Activision Blizzard is actively discouraging Raven Software QA employees from voting in favor of unionization, ahead of an ongoing election with a deadline of May 20.

According to a Washington Post report, Raven management has been sending employees messages and holding town hall meetings about the election, including an April 26 town hall where employees were told that unionization might harm game development and impact promotions or benefits.

Following that event, an email was reportedly send around to employees with a graphic attached that read, "Please vote no."

The National Labor Relations Board approved the unionization vote in late April, following an extended back and forth between quality assurance workers and management beginning last year after Activision Blizard laid off around a dozen QA contractors unexpectedly.

Following a walkout in protest, Raven Software moved to unionize, filing a petition with the NLRB when Activision Blizzard did not voluntarily recognize their union by the set deadline. Ballots have been mailed out to eligible QA workers with a deadline of May 20 and a planned ballot count on May 23 over video conference.

All this is occurring while Activision Blizzard remains under heightened legal scrutiny from a number of other directions, including the SEC (related to its pending acquisition by Microsoft), various New York City funds, as well as multiple ongoing lawsuits alleging sexual harassment and unequal treatment of women employees.

Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

Activision Blizzard is actively discouraging Raven Software QA employees from voting in favor of unionization, ahead of an ongoing election with a deadline of May 20.

According to a Washington Post report, Raven management has been sending employees messages and holding town hall meetings about the election, including an April 26 town hall where employees were told that unionization might harm game development and impact promotions or benefits.

Following that event, an email was reportedly send around to employees with a graphic attached that read, "Please vote no."

The National Labor Relations Board approved the unionization vote in late April, following an extended back and forth between quality assurance workers and management beginning last year after Activision Blizard laid off around a dozen QA contractors unexpectedly.

Following a walkout in protest, Raven Software moved to unionize, filing a petition with the NLRB when Activision Blizzard did not voluntarily recognize their union by the set deadline. Ballots have been mailed out to eligible QA workers with a deadline of May 20 and a planned ballot count on May 23 over video conference.

All this is occurring while Activision Blizzard remains under heightened legal scrutiny from a number of other directions, including the SEC (related to its pending acquisition by Microsoft), various New York City funds, as well as multiple ongoing lawsuits alleging sexual harassment and unequal treatment of women employees.

Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

One of the unique aspects of Moon Knight is how it introduces even more mythological deities to the MCU. There was even almost a reference to an upcoming mythological MCU movie, Thor: Love and Thunder, that was ultimately scrapped.

In an interview with The Direct, Moon Knight head writer Jeremy Slater revealed that at one point, the Disney Plus series would have referred to events in Thor: Love and Thunder. Specifically a line about Gorr the God Butcher, a villain played by Christian Bale in the fourth Thor movie.

However, the ambiguity over the release timing for Moon Knight ultimately ended in taking the reference out.

“When we started working on [Moon Knight], we didn’t know when we were debuting. We always sort of assumed it would be later down the road, and we would sort of be coming out in fall of 2022, and we thought we would probably be following Thor [Love and Thunder]. But at that time, Thor didn’t necessarily have a concrete release date either, everything was sort of up in the air, and it’s like we might be ahead of Thor, or we might be finishing up," Slater revealed.

This meant that some references to Thor were cut given that Moon Knight premiered ahead of the upcoming movie. "So there were different versions of the script where the Gods would sort of talk about, ‘This thing with Gorr the God Butcher just happened, and now we’ve got this new problem.’ And then there were other versions of the script where they sort of talked about, ‘We’re hearing rumors [that] Gods are dying, this is not the right time to get involved.’ Like we tried to have our cake and eat it too.”

Moon Knight expands the MCU's pantheon of gods by introducing the Egyptian Gods of Khonshu, Ammit, Taweret, and the Ennead. The MCU already features some very prominent Norse mythology figures across its various Thor films, gods and goddesses such as Odin, Thor, and Loki, and is set to introduce the Greek gods in Love and Thunder with the introduction of Zeus, played by Russell Crowe.

Thor: Love and Thunder is inspired by the 2012 comic by Jason Aaron and Esaid Ribic, and will include the comic's villain Gorr, The God Butcher. As implied in his namesake, the character holds a single-purpose grudge against all Gods in the adapted comic and is dedicated to eradicating them all.

