In The News
Weekend in Review:
Investment News:
Epic Games raised a whopping $1.25 billion from seven investors including “KKR, ICONIQ Capital, Smash Ventures, aXiomatic, Vulcan Capital, Kleiner Perkins, and Lightspeed Venture Partners,” Variety’s Brian Crecente reports. “The seven investors join Tencent, Disney, and Endeavor as minority shareholders in Epic, which continues to be controlled by founder and CEO, Tim Sweeney.”
Digi-Capital is reporting a “record $25 billion in game industry deals in over just 9 months” in its paywalled “Games Report Q4 2018,” VentureBeat’s Tim Merel reports. “The game industry-deal cycle has swung from boom to bust twice already since 2010, so the next six months will determine if history repeats itself or the dollars continue to flow.”
Red Dead Redemption 2 is apparently “the game” when it comes to employees taking time off work, Fizziology reports via VentureBeat’s Jeff Grubb. Based on social media posting, “more people are talking about taking off work on social media than any other video game release so far this year.”
TwitchCon 2018:
Twitch announced some big news including the introduction of Squad Streams and Sings and Twitch Rivals‘ expansion.
Additional items include the Highlight Editors update which “will soon allow streamers and editors to stitch together moments from across a video into a single highlight” and new featured sections “highlighting up-and-coming streamers, new Partners and Affiliates, or streamers local to the viewer,” according to a press release.
The streaming service touted that “over 235,000 streamers reached Affiliate status, and 6,800 reached the coveted Partner status,” Variety’s Liz Lanier reports.
Tyler Barriss, the 25 year old who called in the swatting incident that ended in 28-year-old Andrew Finch’s death, is facing additional charges. “Federal prosecutors in the Central District of California filed a criminal information document that accuses Barriss of a vast new array of crimes,” Wired’s Brendan Koerner writes. “The bulk of the 46 crimes detailed in the document occurred during the last four months of 2017.”
Monster Hunter: World pushed Capcom’s “games division … to double its profits in the first half of the fiscal year,” GI.biz’s Matthew Handrahan reports. “Digital Contents division saw a 70% year-on-year increase in H1 revenue, to ¥34.2 billion ($305 million).”
Tyler “Ninja” Blevins:
Will do a 12-hour marathon stream New Year’s Eve from Times Square in New York City. It starts at 4 p.m. ET.
He’s also “collaborating with electronic record label Astralwerks for an album,” TEO’s Max Miceli writes.
HyperX added rapper Post Malone as a brand ambassador, Miceli reports. “HyperX will include Post Malone in marketing for the company and activate at the rapper’s Posty Fest.”
Fallout 76 won’t be on Nintendo Switch, Bethesda’s Pete Hines confirmed at PAX Australia. It “wasn’t doable,” he said, according to Engadget’s Jon Fingas.
Interviews: Vive Studios general manager Joel Breton (VentureBeat), IO Interactive associate director Eskil Mohl (GameSpot), id Software’s Tim Willits (GameSpot) and Twitch’s Amir Shevat (VentureBeat).
Players’ Lounge – Sponsored News:
Six thousand dollars in Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 tournament prizes was awarded this weekend.
Players’ Lounge is hosting $2,000+ a day in tournaments that cost $1 to enter.
Venture capitalists continue to lay siege to Players’ Lounge founder inboxes.
Extra Esports News:
Congratulations Team Secret on winning ESL One Hamburg! They defeated Vici Gaming to take home $125,000. Virtus.pro came in 3rd and paiN Gaming in 4th.
Logitech G is “now the official sponsor and gear provider for Cheddar Sports.”
Black Ops 4:
Congratulations Team Shroud on winning Doritos Bowl Blackout! They took home $100,000.
The initial CWL 2019 ruleset is out.
Happy weekend birthdays Chai “Mushi” Yee Fung, Kim “Classic” Doh Woo and Jökull “Kaldi” Jóhannsson and happy Monday birthdays Frederik “Hoej” Nielsen and Mariano “SquishyMuffinz” Arruda!