Call of Duty: Warzone quality assurance workers at Activision Blizzard studio Raven Software have announced plans to unionize with the Communication Workers of America (CWA). They have asked the company to voluntarily recognize their group, which is called the Game Workers Alliance. The 34-person unit had the support of 78 percent of eligible workers, according to Polygon.

“We ask that Activision Blizzard management respect Raven QA workers by voluntarily recognizing CWA’s representation without hesitation,” CWA secretary-treasurer Sara Steffens said in a statement. “A collective bargaining agreement will give Raven QA employees a voice at work, improving the games they produce and making the company stronger. Voluntary recognition is the rational way forward.”

Workers have given Activision Blizzard until January 25th to respond to their request, according to The Washington Post. If the company fails to do so, the group will file for a union election through the National Labor Relations Board and, because the workers have a supermajority of votes, they'd be able to formalize the union without voluntary recognition from Activision Blizzard. Should the group approve the union in an election, the company would need to bargain with workers in good faith.

Sixty Raven workers went on strike in early December after Activision Blizzard laid off 12 QA contractors, despite a request from Raven leadership to keep them employed. The workers demanded the company convert all Raven QA contractors into full-time employees. So far, Activision Blizzard has reportedly been playing hardball and declining to meet with with the striking workers. Warzone players have been grousing about the game's bugs, which QA workers are tasked with finding and addressing.

"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," the company told Polygon. "While we believe that a direct relationship between the company and its team members delivers the strongest workforce opportunities, we deeply respect the rights of all employees under the law to make their own decisions about whether or not to join a union." It added that it has raised minimum pay for Raven employees by 41 percent over the last few years, extended paid time off and converted over 60 percent of the studio's contractors into employees.

The CWA claims Activision Blizzard has "used surveillance and intimidation tactics, including hiring notorious union busters, to silence workers.” Last July, the company hired WilmerHale, a law firm with a history of cracking down on unionization efforts, to review its HR policies.

The Game Workers Alliance said its principles include solidarity, equity, diversity, transparency and sustainability. "Shortened development timelines sacrifice project quality and damage the mental and physical health of our team," it wrote on Twitter. "'Crunch' is not healthy for any product, worker, or company."

Earlier this week, Microsoft announced an agreement to buy Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion, the biggest deal in video game history. If shareholders and regulators approve the acquisition, which could have enormous ramifications for the industry, the merger should close by June 2023.

In an interview with the Post on Thursday, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer noted that he didn't have much experience with unions personally after working at Microsoft for over three decades. “So I’m not going to try to come across as an expert on this, but I’ll say we’ll be having conversations about what empowers them to do their best work, which as you can imagine in a creative industry, is the most important thing for us," he said.

On Wednesday, Activision Blizzard said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing regarding the planned merger that, "To the knowledge of the company, there are no pending activities or proceedings of any labor union, trade union, works council or any similar labor organization to organize any employees of the company or any of its subsidiaries with regard to their employment with the company or any of its subsidiaries." The week that Raven workers went on strike, Activision Blizzard sent its employees a letter imploring them “to consider the consequences” of signing union cards.

As Bloomberg's Jason Schreier noted, the Game Workers Alliance is the first union within a AAA gaming company in North America. Last month, workers at Vodeo Games formed the first video game union in the US. Management at the indie studio voluntarily recognized Vodeo Workers United. Swedish publisher Paradox Interactive signed a collective bargaining agreement with unions in 2020, while Japanese–Korean publisher Nexon recognized a workers' union in 2018.

Soon after adding Banjo-Kazooie to Switch Online's Expansion Pack, Nintendo is preparing to bring another classic game to the service. In February, The Legend Of Zelda: Majora’s Mask will join the lineup.

It'll be interesting to see whether Nintendo has resolved the emulation issues many players had with Ocarina of Time, the predecessor to Majora's Mask, on Switch. Majora’s Mask is one of the most highly regarded Zelda games, so it'd be disappointing if the full experience of the N64 title isn't properly replicated on the handheld console.

Nintendo announced Expansion Pack, a higher tier of Switch Online that includes Nintendo 64 and Sega Genesis games, back in September. It said at the time Majora's Mask was one of the games in the pipeline for the service. Other N64 titles on the way include F-Zero X, Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards, Mario Golf and the original Pokémon Snap.

Mustafa Suleyman, a co-founder of artificial intelligence research company DeepMind, has left Google to join venture capital firm Greylock Partners. Suleyman has brought to an end an eight-year run at Google, where he was most recently the company’s vice president of AI product management and policy.

He joined Google when it bought DeepMind in 2014 and became the latter’s head of applied AI. Suleyman was reportedly placed on administrative leave in 2019 following allegations that he bullied employees. Suleyman, who moved to Google at the end of that year, said on a podcast with Greylock partner Reid Hoffman this week that he "really screwed up" and that “I remain very sorry about the impact that that caused people and the hurt that people felt there.”

As The New York Times notes, Suleyman was among those who resisted Google's AI endeavors with the US Department of Defense. Google ended up backing out of that project, though in November it said it was making a bid for the Pentagon's Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability cloud contract.