Moon Knight also nearly featured a cameo by The Eternals, specifically Kumail Nanjiani's Kingo but alas that too didn't work out, making Moon Knight one of the most standalone shows in the MCU. Check out IGN's review of Moon Knight season 1 for our take on the full season.

Christian Angeles is a Freelance Writer for IGN.

One of the unique aspects of Moon Knight is how it introduces even more mythological deities to the MCU. There was even almost a reference to an upcoming mythological MCU movie, Thor: Love and Thunder, that was ultimately scrapped.

In an interview with The Direct, Moon Knight head writer Jeremy Slater revealed that at one point, the Disney Plus series would have referred to events in Thor: Love and Thunder. Specifically a line about Gorr the God Butcher, a villain played by Christian Bale in the fourth Thor movie.

However, the ambiguity over the release timing for Moon Knight ultimately ended in taking the reference out.

“When we started working on [Moon Knight], we didn’t know when we were debuting. We always sort of assumed it would be later down the road, and we would sort of be coming out in fall of 2022, and we thought we would probably be following Thor [Love and Thunder]. But at that time, Thor didn’t necessarily have a concrete release date either, everything was sort of up in the air, and it’s like we might be ahead of Thor, or we might be finishing up," Slater revealed.

This meant that some references to Thor were cut given that Moon Knight premiered ahead of the upcoming movie. "So there were different versions of the script where the Gods would sort of talk about, ‘This thing with Gorr the God Butcher just happened, and now we’ve got this new problem.’ And then there were other versions of the script where they sort of talked about, ‘We’re hearing rumors [that] Gods are dying, this is not the right time to get involved.’ Like we tried to have our cake and eat it too.”

Moon Knight expands the MCU's pantheon of gods by introducing the Egyptian Gods of Khonshu, Ammit, Taweret, and the Ennead. The MCU already features some very prominent Norse mythology figures across its various Thor films, gods and goddesses such as Odin, Thor, and Loki, and is set to introduce the Greek gods in Love and Thunder with the introduction of Zeus, played by Russell Crowe.

Thor: Love and Thunder is inspired by the 2012 comic by Jason Aaron and Esaid Ribic, and will include the comic's villain Gorr, The God Butcher. As implied in his namesake, the character holds a single-purpose grudge against all Gods in the adapted comic and is dedicated to eradicating them all.

Moon Knight also nearly featured a cameo by The Eternals, specifically Kumail Nanjiani's Kingo but alas that too didn't work out, making Moon Knight one of the most standalone shows in the MCU. Check out IGN's review of Moon Knight season 1 for our take on the full season.

Christian Angeles is a Freelance Writer for IGN.

The Super Nintendo port of Wolfenstein 3D is notorious among retro fans for being the worst version of the pioneering shooter. On top of the console's technical limitations and lousy controls, it was heavily censored, leading to some bizarre artistic choices.

A new clip from FPS: First Person Shooter, an upcoming documentary about the rise of the genre with words from more than 45 well-known developers, showcases the origins of Wolfenstein 3D. Toward the end of the clip, it delves into the Super Nintendo port and what a nightmare it was deal with Nintendo censors."

"We knew we would have to get rid of some of the Nazi paraphernalia due to the fact that they wanted to sell the game in Germany," programmer Becky Heineman remembers. "But the most notable thing was that we had German Shepherds in the original version of Wolfenstein 3D come ahead and bite you, and Nintendo's censors were totally like, 'You can't shoot dogs.' So we had to change them to rats."

Check out the NEW TRAILER for our FPS: First Person Shooter documentary & celebrate the launch of our Indiegogo campaign! Join us for a sneak peek of 45+ gaming legends in our 3+ hour documentary on the greatest games ever made. https://t.co/kMD7Ihdl7b #FPS #gaming #retrogaming pic.twitter.com/BjNYiCMEvY

— FPS: First Person Shooter Documentary (@FPSDOC) April 28, 2022

Id Software dutifully turned the dogs into giant rats, but that wasn't enough to satisfy Nintendo's censorship team. They pointed that when the rats attacked the hero BJ Blazkowicz, their mouths appeared to be bleeding. Id Software argued that the red smudge was actually the rat's tongue, but to no avail.

"So we had to remove the tongues from the rats because it reminded Nintendo of blood," Heineman says. "The censors made our lives miserable. So we had to do several versions before Nintendo said, 'Okay, you can ship this.'"

