Tag: Activision Blizzard

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Gift Guide: Extremely Online books

Welcome to TechCrunch’s 2021 Holiday Gift Guide! Need help with gift ideas? We’ve got lots of them. We’re just starting to roll out this year’s gift guides, so check back from now until the end of December for more! 

If you can’t read a good book without stopping every few pages to tweet about it, you might be what we call Extremely Online. You unabashedly distinguish between real life and digital life by using phrases like IRL versus URL, you disabled the Screen Time app on your iPhone because you don’t need that kind of judgement. Maybe you’re so online that it’s your job to write about social media, and even when you’re not working, you’re still thinking about the vice grip that Meta has on your life. Okay, that last one hit a bit too close to home.

But if you’re someone who would gladly read a dissertation on what the Steak-umms Twitter account means for digital advertising strategy, I’ve got bad news for you — that gold mine doesn’t exist yet. Still, some great writers — from inside Silicon Valley and from firmly outside of it, through fiction and non-fiction — can bring us offline to teach us about tech culture. Here are some relatively recent books that confront everything from the rise of TikTok to a fictional metaverse gone wrong.

This article contains links to affiliate partners where available. When you buy through these links, TechCrunch may earn an affiliate commission.

“Several People Are Typing” by Calvin Kasulke

Image Credits: Doubleday

Here are the basic facts: book told exclusively through Slack messages, antagonistic Slackbot inhabits human’s body, human gets trapped in Slack, all his co-workers think it’s just a really elaborate bit, chaos ensues.

I’ve read this book twice this year, once as an e-book (yes, it really is just a bunch of Slack messages, no other exposition), and once as an audiobook, which features an ensemble cast performing as all the various Slack chatters. Both were lovely experiences. You might see “Slack book” and think it’s just a belabored treatise on how ~capitalism and the corporate world are eating us alive!~. This definitely isn’t a pro-capitalist book, but even as it tackles serious themes about our generation’s complete inability to understand how to create a work-life balance, it never feels overwrought, since it’s just so hilarious and absurd. Do you know how weird it looks to (1) read a book on the Philly bus and (2) laugh out loud at the book you are reading on the Philly bus? This book did that to me.

‘Several People Are Typing’ is the Slack workspace of your worst nightmares

TechCrunch interviewed Calvin Kasulke (via text), where he shared some incontrovertible truths, like, “Capitalism is bad and bodies are prisons, but the only thing worse than having one is not having one.” But perhaps more importantly, Kasulke said: “Meatball subs are as good a reason to have a physical form as anything. Top 5 reasons to stay tethered to this mortal coil.”

Price: $18 from Amazon

“Uncanny Valley” by Anna Wiener

Image Credits: MCD

When this buzzworthy memoir about working in Silicon Valley came out last year, I deliberately chose not to read it, even though Goodreads kept telling me I would like it (semi-related: startup founders trying to “disrupt Goodreads” — I see you, and I appreciate you). I felt like I didn’t need a book to tell me something I already know: that startup culture can be toxic and misogynistic and that tech companies own too much of our data, because yes, we know that Browser A is better privacy-wise than Browser B, but what about all of our customized bookmarks and plugins? Even though none of these revelations were particularly shocking, Wiener’s perspective on the tech world as a non-technical startup employee was a reprieve from the corporate jargon that litters my inbox every day.

But the book isn’t so much about what it’s like to work in the Valley as it is about the experience of being a 20-something who just wants to work an innocuous, creative job that doesn’t hurt people, only to be seduced by the lucrative paychecks of the tech world, which may or may not hurt people. Wiener’s memoir begins as she slogs through a publishing gig in New York City, struggling to make ends meet while her bosses are taking lunch meetings at upscale bars and wearing designer clothes to the office. But you can’t blame her for abandoning her artsy college friends to move to the Bay and learn what MAUs are. It becomes clear to Wiener that it’s seemingly impossible to make it in fields like publishing or arts administration if your parents aren’t paying your rent. So what’s more evil: a corporate world that promises creative fulfillment and instead delivers inescapable student loan debt, or one that is wreaking havoc on the Bay Area and pushing longtime residents out of their homes but at least pays its workers well?

