In The News
Credit: (Josh Peace/The Daily Walkthrough)
So brands want to advertise in esports. Who is selected, where do they go and how are they displayed? The Daily Walkthrough spoke with Nathan Lindberg, Twitch’s director of esport sponsorship sales, about that and more Sunday.
Here’s a snippet of the story, “Rocket League And Twitch Are Setting The Standard For Esports Advertising“: “Everyone scratches their head when I talk about Mobil 1 and their partnership. They’re a two-year sponsor, so when Rocket League launched they were one of the first brands who…”
Esports Industry Awards winners, courtesy of GamesIndustry.biz’s Haydn Taylor:
- Breakthrough Game of the Year – PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds
- Commercial Partner of the Year – G-FUEL
- Coverage Website of the Year – ESPN Esports
- Game of the Year – Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
- Journalist of the Year – Duncan “Thorin” Shields
- Photographer of the Year – Joe Brady
- Publisher of the Year – Riot Games
- Hardware Provider of the Year – Intel
- Videographer of the Year – Davis “OpTic Hitch” Edwards
- Streamer of the Year – Dr.Disrespect
- Streaming Platform of the Year – Twitch
- Broadcaster of the Year – Alex “Machine” Richardson
- Console Player of the Year – Matthew “FormaL” Piper
- Live Event of the Year – League of Legends World Championship (RIOT)
- PC Player of the Year – Amer “Miracle” Barqawi
- Personality of the Year – Eefje “Sjokz” Depoortere
- Rookie of the Year (Console) – Victor ‘Punk’ Woodley
- Rookie of the Year (PC) – Abay “HObbit” Khassenov
- Team of the Year – OpTic Gaming
- Unsung Hero of the Year – Megan “RheingoldRiver” Cutrofello
- UK Player of the Year – Spencer “Gorilla” Ealing
- Play of the Year – Matthew “FormaL” Piper
This is how October broke down for ad spending leading into the holidays: “The gaming industry upped TV ad budgets again in October, to a whopping estimated $102.3 million from $61.4 million in September,” VentureBeat’s Eleanor Semeraro reports. “PlayStation took the lead, while Xbox bulked up its budgets and newcomer Ubisoft joined the ranks. In total, 36 brands ran 149 spots over 24,300 times, generating 4.8 billion TV impressions.”
Costs to unlock heroes in Battlefront II have been slashed following massive public backlash against EA. Polygon’s Owen S. Good writes that “costs for unlocking prime playable heroes are getting a big haircut — by 75 percent … ‘Based on what we’ve seen in the trial, this amount will make earning these heroes an achievement, but one that will be accessible for all players,’ said EA DICE’s John Wasilczyk. ‘It’s a big change, and it’s one we can make quickly.’”
IRL incoming. Hulu intends to produce a Hitman series. “Hulu is partnering with Fox 21 on a Hitman show that will be executive produced by Derek Kolstad, better known as the chief architect of the John Wick movies,” Engadget’s Jon Fingas reports.
IO Interactive CEO Hakan Abrak laid out what the studio has been doing after splitting with Square Enix. Here’s a portion of what he told GamesIndustry.biz’s Matthew Handrahan: “‘We need to be free to embrace and live directly with our fans and community, and free to make fundamental decisions for the studio and our games, within our own halls.’”
IGN staffed walked out yesterday after Kallie Plagge accused former editor Vince Ingenito of sexual harassment. Kotaku’s Jason Schreier reports that “Prominent staff at the gaming site IGN say they’ve walked out today [Monday] in the wake of allegations late last week that a former editor sexually harassed two women at the company.”
Plagge posted her allegation on Twitter, which you can read here. Ingenito responded with a series of tweets, which you can find here.
Heroes of the Storm is working hard to keep players engaged. VentureBeat’s Mike Minotti spoke with game director Alan Dabiri about “new characters, the reception to Heroes 2.0, and the importance of the upcoming gameplay changes.”
Here’s a portion: “The other thing is, there’s also a lot of player expectation when you bring a hero from Overwatch. They’re used to a specific kind of experience, since the games are so similar. When you bring over…”
Mario NO! Apparently, a glitch allows Cappy to kill Mario in Super Mario Odyssey. “Twitter user DefinitivNichtSacha posted video footage – embedded below – last night of how to do it,” Eurogamer’s Tom Phillips reports. “First off, you’ll need to Capture a Piranha Plant enemy.”
A new trademark indicates another Smash Bros. game could be on the way. Dot Esports’ Adam Newell says “The trademark for Smash Bros. reveals no information on what the game could be, only showing off a logo for the game … If the Smash Bros. trademark is true then it could be one of two things; a port of the Wii U version of the game for the Switch console or a brand new Smash Bros. title.”
Oops? Call of Duty: WWII players have apparently been earning double XP since the launch of the game. PC Gamer’s Andy Chalk writes that “‘We launched with 2XP active, unintentionally. Everyone was getting 2XP since 11/3 [the COD:WWII release date] and up until we made the playlist change late Thursday night, which effectively launched 3XP,’ Condrey explained in greater detail on Reddit. ‘Come Monday, when we turn off the XP bonus, it will effectively revert to what we should have had at launch (aka 1XP). So early players, you got a huge head start.’”
Shim “Simsn” Young Hoon and Cho “Aloha” Kyung Hoon are joining KSV’s PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds team.