In The News
Blizzard:
Apparently, BlizzCon 2018 could have ended much differently than it did. “Two people familiar with Blizzard’s plans confirmed that the company had indeed recorded a video in which co-founder Allen Adham spoke to fans about a new Diablo project,” Kotaku’s Jason Schreier reports. “We had originally reported that it was planned for BlizzCon, but it’s possible that those plans were simply discussed and never solidified.”
Stocks took a hit from the Diablo Immortal announcement, GI.biz’s Haydn Taylor writes. “Following the announcement and subsequent fallout, Activision Blizzard stock fell to its lowest point since January, closing out the day down 6.74%.”
Blizzard says Hearthstone tipped over 100 million registered players. All cards in Rastakhan’s Rumble can be found here.
Sales:
Starbreeze Studios posted “a pre-tax loss for the latest quarter,” Taylor reports. “Net sales were down around 45% year-on-year to $3.7 million from $8.5 million, while pre-tax loss trebled to $11.3 million from $3.9 million in the same period last year.”
Modern Times Group “esports sales saw 6% year-over-year growth, highlighted by ESL’s 16% revenue growth,” TEO’s Max Miceli reports. MTG saw “record SEK 4.68B ($509.7M) in sales for Q3, up 3% from SEK 4.28B ($466M) the same quarter last year.”
Fallout 76’s got issues. Reddit user teetharejustdone took it upon himself to lay them all out in sassy detail here. “Bethesda confirmed some (but not all) of these concerns are correct,” Eurogamer’s Emma Kent writes. “‘The community has however called to attention several issues that our teams are already actively tracking and planning to roll out fixes for…’”
Ubisoft attempted to reassure parents after it came “under fire from parents over in-game marketing for its Just Dance subscription service,” GI.biz’s James Batchelor reports. “The 2019 version also brings back a Kids mode, introduced last year, that focuses on songs aimed at younger players. But a parent has complained about the inclusion of Unlimited tracks in this section.”
Right-wing hate groups are allegedly targeting gamers, according to NPR. “Experts say that while it’s by no means common, online games — and the associated chat rooms, livestreams and other channels — have become one avenue for recruitment by right-wing extremist groups.”
Kyle O’Connor, formerly of Blizzard, announced the launch of “Creative Social Media Services, an all-inclusive social media marketing agency.”
RuneScape 2 has been downloaded on iOS by over one million users in the last week, GI.biz’s Rebekah Valentine reports. “The game debuted at #1 in the App Store in eight countries, and in the top ten in fifteen countries.”
Niantic’s relaunching Ingress as Ingress Prime, Engadget’s Daniel Cooper reports. “Ingress Prime will reset the Ingress story, which centers on the discovery of Exotic Matter (XM).”
Dreamleague came in 1st place for hours watched on Twitch in the last week at 2.44 million, TEO reports. Shroud came in 2nd at 2.29 million, Warcraft in 3rd at 2.22 million and Overwatchleague in 4th at 2.19 million.
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Extra Esports News:
Congratulations OpTic Gaming on winning Black Ops 4’s first NA CWL 2K! They defeated SpaceLy and co. “OpTic went through this entire online tournament without losing a single map,” Dot Esports’ Justin Binkowski writes.
Seth “Scump” Abner dominated viewership on Twitch for the tournament, Dexerto’s Calum Patterson reports. “OpTic and Scump faced off against an orgless team of pro players led by Michael ‘SpaceLy’ Schmale, peaking at over 100,000 viewers, but he had already become the top viewed channel on Twitch earlier at 54,000.” He also started trending on Twitter, TwinGalaxies’ Nicholas Barth reports.
FaZe Clan FIFA player Tassal “Tass” Rushan is defending himself after being “banned from competitive play … [for] using a homophobic slur in a video,” Eurogamer’s Wesley Yin-Poole reports. He said “fag,” and “In a video published to YouTube, Rushan claimed he didn’t know the word ‘fag’ was a homophobic slur because he’s from London.”
Partnerships:
Fnatic and Sansar are partnering “for social VR: Fnatic Meta BUNKR, a virtual fan hangout designed to enable deeper community engagement. Free to access on PC and VR, the space provides Fnatic fans all over the world a place to gather and connect, host events and meetups, meet popular players and personalities, and earn one-of-a-kind rewards and prizes,” the press release reads.
McDonald’s Germany is partnering with Jung von Matt/SPORTS, Esports Insider’s Oliver Ring reports. It “will see McDonald’s Germany increase its esports efforts going forward.”
Sprout and Trust Gaming are partnering, Esports Insider’s Adam Fitch writes.
“ESL’s Enter Records has signed TheFatRat as its first artist for his album ‘The Chosen One,’” Miceli writes. “The German electronic music producer has a resume that includes performing at ESL events.”
Happy birthday Keiwan “k1pro” Itakura and Michael “MikeHaze” Pulido!