In The News
PSA: There will be no newsletter Friday as I will be hosting CWL Las Vegas over the weekend.
Epic Games:
Is launching a rival to Valve’s Steam that only takes a 12% revenue cut: Epic Games Store. “The store will launch with a hand-curated set of games on PC and Mac, then it will open up more broadly to other games and to Android and other open platforms throughout 2019,” the press release reads. Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney did an interview with Game Informer’s Matt Bertz about the store.
Unreal Tournament “‘isn’t actively developed,’” Sweeney told Variety’s Brian Crecente.
Steam is up with a blog piece titled “About Store Traffic to Games in October.”
Revenue:
App Annie predicts “console revenues will finally see a proper threat from mobile in 2019 as mobile hits a 60% share of the overall gaming market,” GI.biz’s Rebekah Valentine reports.
Disney Magic Kingdoms is killing the mobile game, VentureBeat’s Mike Minotti reports. It “has made over $114 million revenue. It has also reached over 70 million downloads since its launch in 2016.”
Partnerships:
Emerge Gaming and Cloudzen are partnering, according to a press release. “GameCloud provides gamers with a one stop portal for instant access to hundreds of AAA rated 3D graphic games and live streaming on mobile devices without having to download the game or any further hardware requirements.”
Super Evil Megacorp and NetEase are partnering to launch Vainglory in China.
Mike “Shroud” Grzesiek and Madrinas Coffee “have collaborated on new Shroud Insane Cappuccino cans of cold brew,” TEO’s Max Miceli reports.
Zeuz raised “€3 million, in a funding round featuring contributions from Vito Ventures and Holtzbrinck Ventures,” GI.biz’s Matthew Handrahan reports.
Dead By Daylight’s Charity Case “donated half a million dollars so far to mental health research,” according to a blog post.
Scumbag Kareem Hunt has been removed from Madden NFL 19 after the former Chiefs running back was caught on camera assaulting a woman, TMZ reports.
Ubisoft Club points can now expire, Eurogamer’s Matt Wales reports. “Ubisoft has announced major changes to its Ubisoft Club rewards scheme, which will see the introduction an expiration date for all points accrued, starting next April.”
Players’ Lounge – Sponsored News:
Players’ Lounge redesigned its product, resulting in a 25% increase in week-over-week matches played for four weeks running.
Investors continue to assault our inboxes. Including a few billionaires. We’re holding strong.
Players’ Lounge is hiring a Senior Vice President of Engineering! Know a brilliant, competitive senior developer with PHP and AAA/F2P development experience? Slide into our DMs.
Extra Esports News:
Hearthstone posted “Rastakhan’s Rumble: Ticket to Greatness Part 5 | Hearthstone.”
Interviews: Supercell Head of Esports Tim Ebner (TEO).