No More Snacks

PRESENTED BY MUNBYN

Happy last week of work, FutureParty people. When you come back in the new year, the final countdown for TikTok being available in the US begins. Congressmen John Moolenaar (R-MI) and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) sent letters to Apple CEO Tim Cook, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, and TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew to remind them that hosting the TikTok app on its store past January 19th is illegal. We can’t believe it’s actually happening.

DAILY TOP TRENDS

Silicon Valley Drops The Perks

Generous perks have been a norm in the tech industry for decades as a way to woo the best and brightest employees… but recent belt-tightening and shifting priorities are making the perks disappear.

Why It Hurts: People’s work life has been on a rollercoaster over the past five years, transitioning from offices to remote work-setups to back again… but to offices that seem to value them less. No wonder engagement at work just hit an 11-year low.

Between the Snacks: Remote work isn’t the only perk being shown the door.

• Google, the granddaddy of perks-givers, is nixing exotic off-site meetings in favor of the office conference room, has closed some micro kitchens, and even traded the good artisanal chocolate for Twix (which, you know, could be worse).

• Salesforce ditched its ranch retreat for employees, let go of its in-office barista, and stopped offering a monthly “well-being” day off.

• Netflix is reportedly discouraging people from taking an entire year off for parental leave, with the unofficial appropriate time off being six months now.

• Meta shockingly fired employees for using their meal-delivery vouchers to buy household goods.

The Future: It’s starting to feel like perks culture is morphing into productivity culture, with the vibe shifting from getting an in-office massage and playing ping pong with coworkers to getting down to business before AI does for you. Meanwhile, high interest rates, economic uncertainty, and expenditures on AI infrastructure have led to 264,000 layoffs in the tech sector this year alone. In other words, it’s dog-eat-dog for employees right now.

But, to retain the best talent in such a cutthroat environment, companies may need to go back to being generous with the most important perk of all — pay.

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Blockbusters Are Getting Remade For Fortnite

Indie film studio New Regency is teaming up with Snoop Dogg’s Death Row Games to adapt titles from its film library into native games for Fortnite.

The Big Picture: Fortnite has exploded into a hub for all things culture — concerts, shopping, film screenings, etc. — but gaming is still its primary draw. As the demand for pre-branded IP continues to rule over entertainment, studios adapting movies for the metaverse-like world could win over legions of new fans.

Behind the Scenes: Some movie concepts are just perfect for a second life in gaming.

• New Regency and Death Row Games’ Good Game Champ division are turning Andrew Niccol’s sci-fi thriller In Time into a game using Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN) — Epic’s video-game development system made for Fortnite.

• The companies called the Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried-starring film — which is set in a dystopian future where time is literally currency — “a natural fit for the dynamic UEFN platform.”

Closing Credits: In Time will reportedly be the first of many movies that New Regency and Death Row will turn into games, which New Regency chairman and CEO Yariv Milchan said, “marks the start of a groundbreaking journey into immersive storytelling.”

That’s a trend happening all across Hollywood, with James Cameron’s Lightstorm Vision partnering with Meta on projects for the Quest and Conclave filmmaker Edward Berger making Submerged for Apple’s Vision Pro. While gamified VR storytelling didn’t really take off last decade as some hoped, time may have finally caught up.

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DEEP DIVES

• Listen: The Culture Desk chats with Jon Batiste about how he reinterpreted several of Beethoven’s classics with jazz and funk for his Beethoven Blues album.

• Review: The Verge tries on Google’s new smart glasses and Android XR platform, Project Moohan.

• Explore: Complex lists the 15 best memes of the year.

81.7% of you voted Yes in Friday’s poll: Do you turn off phone notifications to reduce distractions?

“No sound ever — just a few silent notifications, so I can keep up with stock market moves and breaking news.”

“I don’t even want my phone to vibrate.”

“My phone has been on silent for a decade.”

“I have a talented friend, who always seems to call me when I’m at my therapist’s.”

“Doomscrolling was taking over everything, so I set DND starting at 10pm, and that’s improved my nighttime routine 100%.”

“I’m an adult; I simply don’t look at my phone if I’m that busy.”

“Maybe I should?”

Let’s keep the conversation going. Join our Poll Of The Day newsletter, so your opinions can shine. Discover how your views line up with your peers’, check out cool insights, and have some fun. It’s data with personality.

QUICK HITS

→ Entertainment / Media

🎙️ Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway’s popular Pivot podcast will be up for sale next year after its deal with Vox Media concludes.

🎮 Netflix is making its new Squid Game video game available to non-subscribers for a limited time.

📺 Warner Bros. Discovery isn’t renewing its deal for Sesame Street, meaning the iconic kids show is about to hit the auction block.

→ Technology

🤖 Chip giant Broadcom is now a trillion-dollar company, thanks to the AI boom.

🚀 Elon Musk is starting the process of turning his SpaceX Starbase site in Texas into its own incorporated city.

🎉 Airbnb is boasting that it blocked 74,000 people worldwide from booking rentals last New Year’s Eve as part of its crackdown on parties.

→ Fashion / E-commerce

👖 Levi’s collabed with Arianne Phillips, the costume designer of the Bob Dylan movie A Complete Unknown, on a capsule collection inspired by Dylan’s Levi’s fits from the ‘60s.

🏈 Tyler, the Creator’s GOLF WANG is teaming up with the NFL on apparel lines for various top teams.

⌚ Celebrities such as Sylvester Stallone and Tom Brady are unloading their luxury watches this year like they’re running out of time.