In The News
100 Thieves has completed “its Series A funding round” that includes singer Drake, according to a press release. He “co-led the investment round alongside Scooter Braun, entertainment industry power-broker and founder of SB Projects. Drake and Braun will join founder Matthew “Nadeshot” Haag and Dan Gilbert, Chairman of the Cleveland Cavaliers, as 100 Thieves co-owners.”
Haag is also up with a piece in The Players’ Tribune titled “The Juice.”
Forbes released its list of “The World’s Most Valuable Esports Companies.” Cloud9 comes in 1st at $310 million, Team SoloMid in 2nd with $250 million, Team Liquid in 3rd at $200 million and Echo Fox in 4th at $150 million.
GOG is apologizing after using the transgender #WontBeErased hashtag in a tweet that read: “Classic PC games #WontBeErased on our watch. Yeah, how’s that for some use of hashtags.” GOG deleted the tweet and later apologized, “Yesterday, we posted a tweet containing a trending hashtag as a pun. The tweet was neither intended as a malicious attack, nor as a comment to the ongoing social debate. GOG should focus only on games. We acknowledge that and we commit to it.”
Zombie Orpheus Entertainment has since terminated its contract with GOG, GI.biz’s Rebekah Valentine reports.
Alex “Goldenboy” Mendez has a big announcement coming out today. Trust me, it’s very cool. 😉
Spider-Man was #1 for sales in September, the National Purchase Diary reports via Game Informer’s Imran Khan. “Spider-Man’s launch month sales are 37 percent higher than the combined launch month sales of every other Spider-Man game since the NPD first started tracking retail sales in 1995.”
NBA 2K19 came in 2nd, Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey in 3rd and FIFA 19 in 4th.
It’s dead. ESforce Holding is closing cybersport.com as of November. “Despite these great numbers, in November 2018, Cybersport.com will be closing and the team will permanently dissolve,” Cybersport’s Michael Cohen writes in a post for the site.
TwitchCon announced Twitch Talks, “a new celebrity speaker series which is designed to inspire and entertain attendees at the annual event,” the press release reads. Speakers include Tony Hawk, Ninja, Kevin Smith and Felicia Day.
Resolution Games raised “$7.5 million in Series B funding at an $87.5 million valuation,” Tech Crunch’s Lucas Matney reports. It’s an AR/VR studio.
Steam has more than 90 million monthly users, GI.biz’s Haydn Taylor reports. “Steam’s monthly active user count has grown by 23 million in just over a year, according to figures from Valve.”
IN: Jaime Jasso joined Bonfire. He “has worked at Industrial Light & Magic on giant movie franchises like Star Wars,” VentureBeat’s Mike Minotti reports.
Johanna Faries joined Activision “as the new head of product for Call of Duty esports. Faries last served as an executive in the NFL,” Minotti writes.
OUT: Tony Reed left Game Developers Association of Australia to open an Epic Games office in Australia, GI.biz’s Matthew Handrahan reports.
Nintendo is partnering with “the Institute of Play to bring a new Nintendo Labo-themed program to around 100 classrooms for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th graders across the United States.”
Warsaw, Poland has a fancy new gaming and esports studio courtesy of Polsat and ARAM, Esports Insider’s Melany Moncav reports.
The Vatican made a Pokémon Go-like game about collecting saints.
Players’ Lounge – Sponsored News:
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Cameron Boal was the first employee at FanDuel and saw the company grow from 6 to 600 employees before leaving in December to become CMO of Players’ Lounge. While at FanDuel, he oversaw the company’s growth trajectory in marketing and acquisition.
Extra Esports News:
Black Ops 4 came in 2nd for hours watched on Twitch last week at 20.35 million, TEO reports.
Luckbox joined the Esports Integrity Coalition, TEO’s Graham Ashton reports. “ESIC works with betting companies to extend its suspicious bet alert network, which detects possible instances of match-fixing.”
Partnerships:
Misfits, Method and Vertagear are partnering, TEO’s Jack Stewart reports.
Reason and Dream Team Gaming are partnering for “the Gfinity Elite Series,” TEO’s Max Miceli writes.
Ajax eSports renewed its partnership with Ziggo, Esports Insider’s David Hollingsworth reports.