things were better this morning’—it’s absolutely not [over],” Popular Stranger said during his recent title update video. “The bundles do look better but we ain’t buying them. I hope you guys aren’t as well.”
A player who goes by iowaopoly on Twitter has been tracking pack and stat reroll odds since launch, and continues to believe they are some of the worst in years. That’s despite the card packs themselves historically making billions for EA. It was one of the few publishers to continue posting great profits this year while rivals like Ubisoft and Activision struggled, mostly on the back of microtransactions in series like Madden.
“The main theme of Madden 23 is stuff just continues to come out broken and super expensive and it takes days or even weeks to get stuff fixed in some way so players can get rewards to get the items or even play the game so it counts for something on progress,” Twitch content creator Rob Lopez told Kotaku. In the meantime, Madden 23just went on sale. It’s $20 off less than two months after release.