So, I guess the book didn’t really teach me anything new — there’s no ethical consumption under global capitalism, blah blah, we’re all complicit, et. al. But it’s at least nice to know you’re not the only one having an existential crisis about these things, I guess? Don’t worry, I’m fine.

Price: $12 from Amazon

“No One Is Talking About This” by Patricia Lockwood

Image Credits: Riverhead Books

A nameless protagonist goes viral for posting, “can a dog be twins?” Of course, she becomes famous on the internet. It’s good content.

The first half of the book is told in post-ironic, somewhat nihilistic online-speak that feels mind-numbing. It’s the novelistic embodiment of doomscrolling. But when tragedy strikes close to home, the narrator is suddenly unconcerned with what’s going on in “the portal,” which is basically Twitter. Like “Several People Are Typing,” “No One Is Talking About This” is eerie in its mimicry of how Extremely Online people actually experience the internet. You’re sucked in, until suddenly, you’re not.

Price: $23 from Amazon

“A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor” by Hank Green

Image Credits: Dutton

Hank Green was one of the first YouTube stars, going on to found the YouTube conference VidCon and a bunch of other companies, like a charity sock subscription and an educational video company. He’s also weirdly popular on TikTok, so if anyone knows how the internet can change your life, it’s Hank, the enthusiastic nerd who probably taught you chemistry in high school.

Anyway, Green’s online footprint is relevant because his duology of “An Absolutely Remarkable Thing” and “A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor” is all about the internet (yes, the book I am recommending you is a sequel, which means you have to read two whole books). The first book chronicles (minor spoiler alert?) an overconfident 20-something’s rapid rise to global fame as she goes viral for unwittingly making first contact with aliens. April May, this struggling recent grad-turned-superstar, must reckon with what it’s like to go viral overnight — and now, in part thanks to TikTok, this experience is more relatable than ever.

But the second book, rather than the first, is highlighted on this list, because that was the story I couldn’t stop thinking about when Mark Zuckerberg unveiled Facebook/Meta’s plans for the Metaverse (it also might be relevant that I weirdly haven’t read “Ready Player One”). In the second book, April and her friends try to take down a wealthy tech founder whose virtual reality platform is a front for far more nefarious plans.

In one section of the book, Andy sinks deep into the VR “Altus Space,” where a leaderboard tracks which user can make the most money by selling goods in the space’s digital currency. The top 50 people on the leaderboard are promised an earth-shattering, “premium” experience. Andy climbs the ranks by adding value to the community, but he’s thwarted by celebrities who sell limited edition virtual trinkets in a last-ditch effort to win the contest. Without ever mentioning crypto, NFTs or DAOs, Green reminds us that the decentralized internet is not inherently utopian. As Andy’s girlfriend points out, since when has capitalism been a meritocracy?

Price: $16 from Amazon

“Bad Blood:  Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup” by John Carreyrou

Image Credits: Knopf

Every book on this list was published in 2020 or later, but “Bad Blood,” released in 2018, is the exception. Over three years since the non-fiction book was published, Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes is now being tried for criminal fraud, and things are getting spicy. So, if you’re Extremely Online, you’re probably going to hear about Elizabeth Holmes and her tiny vials of blood.

An investigative reporter at the Wall Street Journal, John Carreyrou published an exposé in 2015 revealing that Theranos, valued at $9 billion, didn’t actually produce accurate results through its blood testing technology. “Bad Blood” reveals how Carreyrou reported the story, including details from his research that didn’t make his original articles. Whether you’re eagerly watching Holmes’ trial unfold or you’ve never heard of Theranos, “Bad Blood” is a must-read for anyone interested in (or nervous about) the pitfalls of Silicon Valley culture. It’s almost too fascinating and horrific to be real.

Price: $12 from Amazon

“The Atmospherians” by Alex McElroy

Image Credits: Atria Books

Here’s another fiction selection, but this one comes screeching with trigger warnings: eating disorders, suicide, cults, you name it. But it’s also worth noting that Alex McElroy approaches these sensitive topics responsibly, even writing an essay in The Atlantic about how to broach eating disorder narratives without tacitly providing readers with instructions on how to mimic dangerous behaviors. In the case of this novel, McElroy addresses a character’s eating disorder by showing how his friends react to his suffering, rather than chronicling his exact symptoms.

