In The News
Adweek would like you to know that “Any Brand Not Marketing in the Esports World Is Already Behind the Curve.”
Financials:
SuperData Research is out with the “Worldwide digital games market: January 2019” report. In it, SuperData notes that “worldwide digital game spending declined on Console, PC and Mobile in January” and “Fortnite revenue on all platforms combined declined 48% month-over-month in January, although sales are still up significantly year-over-year.”
Tencent and NetEase reported strong “overseas mobile revenue” for last year, GI.biz’s James Batchelor reports. “Combined non-China takings from the App Store and Google Play for the two publishers amounted to $472 million in 2018 — that’s a 505% improvement on the $78 million taken the year before.”
Congratulations (?) to Activision Blizzard’s Bobby Kotick and EA’s Andrew Wilson on making As You Sow’s “100 Most Overpaid CEOs 2019.”
The FTC “plans to host a public workshop later this year on the issue of loot boxes in video games,” Variety’s Brian Crecente writes. “The existence of an FTC investigation, the identity of those involved and the findings are all considered not public information.”
King sat on top for ad impressions from Jan. 16 to Feb. 15, VentureBeat’s Eleanor Semeraro writes. “18 brands spent an estimated $34 million on 50 spots that ran over 11,500 times. King takes first place with over a quarter of all gaming industry impressions. The company ran five commercials over 2,900 times, generating 603.2 million impressions.”
HoloLens:
Check out the “Microsoft HoloLens 2.”
Epic Games said the HoloLens will receive Unreal Engine 4 support.
Microsoft employees are not happy about the company’s HoloLens contract with the army. “A group of Microsoft workers, calling themselves ‘Microsoft Workers 4 Good’ has released an open letter addressed to Microsoft executives Brad Smith (its chief legal officer) and Satya Nadella (its CEO), demanding they cancel the contract,” Game Informer’s Suriel Vazquez reports.
Firemonkeys laid off “between 40 and 50” employees as the studio shifts its focus to The Sims Mobile, Variety’s Emily Gera reports.
Jeon Byeong-heon, the former chairman of KeSPA, “has been sentenced to five years imprisonment by the South Korean court. Jeon, who took the position of KeSPA chairman in 2013, was indicted on bribery, embezzlement and corruption charges,” VPEsports’ Radoslav “Nydra” Kolev reports.
IN: Oleg Savschouk and Phillip Knust are Goodgame Studios‘ new CEO and CPO, respectively.
Otto Bathurst has joined the Halo TV show as director.
OUT: Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime is retiring. He will be replaced by Doug Bowser.
Avalanche Studios’ Christofer Sundberg is leaving at the end of April.
Interviews: Magic Leap’s Rony Abovitz (VentureBeat).
Extra Esports News:
Congratulations:
Team Secret on winning ESL One Katowice! They defeated Gambit Esports to take home $125,000. OG came in 3rd and Fnatic in 4th.
Team Liquid on winning MDL Macau 2019! They defeated Evil Geniuses to take home $135,000. Virtus.pro came in 3rd and Newbee in 4th.
Partnerships:
Comcast Spectacor and SK Telecom are partnering, TEO’s Trent Murray reports. “SK Telecom and Comcast Spectacor will create a joint esports venture to be named T1 Entertainment & Sports. The new organization will include the SK Telecom T1 League of Legends team, and will compete in a variety of games including Apex Legends.”
Republic of Gamers and ESL One are partnering, Esports Insider’s Thomas Lace reports. “ROG will be the official PC and monitor provider for all ESL One events in 2019.”
Sprint and Hatch Entertainment are partnering, VentureBeat’s Dean Takahashi reports. They plan to “offer mobile cloud gaming services on Sprint’s 5G network in the U.S.”
Team Liquid and Twitch are partnering, according to a press release.
Major League Soccer and Twitch signed a 1-year partnership, Esports Insider’s Joe Wong reports. “Starting next month, MLS will start streaming the second season of their eMLS Cup, their esports league in conjunction with EA Sports’ FIFA franchise.”
Ekstraklasa launched a FIFA League in partnership with EA, TEO’s Ferguson Mitchell writes. “This league will be a part of EA Sports’ Global Series and will award qualifying points to the game’s global championship, the FIFA eWorld Cup.”
Gambit Esports and Tornado Energy are partnering, Lace writes.
Magic Gaming and GT Omega Racing are partnering, Wong reports.
Frostbite 2019 and Nintendo of America are partnering, according to a tweet.
Twitch posted about a “Partner and Affiliate Emote Update.”
IN: MLG co-founder Mike Sepso joined 100 Thieves’ board of directors.
Robert “RobbieB” Brugnoli is replacing Ethan “FA5TBALLA” Wedgeworth on Excelerate’s CoD team.
PVPX joined Cloud9’s Apex Legends team.
Interviews: Team Liquid’s Steve Arhancet (Dexerto) and Schalke 04 Esports’ Tim Reichert (TEO).
Happy weekend birthdays Tobias “ShoWTimE” Sieber, Jang “Creator” Hyun Woo, Jo “Patience” Ji Hyun and Adrian “Fata” Trinks!