Everyone in the video game industry knows Activision Blizzard's reputation for creating a hostile work environment, so earlier this year, when we heard that Blizzard was planning to acquire Proletariat, we started to discuss how we could protect the great culture we have created here,

The first video game studio in the US to unionize is shutting down. On Wednesday, Beast Breaker developer Vodeo Games announced it had failed to secure funding to produce an additional release beyond its debut title. "Despite a year of avid efforts, we've been unable to secure funding for our next project from publishers and investors," Vodeo Games said in a tweet spotted by Polygon. "As such, we've run out of funds and aren't able to keep the team together -- and there simply is no Vodeo without our incredible team." Vodeo Games was founded in 2021 by Threes! designer Asher Vollmer.

The idea of the four-week workweek is not new. Louis Hyman, a historian of work and business at Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations, explained that the current five-day workweek composed of eight-hour days was born of factory worker strikes in the 19th and 20th centuries, as well as nationwide union strength in the years following World War I. After workers pressured the likes of Henry Ford and eventually the United States government to adopt the five-day workweek, there were widespread calls for a four-day workweek. Recently, the concept has resurfaced. Companies as large as Panasonic have implemented versions of it, as have video game studios like "Guardians of the Galaxy" developer Eidos-Montreal and indie studios Vodeo Games and KO_OP.

In a broadcast from its Xbox Fanfest event this weekend, Microsoft announced the acquisition of two new video game studios: inXile Entertainment and Obsidian Entertainment. Both studios are headquartered in California, and both specialise in role-playing games. Both studios also have their roots in the 1990s "golden age" of computer RPGs, staffed by veteran developers from beloved 90s studio Black Isle. Obsidian Entertainment is responsible for acclaimed modern RPGs Fallout: New Vegas, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Pillars of Eternity, and South Park: The Stick of Truth. These acquisitions mean that Microsoft now owns 13 game studios, seven of which have been acquired or founded in 2018.

A new start-up lets users synthesise a person's speech from just a one minute-long recording of them talking. Using artificial intelligence (AI) the Lyrebird service uses a voice-imitation algorithm to mimic a person's voice and have it read any text with a given emotion. Although this voice-copying technology might be amusing it also has serious implications as users can essentially poach part of someone else's identity. The Lyrebird service synthesise a person's speech from just a one minute-long recording and can generate 1000 sentences in less than half a second (stock image) The Lyrebird service allows users to compress the individual characteristics of a voice into a single key which means users can generate 1000 sentences in less than half a second. Not only can users create voices but they can control the generated voice too - for example making it sound angry, sympathetic or stressed.