“The Atmospherians” is so Extremely Online enough that its book cover is literally Instagram, but much of the book takes place in the woods. After a beauty influencer gets “cancelled” on social media, she starts a cult with her childhood best friend, where they attempt to reform “bad men,” teaching them to unlearn the behaviors of toxic masculinity. But maybe the most online moment is when the narrator is offered a lucrative contract to be the spokesperson for a product that wants to change social media by asking people, “are you sure you want to post that?” before they say something that might offend people. It’s not too far off from real-world warnings that exist on Twitter and Instagram.

Price: $18 from Amazon

“Press Reset: Ruin and Recovery in the Video Game Industry ” by Jason Schreier

Image Credits: Grand Central Publishing

If you’re Extremely Online in that you play a lot of video games, you’ve probably heard about how the gaming giant Activision Blizzard, which produces games like Candy Crush, Call of Duty and World of Warcraft, is facing SEC investigations and sexual harassment scandals. But Jason Schreier’s reporting reveals that this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to problems in the video game industry.

The start of the book can feel a bit depressing as Schreier recounts numerous stories of game studios closing without notice, developers struggling between jobs and staff being poorly compensated for 70-hour work weeks. But the book’s subtitle delivers on its promise to chronicle not just ruin, but also, recovery! Ultimately, Schreier creates a hopeful narrative. You’ll never look at Bioshock Infinite the same way after learning how bad things got behind the scenes, but Schreier shows how independent studios, unionized teams and outsourcing studios like Disbelief can help solve the toxicity of the video game industry.

Price: $16 from Amazon

“Out of Office: The Big Problem and Bigger Promise of Working from Home” by Charlie Warzel and Anne Helen Petersen

Image Credits: Knopf

I knew that the definitive pandemic-era work from home book was coming, but I’m glad it was written by Charlie Warzel, who writes the Extremely Online Galaxy Brain newsletter, and Anne Helen Petersen, author of that viral “millennial burnout” article-turned-book. Thankfully, Warzel and Petersen’s book is less about ~these unprecedented times~ and more about how the culture shift of the pandemic can maybe be an opportunity to solve issues that have existed in the corporate world since before we wore masks every day.

“Capitalism is inherently exploitative, but it is also — at least for the immediate future — our guiding economic system,” the pair writes. “If we’re going to live under it, how can we bend it to make that experience involve less suffering?”

“Out of Office” focuses more on “knowledge workers” than, let’s say, an Amazon fulfillment center employee. But, bonus recommendation if you’re itching to get radicalized about awful capitalism: “On the Clock: What Low-Wage Work Did to Me and How It Drives America Insane” by Emily Guendelsberger. It’s relevant reading given current events.

Price: $23 from Amazon

“TikTok Boom: China’s Dynamite App and the Superpower Race for Social Media” by Chris Stokel-Walker

Image Credits: Canbury Press

This comprehensive history of TikTok’s rise to social dominance begins as the author, a tech journalist who also wrote a book about YouTube, attends a panel at VidCon. It’s February 2019. The British writer remembers of the time, “I know that TikTok is popular, but only in the way that people outside of the U.S. know that the NFL pays astronomical salaries without ever getting a grip on it, or comprehending why anyone would care about it.” How quickly things changed for us all. Now, with over 1 billion monthly active users, TikTok feels like something that’s always existed, yet its prevalence is still relatively new. Trillion-dollar companies like Meta look at TikTok like the popular kid who just transferred schools and threatens to upend its seemingly impenetrable social dominance. How did this happen, and with a Chinese app nonetheless, in a time when Western xenophobia is horrifyingly rampant? Stokel-Walker picks apart just how TikTok rose to prominence, charting its impact on the creator economy, Silicon Valley, geopolitics and more.

Price: $20 from Amazon

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Big Cartel staff are voluntarily recognized as the latest tech workers union

Yesterday, e-commerce company Big Cartel’s co-founders Matt Wigham and Eric Turner voluntarily recognized the Big Cartel Workers Union. After the new year, the union — which represents all thirty non-management employees at the Salt Lake City-based tech company — will begin negotiating their contracts. This news comes just nine months after workers at the software company Glitch signed the tech industry’s first collective bargaining agreement.

