In The News
Tyler Barriss, the 25 year old charged in the swatting death of Andrew Finch, received additional charges in Calgary. “Calgary police said Tuesday they charged 25-year-old Tyler Raj Barriss of Los Angeles with mischief and fraud charges following a [different] ‘swatting’ incident on December 22nd,” Glixel’s Stefanie Fogel writes.
Who’s the most popular of them all? PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, apparently. GamesIndustry.biz’s Haydn Taylor reports that “nearly 7,000 articles were written” about PUBG in December.
Have you ever suddenly been forced to relive a horrible memory from your childhood when you did something unfathomably cringy? Gamasutra’s Chris Kerr compiled some of game developers’ biggest fails they posted on Twitter.
In 2017, “7,672 games were released on Steam,” Polygon’s Ben Kuchera reports.
Crowdfunding for video games raised $25 million in 2017, GamesIndustry.biz’s James Batchelor reports. “The total figure shows video games crowdfunding has declined by less than two per cent when compared to 2016.”
Sales news:
GamesIndustry.biz’s Christopher Dring reports “Nintendo Switch is the fastest-selling games console in France, with 911,000 consoles sold during 2017.”
Kotaku’s Brian Ashcraft reports “In 2016, Japanese hardware sales were 117.05 billion yen ($1.05 billion), while in 2017, they jumped to 202.37 billion yen ($1.81 billion).” Software sales were up as well.
Dring also reports “GAME has seen its revenue grow by 5.2% over the Christmas period (November 1st to January 6th, 2018), compared with the same period a year before.”
The Los Angeles Dodgers are “seeking out partnerships with a number of groups across the sports sphere, and notably includes esports organizations in that list,” The Esports Observer’s Ferguson Mitchell writes.
Who watched what on Twitch in 2017. “Esports and battle royale games were top of the charts on Twitch last year,” Dot Esports’ Scott Duwe reports. “The number one game, by a huge margin, was League of Legends, clocking in at over one billion hours watched.”
Prince of Persia on the comeback?! “Creator Jordan Mechner recently stated that he’s working to resurrect Prince of Persia,” GameSpot’s Alex Newhouse reports.
CES lost power for around an hour yesterday, PC Gamer’s Bo Moore and Tuan Nguyen report. “Between light flooding in through the windows and the bright lights of smartphone flashlights, there’s just enough brightness for us to make our way through the crowds. There’s been no…”
Team SoloMid signed Ali “Myth” Kabbani to their new Fortnite Battle Royale esports team.
Hearthstone news:
Are big Hearthstone changes incoming? Game director Ben Brode tweeted this: “Been reading discussions about balance; we have an update coming next month which includes some cool events, and that is when any balance changes would happen. We’ll be sure to announce any changes as the patch gets closer. See you at the HCT World Championship next week!”
Speaking of the HCT, Blizzard released the 2018 schedule.
The Call of Duty World League put out more information on the National Circuit.