Technologies

Microsoft promises to change toxic work culture at Activision Blizzard

The tech giant knows it is facing turmoil within its new acquisition.

Over the past couple years, employees’ public accounts of toxic work environments have led to reckonings around Silicon Valley and promises from management to be better. On Tuesday, Microsoft made a similar pledge, though not for itself. The tech giant pointed to the litany of abuse and harassment allegations at its latest acquisition target, game maker Activision Blizzard, and promised that behavior would no longer be tolerated.

Amid Microsoft’s announced plans to buy Activision Blizzard for the eye-popping amount of nearly $69 billion in cash, the tech giant’s leaders spoke the usual pomp about how important the deal was. Microsoft would be bolstering its already enormous Xbox video game division with the teams behind some of the most popular franchises in the world, including the online battle games Overwatch and Call of Duty, as well as the fantasy behemoth World of Warcraft and mobile mainstay Candy Crush.

But Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella also quickly pivoted to acknowledge that he isn’t just buying a company and its brands. Microsoft will also be taking over a sprawling organization under intense scrutiny over public claims of harassment, discrimination and more, all tolerated for years in an alleged «bro culture» atmosphere. On a conference call with investors shortly after announcing the purchase, Nadella discussed how he’s changed Microsoft’s cutthroat ways and how his lieutenant Phil Spencer would do the same with Activision Blizzard.

«The culture of our organization is my No. 1 priority,» Nadella said during his introductory remarks. «This means we must continuously improve the lived experience of our employees and create an environment that allows us to constantly drive everyday improvement in our culture.»

In doing so, he effectively promised to turn around a company that, while successful, is engulfed in scandal. «We are supportive of the goals and the work Activision Blizzard is doing and we also recognize that after the close, we will have significant work to do in order to continue to build a culture where everyone can do their best work,» he said in a thinly veiled criticism of past leadership. «It requires consistency, commitment, and leadership that not only talks the talk but walks the walk.»

It’s a tall order for Microsoft and Nadella to take on. But those who’ve watched his work say he and his lieutenants may be among the best suited to pull it off. And that’s in part because of how much Microsoft itself has changed.

Just a decade ago, Microsoft was seen largely as a monopolistic force in the computer world, reinforced through its toxic work culture. The company’s ruthlessness both inside and out were so widely documented over the years that a cartoonist once drew an organizational chart depicting Microsoft’s divisions as warring gangs pointing guns at one another. And when Google went public in 2004, it established a corporate ethos that became as much mantra as it was a referendum on Microsoft: «Don’t be evil.«

In 2014, shortly after Nadella was appointed as Microsoft’s third CEO, he set about for a fix. In his book Hit Refresh: The Quest to Rediscover Microsoft’s Soul and Imagine a Better Future for Everyone, Nadella described how he’d inherited a senior leadership team that was «more like a group of individuals» operating in silos. He asked each to read Marshall Rosenberg’s Nonviolent Communication, a guide to building compassion in organizations. Over time, he said, executives grilled and sniped at each other less, and supported one another more.

Nadella still stumbled, famously giving an «inarticulate» answer in 2014 when asked for advice for women seeking a raise while he was being interviewed on stage at the Grace Hopper Celebration for women in tech. Four years later, when CNET Editor-in-Chief Connie Guglielmo asked him to try again, Nadella said people need to advocate for themselves and find allies who won’t accept the status quo. He also said it’s on leaders, like him, to listen to those advocates.

With Activision Blizzard, Nadella said he’ll rely on Spencer, head of Microsoft Gaming and the Xbox division. Nadella described Spencer as having «demonstrated leadership driving both gaming business success as well as cultural change.» Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick, who was accused in a blockbuster Wall Street Journal investigation of having at times ignored, covered up and even participated in bad behavior at the company, told employees in a conference call published by the Washington Post Thursday that he will remain in his job until the deal closes in June 2023 and any longer Microsoft wishes him to stay.

The Activision Blizzard King Workers Alliance, which helped organize walkouts and protests over the past six months, tweeted a statement saying its efforts wouldn’t end with Microsoft’s acquisition.

«We remain committed to fighting for workplace improvements and the rights of our employees regardless of who is financially in control of the company,» the group tweeted Tuesday. «Whatever the leadership structure of the company, we will continue our push to #EndAbuseInGaming.»