The Big Cartel Workers Union will be represented by the Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU) Tech Workers Union Local 1010, the same group that represents unions at Kickstarter and Code for America.

“It’s clear that the founders of Big Cartel want this union to be successful, and they see how all of our values line up,” said Andrew Shaw, who has worked in marketing for two years at Big Cartel. “I expect the bargaining can go pretty smoothly and quickly and continue to be a good example of how unionizing can go forward in a tech company in an amicable way.”

Often, unionization pushes are spurred by a particular moment of crisis. But in the case of Big Cartel, the movement to unionize stemmed from a desire to simply affirm and uphold workplace protections.

“It’s really building protections around the things in our working conditions that we value, so ensuring that our pay is solid and equitable across genders, races and teams within the company, and making sure that our benefits are more guaranteed than they are now without a contract. We’re interested in more transparency and more participation in the decision-making processes for the company,” Shaw told TechCrunch.

The Big Cartel Workers Union will also be the first tech union in a “right-to-work” state. Twenty-seven states, according to the OPEIU, have “right-to-work” laws, which prohibit union security agreements between employers and unions. This means that no employee can be forced to join a union or pay union dues, but sometimes, these policies can make it more difficult for employees to form unions in the first place.

“So often in these companies, benefits just kind of come up [in conversation], or there has to be an individual conflict in order for you to work out some of these details,” Shaw said. “I’m excited to see that we can have these conversations without having to begin with a conflict, or without having to feel like it’s an urgent crisis moment.”

Right now, workers at video game company Activision Blizzard are experiencing their own “urgent crisis moment.” This summer, the developer of games like “World of Warcraft” and “Call of Duty” was sued by state labor regulators for discriminatory workplace practices, and in September, the company confirmed it is being investigated by the SEC. Since then, over a thousand workers at Activision Blizzard signed a petition to remove CEO Bobby Kotrick, who reportedly covered up sexual assault allegations in the workplace. Last week, a group called A Better ABK initiated an open-ended strike and a union drive — already, executives have asked employees to “consider the consequences” of joining a union.

But even in less extreme cases, the road can be rocky for tech workers who are starting to unionize. When Kickstarter employees formed a union in 2019, the crowdfunding company’s leadership refused to voluntarily recognize the unit. When management doesn’t recognize a workers’ union, the organizers must conduct an election through the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) — in the case of the Kickstarter union, this process took ten months before they ultimately voted to unionize.

Just yesterday, workers at the controversial crime-tracking app Citizen voted to unionize over a year after unionization efforts began. Earlier this year, a spokesperson for Citizen told the New York Post that the company opposed the union drive.

“We’re definitely inspired by our comrades at Code for America and Kickstarter,” Shaw told TechCrunch. “We want others to be inspired by the work that we’re doing because we want to make sure that not just the thirty people here at Big Cartel are protected, but that workers across all industries and across all companies are protected and treated fairly.”

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Is China building the metaverse?

Catherine D. Henry Contributor
Catherine D. Henry is SVP Growth at Media.Monks, where she advises leading global brands on how to enter the metaverse.

There is a heated debate on the state of the race between the United States and China to dominate in AI. But perhaps the more strategic question is whether China is building the metaverse.

Built upon infrastructural technologies like AI, the metaverse refers to the vast array of digital experiences and ecosystems, from e-commerce and entertainment to social media and work, where we spend more and more of our lives. It’s soon going to be hard to conceive of a world in which much of our social and economic lives are not defined by the rules of the metaverse. To the builder goes the opportunity to establish rules to their own benefit.

In truth, both the U.S. and China are trying to build and lay claim to the metaverse, with other actors such as Europe trying to do so as well, but they simply don’t control enough of the core technologies that make the metaverse possible.

These core technologies include AI, 5G, end-user devices and the sector-straddling super apps that bring everything together — and related technologies such as smartwatches and eyewear. Competence and dominance across these four criteria is what may give China an insurmountable head start over the U.S. in the race to build the future of the virtualized human experience.

China’s AI advantage

The Chinese leadership understands that AI is revolutionizing virtually all aspects of social life, including consumption. AI is a top priority for government and business, and the Chinese government has called for China to achieve major new breakthroughs by 2025 and become the global leader in AI by 2030.

