In The News
Weekend In Review:
Agent down! “Rockstar and parent Take-Two Interactive appear to have abandoned the long-in-development espionage title Agent,” GI.biz’s James Batchelor writes. Its patent filing is now listed as “Dead… Refused/Dismissed or Invalidated.”
Starbreeze Studios’ board of directors “has issued a mandate to management, demanding a review of its operating costs. It has already initiated a program to reduce those costs and ‘sharpen focus on core business’ – that is, internal and external development,” Batchelor reports.
Logitech will not buy Plantronics, TechCrunch’s Jonathan Shieber reports. “In a statement issued today, Logitech International said that while it had engaged in discussions with Plantronics about a potential transaction, it had terminated the negotiations.”
Nvidia’s stock price could be suffering due to Bitcoin’s value spiraling. “The crypto-mining crash has left Nvidia with ‘excess’ stock, and its share price has been hammered: it’s now at its lowest since July 2017 after falling 10% this week,” PC Gamer’s Samuel Horti reports.
Rebellion opened “a brand new film facility in Oxford … The 220,000 square foot new studio cost $100 million to build and is based near Rebellion’s Oxford headquarters,” Batchelor reports.
HTC filed a trademark for “something called ‘Vive Cosmos’. There’s no exact description of what the name refers to, but the listing does state it’s related to a ‘head mounted display for computer simulated reality’ amongst other things like ‘eye pieces for head mounted displays’ and ‘handheld controllers for use in computer simulated reality environment,’” VentureBeat’s Jamie Feltham writes.
Goodgame Studios CEO and CSO Kai and Christian Wawrzinek are leaving their positions in February.
Nintendo had a frustrating weekend “trying to scrub Super Smash Bros. Ultimate spoilers from the internet,” Eurogamer’s Tom Phillips writes. “Gameplay videos and ripped cutscenes have appeared on Twitch and YouTube. Many fans have complained about accidentally clicking on – and spoiling for themselves – the ending of the World of Light campaign.”
Interviews: Atari CEO Frederic Chesnais (VentureBeat).
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Extra Esports News:
Team Vitality raised “$22.7 million, in an investment from entrepreneur Tej Kohli,” VentureBeat’s Dean Takahashi reports. “Team Vitality said it believes the investment is the largest ever for a European esports team.”
Partnerships:
Team Liquid and Fathead are partnering, TEO’s Jack Stewart reports. “Fathead now offers decals of the Team Liquid logo and life-size cutouts of the organization’s players.”
Lille OSC and New Balance are broadening their partnership “to cover its [Lille OSC] esports division: LOSC eSports,” Esports Insider’s Adam Fitch reports.
Happy weekend birthdays Hakjun “Kranich” Baek, Kim “Cure” Doh Wook, Mykhailo “Kas” Gaida and James “Duck” Ma!