In The News
Former Blizzard employee Jules Murillo-Cueller took to TwitLonger to detail alleged abuse he suffered while at the company’s Hearthstone esports division. He said he is working with lawyers and reached out to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Here’s a snippet: “I was the victim of racial abuse and discrimination during April-December 2016 until I was transferred to the Blizzard Esports Business Operations Team. I write this, not only, to finally get closure, but to tell my story as a minority who was abused and later failed by leadership.”
Two companies are reportedly bidding to buy GameStop, The Wall Street Journal’s Patrick Thomas reports. We can expect to see a deal emerge sometime in mid-February.
Acquisitions:
Sony acquired Audiokinetic, “the company behind game dev tools like the widely used audio middleware tool Wwise,” Gamasutra’s Alissa McAloon reports.
Funcom acquired Zona Paradoxal, GI.biz’s Rebekah Valentine writes. “It has acquired a 50.1% majority stake in Lisbon-based work-for-hire studio Zona Paradoxal.”
Paradox Interactive acquired “the rights to popular management sim title ‘Prison Architect,’” Variety’s Brittany Vincent reports.
Brawl Stars helped push Supercell’s revenue to over $1.4 billion in 2018, Sensor Tower reports. “The three-versus-three arena shooter brought in $46 million between its worldwide launch on December 12 and the end of the year.”
Berlin’s Schwules Museum opened “a new exhibition exploring the game industry’s queer history,” GI.biz’s Haydn Taylor reports. “The exhibition includes art, merchandise, video interviews with developers, and playable games.”
Players’ Lounge – Sponsored News:
Players’ Lounge redesigned its product, resulting in a 25% increase in week-over-week matches played for four weeks running.
Investors continue to assault our inboxes. Including a few billionaires. We’re holding strong.
Players’ Lounge is hiring a Senior Vice President of Engineering! Know a brilliant, competitive senior developer with PHP and AAA/F2P development experience? Slide into our DMs.
Extra Esports News:
Hearthstone viewership “experienced a sharp decline in 2018, but it remained one of the most-watched games overall for the year,” TEO’s Max Miceli writes. “Viewership dropped notably in 2018 to 332.12M hours watched, down from from 410.99M in 2017 … [the] primary esports channel only drew 15.75M hours watched in 2018.”
Sponsorships & Partnerships:
TCL is sponsoring Call of Duty World League, TEO’s Trent Murray reports. “The deal includes a broadcast presence, live event activations, and sponsorship of the league’s preview show.”
EA SPORTS, The CW and the NFL are partnering, TEO’s Ferguson Mitchell writes.
Nova Esports and Monster Shield are partnering, Esports Insider’s Adam Fitch reports.
Ultimate Gaming Championship and NØSLEEP are partnering for a “Halo Classic event,” Fitch writes.
IN: Cloud9’s Rainbow Six Siege team moved to Team Reciprocity.
Rogue announced their Rocket League lineup.