If the metaverse does become the successor to the internet, who builds it, and how, will be extremely important to the future of the economy and society as a whole.

The strategy was initially outlined in the Chinese government’s New Generation Artificial Intelligence Development Plan in 2017. It has since spurred both new policies and billions of dollars of R&D investments from ministries, provincial governments and private companies.

As a result of China’s AI initiatives, the American advantage in the sector has been steadily eroding: In 2017 the U.S. had an 11x lead over China, but by 2019, that lead had come down to 7x. By 2020, the U.S. was left with a narrow lead of 6x. Even this lead has been uncertain, and the ex-chief software officer of the Pentagon went so far as to say that China already had an insurmountable lead in AI and machine learning.

Moreover, some question the American lead when it comes to the availability of training data. In the privacy versus public good debate, the U.S. tends to lean toward privacy, whereas China has long exercised government intervention in maintaining a civil society as a public good.

Finally, China has access to vast data sets to train AI, which presents a significant strategic advantage, especially considering the country’s population of 1.4 billion.

China builds the devices

The capacity to build and ultimately become the preeminent force in the metaverse starts with China’s long-standing and unrivaled dominance of consumer device manufacturing. From smartphones and notebooks to AR and VR headsets, Chinese manufacturers are building the largest portion and widest varieties of the devices that consumers need to access digital platforms and social experiences. The most advanced design and production competencies are likely to already reside in cities like Shenzhen.

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Arctic Wolf acquires ‘Hollywood-style’ cybersecurity training startup Habitu8

Arctic Wolf, a managed cybersecurity company that offers a “security operations-as-a-concierge” service, has acquired Habitu8, a security training and awareness content platform.

Terms of the deal – which comes just two months after Arctic Wolf secured $150 million in Series F funding – were not announced, but a person with knowledge of the matter told TechCrunch that it was paid for with a combination of cash and equity. Arctic Wolf will acquire between 60 and 70 customers as a result of the takeover, the source added.

Habitu8 was co-founded in 2017 by Jason Hoenich, who previously led security training initiatives at Sony Pictures Entertainment, Walt Disney and Activision Blizzard. The startup, which has completed three rounds of funding, takes a “Hollywood-style” approach to cybersecurity awareness comprising live-action videos, which it claims has proven effective in fortifying the human element in security. 

As a result of the acquisition, Habitu8’s Learning Platform will be combined with Arctic Wolf’s Managed Security Awareness offering (which the company tells TechCrunch has been delivered to “hundreds” of customers since it debuted in May this year) to create the industry’s first security awareness and training program delivered as a concierge service. 

“We know that training and awareness programs are a cornerstone in ending cyber risk,” said Nick Schneider, president and CEO of Arctic Wolf. “Unfortunately, the content that most security programs offer is low-grade, often tedious, and ultimately doesn’t effectively serve the needs of modern users who expect on-demand and high-quality experiences like Netflix. 

“With the addition of Habitu8 to the Arctic Wolf Platform, we will deliver modern, high-quality security awareness and training programs as a managed service, which, combined with our expert concierge guidance, will significantly strengthen customers’ overall security operations.”

Hoenich will also join the Arctic Wolf team as vice president of Service Delivery and will lead security awareness management and delivery. 

“Data tells us that humans need ongoing, engaging and memorable content to retain and resonate with training concepts,” he said. “I am confident that combining the power of Arctic Wolf Managed Security Awareness and the Arctic Wolf Platform with our Hollywood-style content will make this the most effective and sought-after solution on the market for customers of all sizes.” 

Arctic Wolf’s takeover of Habitu8 is likely the first of many acquisitions on the company’s roadmap; in July, the company told TechCrunch that it plans to do “between five and 10 acquisitions” over the next 12 months.

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Activision Blizzard confirms SEC investigation, loses chief legal officer

The consequences are mounting for gaming giant Activision Blizzard after the company became the subject of a landmark state investigation into discriminatory workplace practices and sexual harassment this summer.

Now, Activision Blizzard confirms that it is the subject of a federal investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which has been ramping up enforcement efforts against tech companies in recent months.

