Morning Save Point: MW4 Strike Vote, Hadar Years Out, and More

Friday morning’s biggest game news landed on the same day Modern Warfare 4’s campaign early access unlocked. The world’s biggest publisher is heading into its biggest launch of the year with its QA union voting overnight to authorize a strike. A few hours later, CD Projekt Red told investors its “biggest project to date,” the new IP Project Hadar, won’t enter full pre-production for years. Throw in Jagex cancelling RuneScape Reignited seven weeks before launch, and Rep. Ritchie Torres using the NBA 2K25 delisting as the test case for federal player-protection legislation. Friday looks like the year’s worst week for big publishers.

The big one

QA testers at Activision Publishing voted Thursday to authorize a strike at the Bloomington, Minnesota office. The vote came just hours before Modern Warfare 4’s campaign early access unlocked today. The Communications Workers of America (CWA), the labor union organizing AQAU-CWA, the Activision Quality Assurance United-CWA locals at three offices, said members of Locals 6215, 7250 and 9400 voted almost unanimously for the authorization. CWA represents about 2,500 Activision-Blizzard workers; the Bloomington QA unit has shrunk to roughly 400 after layoffs. A strike authorization doesn’t trigger a walkout, but it gives CWA the authority to call one at any time if bargaining stays stuck when sessions resume on October 21 and 22. The bargaining committee says Activision has refused meaningful movement on wages, AI guardrails, contractor use, and ADA accommodations.

Activision told Kotaku it has “plans in place to ensure there is no disruption.” The question is what those plans are. MW4 Launch Clouded by Activision QA Strike Vote MW4 ships worldwide on October 23 with crossplay and the new DMZ mode (the open-world extraction twist on Modern Warfare’s 2019 single-player formula, where players drop into a 60-minute match to extract loot or fight AI-controlled enemies). The MW4 campaign early access explainer is live for PlayStation pre-order customers today. A walkout during launch week would land when the team ships its most fragile patch. The industry has not seen a strike authorization hit a tentpole launch before. Raven Software QA (2022) and ZeniMax QA (2023) walked the organizing line but never went this far. CWA Bargaining Committee member Emily Danko described the position: “Bargaining has been a long, exhausting process spanning over two years, with our committee making responsible moves while the company continues to stall.”

Our read: a strike vote during launch week is the kind of problem publishers work very hard to avoid. The contract fight centers on AI guardrails in testing and contractor use, exactly the levers publishers lean on when titles grow. Players should expect post-launch patches to be slower if a walkout happens. The bigger question is whether the public dispute bleeds into MW4’s reviews and holiday sales, where Activision has spent the year marketing it as the year’s biggest. Pixel Herald’s pre-launch coverage already runs 9 MW4 stories, from the pre-order guide to the campaign early access explainer to the Game Pass / PS Plus page, and the strike authorization is the only news the cycle did not anticipate.

Also happening

• Project Hadar is years from pre-production. CDPR’s joint-CEO Michał Nowakowski told investors October 15 that the company’s third franchise, the cyberpunk-fantasy hybrid codenamed Hadar, “won’t enter full pre-production for some time.” Pre-production is the phase where a studio locks core mechanics, art direction, and the tech demo that determines whether a game is even greenlit for full production. Project Hadar: CDPR’s ‘Biggest Project’ Is Years From Pre-Production The team had 33 people on Hadar as of July 31, 2026. Small relative to Witcher 4’s 519 developers and Cyberpunk 2’s 184. No release window.

• Jagex cancels RuneScape Reignited seven weeks before launch. Game Director Mod Ryan walked the controversial fresh-economy mode back on October 15, ten days after it was unveiled at RuneFest 2026. Jagex Cancels RuneScape Reignited Before Its December 2 Launch Reignited (the studio’s name for a planned parallel-economy mode where new accounts would start from a clean slate on December 2) survived two weeks of community pushback before reversal. Mod Ryan’s full statement: “It is clear that we missed the mark on this, and so we are not moving forward with it.” The Adventure Guide and the first part of the Remastered Journey still ship December 2.

• PEAK climbs onto PS5 on October 22. Aggro Crab and Landfall confirmed the date on the PlayStation Blog, more than a year after PEAK’s Steam debut on June 16, 2025. PEAK Climbs Onto PS5 October 22 With Crossplay Co-op Crossplay is on at launch. Gematsu also reports same-day launches for Xbox Series and Switch 2, though those are not confirmed by the studios or platform holders.

• Squad’s first PS5 alpha opens today. Offworld Industries confirmed the 50v50 PC tactical shooter is heading to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S with optional console crossplay. Squad Coming to PS5 and Xbox, PlayStation Alpha Opens October 16 The PS5 alpha runs October 16 through October 25. Xbox Series X|S players don’t get an early test. The full console launch has no date yet.

• NBA 2K25’s delisting prompts federal legislation. Rep. Ritchie Torres (NY-15) introduced the Power To The Players Act on October 15. The bill directs the FTC to treat paid digital games as purchases rather than revocable licenses, the first concrete federal response to the Stop Killing Games player movement. NBA 2K25’s Delisting Prompts ‘Power To The Players Act’ Targeting the FTC The bill cites NBA 2K25’s October 30 delisting and December 31 server shutdown as its test case. Torres told Kotaku: “A game that can be taken away the moment a company pulls the plug is not a purchase. It is a rental disguised as a sale.”

The week in studios walking it back

Out today

Modern Warfare 4 campaign early access unlocked on PlayStation today as the pre-order bonus. It runs through the regional midnight unlocks ahead of the October 23 launch. Squad’s PS5 alpha opens and runs through October 25. Jackbox Party Pack 12 ($29.99) launched yesterday across PC, PS5, Xbox, Switch and Apple TV. DayZ: Badlands, the franchise’s largest content drop, also went live yesterday on PC, PlayStation and Xbox. Frosthaven 1.0 ($39.99) left Early Access on PC yesterday after two years.

Deal of the day

Halo: The Master Chief Collection for $9.99 on Steam (75% off, ends October 19). Six Halo campaigns (Combat Evolved through Halo 4) plus Halo 3: ODST and Halo: Reach. Plus every multiplayer suite in the bundle, for less than a movie ticket. The sale ends Sunday so this is a weekend play, not a weekend decision. Halo MCC on Steam.

One more thing

Halloween comes early to GTA Online: win three races between October 15 and October 21 for the Orange Glow Skeleton Onesie and GTA$100,000 per the Rockstar Newswire. Playing that week also earns the Butchery and Other Hobbies T-Shirt. Any Halloween Survivals are 3X GTA$ and RP through October 31. Rockstar has been hammering GTA Online seasonal events since GTA 6 was dated for November 19, and the Halloween overlay is the closest GTA Online gets to a holiday mode.

Edited by Kerwin Stewart, Editor-in-Chief · How we report