In The News
Game designer Hidenori Shibao has passed away, Gamasutra’s Alex Wawro writes. He’s “best known in the game industry for writing and directing the RPG Paladin’s Quest and its sequel for the Super Nintendo.”
One is dead after a shooting at YouTube’s headquarters yesterday in San Bruno, Game Informer’s Kyle Hilliard reports. “There was a single fatality, believed to be the shooter, who died of a self-inflicted gunshot … A Zuckerberg Hospital spokesperson told THR that there have been ‘a number of patients with gunshot wounds.’”
Sportsradar’s James Watson is out after “an internal review” based on allegations from Unikrn CEO Rahul Sood. Esports Insider’s Sam Cooke reports that “these allegations related to James’ activities on Unikrn’s own esports betting platform, and the company’s channel on Discord, the communication platform for gamers.”
Zorine ‘harli’ Te announced on Twitter that “Esports Network laid off its staff today, myself included.”
Almost $14 million later and Future Publishing now owns Newbay Media. “The deal includes an initial $12.25 million in cash and $1.55 million in shares, with a further potential deferred consideration of up to $5.6 million in January 2019,” GamesIndustry.biz’s Christopher Dring reports.
Fundraising news:
VentureBeat’s Dean Takahashi reports Genvid Technologies “has raised $6 million in a funding round led by Makers Fund.”
Takahashi also reports that “Makers Fund has raised $200 million for a venture capital fund focused on the global interactive entertainment industry.”
In the Twitch streaming world, MOBAs dominate, according to GamesIndustry.biz’s Haydn Taylor. “MOBAs were by far the most popular by far with a total 241,930 active streaming accounts … First-person shooters were the second most popular on the platform with 82,813 streamers … PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds was the third most popular game overall with only 52,053 active accounts.”
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds news:
Keyboard and mouse begone? PUBG is looking into removing support on console to even the playing field, IGN’s Shabana Arif writes. “PUBG’s community coordinator Dan ‘RoboDanjal’ tweeted that they have been ‘gathering in-game information regarding third party device usage over the past few months.’”
The PUBG developer API is now available. Get your key here.
Tsk tsk kids, it’s time to learn. Epic added a message to mobile Fortnite reminding Mr. Hillman’s (a U.S. teacher) students not to play in class, Eurogamer’s Matt Wales reports.
Dell and Intel are partnering with NBA 2K League, The Esports Observer’s Eric Fisher reports. The deals “will see the technology giants gain entitlements to the forthcoming esports league and see their products in use in competition.”
Giants Gaming changed their name to Vodafone Giants following a partnership deal with Vodafone, Inven Global’s Guilherme Meyer reports.
Elliot Bastien “Ally” Carroza-Oyarce is no longer with Cloud9. He formerly played Smash Bros. for Wii U with the team.