After being asked by a group of employees at activision blizzard whether it will object to internal Unionization efforts, Microsoft has responded saying that it will not.

The news comes from Axios, who say that, in response to an open letter, the company has said it will not object to the union efforts, which started during the wake of recent scandals surrounding activision blizzard.

In the letter, Workers asked Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella whether microsoft has authorized Activision to rule on the recognition of the union. Workers have also accused Activision for using “union-busting” tactics in an attempt to thwart their action, and have called on microsoft to stop the “campaign that is being waged against us”

Responding to the letter, a spokesperson from microsoft told Axios “Microsoft will not stand in the way if Activision Blizzard recognizes a union.” continuing on, they said “Microsoft respects Activision Blizzard employees’ right to choose whether to be represented by a labour organization and we will honor those decisions.”

A version of the letter is also slated to run in Microsoft's backyard this weekend in the Sunday edition of the Seattle Times pic.twitter.com/e1sHUSKFLY

— Stephen Totilo (@stephentotilo) March 24, 2022

Back in February, Activision’s vice president of QA, Christian Arends, Sent a message to staff in an attempt to dissuade them from unionizing.

In January, the 34 strong group called the game workers alliance officially asked activision blizzard to recognise the union, which would be the first one ever at a major north american Development studio.

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The post Microsoft say they wont object if activision recognises Union first appeared on Get2Gaming.

A bird in the coal Mines

Raven software is a name you might not know, but that never the less is a studio that created some of the biggest games in the PC space post doom, and whose history is maybe one of the saddest stories in this industry. Raven made good games. For a time they would take the latest engine Extradimensional Hyperbrain Meme John Carmack had created and make a game better than the guys at ID software did. With the Wolfenstein 3D engine they made Shadowcaster, with the Doom Engine they made Heretic and Hexen, With the Quake Engine they made Mageslayer and heretic 2. With the doom 3 Engine they made Quake 4 and Wolfenstein(2009). Even when they weren’t working with ID-tech they made some genuine classics, like Star wars Jedi knight II, which in my opinion was the best version of light-saber combat ever.

Then Activision showed up.

Ravens last stand alone game was singularity. The project took a long time to develop, and was even briefly canceled at one time. The final game is far less ambitious than was probably originally intended, but overall it still came out OK. unfortunately it did not sell well. Following Singularities release, Raven would be put onto working on the DLC for the Call of Duty games by activision, eventually ending up as the lead dev on the games Battle royal mode warzone. But even then, these where good devs, who made good games that maybe didnt do so well but they had spark man. If you haven’t played it, track down a copy of Singularity, or of Quake 4, or of heretic. Because raven deserves to be talked about more.

The Phoenix?

Things got worse last year, when activision fired a number of members of the QA department who had previously been promised pay rises. Following the other recent activision blizzard controversies, Raven Software staff went on strike and, as of the 21st, gathered enough signatures to unionize. From then, Activision had 4 days to recognise the union. Now, to be completely fair to activision, they were just acquired by Microsoft so there is probably a lot on their minds regarding that, but as of now, activision has not voluntarily recognized the Game Workers Alliance, the union that Raven QA staff have formed.

With the recognition deadline passed, Raven employees will now move forward with plans to file for a union election through the National Labor Relations Board, as confirmed though a series of tweets.

We, the supermajority of workers at Raven QA, are proud to be confidently filing our petition with the NLRB for our union election. (1/5)

— Game Workers Alliance 💙#WeAreGWA (@WeAreGWA) January 26, 2022

Recently, Studio Head Brian Raffel announced an organizational change that would dissolve the QA team and transfer those workers to other departments arround the studio. Given the announcements timing and its focus on the QA department this has been perceived as an attack against the union, with the CWA commenting on this on twitter.

This announcement, which came three days after Raven QA workers publicly requested recognition of their union – @WeAreGWA (CWA) – is nothing more than a tactic to thwart Raven QA workers who are exercising their right to organize.

— CODE-CWA (@CODE_CWA) January 25, 2022

The current mood

As of Right now, Activision Blizzard Employees have the supermajority of votes in favor of unionizing, which is unsurprising given the last year of controversy surrounding the studio. They are in the Process of bringing their case to the NLRB. however this process can be protracted, which would give more leverage to leadership of activision blizzard.

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.”

#FreeRaven.

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The post Raven software Attempt to unionize #FreeRaven first appeared on Get2Gaming.

Since Call of Duties Battle royal, Warzone, launched in march of 2020, players have been waiting to see a new map enter the game to replace or stand alongside the war-torn Streets of Verdansk. On the 8th of this month, that is finally happening, with the new Caldera map releasing. While this update brings a bunch of new features, some players on consoles are going on specific, until now PC only features, fonts it way to them.

On PC, Call of Duty warzone features an adjustable FOV slider, to allow you to see more or less on your screen as you play. Unfortunately, console players do not have this feature. However, recent details have emerged suggesting this may change in the not too distant future.

Following requests from the warzone Community, a developer has spoken about the possibility of an FOV slider coming to the console versions. The news came in the form of a tweet from Ted Timmins, Warzone’s creative director. In the message, He noted the studio was aware of demand for the feature, and also noted that he typically played on console, and therefore understood the reason for an FOV slider.

Definitely aware of this, especially that I speak as a console player.

Thing is, if I tweet literally anything then it will become a headline which wouldn’t be fair on me or the team. I just hope that these patch notes make it clear; you are being heard, and we are listening.

