In The News
Magic Leap finally showed off some tech. “After several years of rumors and $1.9 billion in funding, the Florida company unveiled its Magic Leap One AR goggles for the first time,” VentureBeat’s Dean Takahashi reports. “Magic Leap said its ‘creator edition’ will be available in early 2018 with a software development kit (SDK) that will enable developers to get started on applications.”
Takahashi also interviewed CEO Rony Abovitz. Here’s a portion: “At a high level we decided to minimize weight on your head as much as possible. We wanted to maximize compute power. We ended up…”
Tax reform passed the House and Senate and will head to President Donald Trump’s desk. The Entertainment Software Association said “‘It is also important that this reform benefit our industry’s 220,000 employees and millions of customers, and put our nation on a path to long-term economic prosperity,” GamesIndustry.biz’s Brendan Sinclair reports.
Steam Award 2017 nominees have been announced. Nominees include The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and Team Fortress 2.
Sales news:
Call of Duty: WWII “global sales have amounted to more than $1 billion already,” GameSpot’s Eddie Makuch reports.
2017 is Rocket League’s “‘best year yet’” according to Psyonix, Glixel’s Stefanie Fogel writes. “Rocket League is currently number one on the Nintendo eShop’s bestseller list.”
Cuphead sold “over two million units since its launch at the tail end of September,” Haydn Taylor at GamesIndustry.biz reports. On the Cuphead topic, Apple will refund anyone who purchased a fake copy of the game recently taken down from the App Store, Pocket Gamer’s Emily Sowden writes.
Ever wonder what drop rates are for Hearthstone packs? Apple may force Blizzard to tell you, Dot Esports’ Callum Leslie reports. “New Apple App Store rules could force Blizzard to disclose the drop rates for Hearthstone packs before players purchase them.”
Collegiate esports news:
Welcome University of Akron’s new program! “The new program will be housed in a “state of the art” esports arena,” Unikrn’s Dustin Steiner reports.
The State University of New York at Canton also announced campus improvements for esports, ESPN’s Sean Morrison reports.
“By the end of 2017 the European esports market will have generated $209 million from media rights, sponsorships, advertising, merchandising, and event tickets,” The Esports Observer’s Angelos Anastasopoulos reports. “This makes the region the second biggest esports market, after North America.”