In The News
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Skillz secured $25 million in funding “for its mobile esports platform,” VentureBeat’s Dean Takahashi reports. “The San Francisco startup provides a platform to turn any mobile game on iOS and Android into a game you can play with friends or strangers for cash, prizes, or points.”
Nintendo has sold over 10 million Nintendo Switchs, Engadget’s Timothy J. Seppala reports. “By comparison, Sony’s PlayStation 4 took around ten months to hit that number back in 2014.”
The Game Awards’ viewership was up some 202 percent this year, Polygon’s Allegra Frank reports. “This year saw more than 11.5 million individual streams of The Game Awards 2017, according to Keighley and his crew … ‘It was a great year for games, we had a record number of viewer votes that drove awareness (8 million leading into the show), and we also added some interactive elements/incentives to a number of the streams that drove a lot of engagement.’”
Nintendo, Gungho and Tencent are reportedly in talks to partner and increase Nintendo’s mobile games. “The company wants to increase its mobile output beyond the titles it is releasing via partner DeNA, which Nintendo owns a 10% stake in,” Christopher Dring at GamesIndustry.biz writes.
The United Kingdom’s Gambling Commission “has actually found that British kids are placing bets on in-game items like weapon skins,” GamesIndustry.biz’s James Brightman writes. “This so-called ‘skins gambling’ has affected a little over 1 in 10 UK kids between the ages of 11 and 16.”
Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery is an upcoming mobile game by Warner Bros. and Jam City. AListDaily’s Steven Wong spoke with Jam City president Josh Yguado about what to expect.
“‘Warner Bros. has some incredible studios focused on mid-core and core mobile game mechanics,’ Yguado told AListDaily. ‘You need a true love for a brand like [Harry Potter] to be successful. After that, it’s just communicating with that same perspective and having respect for the fans.’”
A Series A funding round yielded Manticore Games $15 million, GamesIndustry.biz’s Matthew Handrahan reports.
Hearthstone designer Dean Ayala spoke with GameSpot’s Edmond Tran about the new Kobolds and Catacombs expansion and more. Here’s a snippet: “‘Once we got over that hurdle, we actually ended up hiring an adventure team. There were three…’”
Hearthstone Championship Tour details are out. Read them here.
Community manager Keganbe posted on the forums yesterday about “Deathstalker Rexxar’s Hero Power.”
BioWare picked Mass Effect over Knights of the Old Republic 2 because “‘you need to own your own IP, and we didn’t own Dungeons & Dragons or Star Wars. Mass Effect was something we decided we had to do instead of another Star Wars game,’” according to Eurogamer’s Robert Purchese.
The Cleveland Cavaliers’ esports team will be called The Cavs Legion Gaming Club.
Mavs Gaming is the name of the new Dallas, Texas esports team, they announced on Twitter.
Twitch and the NBA put out a press release early Wednesday announcing a partnership to stream NBA G League. “During the 2017-18 regular season, basketball fans can expect up to six NBA G League games to stream live on Twitch each week at twitch.tv/nbagleague. After each live broadcast, these games will be available on demand,” the press release reads.