In The News
Weekend In Review:
Sony:
Sucks to live in Chicago if you like being happy. The city’s 9% Amusement Tax (lol) now applies to PS4 users starting Wednesday. “The tax will be levied on PlayStation Store receipts, including PlayStation Plus, PlayStation Now, PlayStation Vue, PlayStation Music, PlayStation Video On Demand, and PlayStation Video Live Events,” USGamer’s Matt Kim writes.
PlayStation dominated October’s ad spend, VentureBeat’s Eleanor Semeraro reports. It spent $28 million last month. “TV spending increased overall within the gaming industry, rising to nearly $62.7 million from September’s $53.5 million. In total, 28 brands aired 100 commercials over 15,900 times, generating almost 3.7 billion TV ad impressions.”
Microsoft:
Miss X018? Check out every announcement here. The biggest news coming out of the event is that Microsoft acquired Obsidian Entertainment and inXile Entertainment. “These two creative teams will continue to operate autonomously and bring their unique talents, IP and expertise to Microsoft Studios as they build new RPG experiences for our players and fans.”
Microsoft is launching a Christmas charity event titled #givewithXbox. “The platform holder is urging fans to share photos on social media of what gaming together means using that hashtag,” GI.biz’s Christopher Dring reports. “The firm will donate $5 of Xbox products – rising to $1 million – for every photo shared. The donations will be split between the charities Child’s Play, Gamers Outreach, SpecialEffect and Operation Supply Drop.”
Bungie’s Luke Smith defended Destiny 2 after its critique in Activision’s earnings call, tweeted that “We are not disappointed with Forsaken. We set out to build a game that Destiny players would love, and at Bungie, we love it too. Building Destiny for players who love it is and will remain our focus going forward.”
Bad form, dude. A recently fired Treyarch employee — seemingly intent becoming unhireable — leaked Black Ops 4 Zombies information on Reddit. “The former Treyarch employee allegedly worked on the Easter egg quality assurance team for Black Ops 4 Zombies,” Dot Esports’ Justin Binkowski reports.
Prima Games is shutting down, EGM Now’s Evan Slead reports. “The Dorling Kindersley division of Penguin Random House announced the ‘extremely difficult decision’ to discontinue the U.S.-based imprint of Prima Games by spring 2019.”
Alex Garfield, who founded Evil Geniuses and Alliance, “has made a move to purchase two of gaming’s most popular talent agencies and shall merge them in to one entity,” VPEsports’ Richard Lewis reports. “The agencies set to be purchased are gaming influencer agency Loaded.gg and Catalyst Sports.”
Felix “PewDiePie” Kjelberg is the first YouTuber to hit 70 million subscribers.
Paul “Ice Poseidon” Denino crashed his car in Seward, Alaska Thursday evening after he “was startled by a staff person at a local motel, who stepped out of the building carrying a gun,” Seward Journal’s Kyle Walker writes. “No injuries were reported, and no shots were fired.”
Turner “Tfue” Tenney was allegedly swatted Friday, Dot Esports’ Preston Byers reports. “During a livestream on Friday, Tfue said two police officers arrived at his California home, responding to a call that alleged someone was attempting to break into the popular streamer’s house.”
Like Dominoes and Red Dead Redemption 2? Here you go.
Interviews: The Game Awards’ Geoff Keighley (VentureBeat).
Players’ Lounge – Sponsored News:
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Venture Capitalists and Angel Investors of all shapes and sizes have been launching “pick your brain” intro emails at Players’ Lounge. Our seed round is just about full and we’ll be announcing our dance card later this year. Think you can dance?
Extra Esports News:
Congratulations Cloud9 on winning the Rocket League Championship Series Season 6 – Finals! They defeated Team Dignitas to take home $200,000. We Dem Girlz came in 3rd and Chiefs Esports Club in 4th.
Congratulations Johnathan “Fatal1ty” Wendel on being inducted into the Esports Hall of Fame!
BlizzCon esports viewership numbers on Twitch can be found here.
Dota 2 is dealing with two incidents of racists taunts, PC Gamer’s Samuel Horti reports. “It follows two incidents of Dota 2 pros using racist taunts against Chinese teams. The first … involved Filipino player Andrei ‘skem’ Ong … another pro using the same racial taunt a few days later—this time Carlo ‘Kuku’ Palad of TNC Pro Team.” Valve issued a statement here.
OpTic Gaming’s Jack “CouRage” Dunlop did a Fortnite stream with Houston Astros’ Carlos Correa.
FaZe Clan streamers were forced to evacuate their Calabasas, California home due to the raging wildfires. “Evacuated. The fire is inside the community. Literally just packed up essentials and a suitcase each and hopped in our cars. This is like a movie,” Jakob “Teeqo” Swarden tweeted.
STS is launching “an esports specific section in its mobile application that will allow users to place bets on esports tournaments in Poland & abroad as well as utilise in-play betting,” Esports Insider’s Oliver Ring reports.
Partnerships & Sponsorships:
Champion is sponsoring Robert Morris University-Illinois’ esports program, Esports Insider’s Melany Moncav writes.
GG.Bet is partnering with “three Dota 2 teams: Alliance, J.Storm, and NoPangolier,” Esports Insider’s Adam Fitch reports.
IN: George “Hyped” Maganzini joined Team Liquid’s Artifact team.
OUT: Brittany Lattanzio is no longer with Team Liquid.
Happy weekend birthday Marc “uThermal” Schlappi, Julian “Lambo” Brosig and Paul “Redeye” Chaloner!