Microsoft and Activision declined to make executives available for comment.

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Under pressure

In an odd way, Activision Blizzard’s cultural issues appear to have driven the company into Microsoft’s hands. Activision Blizzard’s stock was floating near all-time highs last year until July, when it was sued by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing, which accused the gaming giant of discriminating against its female workforce and fomenting a toxic work culture. The suit quickly triggered public letters from employees that criticized the company’s leadership, followed by employee walkouts and online activism.

Kotick, according to the Journal’s reporting, was aware of many of the issues outlined in the suit but reportedly failed to inform the company’s board of directors of «everything he knew,» including a 2018 settlement with a former employee at one of Activision’s studios who was allegedly raped by a supervisor. Kotick at the time said the Journal’s article «paints an inaccurate and misleading view of our company, of me personally, and my leadership,» a sentiment repeated by the company’s spokespeople.

Still, investors were unconvinced, pushing the company’s stock down as much as 40% before Microsoft’s purchase was made public, for the same $95 per share that the stock was worth just a year ago.

Carolina Milanesi, an analyst at Creative Strategies who’s watched Microsoft’s moves closely over the years, noted how often Microsoft discussed culture throughout its announcements on Tuesday, both by Nadella and Spencer, the latter of whom said, «We believe firmly that the great teams at Activision Blizzard have their best work in front of them, and we’re looking forward to making sure they feel supported, safe and engaged in every aspect of their work going forward.»

The focus on culture was «spot on,» Milanesi said. «The problem was with management, not the employees,» she added. «You get rid of management and put the employees in a good environment.»

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Microsoft also published headshots of its gaming division’s leadership in connection with the announcement, and Milanesi noted that half the roles were filled by women and reflected racial diversity as well, an unusual sight in tech land. «I don’t think it would have been a possibility for them to keep the old management on» at Activision, she said. «Especially how employees responded, clearly it wasn’t good for the company.»

Though Kotick may not become a Microsoft employee, he will be paid a generous sum. His stock holdings alone will be worth nearly $400 million.

New game

Whether Microsoft can right Activision’s ship is still an open question, even if its executives so far have «talked the talk,» as Nadella noted. It may help that Microsoft has faced its own reckonings over the years, both in a 2015 class action discrimination suit and again in 2019 when employees protested its own «boys club» culture.

Microsoft’s HR head, Kathleen Hogan, wrote to employees following the 2019 revelations that she was «appalled and sad to hear» about their experiences and agreed that these problems must be resolved as a company. Microsoft shared the email publicly, in which Hogan said, «We must do better.»

So far, it appears Microsoft’s made headway. Nine out of 10 employees who left reviews on Glassdoor said they’d recommend working at Microsoft to a friend, and 97% approved of Nadella’s work as CEO.

«The deal and a renewed commitment to culture should enable Activision Blizzard to eventually move beyond the in-house issues that have surfaced,» Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter wrote in a message to investors after Microsoft’s announcement. «We think that Microsoft’s intolerance of workforce discrimination and harassment will overwhelm any issues that remain at Activision.»

One other thing that may help is Microsoft’s corporate mission. The tech giant’s taken clear stands on not just harassment but also human rights and other global and political issues that many game companies have either avoided or outright mishandled. Activision Blizzard itself was harshly criticized for its reaction against a competitive gamer who expressed support for democratic protests in Hong Kong in 2019.

«Many executives from the games industry have always been on the fringes and haven’t had to think much about these things,» said Joost van Dreunen, a professor at NYU Stern School of Business and author of the book One Up: Creativity, Competition, and the Global Business of Video Games. «Microsoft has these questions answered. They know their place, and they have it thought through.»

To him, Microsoft also appears to be walking the walk of its Xbox division’s «for everyone» mantra, from its efforts to take on harassment in the gaming community to initiatives like its Xbox Adaptive Controller for disabled players.

«You don’t see that as much at Activision,» he said. At least not yet.

Technologies

Today’s Wordle Hints, Answer and Help for Feb. 1, #1688

Here are hints and the answer for today’s Wordle for Sunday, Feb. 1, No. 1,688.