The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that the SEC has subpoenaed Activision Blizzard and a number of the company’s key executives, including CEO Bobby Kotick. Activision Blizzard confirmed the SEC investigation Tuesday in a statement to investors, noting that it “continues to productively engage with regulators” including the SEC, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the National Labor Relations Board and the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing.

The SEC requested documents from the company including “minutes from Activision board meetings since 2019, personnel files of six former employees and separation agreements the company has reached this year with staffers” according to the WSJ. The paper also reported that the agency is seeking any records between Kotick and other executives discussing sexual harassment and discrimination allegations at the company.

The California Department of Fair Employment and Housing sued Activision Blizzard in July over allegations that it created a hostile “frat house” environment in which gender-based harassment and discrimination were routine.

Following an inflammatory response from the company’s leaders, who dismissed the lawsuit as the actions of “unaccountable state bureaucrats,” a group of employees staged a high profile walkout. The protest attracted solidarity from many corners of the gaming world and drew more attention to the workplace environment that many Blizzard workers allegedly suffered in for years.

Activision Blizzard publishes some of the biggest titles in gaming, including the Call of Duty franchise, World of Warcraft, Overwatch and Starcraft. The flurry of regulatory interest in allegations of a toxic, hostile work environment at the company could have far-reaching implications for workplace culture not just at Activision Blizzard, but for the gaming industry at large.

After the state lawsuit became public, former President of Blizzard Entertainment, J. Allen Brack left the company, followed by its global HR head Jesse Meschuk. On Tuesday, Blizzard Entertainment Chief Legal Officer Claire Hart became the latest high profile employee to announce their departure, signaling that she wouldn’t be sticking around to weather the regulatory storm.

“The past three years have been full of unexpected twists and turns, but I feel honored to have worked with and met so many great people at Blizzard and across the Activision Blizzard businesses,” Hart wrote on Linkedin.

Following SEC lawsuit threat, Coinbase cancels launch of ‘Lend’ product

Activision Blizzard workers will stage a walkout after ‘abhorrent’ response to harassment suit

 

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Activision Blizzard workers will stage a walkout after ‘abhorrent’ response to harassment suit

One of the world’s biggest video game companies is reeling after a state discrimination and sexual harassment suit kicked off a firestorm of controversy within the company. California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing sued Activision Blizzard last week, alleging that the company fostered a “breeding ground for harassment and discrimination against women.”

Following a combative response to the lawsuit from corporate leadership, a group of employees at Blizzard will stage a walkout, which is planned for Wednesday at 10AM PT. Most employees at Blizzard continue to work remotely, but walkout participants will gather tomorrow at the gates to the company’s Irvine campus.

“Given last week’s statements from Activision Blizzard, Inc. and their legal counsel regarding the DFEH lawsuit, as well as the subsequent internal statement from Frances Townsend, and the many stories shared by current and former employees of Activision Blizzard since, we believe that our values as employees are not being accurately reflected in the words and actions of our leadership,” the organizers wrote.

In the new statement, they called for supporters to donate to organizations including Black Girls Code, the anti-sexual violence organization RAINN and Girls Who Code.

Activision Blizzard publishes some of the biggest titles in gaming, including the Call of Duty franchise, World of Warcraft, Starcraft and Overwatch. Blizzard came under Activision’s wing through a 2008 merger and the subsidiary operates out of its own Irvine, California headquarters.

In the suit, the state agency describes a “frat house” atmosphere in which women are not only not afforded the same opportunities as their male counterparts, but routinely and openly harassed, sometimes by their superiors.

The company pushed last week back in a fiery statement, blaming “unaccountable State bureaucrats that are driving many of the State’s best businesses out of California” for pursuing the lawsuit. Activision Blizzard Executive Vice President Frances Townsend, former Homeland Security advisor to George W. Bush, echoed that aggressive messaging in an internal memo, slamming the lawsuit as a “distorted and untrue picture of our company.”

In an open letter published Monday, the walkout’s organizers condemned Blizzard’s response to the lawsuit’s allegations. “We believe these statements have damaged our ongoing quest for equality inside and outside of our industry,” they wrote. “… These statements make it clear that our leadership is not putting our values first.”