DeepMind may be best known for its AI systems that can compete with the best human players of certain games. Google has also employed DeepMind's knowhow to improve arrival time estimates in Google Maps, track wildlife and detect breast cancer.

Soon after Instagram started rolling out paid subscriptions for creators, TikTok says it may be following suit. The service is exploring a feature that would allow influencers to paywall at least some of the content they share on the app, as The Information first reported.

TikTok's subscriptions are being tested on a limited basis, so you may not see your favorite creators using them anytime soon. The platform didn't provide more details about how the feature works. "We're always thinking about new ways to bring value to our community and enrich the TikTok experience," a TikTok spokesperson told Engadget.

As with the likes of Twitch, Twitter and YouTube, TikTok allows viewers to send tips to influencers who are enrolled in the Creator Next program. Users can also buy and send virtual gifts to creators.

Given its other monetization options and that rival platforms have embraced subscriptions, it's hardly a surprise that TikTok is following that path too. In 2020, TikTok announced a $200 million fund to support creators.

Meta is also spending heavily on influencers. The company said last year it would invest $1 billion in creators across the likes of Facebook and Instagram by the end of 2022, in the hope of keeping them away from competitors. CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company won't take a cut of their earnings until at least 2023. Instagram subscriptions are only available to a very small number of creators for now, but there are plans to open up access to others in the coming months.

Peloton is reportedly pumping the brakes on Bike and Tread production as demand for the home fitness equipment is said to be slowing.

It's said to be putting production of its standard Bike and Tread (treadmill) products on hold for two months and six weeks, respectively. The company stopped building Bike+ units last month and it doesn’t plan to pick up production of that more expensive model until June, CNBC reports. As for Tread+, Peloton reportedly doesn’t expect to build any more of those in its 2022 fiscal year.

According to CNBC, Peloton said in an internal presentation that there’s been a significant drop in demand due to consumer “price sensitivity” and increased competition from rivals. On top of that, gyms are open again in many regions following COVID-19 lockdown measures. After being cooped up at home for the better part of two years, it wouldn’t be surprising if fitness fans wanted to work out elsewhere. Meanwhile, research firm M Science said it hasn’t seen evidence of a rise in demand for at-home fitness amid the surge of the Omicron variant.

As things stand, Peloton is said to have overestimated demand and thousands of its products are in warehouses and on cargo ships. It reportedly needs to sell many of those before making more bikes and treadmills.

Meanwhile, per the presentation, Peloton Guide was delayed from October to next month, and the product might slip again to April. Peloton Guide is a strength-training system that uses camera and machine learning to track users' movements and help them match their form against an instructor.

Earlier this week, it was reported that Peloton is looking to reduce costs. Measures could include layoffs and store closures.

Engadget has contacted Peloton for comment. The company will report its latest quarterly financial results on February 8th, which should make the status of Peloton and its products slightly clearer.

A module that hosts a film studio and sports arena could be connected to the International Space Station by December 2024. Space Entertainment Enterprise (SEE), which is co-producing a Tom Cruise movie that will partly be shot in space, is behind the project. If and when SEE-1 is up and running, it plans to host TV and film productions, as well as music events and some kind of sports, which can be filmed or livestreamed, according to Variety.

Axiom Space, which two years ago won a NASA contract to construct the first commercial ISS module, will build the station. All going well, SEE-1 will be connected to Axiom's arm of the ISS. Axiom Station is scheduled to split from the ISS in 2028 with SEE-1 still attached.

Whether SEE and Axiom can make good on their plan remains to be seen. SEE hasn't said how much the facility will cost, for one thing. It's currently planning a fundraising round.

Last year, a Russian crew shot a feature-length fiction film in space for the first time, beating Cruise and his director Doug Liman to the punch. That film, The Challenge, is expected to be released this year. Cruise and Liman, meanwhile, are expected to shoot their movie on the ISS later in 2022.

Sony has at last flipped the switch on its PlayStation 2021 Wrap-Up, allowing players to delve into their PlayStation 4 and PS5 stats for 2021. After you log into your PSN account, you'll be able to see how many hours you spent on PlayStation games last year, the five titles you played the most and how a breakdown of the trophies you scooped up.

The tool breaks down your playtime by PS4 and PS5 games, how long you spent playing on a console vs. Remote Play and how many hours you used PlayStation VR. You'll also see the number of games you played and get a code for four avatars as a bonus.

Sony took the opportunity to promote some of its games by highlighting some global community stats. In Death Stranding Director's Cut, for instance, players collectively traveled more than 45 million kilometers and delivered more than 9.4 million packages. They played more than 12 million hours of Returnal in total, while 34.6 percent of Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart players unlocked all of the weapons.

Users need to be aged 18 or over and have played at least 10 hours of games on PS4 or PS5 to access their Wrap-Up. It may not work for PS5 players who haven't enabled full data collection and those who haven't consented to "Additional Data" collection on PS4 in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Australasia, India and Russia.