Looking for the most recent Wordle answer? Click here for today’s Wordle hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Wordle puzzle is a tough one, with some unusual letters. If you need a new starter word, check out our list of which letters show up the most in English words. If you need hints and the answer, read on.

Today’s Wordle hints

Before we show you today’s Wordle answer, we’ll give you some hints. If you don’t want a spoiler, look away now.

Wordle hint No. 1: Repeats

Today’s Wordle answer has no repeated letters.

Wordle hint No. 2: Vowels

Today’s Wordle answer has one vowel and one sometimes vowel.

Wordle hint No. 3: First letter

Today’s Wordle answer begins with S.

Wordle hint No. 4: Last letter

Today’s Wordle answer ends with Y.

Wordle hint No. 5: Meaning

Today’s Wordle answer means full of prickles.

TODAY’S WORDLE ANSWER

Today’s Wordle answer is SPINY.

Yesterday’s Wordle answer

Yesterday’s Wordle answer, Jan. 31, No. 1,687, was ALLOT.

Recent Wordle answers

Jan. 27, No. 1,683: DUSKY

Jan. 28, No. 1,684: CRUEL

Jan. 29, No. 1,685: FLAKY

Jan. 30, No. 1,686: JUMBO

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Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for Feb. 1 #700

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for Sunday, Feb. 1, No. 700.

Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s NYT Strands puzzle is a bit of a challenge. Some of the answers are difficult to unscramble, and a couple are kind of long, so if you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: It’s a gift.

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: For me, really?

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

BONE, GONE, BONNET, NOTE, PRIDE, RING, TING, SENT, RENT, WARD, DRAW, SEEN, SEER, TORE, RANT, TRYING, DONATE, SIRE

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:

AWARD, BONUS, GRANT, PRESENT, DONATION, OFFERING

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is GENEROSITY. To find it, start with the G that’s three letters to the right on the top row, and wind down.

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Technologies

I Tested the New AirTag and Found That Apple More Than Doubled Its Range

Review: Apple’s «AirTag 2» gets better at its job. The familiar white and chrome disc is a little louder, higher-pitched and easier to find.

While nearly everyone I know has been freezing and shoveling snow, I spent the past few days under San Francisco’s sunny skies, hiding and finding Apple’s new AirTag. I’m happy to report that it succeeded at its main job: I was able to locate it every time. The second-generation Bluetooth tracker looks and acts identical to the original AirTag, which debuted in 2021, but internal upgrades make it even easier to find.

Over the past five years, the AirTag has become a popular way to track your luggage, keys, car, bike, pets (though you really shouldn’t clip one to Mr. Cupcakes) and nearly anything else you can attach the tiny white and silver disc to. The AirTag also sparked a conversation about privacy, specifically around Apple’s built-in safeguards that prevent it from being used to track someone unwillingly. Apple later expanded those features to protect both iPhone and Android phone owners.

Do we really need a new AirTag? No. But its new features are nice.

This isn’t your typical yearly tech upgrade, like a new phone with a faster processor. The first AirTag is already great. Yeah, it has shortcomings, like not having a hole for a key ring, which forces you to buy a holder to attach it to things. But its best feature is Apple’s Find My network, an encrypted, invisible service connecting over 1 billion devices, including iPhones, Macs and trackers. The AirTag is your key to the Find My kingdom.

In my time testing the second-gen AirTag, I discovered that the latest iteration is also great. It has shortcomings like that missing key ring hole, but the Find My network is still the star. Apple improved the tracker’s ability to be found. The chime is higher-pitched and louder.

When trying to locate it in the Find My app, Precision Finding picked up the new AirTag over twice as far away as it did the old AirTag. The AirTag 2, as we’ve nicknamed it, also supports Precision Finding on my Apple Watch, though setting it up isn’t straightforward.

The second-gen AirTag is on sale now: $29 for one and $99 for a four-pack. And just like the OG version, if you order online directly from Apple, you can get it engraved.

AirTag 1 vs. AirTag 2

When I first unboxed the second-gen AirTag, I was surprised to see that it had the same bulbous Mento design as the original. This allows the new AirTag to be used with the gazillion accessories people already have. But there are differences. The white shell’s resin is now made of 85% recycled plastic. I’m curious to see whether the white casing scuffs as easily as the original.

