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Call of Duty's billion-dollar free-to-play sensation Warzone suffers as Q&A testers remain on strike.

Dozens of Activision-Blizzard developers are still on strike and the work stoppage is affecting one of the company's most valuable digital assets: Call of Duty Warzone. Workers initially went on strike as protest against executive decisions to fire key Raven Software contractors. New reports from The Washington Post's Shannon Liao indicate that the strike is still ongoing as Activision has yet to overturn its decision, and the strike is biting into the quality of Warzone itself.

QA testers are among the developers currently on strike. Raven Software's quality assurance testers are vital to the upkeep and maintenance of Call of Duty Warzone because they identify bugs, issues, and in-game glitches. Now that Q&A isn't there to point things out, Warzone is riddled with bugs to the point where gamers call the mode broken. All of Warzone's connected games--Modern Warfare, Cold War, and the latest Vanguard--are affected by the QA strike.

One Activision-Blizzard shareholder is prepared to rid itself of all stocks if certain demands aren't met.

Fidelity International has warned $ATVI that it is prepared to sell $62 million worth of stock if the company doesn't heed specific demands. As per reports from The Wall Street Journal, Fidelity International has sent a list of demands to the controversial video games publisher. If the demands aren't met, sources tell The WSJ, then Fidelity International will not only divest all of its Activision-Blizzard holdings but also "enlist the support of other shareholders."

Fidelity has been a stakeholder for at least 22 years and was once Activision-Blizzard's fourh-largest shareholder. Under the Fidelity Contrafund, it owned over 11 million shares worth $1 billion in March 2021, but sold over 90% of its shares following Activision-Blizzard's sexual abuse controversy.

The Metaverse is being eyed by many companies around the world, and now one very well-known company has announced its plans to join.

According to a report from CNBC, Walmart filed several trademarks application with the US Patent and Trademark Office in December 2021 that state an intention for the company to sell virtual merchandise. One of the trademark applications states that Walmart intends to sell various virtual goods that fall under the following categories; electronics, appliances, apparel, home goods, toys, and personal care products.

Notably, another filing shows that Walmart is interested in creating its own cryptocurrency payment system as well as developing its own collection of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs). According to trademark attorney Josh Gerben, who spoke to Business Insider, the language that is used throughout the trademark filings shows "there's a lot of planning going on behind the scenes about how they're going to address cryptocurrency".

A powerful underwater volcano located about 40 miles south of Tonga has erupted, spawning a tsunami that has now impacted the mainland.

The eruption happened on January 15 and was captured on film from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) GOES-West Earth-observing satellite. The footage showcases a large mushroom cloud of toxic ash erupting from the ocean and climbing as high as 12 miles in altitude. The eruption caused a sonic boom and a 4-foot tsunami to hit Tonga's capital of Nuku'alofa.

Tongan Olympian, Pita Taufatofua, has announced a GoFundMe page dedicated to providing relief for all Tongans affected by the tsunami. According to the description on the GoFundMe page, the eruption has "devastated Tonga," and that all communications with the island have been cut off.

On January 15, an underwater volcano located in Tonga erupted, and the violent explosion was captured from a satellite in space.

The video posted by Space.com was captured by the GOES West Earth-observing satellite that's currently operated by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The above video showcases an extremely large explosion occurring, followed by a plume of smoke floating up into the atmosphere to an altitude of 12 miles.

The Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha'apai volcanic eruption immediately spawned a four-foot tsunami that hit Tonga's capital of Nuku'alofa that's located around 40 miles south of the volcano. Additionally, tsunami warnings and evacuation orders were issued for neighboring countries. The Associated Press has reported that there have been no injuries following the eruption, but added that Tonga's internet access was interrupted following the explosion.

NASA has its eyes on space and is constantly looking for anything that may pose as a threat to our little blue planet.

The space agency recently confirmed via an entry in its Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) that an asteroid dubbed 7482 (1994 PC1) will be making its closest approach with Earth on January 18, 2022. The space rock is estimated to be around 3,400 feet wide and will safely zoom past Earth at 47,000 mph and at a distance of five times the distance between the Earth and the moon (1.2 million miles).

BusinessInsider reports that the 1994 PC1 is around half a mile wide, which is around the size of the Empire State Building in New York. Due to its size and its "close" approach with Earth, NASA is tracking the whereabouts of the space rock and has recently announced that you can join in on the tracking as well by heading over to the NASA Eyes website. Additionally, the space agency explains that asteroid 1994 PC1 is "very well known and has been studied for decades by planetary our defense experts".

