In The News
Update on the President Trump/video game industry meeting: The Daily Walkthrough learned there will be a confirmed 2 p.m. ET meeting Thursday with the Entertainment Software Association.
Former GameStop CEO J. Paul Raines has passed away from cancer.
Germany’s Soccer Association president, Reinhard Grindel, is not on the esports bandwagon. “Giving esports an ‘Olympic perspective,’ as the next government plans to do, is ‘absurd,’ he said and went on to say: ‘I hope that doesn’t happen,’” The Esports Observer’s Thiemo Bräutigam reports.
“The Oculus Rift has overtaken the HTC Vive on the monthly Steam hardware survey,” VentureBeat’s Jamie Feltham reports. “February saw Oculus step past HTC; Rift took 47.31 percent of the total hardware use, and Vive fell to 45.38 percent.”
Rainbow Six: Siege is implementing a new system to track “how often players are reported using hate speech and issues bans accordingly, ranging from 2 days for the lightest uses to a permanent ban,” Engadget’s Jon Fingas writes.
Inside Xbox “is making a surprise return later this week, with a new livestreaming format to reach as wide an audience as possible,” GamesIndustry.biz’s James Batchelor reports. The first episode is March 10.
Partnership news:
Esports Insider’s Adam Fitch reports Three Ireland’s Estars and Lucozade Energy are partnering.
The Esports Observer’s Ben Palmer-Wilson writes that “AS Monaco, the Monégasque soccer team … has announced a partnership with Kinguin.”
Esports Insider’s Jacob Hale reports that OMEN by HP will be exceL Esports’ “headline sponsor.”
FilmRise “has acquired distribution rights to Gamechangers: Dreams of Blizzcon, a feature documentary by John Keating,” Palmer-Wilson reports. It’s a 91-minute film.
Call of Duty caster Jack “Courage” Dunlop said on Twitter his casting career isn’t over, “It’s just no longer my full-time job.”