“Don’t get any funny ideas.”
IN THE NEWS
Genyo Takeda is retiring from Nintendo after 45 years with the company. Takeda has been an integral part of Nintendo for the almost half-century he has been there. Venture Beat’s Dean Takahashi reports that he “developed the analog stick controller for the Nintendo 64 console, and he led the development of the Wii.”
Speaking of Nintendo, it’s predicting its highest profits in six years thanks to massive sales with the Nintendo Switch and Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
Esports startups have a new investor. BITKRAFT Esports Ventures, according to Dot Esports’ Thiemo Brautigam, is creating a multi-million dollar fund “to pour money into early stage esports companies.”
Sick of cords but worried about reliability? Razer is releasing two new wireless mice for $140 and $80 it claims are good enough for competitive play. Venture Beat’s Jeff Grubb reports that “The Lancehead is not an entirely new redesign of the mouse for Razer. The company is using its popular (and excellent) DeathAdder Elite as a reference point.”
Disabilities don’t stop these gamers from doing what they love. AbleGamers, according to Polygon’s Charlie Hall, has opened a new facility in Charles Town, W.V.
“The new facility will greatly increase the number of people with disabilities that it can reach. It will provide the non-profit with space to offer free, one-on-one consultations, live demonstrations of adaptive technologies and customization of gaming peripherals to meet diverse needs,” Hall reports.
LEAGUE LAND
Origen lost another 2 players, taking its roster down to just 1, Dot Esports’ Aaron Mickunas writes. Mid lane’s Yoo “NaeHyun” Nae-hyun and Jungle’s Jacob “Cinkrof” Rokicki departed Wednesday. On top of that, Origen’s coach, Titus “LeDuck” Hafner, isn’t renewing his contract.
The Spanish team has had some trouble as of late. Mickunas reports that “Origen were just fined nearly $11,000 for breaching German employment laws, including failure to establish proper payment structures.”
Mid-Season Invitational 2017‘s play-in stage starts today.
OVER/UNDER WATCH
Competitive Play: On Assault and Assault/Escort Maps, teams now need to capture at least 33% of the objective before the tie-breaking system is activated.
Bug fixes range from environment tweaks to game crashing to payload issues.
TaKeTV is bringing Overwatch LAN back to Europe. Dot Esports’ Nicole Carpenter reports that “TaKeTV will host the Overwatch TaKeOver 2 in Krefeld, Germany from June 1 to 4.”
Six teams will compete in the tournament, which has a $50,000 prize pool. First place takes home $25,000, second $12,500, third $8,500 and fourth $4,000. You can watch the tournament on TaKeTV’s Twitch, or for those in Europe, there are tickets available to purchase for between 6,33 € – 135,05 €.
Team EnVyUs has released its APEX Season 3 roster poster.
DOTA-THON
Reddit has compiled statistics to dig through as the Kiev Major 2017 continues.
Team Liquid took down Newbee Wednesday in the Kiev Major. “Following a disappointing sixth place finish in the tournament’s group stage, Liquid successfully came back to win their first game of the Kiev Major playoffs, defeating Newbee 2-1,” Sam Nordmark at Dot Esports reports. He has a full game-by-game breakdown of the match.
Matches of the day: OG vs. Random, Thunderbirds vs. Evil Geniuses and Team Secret vs. SG e-sports.
UPCOMING RELEASES
Prey Demo: Opening Hour is now available on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, but not PC. The full game comes out May 5 on all 3 platforms.
The hour-long free demo has “You play as scientist Morgan Yu at Talos I, a research facility floating in space,” Polygon’s Samit Sarkar reports. “Mysterious alien creatures are killing any humans on board the space station, and Morgan has to be the one to stop them from reaching Earth.”
The Holocaust will be a part of Call of Duty: WWII, Mashable’s Adam Rosenberg reports. “We didn’t want to shy away from history. We wanted to be very respectful of it,” senior creative director Bret Robbins said during a recent interview,” Rosenberg writes. “We absolutely show atrocities,” Robbins said. “It’s an unfortunate part of the history, but … you can’t tell an authentic, truthful story without going there. So we went there.”
UPCOMING EVENTS
GamesBeat Summit 2017 starts in 3 days in Berkeley, Calif., May 1-2.
HavenCon 2017 kicks off today in Austin, Texas.
PlayStation DevCon 2017 starts May 2 in Coronado, Calif.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Vulpix, Jigglypuff, Psyduck and Cubone have their own figurines. The Pokemon Company released all 4 in its “second wave” of collectibles, according to Kotaku’s Mike Fahey. They initially started the line in February to celebrate 25 years of Pokemon. You can buy them each for $16.99.
PlayStation and Xbox have released their free games for May.
Tales from the Borderlands, PS4
Abzu, PS4 (US Only)
Alienation, PS$ (EU Only)
Blood Knights, PS3
Port Royale 3: Pirates and Merchants, PS3
Laser Disco Defenders, PS Vita (Cross Buy with PS4)
Type:Rider, PS Vita (Cross Buy on PS4)
Xbox:
Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams – Director’s Cut, Xbox One
Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris, Xbox One
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II, Xbox 360 & Xbox One
LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga, Xbox 360 & Xbox One
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