Human DNA contains the genetic code for what makes up a human, and now it's being used to create an "easy-to-use" antenna.

The team of chemists behind the world's smallest antenna comes from the University of Montreal, and according to the researchers, the nanoantenna will be used to assist scientists in identifying new drugs. The nanoantenna will do this by monitoring the motions of proteins and observing the structural changes that take place over a period of time.

The researchers explain that this "device" is outfitted with a five-nanometer-long antenna that has fluorescent molecules located at the end. The fluorescent molecules aren't just for show, as study author Scott Harroun explained that the nanoantenna signals a change in the structure of a protein by changing the color of light that it's emitting.

A new study details the discovery of water vapor being present in the atmosphere of a planet that's a little bigger than Neptune.

The study comes from a team of astronomers at the University of Kansas, and according to the researchers, the exoplanet that has become of high interest to researchers is a gas giant called TOI-674 b. This exoplanet is believed to be 1.3 times the size of Neptune and has a close orbit with its host star. Due to the planet's orbit being so close to its star, completing a full circle of the star in just two days, researchers don't believe the planet is harboring any life.

However, researchers believe that analyzing the chemical makeup of an exoplanet's atmosphere can assist astronomers and fellow researchers in figuring out how planets form and how distant planets compare to planets located closer to home. Notably, this isn't the first time that water vapor has been detected in the atmosphere of another planet, as NASA's Hubble Space Telescope discovered water vapor on a faraway planet called K2-18b in 2019.

Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos may have a new competitor when it comes to who holds the crown for the world's richest individual.

Changpeng "CZ" Zhao, the co-founder and CEO of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange Binance has just jumped some places on the world's wealthiest individuals list. According to a report from Bloomberg, Zhao's latest net worth valuation is $96 billion, which places him under some prominent figures such as Oracle founder Larry Ellison at $109 billion and Steve Ballmer, LA Clippers owner, and former Microsoft CEO, at $112 billion.

Notably, Bloomberg writes that Zhao's $96 billion net worth is likely far higher as the valuation didn't include the earnings or Zhao's current cryptocurrency holdings. Binance gave a statement to Bloomberg that explained that due to the constantly changing dynamic in the cryptocurrency space, it's difficult to give an accurate estimation. Anyone involved in the cryptocurrency space understands this volatility that Binance is mentioning.

Reports out of China indicate that the nation is looking towards creating its own base on the moon that will rival plans set out by the United States.

A new report from the South China Morning Post states that the nation is moving towards building its own "artificial moon" that will simulate a low-gravity environment. According to the report, the artificial moon will be built in just a few months and will be used by researchers to test out any equipment or tools that may perform differently in a low-gravity environment.

Notably, the artificial moon will measure in at just 60 centimeters in diameter, and while that is very small compared to the actual moon, it will still provide researchers and engineers a suitable testing environment. The artificial moon and the low gravity on it are slated to be created by placing the moon in a vacuum chamber that simulates space. The gravity will be simulated with a strong magnetic field.

Reports say that Sony has filed a new patent for backwards compatibility on the PlayStation 5. The patent isn't actually new, but a revised version of older patents that stretch back to 2015.

Loud proclamations have been made about Sony's recently-published backwards compatibility patent and gamers believe it could push Sony one step closer to PS3 emulation on the PS5. The latest patent, which concerns Sony's use of cycle counters matching spoof clocks to adjust CPU and GPU frequencies for error-free backwards compatibility emulation, isn't entirely new.

This is the latest in a long line of patents; Sony has been filing this particular backwards compatibility patent--Backward Compatibility Through Use of Spoof Clock and Fine Grain Frequency Control--since 2015. There are 24 related patents (family members) released in multiple regions like Taiwan, Japan, Europe, and even China. This patent is a continuation of all those old patents (which are in turn continuations of their forebears).

Rockstar Games may have delayed the new next-gen version of GTA V by as much as two months.

A bit ago, Rockstar Games pushed its GTA V Expanded & Enhanced version to March 2022. Now according to Portuguese Rockstar news tracker Matheusvictorbr, it's possible GTA V could be delayed as far as May 2022 on PS5 and Xbox Series X.

"I received some information recently regarding the title: Grand Theft Auto V: Expanded And Enhanced: The development was complicated. At the moment its [release] is still in March, but there are great chances that it will be delayed to April/May," Mathheus said on Twitter.

This impressive Skyrim demo in Unreal Engine 5 shows what The Elder Scrolls VI might look like on next-gen hardware.

