In The News
Disclaimer: Katie Bedford works with Major League Gaming, parent company Activision Blizzard, as a host for Call of Duty: World League.
Twitch partner and Hi-Rez Studios employee Thomas “Elvine” Cheung, 32, has been arrested in a 21-person child sex sting. “The arrests, first reported by NBC-affiliate WXIA-TV, were the culmination of a five-day operation called ‘Operation Interception,’” Dot Esports’ Xing Li writes. “The task force used popular dating apps to identify 20 suspects who they say were willing to have sex with children.”
His Twitch channel has been removed. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s press release can be found here.
Earnings:
Sony’s stock took a tumble of 8.1 percent, “the highest decline since 2015 for the company,” over its earnings report, Game Informer’s Imran Khan reports. “The real concern was centered around the gaming division and its sales growth. While the PS4 continues to do extremely well, its growth over previous years is not high.”
Sega Sammy “posted a year-on-year decline in both revenue and profit in its consolidated Q3 financial report,” GI.biz’s Haydn Taylor reports. “Company-wide revenue declined by 6.8% year-on-year to $2.27 billion for the nine months ending December 31, 2018.”
Human: Fall Flat hit 5 million units sold.
Respawn’s Apex Legends came out yesterday and blasted past 1 million players in its first eight hours.
Andrzej Sapkowski, creator of The Witcher, will receive additional compensation from CD Projekt Red after complaining about a contract he was originally fine with signing, Wccftech’s Francesco De Meo writes.
Valve issued 930,456 VAC bans and 784,124 Game bans in January.
Interviews: Respawn’s Mackey McCandlish (VentureBeat), Respawn’s Vince Zampella (VentureBeat), Respawn’s Drew McCoy (Eurogamer), The Division 2’s Julian Gerighty (VentureBeat), 343 Industries’ Justin Robey (GameSpot).
Extra Esports News:
We Are Nations received funding from Esports Ventures LLC, Esports Insider’s Adam Fitch reports. “It’s looking to undergo a Series A funding round in 2020.”
Sports Information Services “revealed that it will use ICE London to reveal its new esports betting product, ‘SIS Competitive Gaming,’” Esports Insider’s Oliver Ring reports.
Partnerships:
Topgolf and Super League Gaming are partnering “to bring amateur competitive video game events to Topgolf venues across the country,” VentureBeat’s Dean Takahashi reports.
Hertha BSC and Deutsche Bahn are expanding their partnership, Fitch reports.
Sprout and paysafecard are partnering, Fitch writes. “There’s no word on the details of the partnership at the type of writing, though Sprout has paysafecard’s logo present on its social media channels.”
Happy birthday Jason “Mew2King” Zimmerman!