Daily Briefing: Friday 8th April

Activision Blizzard Turn 1,100 QA Contractors Into Employees & Pay $20/Hour

Activision-Blizzard announced that 1100 of their QA temps and contractors are being converted to full-time employees, getting bumped up to a $20/hour rate, becoming eligible for bonus payouts and everything else being an employee comes with. This has been called union-busting as it is timed to exclude Raven QA from the pay hike -  it’s illegal to change pay or benefits for employees currently undergoing union votes in the US. Acti-Blizz messaging reads distinctly anti-union, although in a “you’re better with us” way rather than their last fear-mongering approach. At any rate, this is excellent news for AB QA staff, their games, and potentially even other staff.

• It goes to show why they do what they do: Record profits? Lay off hundreds! Union negotiations after a bad year? Raise wages, quick! Hm... A full video discussing this in detail should be on the channel now!

Halo Infinite Finally Gets Some Content

Halo Infinite’s season 2, titled Lone Wolves, has been announced for May 3rd. It includes, among other things, new maps, modes, events and a new battle pass. This comes very shortly after their community manager posted to Reddit about how the community is understandably out of patience with the lack of meaningful updates. This season was originally planned for “early 2022”, but is now launching over one third into the year. Hopefully this was a temporary delay, and not a sign of things to come.

• We’ve discussed this recently on the channel - 343 seem to have issues with getting content created, and some of that might be down to over-reliance on contractors and Microsoft’s interesting rules around maximum contract duration - they must take 6 months away from Microsoft after 18 months contracted.

Returnal Wins Best Game (And More) At The BAFTAs

It beats out Deathloop, Forza Horizon 5, It Takes Two, Ratchet & Clank and Inscryption for Best Game, also winning Audio Achievement, Music and Performer In A Leading Role.

• Returnal seems to have been relatively niche compared to other Playstation Studios titans, but scooping up awards like this show it was still one hell of a game.

Square Enix Trademark Tactics Ogre: Reborn In Japan

After appearing on the GeForce Now leaked list of game projects, a Tactics Ogre remaster has been a hot topic, especially as Square Enix find success with Triangle Strategy, a modern take on the tactics genre. Now, Tactics Ogre: Reborn has been trademarked in Japan, implying that they’re ready to announce it soon. Remake or remaster is unknown, and GeForce Now also exposed Final Fantasy Tactics and 9 projects in the works... which means Square Enix are sitting on some serious, serious fan favourites they can reveal at any time.

• A Tactics Ogre remaster at the same time Yasumi Matsuno’s rumoured new Square Enix project is revealed would be a massive win for fans of the entire SRPG genre.