Getting Wolfenstein 3D on SNES was ultimately a frustrating experience for the team at id Software, who had to take on the project themselves in part because the external programmer they hired seemed to simply forget about the project. The SNES port was finally released on February 1994, and it has been panned by fans and critics alike ever since.

FPS has stories like this and more over the course of its three-plus-hour runtime, with appearances by genre luminaries including John Romero, Warren Spector, Cliff Bleszinski, and many more. The project was successfully funded on Kickstarter in 2021, and is currently in the midst of another round of funding on Indiegogo to help fund the cost of post-production.

For more stories from PC gaming's misty past, check out this tale of how Sierra On-Line nearly bought id Software while the studio was in the midst of making Wolfenstein 3D — a moment that remains one of gaming's biggest "what-ifs." You can also check out our list of the 25 best PC games to play right now, which includes DOOM (2016) and more.

Kat Bailey is a Senior News Editor at IGN as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.

The Super Nintendo port of Wolfenstein 3D is notorious among retro fans for being the worst version of the pioneering shooter. On top of the console's technical limitations and lousy controls, it was heavily censored, leading to some bizarre artistic choices.

A new clip from FPS: First Person Shooter, an upcoming documentary about the rise of the genre with words from more than 45 well-known developers, showcases the origins of Wolfenstein 3D. Toward the end of the clip, it delves into the Super Nintendo port and what a nightmare it was deal with Nintendo censors."

"We knew we would have to get rid of some of the Nazi paraphernalia due to the fact that they wanted to sell the game in Germany," programmer Becky Heineman remembers. "But the most notable thing was that we had German Shepherds in the original version of Wolfenstein 3D come ahead and bite you, and Nintendo's censors were totally like, 'You can't shoot dogs.' So we had to change them to rats."

Check out the NEW TRAILER for our FPS: First Person Shooter documentary & celebrate the launch of our Indiegogo campaign! Join us for a sneak peek of 45+ gaming legends in our 3+ hour documentary on the greatest games ever made. https://t.co/kMD7Ihdl7b #FPS #gaming #retrogaming pic.twitter.com/BjNYiCMEvY

— FPS: First Person Shooter Documentary (@FPSDOC) April 28, 2022

Id Software dutifully turned the dogs into giant rats, but that wasn't enough to satisfy Nintendo's censorship team. They pointed that when the rats attacked the hero BJ Blazkowicz, their mouths appeared to be bleeding. Id Software argued that the red smudge was actually the rat's tongue, but to no avail.

"So we had to remove the tongues from the rats because it reminded Nintendo of blood," Heineman says. "The censors made our lives miserable. So we had to do several versions before Nintendo said, 'Okay, you can ship this.'"

Getting Wolfenstein 3D on SNES was ultimately a frustrating experience for the team at id Software, who had to take on the project themselves in part because the external programmer they hired seemed to simply forget about the project. The SNES port was finally released on February 1994, and it has been panned by fans and critics alike ever since.

FPS has stories like this and more over the course of its three-plus-hour runtime, with appearances by genre luminaries including John Romero, Warren Spector, Cliff Bleszinski, and many more. The project was successfully funded on Kickstarter in 2021, and is currently in the midst of another round of funding on Indiegogo to help fund the cost of post-production.

For more stories from PC gaming's misty past, check out this tale of how Sierra On-Line nearly bought id Software while the studio was in the midst of making Wolfenstein 3D — a moment that remains one of gaming's biggest "what-ifs." You can also check out our list of the 25 best PC games to play right now, which includes DOOM (2016) and more.

Kat Bailey is a Senior News Editor at IGN as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.

Over the past 50 years, Star Trek has portrayed many iconic friendships. And now, The Star Trek Book of Friendship is exploring these relationships and giving fans a look into Trek’s most “enduring and endearing friendships,” including Kirk and Spock, Picard and Data, Janeway and Seven of Nine, and many more.

The Star Trek Book of Friendship hits shelves on May 10, 2022, and IGN has an exclusive excerpt from the book that sees its authors Robb Pearlman and Jordan Hoffman discuss the legendary relationship between Kirk and Spock.

This fully authorized book, with illustrations from J.K. Woodward, dives deep into these friendships and many more, and it comes complete with a foreword from Star Trek: Voyager’s Robert Picardo (The Doctor) and Ethan Phillips (Neelix).

