Daily Briefing: Tuesday 25th January

Raven Software announce structural changes

Now here’s one that’s already causing quite an uproar across the internet and social media. We covered earlier this week that a group of quality assurance testers at Activision Blizzard’s previously-striking Raven studio had voted to unionise, and had asked their parent company to officially recognise their union. While we’re still waiting on an official response from Activision Blizzard, Raven’s own management have announced structural changes which will see members of the QA team embedded in each separate department rather than being one standalone group working across all disciplines.

• No sooner had this news emerged than it was being criticised as yet another cynical union-busting technique by Activision Blizzard. Commenting on the story on Twitter, Polygon’s senior reporter Nicole Carpenter pointed out that unions have to prove a “community of interest” in order to be officially recognised. This would include “a group of workers with shared categorisation, for lack of a better word. Sectioned off as wholly QA made Raven’s unit clear. This may complicate that.” The move was also criticised by ex-Blizzard staffer Jessica Gonzalez, who slated this as an attempt to separate staff so they’re less likely to unionise. She also criticised Activision Blizzard for “using old ass bullet points straight out of the handbook.”

Nvidia may abandon controversial Arm deal

That’s according to a new report from Bloomberg which claims that Nvidia have informed partners that they do not expect the $40bn purchased of UK-based chip maker Arm to go through. Their reasoning centres around the lack of progress in the acquisition receiving approval from regulators. Word of the initial acquisition announcement was almost immediately followed by calls to ensure that Arm’s operations remained in the UK, which in turn prompted a government statement that any acquisitions or takeovers which could potentially constitute a threat to the country would be investigated by regulators.

• The controversial deal has also sparked outrage in other parts of the world. The United States Federal Trade Commission actually sued to block the deal back in December under the belief that Nvidia would simply become too powerful if they gain access to Arm’s chip designs - which are used in most smartphones. Arm’s ex-president also warned in December that the company’s sale to another semiconductor company like Nvidia would put the wider tech sector in “jeopardy.”Arm was previously purchased by Japanese conglomerate SoftBank for $32bn in 2016 and the firm “remain hopeful” that the Nvidia acquisition will be approved. As a failsafe, though, the Softbank are reportedly set to step up plans for an initial public offering which would take the place of the Nvidia deal.

PS4 trophies were briefly wiped and renamed last night

An apparent issue with the PlayStation Network caused PS4 trophies to disappear overnight, with their titles instead appearing as PS3 games. The issue was as weird as it was oddly detailed, as trophy lists on PS4, PS3, and the PlayStation mobile app were only correctly displaying trophy data for the PS5. All PS4 titles were shown as having 0% completion alongside the PS3 logo.

• As you’ve probably already guessed, this has only led to more speculation that the brief issue/changes were all part of a backwards compatibility update that is rumoured to be headed to PS5. This latest blip follows on from the PlayStation Store displaying actual buy-to-keep prices for PS3 games previously only accessible on PS5 via PlayStation Now streaming, and the discovery of a new patent from PS5 systems architect Mark Cerny that could detail a new backwards compatibility framework for PS5. Are these signposts? Or just coincidence? Watch this space.