The Elder Scrolls 6 is still a far ways off, but we do know the game will be running on Bethesda's new upgraded Creation Engine 2.0 to push new high-end photogrammetrical textures and visuals. We've only seen a brief cinematic snippet from 2018 and a few teases, but modders are using Unreal Engine 5 optimizations to show what could be possible with the new Elder Scrolls.

Environment artist Christian Gomm recently made a stellar demo recreation of Skyrim in UE5 that uses custom assets and Nanite tech, with polygons ranging from 100,000 to 15 million triangles.

Gamers have discovered multiple PS3 games on the PS5 storefront, kicking off mass hype for native PS3 backward compatibility on PS5. However our research indicates that this may not be the case.

PS3 games are reportedly coming to PS5 via Sony's new PlayStation Spartacus subscription. However, the most recent reports from Video Games Chronicle are not connected to this plan.

PS3 games recently showed up on the PS5 storefront with an actual price tag. This kicked off speculation that PS3 games could be coming to PS5 as purchasable, natively backward-compatible games. Sadly, we have evidence that some of the PS3 games that show up on the PS5 store are remnants of PlayStation Now's old rental subscription plan.

Konami's new Castlevania NFTs have been a big success with over $164,000 USD earned so far.

Note: All figures current at the time of writing.

Konami's NFTs are doing much better than Ubisoft's Quartz NFTs. The publisher has sold its limited-edition Castlevania NFTs for a total of 49 WETH, or about $164,535 USD. The data we've collected shows a highly speculative market with the intent of re-selling and collecting. The most expensive NFT was the Castlevania - Dracula's Castle Pixel Art which sold for over $25,000, and the lowest is Castlevania - Dagger VS Frankenstein & Igor that sold for $7,380.

God of War has released on PC with thunderous acclaim and popularity, amassing tens of thousands of players in its first day of sale.

Sony's new God of War release on PC further cements a new cross-platform era for its once-console exclusive games. The gambit appears to be paying off quite well. God of War in particular has peaked at 49,411 players on Steam (as per SteamDB figures). God of War reviews are also overwhelmingly positive with a 97% approval rating.

Sales of God of War on Steam are estimated to be up to 217,000, but also remember the game is being sold on the Epic Games Store as well. We might get official numbers from Sony soon, but God of War 2018 has sold 19.5 million units as of August 2021.

343 Industries will finally starting reducing Halo Infinite's microtransactions to make cosmetics and collectibles more fairly priced.

Halo Infinite has been over-monetized since it released on December 8. There have been $20 bundles that include paltry value with one piece of armor and other meager customizables (some didn't have any armor at all), and 343i was even charging $5 for basic armor colors. Now more than 41 days later, 343i says it will start dropping prices; the store will be adjusted starting this Tuesday, January 18, studio head of design Jerry Hook says.

The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) is responsible for the new map.

DESI was installed on the Mayall telescope at the Kitt Peak National Observatory in the Sonoran Desert and aims to achieve a better understanding of dark energy, the force hypothesized to drive the universe's expansion. Using a two-dimensional map of the universe released in January 2021, the DESI team prepared DESI to conduct its three-dimensional survey of the universe.

DESI's survey has created a map that contains over 7.5 million galaxies, far exceeding the approximately 930,000 galaxies comprising the Sloan Digital Sky Survey from 2008. DESI will expand this map, and the team expects the survey to be completed by 2026 after observing an estimated 35 million galaxies.

The World Economic Forum has released The Global Risks Report 2022 , with one of its seven chapters dedicated to space, entitled "Crowding and Competition in Space."

The report cites concerns such as Kessler Syndrome, which could arise from ever-increasing satellite numbers in orbit around Earth. The situation could get dramatically worse a lot sooner as military or defense-oriented presence increases. Another potential issue is how the governments and private companies may violate the United Nations' Outer Space Treaty, as some are concerned the Artemis Accords will.

The report also addresses the lack of effective governance tools for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), the governing body for space-based activity, to manage the evolving reality of space affairs. It states the pressing need for an authority that governs satellite launches and servicing and can control space traffic, enforcing various aspects of space travel.

A world-first study on the problem has been published in Nature Medicine.

Fourteen astronauts were studied over their six-month space missions, having direct measurements of their red blood cells taken. The study found that the astronauts lost 54% more red blood cells in space than they would otherwise on Earth, about 3 million per second being created and destroyed compared to only 2 million on Earth. The same result was observed for both female and male astronauts.