— Ted Timmins (@JustTeddii) December 1, 2021

Unfortunately, this tweet does not confirm that the developers are actually working at implementing this. However Timmins did say the patch notes of the december 8 update will show that the developers are listening to player feedback.

FOV sliders can have an impact on how smoothly games perform, but the benefits from having them almost always outweigh the negatives. Personally I feel cramped playing any game with an FOV under 100. Games like Apex Legends and Halo Infinite have already implemented Sliders on consoles, making warzones’ absence of them more noticeable. Furthermore, Call of Duty Vanguard does feature a slider.

We will soon see if an FOV slider does come to the game.

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The post COD warzone Devs respond to FOV slider Request first appeared on Get2Gaming.

Call of Duty fans online are speculating that this year’s Halloween event is coming soon due to a minor discovery on a fan favourite map, Nuketown.

Last year saw Verdansk turn into ‘The Haunting of Verdansk’ and lasted between October the 20th to November the 3rd last year. Along with a specific battle royale zombie mode, the normal map was filled with loot boxes with jump scares randomly screaming down the headset leaving the CoD community eagerly awaiting this year’s Halloween instalment.

The clue from the popular map is a trick or treat bucket, a relatively small easter egg that isn’t interactable, but players will read into anything to piece a story together, even if it may not be there. The bucket is full of sweets and has a jack-o-lantern face with the design set to fit with the Nuketown theme.

Not a lot to go off but seeing as it’s that time of year, the event is most likely coming soon. Possibly leading to more mini easter eggs in other maps in the build-up. Some fans speculating that a Halloween themed Nuketown map is on the verge of release, which isn’t a rogue guess as of last Christmas, a festive theme was installed into the map.

The Halloween event has been officially announced via the Call of Duty road map, shared by Activision previously. The event is named ‘The Haunting’ and is due to go live on October the 19th. As with every special event in the world of Call of Duty, there will be limited-time rewards available via the event, most likely leading to mass hot drops around Verdansk in a frenzy to attain the rewards.

Hopefully, like last year we’ll see a dark version of Verdansk go live again.

The new season begins on October the 7th, along with a new battle pass to work through if you choose to participate. This season may well be a significant build-up to the spooky event for 2021.

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The post Trick Or Treat: The Haunting Of Verdansk Take Two? first appeared on Get2Gaming.

The Call of Duty community is never one to shy away when they are unhappy. Unfortunately, with Warzones latest update, there isn’t any change there, as some people’s version of the game is totally “unplayable”. A post from a Reddit user below shows the troubles experienced.

The update that went live on Thursday the 23rd of September seems to have made some gamers versions unplayable, with some claiming that their frame rate has dropped as low as 14FPS. The update meant to make some changes to the new Iron Trials Mode, a massive hit with more serious players, taking annoying specs out such as dead silence and stopping power. Still, for more casual players, the adoration for the mode isn’t reciprocated.

The lag isn’t just in-game either; the menu screen is struggling with the same problems. It just might be the time to stay off Warzone until this gets sorted out. Hopefully, Raven Software get word of this and address it quickly because there’s nothing more frustrating than losing 1v1’s just because of a jittery screen.

Nothing official yet, though, as Raven would usually tweet if they know something is amiss so that players may be stuck with this unplayable game for some time. With updates and weapon patches happening every week, it’s no surprise that these continuous tweaks can rearrange certain other aspects of the game.

With such an intricate, substantial online multiplayer game, keeping every cog turning perfectly whilst attempting to mend a few others must be challenging, so blunders here and there are expected. The developers are still only human, after all.

Sometimes, the best thing to do as a fan of a series is to take a break from the game and come back after experiencing a new game. New games are on the horizon, and Fifa 22 is out this Friday; give that a try until a fix is confirmed. Pre-order Fifa 22 here for £64.99 for next-gen console and £55.99 on the previous generations, or check out the EA early access trial, which you can read about here.

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The post Call of Duty Warzone’s Latest Patch Is Causing Trouble For Some Gamers first appeared on Get2Gaming.

The perk meta is finally evolving…

Call of Duty‘s Season 5 arrives on August 12, and today’s intel reveals Warzone’s update might finally shake up the perk meta. The new season is expected to bring new points of interest to Verdansk, a Red Door in-game event, and all-new Warzone-exclusive perks.

Currently, Warzone only utilizes Modern Warfare’s perk selection, despite this year’s Cold War integration. Warzone’s current slate of perks are dominated by a select few: E.O.D., Ghost, Overkill, and Amped (this has been the case since launch). However, Season 5 introduces Combat Scout and Tempered, which could create some variation in perk decisions across the player base.

With Combat Scout, players will receive a burst of in-field intel, as damaging an enemy briefly highlights that opponent in bright orange and automatically pings them. Activision’s wording suggests that this orange highlight will only be visible to the player who activated the ping, as the description suggests the perk is stronger if the player can “communicate effectively to their squadmates.” This could be a gamechanger for highly efficient squads.

Players also have a Double XP weekend to look forward to starting at 6PM today (BST). The blog linked above (under Double XP) also covers some of the other new additions players can expect for the upcoming season.

Make sure to tune in to our upcoming charity Gameathon with Legacy Youth Zone on Saturday the 7th of August.

For those interested, we have a big sale going on, a summer sale. Use the codes SIZZLE10 (summer)  to access discounts. The discount codes are only valid for the products listed on their respective URLs (linked above). This sale ends 9th August so move fast!

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The post Call Of Duty’s Upcoming Season 5 Could Shake Up Warzone’s Perk Meta first appeared on Get2Gaming.