The Star Trek Book of Friendship retails for $18 USD, and a portion of the proceeds will go to benefit The Planetary Society, a nonprofit that is dedicated to empowering the world’s citizens to advance space science and exploration.

Without further ado, here is an excerpt from The Star Trek Book of Friendship:

The Star Trek Book of Friendship will be released on May 10, 2022, for $18 USD, and a portion of the proceeds will go to benefit The Planetary Society.

For more on Star Trek, check out our reviews of the premiere of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and Season 2 of Star Trek: Picard. You can also find out who won our Star Trek crew member face-off and our look at Captain Pike’s story so far.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

Over the past 50 years, Star Trek has portrayed many iconic friendships. And now, The Star Trek Book of Friendship is exploring these relationships and giving fans a look into Trek’s most “enduring and endearing friendships,” including Kirk and Spock, Picard and Data, Janeway and Seven of Nine, and many more.

The Star Trek Book of Friendship hits shelves on May 10, 2022, and IGN has an exclusive excerpt from the book that sees its authors Robb Pearlman and Jordan Hoffman discuss the legendary relationship between Kirk and Spock.

This fully authorized book, with illustrations from J.K. Woodward, dives deep into these friendships and many more, and it comes complete with a foreword from Star Trek: Voyager’s Robert Picardo (The Doctor) and Ethan Phillips (Neelix).

The Star Trek Book of Friendship retails for $18 USD, and a portion of the proceeds will go to benefit The Planetary Society, a nonprofit that is dedicated to empowering the world’s citizens to advance space science and exploration.

Without further ado, here is an excerpt from The Star Trek Book of Friendship:

The Star Trek Book of Friendship will be released on May 10, 2022, for $18 USD, and a portion of the proceeds will go to benefit The Planetary Society.

For more on Star Trek, check out our reviews of the premiere of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and Season 2 of Star Trek: Picard. You can also find out who won our Star Trek crew member face-off and our look at Captain Pike’s story so far.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

EA has announced the date of its next developer diary stream for Dead Space Remake titled "Crafting the Tension." It will premiere later this week on May 12 at 10 am PT/1 pm ET on EA's various official video channels including YouTube and Twitch.

As part of EA's ongoing behind-the-scenes deep dives into the development of the Dead Space remake, the company has been hosting various livestreams that focus on a particular aspect of the survival horror title. Past videos have focused on sound design and physics, but the upcoming video will highlight the art.

According to EA, the next developer livestream will "offer a deep dive into various aspects of the upcoming game's art design. The team at Motive will show early footage into how they're leveraging the Frostbite engine, Gen 5 hardware and PCs to visually evolve and remake the original Dead Space's environments, characters, VFX, lightning and more from the ground up to create a new level of immersion and quality for today's modern audiences."

EA Motive is leaning particularly hard into next-gen features related to realism. For example, the audio is such that Isaac will sound and talk differently based on how much damage he has taken. And EA Motive appears to be taking the dissection mechanic from the game series to a whole new level.

Check out IGN's interview with the devs for more on Dead Space Remake and check back later this week for all the details from the upcoming stream.

Matt T.M. Kim is IGN's News Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.

EA has announced the date of its next developer diary stream for Dead Space Remake titled "Crafting the Tension." It will premiere later this week on May 12 at 10 am PT/1 pm ET on EA's various official video channels including YouTube and Twitch.

As part of EA's ongoing behind-the-scenes deep dives into the development of the Dead Space remake, the company has been hosting various livestreams that focus on a particular aspect of the survival horror title. Past videos have focused on sound design and physics, but the upcoming video will highlight the art.

According to EA, the next developer livestream will "offer a deep dive into various aspects of the upcoming game's art design. The team at Motive will show early footage into how they're leveraging the Frostbite engine, Gen 5 hardware and PCs to visually evolve and remake the original Dead Space's environments, characters, VFX, lightning and more from the ground up to create a new level of immersion and quality for today's modern audiences."

EA Motive is leaning particularly hard into next-gen features related to realism. For example, the audio is such that Isaac will sound and talk differently based on how much damage he has taken. And EA Motive appears to be taking the dissection mechanic from the game series to a whole new level.

Check out IGN's interview with the devs for more on Dead Space Remake and check back later this week for all the details from the upcoming stream.

Matt T.M. Kim is IGN's News Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.