In The News
A tale of two Mikes.
Blizzard Entertainment co-founder and President Mike Morhaime is stepping down after 27 years. He will be replaced by J. Allen Brack, who until now was World of Warcraft’s executive producer. Morhaime and Brack’s letter is here. Blizzard’s announcement tweets are here. Industry members like Travis Gafford, Jesse Cox, Rob Pardo, Hannah Wotton, Kevin Hovdestad, Christopher “MonteCristo” Mykles, Chris “ChanManV” Chan, Rachel “Seltzer” Quirico and many, many more reacted to the news.
Entertainment Software Association President Mike Gallagher is stepping down after 11 years, according to a press release. A source close to the matter told The Daily Walkthrough Gallagher is stepping down to evaluate options for reentering politics, including potentially running for office. ESA is the gaming industry’s lobbying arm and puts on E3. Gallagher’s replacement has not yet been found, and “the ESA Board will begin a search to fill the role following Mr. Gallagher’s departure later this month.” Senior Vice President Stanley Pierre-Louis will serve as president in the interim.
Composer Ben Daglish, known for “composing music on 1980s classics like Cobra, The Last Ninja, and Trap, has died age 52,” GI.biz’s Hadyn Taylor reports.
Telltale Games is reportedly trying to “work on a deal that would provide for the third and fourth episodes to be finished by another company using former Telltale employees,” sources told Kotaku’s Ethan Gach.
Nintendo plans to release an improved version of the Switch in 2019 “to maintain the sales momentum of the device,” The Wall Street Journal’s Takashi Mochizuki reports.
Apparently, the Harry Potter leaked footage is quite real. BBC’s Lizo Mzimba tweeted he was “told this is from a yet to be announced RPG currently titled Harry Potter Magic Awakened, although other titles including Magic Forever are also in the mix.”
Twitch announced the TNF Live Extension: “Two legendary co-streaming Partners who are broadcasting this week’s matchup, and a way to give to charity while also supporting your favorite teams in chat.”
Mega Man is getting a live-action movie.
Investment News:
TinyBytes pulled in $1.4 million “in investment ahead of the launch of its upcoming game,” GI.biz’s Christopher Dring writes.
Tencent is investing $316 million in Bilibili, GI.biz’s Rebekah Valentine reports. “Total, Tencent will invest in 25,063,451 newly-issued Class Z ordinary shares for the price of $12.67 per share, which will encompass about 12.3% of Bilibili’s total shares.”
Partnerships:
Jam City is partnering with When We All Vote to encourage midterm turnout.
Nickelodeon and Esports Arena are partnering “for a promotional Super Smash Bros. tournament,” TEO’s Trent Murray reports.
Virtual Athletics League, SpringboardVR and LIV partnered to launch “a global VR esports league,” Esports Insider’s Melany Moncav reports.
Curse Media, Mavs Gaming, and Muthead are partnering “to put on a $10,000 Madden exhibition event … The original prize pool will go to the familys of Spotme and Trueboy, the two Madden competitors who were killed in Jacksonville on August 27, with other donations going towards the Jacksonville Tribute Fund,” Unikrn’s Dustin Steiner writes.
Ohio State University’s launching a “comprehensive esports program,” according to a press release. “The campuswide collaboration brings together academics, collegiate competition and multidisciplinary research to give students as many opportunities as possible to be a part of the booming industry.”
Interviews: Housemarque’s Mikael Haveri (GI.biz), Spider-Man’s Jon Paquette (Polygon) and Gwen Frey (GI.biz).
Extra Esports News:
Black Ops 4 News:
ELEAGUE is hosting ELEAGUE CODNATION Challenge for Vets Oct. 13 in Atlanta, Dot Esports’ Jamie Villanueva reports. “The event is meant to both showcase the new CoD game and to benefit the Call of Duty Endowment, a non-profit organization that helps veterans transition into civilian life after their service.”
Treyarch introduced a new map: Icebreaker.
Hearthstone posted “Watch the Fall Championship!”
You know it’s going to be good when /r/games makes its way onto /r/subredditdrama. Today’s popcorn involves esports, Olympics and “real” competition.
Happy birthday Hu “MacSed” Xiang!