A group of quality assurance testers at Call of Duty developer Raven Software have voted to create one of the first video game unions in the United States, and the first at a major studio in the country.

22 staffers at Raven Software voted, and the motion passed 19-3. The group, known as Game Workers Alliance, can now move ahead with contract negotiations with management at Activision Blizzard. It’s not immediately clear what specific terms the group is seeking.

The Game Workers Alliance said in a statement to The Verge, “Our biggest hope is that our union serves as inspiration for the growing movement of workers organizing at video game studios to create better games and build workplaces that reflect our values and empower all of us. We look forward to working with management to positively shape our working conditions and the future of Activision Blizzard through a strong union contract.”

In December 2021, QA workers at Raven went on strike. Some QA testers were later shifted to “embedded” jobs within other departments at Raven. Labor expert Tom Smith told Polygon that this was “nothing more than a tactic” to try to stop Raven QA staff from organizing.

Activision Blizzard later announced that it would convert 1,100 temporary workers across the company to full time and increase pay to at least $20/hour with eligibility for bonuses and benefits.

A spokesperson for Activision Blizzard told GameSpot, “We respect and believe in the right of all employees to decide whether or not to support or vote for a union. We believe that an important decision that will impact the entire Raven Software studio of roughly 350 people should not be made by 19 Raven employees.”

In December 2021, workers at the small North American studio Vodeo Games formed a union. Contract staff workers at BioWare are now also setting the stage to form a union. A worker at Nintendo of America is taking action against the company and has filed a claim with the National Labor Relations Board that accuses the Mario maker of firing them for trying to start a union.

Looking more widely across the labor market, workers at Starbucks and Amazon are also in the process of seeking to form workers’ unions right now.

Jessica Gonzalez, a former QA staffer at Activision Blizzard who founded the activist group ABetterABK, told The New York Times that the vote from Raven QA staff to unionize would be “the spark that ignites the rest of the industry, I believe” as it relates to collective bargaining.

US Senator Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin celebrated the news, offering congratulations to the workers at Raven, which is based in Madison, Wisconsin.

Activision Blizzard is in the process of being acquired by Microsoft, but it remains to be seen how that proposed merger could affect Raven’s potential union.

Kompletter Artikel: CoD Devs Vote To Form US's First Union At Major Game Company

Modern Warfare 2 kommt: Infinity Ward arbeitet an einem Reboot des populären Ego-Shooters von 2009 – der Release ist für 2022 geplant. Bis zur Veröffentlichung erster handfester Infos und Gameplay-Trailern dürfte es nicht mehr lange dauern: Aktuellen…

Kompletter Artikel: Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2: Erstes Gameplay und Infos – wann folgt der Reveal?

Am Sonntag war es noch ein bloßer Teaser auf Twitter, nun nutzte Entwicklerstudio Infinity Ward die gleiche Plattform für die offizielle Ankündigung: Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, der Nachfolger zum Reboot-Shooter von 2019 wird kommen. Im Rahmen der…

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Fans von Call of Duty dürfen sich beim kommenden Modern Warfare 2 offenbar auf die “fortschrittlichste Erfahrung” der Reihe freuen. Das gab Activision in einem Statement bekannt. Zudem gibt es ein Update zum nächsten Warzone-Spiel, das sich schon in…

Kompletter Artikel: Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2: "Modernstes" CoD aller Zeiten

In its latest investor’s call, Activision Blizzard began hyping up the upcoming release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. The company described the sequel to 2019’s Modern Warfare as “the most advanced experience” in the history of the franchise.

Activision also added that a refreshed Warzone was still in development, and is being built from the ground up alongside Modern Warfare 2. The free-to-play FPS battle royale will also have several “groundbreaking innovations” that will be revealed later this year, Activision added.

Elsewhere in the Activision briefing, the company revealed that Call of Duty: Vanguard sales were less than the previous game, Black Ops Cold War. Between developing Warzone 2 and Modern Warfare 2, Activision is also working on expanding Warzone 2 onto mobile platforms.

In other Warzone news, Caldera island is about to see a Godzilla and Kong rematch. Activision has teased map changes and secrets to uncover on Caldera before the titans arrive, as well as a new Gulag location for Season 3.

Season 3: Classified Arms will go live after the Vanguard and Warzone updates arrive on April 26 at 9 AM PT / 12 PM ET. Here’s a breakdown of everything confirmed for Season 3 for the games, which will see a new Ice Axe melee weapon added and unlocked through an in-game challenge.

Kompletter Artikel: Modern Warfare 2 Is "Most Advanced" CoD Game Ever, Activision Says

Der zweite Teil des Reboots könnte bald zum ersten Mal gezeigt werden. Zumindest lässt der Twitteraccount des Entwicklerstudios Infinity Ward aktuell diesen Schluss zu.

Kompletter Artikel: Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2: Teaser für Reveal auf Twitter?