(That fine print etched on the back? That’s how you can identify a second-gen AirTag from an original: The new one has its text printed in ALL CAPS — except «AirTag,» because Apple presumably wants to keep the intercap.)

If you have the original AirTag, there’s no reason to get rid of it and buy the new version. I can see swapping out an existing AirTag with a second-gen one if you frequently use Precision Finding for important items like keys and everyday bags — and especially if you want to access that feature on your Apple Watch.

If you can choose between the second-gen AirTag and the first-gen model at a discount, I’d go with the discounted original for most items. The first AirTag model does nearly everything the new one can do.

The new AirTag can be found farther away

The new tracker has upgraded Bluetooth connectivity, making it more discoverable to nearby iPhones, which can piggyback its location information anonymously back to its owner. A second-generation Ultra Wideband chip gives the new AirTag a longer range for Precision Finding.

CNET’s Social Media Producer Faith Chihil and I made the trek to Salesforce Park, a green space atop a San Francisco bus station, to run an AirTag test. I gave Faith my old AirTag that I use for traveling, aptly named Patrick’s Luggage, and the new one, named New AirTag. I then walked a few hundred feet away and opened the Find My app on my iPhone 17 Pro Max. I looked for the New AirTag first. I hit the Find button and then got to walking. My iPhone started picking it up 110 feet away. The green «you’re going the right way» screen with an arrow appeared 85 feet away from the new AirTag.

I repeated the test with the Patrick’s Luggage AirTag, and my iPhone started picking it up 42 feet away, and the green screen appeared 37 feet away. In this simple test, the second-gen AirTag was findable at over twice the distance away as my first-gen Apple tracker.

I should note that there are a lot of factors that come into play when trying to find your AirTag. Our range testing was done around lunchtime, so there were a lot of people with iPhones walking by to pick up the tag’s initial location so that my phone could use the Find My network to zero in on it. Also, we were outdoors along a walking path, so we didn’t have walls, rugs or furniture to contend with for the Precision Finding.

The new AirTag supports Precision Finding on the Apple Watch

The second-gen Ultra Wideband chip on the new AirTag also supports Precision Finding for the first time on certain Apple Watch models running WatchOS 26.2.1 or later:

Apple Watch Series 9
Apple Watch Series 10
Apple Watch Series 11
Apple Watch Ultra 2
Apple Watch Ultra 3

But getting it set up isn’t straightforward.

To use Precision Finding on the iPhone, you go to the Items tab in the Find My app and select your AirTag. But when I went to the Find Items app on the watch, I could select the new AirTag, but there wasn’t a Precision Finding option.

A quick online search later, I found an Apple Support page that explained how the Apple Watch uses the Control Center to do it. I had to add a new Find Items button, called Find AirTag, to the Control Center and then tap it to put my watch into Precision Finding mode. Indoors, it found my AirTag from 65 feet away. It might go farther, but our office isn’t that big.

My Apple Watch doesn’t have cellular data, so when I was indoors on Wi-Fi, it worked fantastic. When I was outdoors, connected to my iPhone, it worked mostly fine, but at times it took longer to update my AirTag’s location.

The new AirTag is louder

If you’ve ever used the AirTag’s Play Sound feature through the iPhone’s Find My app, you know that Apple «I’m over here» chime. The new AirTag plays the same tune but is higher-pitched and louder, making it easier to find.

I tested the second-gen AirTag’s chime against the first one using an iPhone audio meter app (not the most scientific, but I wanted to visualize the difference). The original AirTag’s chime peaked at 67.3 dBA, while the new AirTag’s hit 77.5 dBA, more than twice as loud as the old model (remember, decibels are logarithmic).

The new AirTag final thoughts

When I set out to test the AirTag, I was concerned there wouldn’t be much to talk about. But after my time with it, I’ve discovered a lot to share. Namely, I’m a fan. I was already a fan of the first one, and that’s the key. Apple kept all the best aspects of the original AirTag while adding slight improvements. There was no dramatic redesign or price increase. It’s just the familiar white and chrome disc that is a little louder, higher-pitched and easier to find from quite a bit farther away.

I know some people hoped Apple would launch a credit card-style AirTag or one in different colors. It seems that Apple is more than happy to have other companies do that and participate in its Works with Apple Find My program. And I’m OK with that, too.