More than 2,600 employees signed the letter, which demands an end to mandatory arbitration clauses that “protect abusers and limit the ability of victims to seek restitution,” improved representation and opportunities for women and non-binary employees, salary transparency and a full audit of diversity, equity, and inclusion at the company.

On Twitter, streamers, gamers, game devs and former employees expressed support for Wednesday’s walkout under the hashtag #ActiBlizzWalkout, with some calling for a blackout on Activision Blizzard games as a show of solidarity. Others called for streamers to use the walkout time slot to raise awareness about rampant sexual harassment and discrimination in gaming culture at large.

One Blizzard employee shared a photo of the company’s iconic statue depicting an axe-wielding orc, a central feature of its Irvine headquarters. Three plaques displaying corporate values that surround the statue had been covered with paper: “Lead responsibly,” “play nice, play fair,” and “every voice matters.”

Twitch expands its rules against hate and abuse to include behavior off the platform

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Electronic Arts buys mobile game studio Playdemic for $1.4 billion

Video game giant Electronic Arts is continuing to make M&A moves as it looks to bulk up its presence in the mobile gaming world.

Fresh off the $2.4 billion acquisition of Glu Mobile this past April, their biggest purchase to date, Electronic Arts announced Wednesday that they are buying Warner Bros. Games’ mobile gaming studio Playdemic for $1.4 billion in an all-cash deal. The Manchester studio is best known for its release “Golf Clash” which the studio boasts has more than 80 million downloads globally.

The rather ominously-named startup is being jettisoned to its new home ahead of the $43 billion WarnerMedia-Discovery deal where the rest of the Warner Bros. Games division will live post-merger.

AT&T confirms deal to combine its WarnerMedia subsidiary with Discovery Inc in ‘pure play’ $43B deal

Electronic Arts is the second-largest Western video games company with a market cap around $40 billion. Their success has largely come from desktop and console titles including titles in their most popular franchises like Battlefield, Star Wars and Titanfall. Mobile dominance hasn’t come easy to the company which has spent much of the past decade or so trying to keep pace with competitors like Activision Blizzard which struck gold with its 2016 King acquisition. 

Electronic Arts has been on a studio buying spree as of late — in 2021 they’ve announced three major acquisitions worth some $5 billion combined.

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Maestro nets $15 million for its interactive commerce, community and engagement tools for livestreams

Making money on livestreams has never been easier thanks to a suite of tools from the Los Angeles-based startup Maestro, which just nabbed $15 million in financing to grow its business.

As video commerce becomes the norm and entertainers, brands, businesses, and franchises of all sizes and stripes look to cut out the middle man, the array of services on offer from Maestro may be the scissors these entities need to cut the cord.

The company has already worked with names as diverse as the Golden State Warriors, the Dallas Cowboys, and pop sensation Billy Eilish on embedding its interactive tools into various live events and promotions.

Initially the LA-based company launched to the gaming community with interactive features that folks could use in-stream to create better engagement with fans. But what started in the gaming world quickly spun out as the company slashed prices to $500 per month for its services.

The pandemic also helped as artists who were cut off from their audiences began to explore alternative ways to reach fans — and make money.

“We were targeted to a small number of very premier customers. It was around 50 to 60 and we grew to in the hundreds,” said Maestro chief executive, Ari Evans, said. “2020 was a blowout year… People needed an interactive streaming platform that they could spin up quickly that they could launch on their website.”

Celebrities from Katy Perry to Post Malone to Billie Eilish all turned to the service and so did other streaming platforms like the Los Angeles-based virtual concert platform, The Wave.

Now the company has $15 million in new financing to capitalize on its growth from investors including NetEase, Sony Music Entertainment, and Acronym Venture Capital, alongside a host of industry titans including Twitch co-founder Kevin Lin and Moonwell Capital, founded by former Activision Blizzard executives Michael and Amy Morhaime, the company said in a statement. 

Existing investors like SeventySix Capital, The Strand Partners, Stadia Ventures, Hersh Interactive Group, and Transcend Fund, as well as early Zoom employees Richard Gatchalian and Aaron Lewis, also participated. 

Since the launch of monetization tools in May of last year, Evans estimated that the platform has paid out at least $5 million to entertainers who used the service.

