In The News
PandaTV is preparing to file for bankruptcy and will allegedly “shut down on March 18 after multiple reports of financial struggles,” Dot Esports’ Andrew Amos reports. “Claiming to have 80 million monthly users back in May 2017, the streaming service has declined to just 16.8 million users as of January 2019.”
Nintendo:
Nintendo announced a VR kit for the Nintendo Switch. “Labo VR will go on sale April 12th in a few different packages: a $40 Starter Set + Blaster that you can grow with two $20 Expansion sets adding either a Camera & Elephant or Bird & Wind Petal, or as a complete $80 VR Kit with everything included from the start,” Engadget’s Mat Smith writes.
Nintendo would like mobile gamers playing its games to not spend too much, The Wall Street Journal’s Takashi Mochizuki writes. “‘Nintendo is not interested in making a large amount of revenue from a single smartphone game. If we managed the game alone, we would have made a lot more,’” Cygames told Mochizuki.
Gillette and Twitch are partnering “to form the Gillette Gaming Alliance, a team of 11 streamers from 11 different countries, to represent the shaving and razor brand, and to produce content for fans,” Dot Esports’ Rachel Samples reports. “The Alliance will support a ‘Bits for Blades’ campaign where fans can earn Twitch Bits by purchasing select Gillette products through Amazon.”
Investment:
GFR Fund raised “$20 million to launch its second fund, GFR Fund II, with a focus on technology startups disrupting the digital entertainment sector,” VentureBeat’s Dean Takahashi reports.
Hadean raised “a new funding round to the tune of £7 million. The London-based firm has created a cloud-first operating system, HadeanOS, which essentially treats entire data-centres as a single computer,” GI.biz’s James Batchelor reports.
Gismart introduced an investment program “for independent developers. Gismart will be offering an investment of up to $1 million to selected mobile developers, with an interest in hyper-casual games, music, entertainment, education, health and more,” GI.biz’s Haydn Taylor writes.
Valve blocked the visual novel game Rape Day and put up a blog post explaining its reasoning.
PlayStation 4s will now sync with iOS devices and they can use the Remote Play app.
Extra Esports News:
Full Sail University unveiled a “$6 million, 11,200-square-foot Fortress Sports Arena, a customizable space equipped with high-tech monitors and video production equipment,” Orlando Sentinel’s Marco Santana reports. It opens in May.
ELEAGUE and Psyonix are hosting “a Collegiate Rocket League tournament at the NCAA Final Four Fan Fest in Minneapolis in April. TBS will broadcast a tournament recap show on Friday, April 12,” TEO’s Andrew Hayward writes.
The Internet Association in China is establishing “an ‘Esports Work Council’ in order to reinforce and standardize the esports industry in the country,” TEO’s Hongyu Chen reports.
EVOS Esports closed a “Series A funding round after raising $3.8M USD. The identity of investors are yet to be revealed, only that one is a ‘prominent’ Singapore VC,” TEO’s Dane Weeden writes.
Partnerships:
Bucks Gaming and Smash ‘N’ Splash are partnering again for a Super Smash Bros. tournament, TEO’s Trent Murray reports. “Bucks Gaming will have a presence at the event, and will also organize a meet and greet with Chikamoto.”
Werder eSPORTS and AOK Bremen are partnering, Esports Insider’s Adam Fitch reports.
CWL Rostermania information can be found here.
Interviews: Magic: the Gathering’s Bear Schmiedicker (TEO).