In The News
Telltale Games is disappearing off of Steam, Game Informer’s Imran Khan writes. “Several older Telltale games have been removed from sale from Steam … Telltale has contracted an outside company, Sherwood Partners, to aid in shepherding the Northern California game developer through bankruptcy proceedings.”
Earnings:
NetEase is out with Q3 results, GI.biz’s Rebekah Valentine reports. Net revenue was “16.9 billion yuan ($2.5 billion), which was up 35.1 percent year-over-year. Of that, online game services accounted for 10.3 billion yuan ($1.5 billion) up 27.6 percent year-over-year. NetEase also brought in a gross profit of 7.5 billion yuan ($1.1 billion), up 26.9 percent year-over-year.”
Tencent gaming revenue is hurting thanks to China’s continued suppression of the industry. “Online games revenue decreased by 4% to $3.7 billion for the period, with a modest increase from mobile unable to offset the tumbling PC revenues,” GI.biz’s Haydn Taylor writes.
CD Projekt Red isn’t thrilled with how Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales is performing. “‘Unfortunately, as yet, these expectations have not been fulfilled. Still, we remain optimistic,’” joint-CEO Adam Kiciński said in a call yesterday, Eurogamer’s Robert Purchese writes. “It explains why Thronebreaker suddenly appeared on Steam after originally being declared a GOG exclusive.”
Stardew Valley’s iOS debut pulled in over $1 million, Sensor Tower reports. “United States make up the majority of the game’s early adopters on mobile at about 41 percent of copies cold so far.”
Bunch has raised “$3.8 million in funding for its app that lets people play mobile games with friends over video chat,” VentureBeat’s Dean Takahashi reports.
Russian gamers aren’t happy with Nintendo of Russia’s Yasha Haddaji and want him gone, Eurogamer’s Tom Phillips reports. “Unhappy Russian Nintendo fans have called for the company to replace its local CEO and have begun circulating an expletive-filled video of him mismanaging a Mario Kart 8 Deluxe livestream.”
Walker Jacobs is Twitch’s new chief revenue officer.
EA is remastering Command & Conquer.
Interviews: Reality Gaming Group’s Tony Pearce (GI.biz) and Overwatch’s executive producer Chacko Sonny and producer Nicole Gillet (Gamasutra).
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Extra Esports News:
CWL:
Christopher “Parasite” Duarte is mad at John “Xotic” Bruno for leaving his team, Krisis Gaming, for Evil Geniuses. He condemned his former teammate is Twitter-tastic fashion, tweeting: “Xotic sketched for EG and gave away our pool play spot to a team we are better than lmfao. He didn’t even tell us until just now and he knew for days. Scum.”
Bruno replied saying he only found out “Tuesday literally” but Duarte’s angry Twitter righteousness couldn’t be contained. He proceeded to go on a tweet storm that consisted of gems like this, this, this and this. Happy Thursday.
OUT: John “Revan” Boble is no longer with MLG and is “looking to explore all options for the upcoming season.”
Partnerships:
North and Challengermode are partnering, TEO’s Taylor Cocke writes. “The deal primarily focuses on the Nordic region’s amateur esports scene.”
Echo Fox and Fathead are partnering, Esports Insider’s Adam Fitch writes. “The two parties will produce Echo Fox-branded big heads, wall decals, vinyl murals, wallpaper designs, and laptop skins.”
Unikrn and ChallengeMe.GG are partnering to launch “a new Counter-Strike: Global Offensive competition, the United Masters League,” Fitch reports.
Interviews: Virtus.pro general manager Roman Dvoryankin (TEO) and ESPN’s Jacob Wolf (Real Sport).
Happy birthday Zhou “Yang” Haiyang!