While the PlayStation's year-end wrap-up feature is emerging much later than ones for other platforms and services, at least it takes the entire year into account. Spotify Wrapped, for instance, only covers listening data from between January and October. The latest edition of PlayStation Wrap-Up is actually arriving a little earlier than the one for 2020, which arrived last February. The tool will be available until February 20th.

Two years after the game was initially supposed to debut, Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga will finally arrive on April 5th. The long-awaited title from TT Games adapts all nine movies in the Skywalker Saga, and you'll be able to choose which trilogy to start with (so you might want to get the prequels out of the way first).

Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is coming to PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch and PC. It's said to be the biggest Lego game to date, and publisher Warner Bros. Games provided an in-depth look at what's in store with a gameplay trailer.

There are new combat mechanics, including ways to string attacks together and defend yourself with counter moves "in styles tailored to your favorite characters." Expect fresh blaster mechanics, with an over-the-shoulder perspective and third-person aiming reticle, and a cover system. Of course, there'll be a ton of lightsaber action, space dogfighting battles and many opportunities to use Force powers as well.

Many levels will have multiple paths to explore and you'll be able to take on side missions. Class-based abilities are upgradable and there are more than 300 playable characters to unlock. There's also a Mumble Mode, which will replace intelligible voice lines with mumbling, à la previous games in the series.

Based on the gameplay trailer alone, Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga seems like a huge game. However, despite the lengthy delays, the development team was still required to work long hours (or "crunch"), according to Polygon. 

Several current and former employees told the publication that TT Games has had a "challenging work culture over the last decade and a half" and that, during crunch periods, work weeks of between 80 and 100 hours weren't rare (though overtime is said to have been limited in recent months). TT Games has also reportedly had a high level of staff turnover since work started on Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga nearly five years ago.

Security-focused smartphone maker Sikur is back with its latest handset. The Android 11-powered Sikur One, which was developed with the help of Brazilian manufacturer Multilaser, follows the Zero Trust approach to security.

The Zero Trust concept is, in a nutshell, self explanatory. It assumes that no one can fully be trusted from a security perspective. A company or organization typically has control over a Zero Trust setup, which requires users to be authorized, authenticated and continuously validated for them to retain access to apps and data.

The Sikur One is designed primarily for corporate and government use, with organizations having the ability to control each device in line with their policies. Sikur says the device is compliant with European GDPR and Brazilian LGPD data privacy standards.

Using a system called Sikur ID, the Sikur One can carry out a password-less authentication token function. The company says that will prevent malware and phishing attacks. The phone can be locked or wiped remotely if it's lost or stolen. Users can restore data from the cloud on another device.

Sikur

Data is encrypted at the source Users won't be able to install apps from unsecured third-party stores and Sikur One will switch off location services by default. The company will strip out unneeded system applications, while the Sikur One will be up to date with over-the-air patches. The company says that won't leave "any room for commonly exploited vulnerabilities." There's no USB file transfer support either.

The Sikur One uses Sikur Messenger as the standard communication platform, encompassing messaging, file storage, file sharing and voice and video calls. All data is stored in a private cloud.

Despite the security measures, Sikur CEO Fabio Fischer says the smartphone has "the same usability as a regular device." The Sikur One has access to all apps on the Google Play Store, but the organization in charge of the device can determine what kinds of apps can be downloaded or whether users can install their own apps at all. 

On the hardware side, the Sikur One has a 6.5-inch screen, an octo-core processor, 4GB of memory and 128GB of onboard storage (which is expandable by up to 512GB using a memory card). It has a 4,000 mAh battery and dual SIM support, as well as 4G, WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity. The device has a triple camera array on the rear and a 3MP front-facing lens. In addition, there's a fingerprint sensor and support for facial recognition.

Sikur One builds on the company's previous handsets, GranitePhone and SikurPhone, which it released in 2015 and 2018, respectively. Although those were also intended for organizations, consumers were still buying the GranitePhone. 

Sikur will offer its latest model to the public as well via its sales channel partners. Pricing varies by country, but the Sikur One costs around $274. That covers the cost of the device as well as a one-year license for Sikur Messenger and mobile device management. After the first 12 months, organization will need to pay $145 per user per year for those features.

Twitter Communities, a topic-based groups feature that landed on iOS and the web last year, has arrived on Android. In the latest version of Twitter's Android app, you'll be able to find groups related to your interests and chat with like-minded people.

There are communities for interests as varied as plants, skincare, space, design, fashion, Xbox and R&B. There's even one where you can share your Wordle scores if you want to be part of that conversation without annoying your followers.

Although users can't set up their own community as easily as they might with say, a Facebook Group or subreddit, they can suggest a new one that they'd like to create and moderate. Twitter says it will keep them in mind as it adds more communities.

Twitter has laid out some of its other plans for Communities in 2022. For one thing, it's looking into a third type of membership beyond invite-only and open-to-all formats, in which users could request to join. Admins and mods would be able to let them in or deny the request. Also in the pipeline are a ranked timeline (though the chronological timeline will still be available), Q&As and ways for mods to highlight some of a community's best content.