In The News
SuperData Research pushed out big digital revenue numbers for December, VentureBeat’s Jeff Grubb reports. “Gaming fans spent nearly $10 billion on digital gaming content last month worldwide.”
Game Developers Conference surveyed 4,000 “game industry professionals” and found “that 12 percent are making the current games for the Switch in 2018, compared to 3 percent in 2017. Fifteen percent say they are making their next game on the Switch,” VentureBeat’s Dean Takahashi reports.
Glixel’s Blake Hester also notes the survey revealed “One in 10 game developers are working on a game featuring loot boxes.”
The ESRB is standing firm in its rating of video game drug depiction. “A study from Archstone, an addiction awareness group, found that video games commonly depict narcotic usage as having a positive in-game effect,” GamesIndustry.biz’s Haydn Taylor reports. “Archtone’s study looked at real and fictional drug use in the top 100 best-selling games across all consoles.”
Lawsuits:
Valve’s fighting the $2.4 million fine it was slapped with in Australia. “The video game juggernaut was sued by the ACCC back in August 2014,” Gamasutra’s Chris Kerr writes, “after the consumer rights organization took issue with the lack of a proper Steam refund policy.”
GamesIndustry.biz’s James Batchelor writes that “Twitch has won a key victory in its ongoing campaign against illegal bots … The firm has been awarded over $1.37m.”
ESL and Paysafecard renewed their sponsorship deal through 2018, The Esports Observer’s Graham Ashton writes.
Nvidia partnered with Detroit Renegades, a press release reads.
Somewhere, Matt’s laughing at me. BioWare delayed Anthem until 2019 “according to three people familiar with the project,” Kotaku’s Jason Schreier reports.
Shaun Escayg and Stephen Barry joined Crystal Dynamics to work on the upcoming Avengers game, Polygon’s Michael McWhertor reports.
Nazara Technologies is pushing for Indian esports by acquiring “a 55 percent stake in Indian esports startup Nodwin Gaming for an undisclosed amount,” The Esports Observer’s Angelos Anastasopoulos writes.
Image & Form and Zoink are now merging into one company, GamesIndustry.biz’s Christopher Dring reports.
Thirty million in share sales later and Starbreeze intends to use that money “to finance its business plan until the release of Overkill’s The Walking Dead,” GamesIndustry.biz’s Matthew Handrahan writes.
Mobile game Clash Royale has an esports league called Path2Pro. “Registration is open now until January 28 at the official website,” Takahashi writes.
Hi, Sam! Sam’s Ubisoft’s new virtual assistant built for gamers. Currently available in Canada, “Ubisoft is clearly treating Sam as a test balloon of sorts, meant to gather data and gauge people’s reactions to the idea of a game-fluent concierge,” Engadget’s Chris Velazco reports.
Nintendo’s mobile Miitomo will die May 9, according to Eurogamer’s Tom Phillips.
Rainbow Six: Siege is getting a big esports revamp, Ubisoft announced in a recent blog post.