In The News
Weekend in Review:
Valve updated Steam’s Distribution Agreement to be more favorable to developers, Engadget’s Jon Fingas writes. “Any game that has earned over $10 million on Steam since October 1st, 2018 will provide developers a 75 percent cut of future revenue rather than the usual 70 percent. If they make at least $50 million, they’ll take home 80 percent on any subsequent earnings.”
Third fiscal quarter spending on games “in the U.S. increased 24% to $9.1 billion,” Variety’s Stefanie Fogel reports. “Video game content sales increased 25% to $7.9 billion, the company said. That includes full games, DLC, microtransactions, subscriptions, and mobile. Mobile games and digital content for console and portable platforms experienced the most growth.”
Xbox gaming revenue “exceeded $10 billion in fiscal 2018 (which ended Jun. 30), and Xbox Live had more than 57 million monthly active users,” Fogel reports.
PlayStation held a “third of all industry TV ad impressions” in the last 30 days, VentureBeat’s Caroline Batoff writes. “Overall TV ad impressions increased again for the gaming industry, up by over a billion impressions to nearly 4.5 billion from the previous period’s 3.2 billion, with 29 brands spending an estimated $78 million on 98 commercials that ran over 18,900 times.”
Starbreeze is filing for reconstruction in an attempt to stave off bankruptcy and its CEO, Bo Andersson Klint, is stepping down, it announced Monday. Read the statement here. Starbreeze also cut the price of Overkill’s The Walking Dead by 50% due to poor sales performance.
Jam City laid off “a large number of employees” according to an anonymous source speaking with Takahashi. “The company declined to say how many people were laid off.”
Playtika acquired Wooga for “more than $100 million,” according to VentureBeat’s Dean Takahashi.
Rockstar Games and Barking Irons “have partnered for a limited-edition collection of clothing and accessories inspired by Red Dead Redemption 2,” AListDaily’s H.B. Duran reports.
Blizzard community manager Nevalistis posted on the forums that there will be “plans for Diablo across multiple projects which we’ll be revealing over the course of the coming year.”
Stardew Valley developer Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone announced he’ll be self-publishing the game on PC, Xbox One, PS4 and PS Vita.
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Extra Esports News:
If you’re not sure what all the drama is about with Dota 2’s Chongqing Major, CNET’s Aloysius Low has a rundown.
GAME is rebranding Multiplay to Player1 Events, Esports News UK reports.
Call of Duty:
ASUS is CWL’s 2019 monitor partner.
IN: John “Revan” Boble joined Evil Geniuses’ Call of Duty team as their coach.
Partnerships:
SK Gaming and INTERSPORT are partnering “for the creation of a new jersey and a number of other activations,” TEO’s Freguson Mitchell reports.
Limit and GNC are partnering, Esports Insider’s David Hollingsworth reports.
ENCE eSports and Samsung are partnering, according to a press release.
Happy weekend birthdays Dob “Quackniix” Engström and Bakyt “Zayac” Emilzhanov!