In The News
Activision Blizzard’s 10-K filing has the company acknowledging “the potential for the eight per cent workforce cull that it announced last month to have a negative impact on its business,” PC Games Insider’s Alex Calvin writes. It “also says that the cuts could be costly, lead to other employees leaving and have a negative impact on the productivity and morale of staff.”
Curious about the top 15 Steam games by player count in the last 4 years? Watch TheRanking’s “Top 15 Steam Games by Daily Player Count (2015-2018).”
Tencent has added “a digital lock system that will lock out players under the age of 13” in China, GI.biz’s Rebekah Valentine reports. “The digital lock will apply to Honour of Kings and PUBG Mobile initially across 12 Chinese cities. The lock will take effect for players 13-years-old or younger, and will require a parent or guardian to unlock the game for them to play.”
Nintendo put out statistics on its employment numbers, among other things.
Konrad Tomaszkiewicz, the director of The Witcher 3, has joined CD Projekt Red as “both vice president of game development and design director for Cyberpunk 2077,” PC Gamer’s Jody Macgregor reports.
Sony officially ended production of the PS Vita, according to Polygon’s Owen S. Good. “The company announced that the platform’s two remaining SKUs have been discontinued on the Vita’s official product page.”
Square Enix reportedly cut Left Alive streaming. “Over at Amazon Japan the game is currently sitting at a staggering low rating of 1.8 out of 5 stars,” Siliconera’s Sato reports. “In the above notice that was shared by a streamer named fei, it states that the application is not authorized when trying to stream the game through YouTube.”
NBC Bay Area will start showing Street Fighter V, Esports Insider’s Thomas Lace reports. “The cable station has partnered up with Esports Arena and Capcom Media Ventures to announce Saturday Fight Night Live.”
KOTOR 2’s Chris Avellone tweeted he’s working with Respawn on Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.
Joshua Boggs opened a new studio called MayDay.
Konami’s Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Links surpassed 90 million combined PC and mobile downloads.
Twitch Statistics:
What content topped the Twitch charts for February? Apex Legends came in 1st at 101.92 million hours watched, TEO reports. Apex was followed by League of Legends, Fortnite and Just Chatting.
Which channels topped the Twitch charts for February? Esl_csgo came in 1st at 16.34 million hours watched, TEO reports. ESL was followed by Shroud, Riotgames and Overwatchleague.
Interviews: Magic Leap’s Rony Abovitz (VentureBeat), Jon Shafer (VentureBeat).
Extra Esports News:
Congratulations Roger on winning HCT Winter Championship 2018! He defeated Bunnyhoppor to take home $50,000. Jing came in 3rd and bloodyface in 4th.
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred commented on its lack of esports, “but pledged more developments in the space this year,” TEO’s Eric Fisher writes. “‘It is a real priority for us going forward. It’s tough to say more than this, but I’m pretty confident, in 2019, we’re going to have a really nice announcement in that space.’”
Partnerships:
Team Flash and Singapore Sports Hub are partnering, Esports Insider’s Joe Wong writes. “They will be working together to build an esports training facility integrated on the grounds with the hopes that this will bolster their chances for Singapore’s participation in the upcoming 2019 SEA Games and the 2022 Asian Games.”
Newbee is partnering with Li-Ning and Bank of Shanghai, Lace reports. “The two deals with Li-Ning and Bank of Shanghai will see a host of new products become available to fans across the globe.”
Konami and J.League are partnering to host a tournament, Wong reports. “The tournament will take place on July 14th-15th and will feature Konami’s football franchise, Pro Evolution Soccer (PES).”
IN: Spacestation Gaming signed Wumbotize for Tetris 99.
Interviews: Sparks’ Christie St. Martin (TEO).
Happy weekend birthdays Lasse Aukusti “MATUMBAMAN” Urpalainen and Kasper “Pwndx” Nielsen!