In The News
Weekend in review
Excited for the winter Olympics? Get more hyped, because Intel® Extreme Masters PyeongChang esports tournament featuring StarCraft II will be held beforehand. “As an extension of Intel’s Worldwide TOP Partnership and with support from the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Intel will deliver two distinct gaming experiences to Korea,” the press release reads. “Intel will also deliver interactive gaming experiences throughout the Olympic Village for attendees and athletes.”
Monster Hunter World producer Ryozo Tsujimoto weighed in on loot boxes, telling GameSpot’s Justin Haywald that “‘I think that Monster Hunter has already built that kind of randomized, item reward into the gameplay’ … He explained that it just felt like Monster Hunter World doesn’t need that kind of system. ‘You’ve already kind of got loot as a core gameplay aspect without having to shove a microtransaction version of it in.’”
Runic Games is no more. “China-based publisher Perfect World Entertainment — which acquired a majority stake in Runic in May 2010 — told Polygon in a statement that it has decided to close the studio ‘as part of [Perfect World]’s continued strategy to focus on online games as a service,’” Polygon’s Julia Alexander reports.
Deezer, a music streaming service, has partnered with Fnatic “to promote the brand [Fnatic] to its global esports fan base,” AListDaily’s John Gaudiosi reports. “It’s the inaugural esports marketing initiative for the music company. Deezer has more than 12 million active users in 185 countries around the world, offering access to over 43 million tracks.”
BlizzCon 2017 news:
World of Warcraft’s next expansion is called “Battle for Azeroth.”
WoW is also getting a classic server option.
StarCraft II’s Wings of Liberty campaign becomes free to play Nov. 14.
Hearthstone’s next expansion is called “Kobolds and Catacombs” and Arena mode will get exclusive cards in an upcoming patch.
Blizzard won a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records for an enormous WoW diorama.
PUBG Corp is attempting to placate players’ growing ire at cheating. “‘First of all, we would like to sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused by the cheaters and we are sorry that you have not been able to enjoy PUBG in a safe and fair environment,’” Dot Esports’ Scott Duwe reports the blog post as saying. “This is the second apology that PUBG Corp has issued in a month, with the first one being for the game’s shoddy server performance due to the game’s budding popularity.”
Turn in your PlayStation trophies for a little bit of cash. Kotaku’s Ethan Gach reports that “A new section of the Rewards Passes page over at the Sony Rewards website that appeared late week lists silver, gold and platinum trophies as milestones you can fulfill to earn points. Those points can in turn be redeemed for actual money on PSN.”
Hardware dragged down Microsoft’s gaming revenue, according to GamesIndustry.biz’s Haydn Taylor. “While overall Microsoft revenue reached $24.5 billion, a year-on-year increase of 12%, gaming revenue was up by only 1% (0% in constant currency) … Company-wide net income was $6.6 billion, a year-on-year increase of 16%.”
Capcom released “results for the first half of the fiscal year … Net sales for the six months ended September 30th are up 17.6% year-on-year to ¥33.7bn ($295m). Operating income rose 191.5% to ¥5bn ($43.79m),” GamesIndustry.biz’s James Batchelor reports. “The Digital Contents business, which encompasses video games and mobile titles, was the biggest revenue driver.”
Looks like Call of Duty: WWII is having a strong start in the United Kingdom — and devouring Infinite Warfare sales. “WW2 launch sales were up by an impressive 57 per cent on 2016’s unloved space-based installment Infinite Warfare,” Eurogamer’s Tom Phillips writes.
Microsoft Studios’ Shannon Loftis is confident in what they have to offer for the rapidly approaching launch of the Xbox One X. “‘We do have more coming; more that are in the works that we’re not talking about now. But I feel good about what we have to offer for the launch,’” she told GameSpot’s Eddie Makuch.