In The News
Loot box news:
ESRB labels now extend to “in-game purchases,” Engadget’s Mallory Locklear reports. “The ESRB will begin adding … [the] label to boxed games that have any sort of in-game purchase, including loot boxes.”
PCGamesN’s Vic Hood reports “The International Game Developers Association have called looming loot box legislation ‘censorship’ of developers’ creative and business decisions.”
Digital game sales for January hit “$8.9 billion … in January, an increase of 11 percent year over year,” AListDaily’s H.B. Duran reports. “Digital console sales grew a staggering 57 percent year over year.”
The two biggest battle royale games pulled in $200 million in January, VentureBeat’s Stephanie Chan reports. PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and Fortnite: Battle Royale “raked in more than $200 million on PC and consoles in digital revenue.”
Work together or die trying? Big Machine Games surveyed “217 respondents” and “found that 66% … felt influencers would not completely supplant traditional journalists,” GamesIndustry.biz’s Haydn Taylor reports. “There is a minority of around 15% who believe influencers are ‘a significant threat’ to games journalism.”
Congratulations to Dragon Ball FighterZ on “the most successful digital console launch of any fighting game ever,” The Esports Observer’s Trent Murray writes.
Surprise! Yakuza 6’s demo dropped yesterday, except it wasn’t just a demo — it was the full game. It has since been pulled.
Welcome FC Barcelona to esports. “The iconic Catalan football club has joined the new, and forthcoming, competition organised by eFootball.Pro and Konami,” Esports Insider’s Sam Cooke writes.
Circa Esports is shutting down, Unikrn’s Dustin Steiner reports. It will go into effect “at the end of the Evo Championship Series.”
Hearthstone’s Ice Block, Coldlight Oracle and Molten Giant are moving to the Hall of Fame.
You can also learn more about The Year of the Raven.