2023’s Call of Duty game may be delayed to the following year. This would mark the first time since 2004 that a year would pass without a new mainline Call of Duty game, which has gotten new entries on an annual basis since 2005’s Call of Duty 2.

Bloomberg reports that Activision Blizzard will delay 2023’s Call of Duty in hopes of further polishing the game. Seeing as Microsoft has announced its intention to continue developing Activision franchises for competing console platforms, that could mean we’ll see this new Call of Duty launch for Xbox Series X|S, PS5, and PC.

The report also says that Activision Blizzard is pushing this new Call of Duty’s release following a recent game failing to meet expectations. No exact game is listed but both Vanguard and Warzone underperformed in 2021 in comparison to Black Ops Cold War and Warzone in 2020, so it’s likely in reference to one of those.

According to the report, Treyarch will assist in developing an upcoming, yet-to-be-announced free-to-play online game. That game will reportedly launch in 2023.

In a statement, an Activision spokesperson said, “We have an exciting slate of premium and free-to-play Call of Duty experiences for this year, next year and beyond. Reports of anything otherwise are incorrect. We look forward to sharing more details when the time is right.”

Bloomberg also recently reported that three Call of Duty games are currently in the works. Two of those games have been confirmed: Call of Duty: Warzone 2 and Modern Warfare 2. The third unannounced game is the one that’s being delayed. It’s being worked on by Treyarch.

Activision Blizzard said that Warzone 2 and Modern Warfare 2 are being designed together from the ground up–Infinity Ward is helming development of both.

This story has been updated with a statement from Activision Blizzard.

Kompletter Artikel: Call Of Duty 2023 Delayed To 2024 According To Report [Update]

Call of Duty Season 2 is currently underway in Vanguard and Warzone, but 2020’s Black Ops Cold War is still getting updated with more maps and a new weapon to unlock. While the content is unannounced and likely not meant to be released yet, players have already discovered ways to unlock the game’s new Vargo 52 assault rifle.

A recent update to Black Ops Cold War added unannounced new content, including the remastered versions of Black Ops 1’s Jungle and WMD maps and the new Vargo 52 assault rifle. However, the Vargo 52 is currently still locked and hidden in Black Ops Cold War, but strangely enough, players have discovered they could unlock the weapon by playing Modern Warfare multiplayer instead.

How to unlock the Vargo 52

Image credit: Activision/JGOD

Players are reporting that the rifle is unlocked by scoring 1,000 points of damage using an assault rifle in 15 different matches of Modern Warfare multiplayer.

For this challenge, you can quickly unlock this weapon by choosing Modern Warfare’s smaller map playlists with Shoot House and Shipment. Matches in those playlists usually offer high engagements and tend to take a shorter amount of time to complete.

The Vargo 52 won’t even appear in the Black Ops Cold War menus until the you unlock in Modern Warfare first, but once unlocked you can use it for both multiplayer and Zombies. And unfortunately, the Vargo 52 is still missing in Warzone for those who have already completed the challenge, but the gun will likely appear once it is officially released. We’ll update this guide if more unlock challenges become available for the Vargo 52 in either Black Ops Cold War or Warzone.

Additionally, Call of Duty Season 2 recently added the new KG M40 assault rifle and Whitley light machine gun for you to unlock in Vanguard and Warzone.

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A sequel to Call of Duty: Warzone and 2019’s Modern Warfare, have been revealed. Here are all the newest details.

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Call of Duty: Vanguard has only been out a few months, but Infinity Ward is wasting no time teasing its own game expected to arrive this year–in very vague terms. The Modern Warfare studio posted a very short message that is sure to get the community in a collective investigation to uncover its secrets.

With just two lines, the official Infinity Ward Twitter account confirmed a “new generation” of Call of Duty would be coming soon, telling fans to “stay frosty.” This isn’t a Wendy’s reference, but a sign to keep alert for any more news.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare released back in 2019 to positive reviews, reuniting us with past characters–albeit in a rebooted canon–and introducing a few new ones. It was heavily teased that a sequel was coming, and reports said it would be focused on Colombian drug cartels. This would be a big departure from 2009’s Modern Warfare 2, which was almost entirely focused on a conflict between Russian ultranationalists and the joint task force from the original game. That being said, the conflict in the 2019 game takes some huge deviations from the original Modern Warfare, so it’s entirely possible the cartel rumor is true.

The new game is expected to launch in 2022, following Activision Blizzard’s annual release cycle. Whenever it does release, it will still be available on PlayStation consoles. It sounds from Infinity Ward’s tweet that the game may not release on Xbox One or PS4, but Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer has confirmed he wants to keep the series available on non-Xbox systems, and Microsoft’s purchase of Activision Blizzard is still pending regulatory approval. The next three games in the series will reportedly still be on PlayStation, with the future after that being unclear.

Kompletter Artikel: Call Of Duty's "New Generation" Teased As Coming Soon By Infinity Ward