“We are pleased to be supporting the continued development of Maestro as part of our ongoing investment in new technologies that provide artists with cutting-edge tools and solutions for growing their careers. Maestro gives artists greater flexibility and control to build the most engaging and customized events for their fans, allowing creators at any stage of their career to put together a world class live stream event,” said Dennis Kooker, President, Global Digital Business and U.S. Sales, Sony Music Entertainment, in a statement. 

“Maestro is at the forefront of redefining the relationship of content owners and creators with their viewers. Instead of relying on incumbent distribution platforms, customers control the audience relationship directly and maximize engagement and monetization in a way that fits with their brand objectives. We are very excited by Maestro’s potential to be a fundamental driver in the growth of the creator economy,” said Joshua Siegel, General Partner, Acronym Venture Capital.  

“Maestro… started off with the content and now we’re adding membership and community management and ticketing and all that stuff,” said Evans. 

The next step, and a big part of what Evans and his team of 55 employees will work on building will be a developer ecosystem, so software designers can start building out new tools to sell through the Maestro platform.

“The third piece is a developer ecosystem,” Evans said. “We’re really copying Shopify, Squarespace for video or Shopify for video. It’s kind of strange that this has taken so long to develop.

The one thing that Maestro won’t do is discovery or search services, Evans said. “We’re helping creators make money and build a business on top of video. That’s something creators need to be aware of if they’re going to  build that direct to consumer channel,” he said. “If you do do that and you’re successful you’re in control over your audience.”

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VCs see opportunities for gaming infrastructure startups and incumbents

As the infrastructure for developing games becomes more advanced, studios have turned to buying best-in-class technology from others instead of building everything from scratch (often with inferior quality).

This shift underpinned Unity’s rise as the most popular game engine. The current focus on games as ever-evolving social hubs that can remain popular for a decade requires investment in “live ops” to keep updating the game with new features and experiences, only adding to a game studio’s responsibilities.

There are big movements in gaming right now to make games cross-platform (not just restricted to mobile or PC or one console), incorporate new types of chat (in-game or outside of it) and to automatically remove bullies and bots among other things. Optimizing games’ virtual economies is only getting more complex as trade of virtual goods becomes increasingly popular.

All this means more opportunity for startups (and large incumbents) that provide new tools and platforms to game developers and gamers. To gauge which opportunities are prime for entrepreneurs, I asked four leading early-stage investors who focus on the gaming sector to share their analysis:

  • Sam Englebardt, Galaxy Interactive
  • Gigi Levy Weiss, NFX
  • Amit Kumar, Accel
  • Anton Backman, Play Ventures

Sam Englebardt, Galaxy Interactive

Which areas within gaming infrastructure seem firmly dominated by large incumbents, versus open for new startups to rise up?

I’m always rooting for the startup, but some of the really big and expensive infrastructure challenges seem unlikely to be solved by a startup, especially where the incumbents have a lead in time, money and the personnel they’re throwing at the problem. I’m thinking here, for example, about something like cloud computing, storage solutions, etc.

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Despite pandemic, gaming is well-positioned to withstand recession

Efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19 have led to a global economic downturn, but the gaming industry is booming.

With hundreds of millions of people sequestered in their homes, game usage has spiked. And while the economic repercussions will persist after people cease physical distancing, gaming is positioned to fare well during a recession.

Video game usage increased 75% during peak hours

Video game usage during peak hours increased 75% in the first week many Americans began staying home, according to Verizon data. Game distribution platform Steam set a record for peak concurrent users (more than 20 million) on March 16 without any notable new releases driving demand. Gaming chat platform Discord saw its servers go down briefly last week even after the company increased capacity by more than 20% to handle surging usage.

According to Siamc Kamalie, manager of hedge fund Skycatcher, “average time spent per user on mobile games grew 41% during Chinese New Year in 2020 versus 2019, and was up 18% versus the week prior to Chinese New Year in 2020.” (Chinese New Year is when widespread stay-at-home orders began in China.)

All of the gaming industry professionals I’ve spoken to over the last week noted increased popularity of their games, though most were wary of sharing their strong performance publicly, given the unfortunate circumstances.

People don’t just turn to games for entertainment; especially when in-person interactions are restricted and most of the most popular games are multiplayer in one form or another — games also serve as social hangout spots.