In The News
#TrumpGameSummit Today: We know the Entertainment Software Association’s Mike Gallagher, ZeniMax’s Robert Altman, Take Two’s Strauss Zelnick, Rep. Vicky Hartzler and Brent Bozell are attending. Sen. Marco Rubio was previously attending but his office confirmed to The Daily Walkthrough yesterday he had to cancel due to schedule changes.
Despite saying it would be released yesterday, the White House has not released the full invite list.
Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders replied to a reporter question on the meeting yesterday. You can find the quotes and clip here. Additionally, The Daily Beast’s Asawin Suebsaeng and Lachlan Markay spoke with industry leaders and multiple sources about their concerns and confusion in regard to the meeting. The International Game Developers Association (IGDA) sent out a 7-part tweet attacking the meeting.
TheDW’s Katie Frates will be discussing what happened at the meeting tonight in the 6 p.m. ET hour on Fox Business.
Move over, Microsoft. It’s the year of Nintendo. It’s “expected to have a larger share of the console market than Microsoft” in 2018, according to GamesIndustry.biz’s James Batchelor.
PopCap’s Jason Kapalka left the company to start a tabletop firm called Forbidden Games.
ESL news:
Season 7 of ESL Pro League is expanding to the “Asia-Pacific region,” Esports Insider’s Kai Wong reports. “The expansion … will include a number of countries in Southeast Asia, as well as China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Mongolia, Australia and New Zealand.”
Esports Insider’s Jacob Hale writes that “Ubisoft and ESL UK will be hosting the first ever Rainbow Six Siege ESL UK Premiership finals.”
Team Liquid’s Alienware Training Facility in Los Angeles held its grand opening yesterday.
BitGuild “aims to give the user ownership of their in-game items, allowing them to maintain their digital possessions” through blockchain technology, GamesIndustry.biz’s Haydn Taylor reports.
The city of Katowice made “an estimated advertising value of €22 million (approx. $27 million)” off of IEM Katowice 2018, The Esports Observer’s Thiemo Bräutigam reports.
No microtransactions here. That’s what God of War creative director Cory Barlog tweeted, in slightly more colorful terms.
Magic Leap has another $461 million to play with, VentureBeat’s Dean Takahashi reports. The money comes “from the Public Investment Fund, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign investment arm, and some other new investors.”
Net Neutrality was passed in Washington state, GamesIndustry.biz’s Brendan Sinclair reports. “Governor Jay Inslee … signed into law a bipartisan bill forbidding internet service providers from manipulating speed and access to content.”
Clash Royale “is set to get its own professional league later this month,” Dot Esports’ Justin Binkowski writes. “The Clash Royale League is the game’s new professional team-based league.”
If you tried to use your Oculus Rift yesterday, you may have noticed a problem. “Oculus Rift owners worldwide found that their virtual reality headset simply wouldn’t work,” Game Informer’s Imran Khan reports. “A security certificate for the software expired.”
Zynga is becoming a platinum sponsor for IGDA, Takahashi writes. “The Zynga initiative is led by Women at Zynga, whose mission is to foster an inclusive work environment that values diversity and empowers women.”
Hearthstone’s “Arena-exclusive cards … will be added in the game’s 10.4 patch, which should arrive pretty soon. But they will then be removed from the Arena when the next expansion hits, and that should be sometime in April,” Dot Esports’ Callum Leslie reports.
Call of Duty news:
Doug “Censor” Martin isn’t going to “the next major CoD World League LAN event,” Binkowski reports.
Binkowski also reports Epsilon is being replaced at 2018 CWL Atlanta Open by Lightning Pandas.
Digital Chaos picked up a Rainbow Six: Siege roster.