In The News
Lawsuits are flying in every direction between James “Phantoml0rd” Varga and Twitch. “Twitch has filed a counter-suit against a former partnered streamer banned for on-stream gambling in 2015,” GamesIndustry.biz’s Rebekah Valentine reports. “Twitch warned Varga for violations of its policy against ‘sexually suggestive content, content involving self-harm, and content involving racist symbols.’”
Facebook did a little poking around, and figured out how many people are talking about E3 2018. “81 million people around the world have posted, liked, commented, or shared something related to the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3 2018) and games over 235 million times over the last 90 days,” VentureBeat’s Dean Takahashi reports. “The No. 1 game they’re talking about is Minecraft, followed by Call of Duty, Super Mario, and The Legend of Zelda.”
Belgium may consider criminal loot box prosecution, Variety’s Elizabeth Lanier writes. “Top offenders accused of violating these standards (EA, Valve, Activision Blizzard) may soon face criminal prosecution.”
Profit news:
GamesIndustry.biz’s Matthew Handrahan reports that “Operating profit rose 30 per cent in Sega’s games business in the last fiscal year … Sega’s Entertainment Contents division earned ¥208 billion ($1.9 billion) in revenue … Operating profit was up 33 per cent to ¥14.8 billion ($135 million) year-on-year.”
Valentine reports that Konami’s “total revenue was ¥239.5 billion ($2.19 billion), up 4.2% year over year, with operating profits at ¥45.2 billion ($413 million), up 24.3%.”
The Big 12 Conference “seventh forum on the state of college athletics later this month is set to address the growth of esports on campuses,” SportTechie’s Tom Taylor writes. “The live stream, which will be on both the conference’s website and Stadium’s Twitch channel, will also feature a show match between two collegiate esports teams.”
Microsoft expanded gift giving to PC games bought through the Microsoft Store and DLC. Additionally, “all Xbox One digital games can now be gifted,” GameSpot’s Eddie Makuch reports.
Acquisition news:
Little Orbit acquired APB Reloaded and GamersFirst, VentureBeat’s Stephanie Chan reports.
The Esports Observer’s Ferguson Mitchell reports “Sin Gaming has been acquired by a new global esports organization, team MAMMOTH … Sin Gaming was previously owned by ROAM Esports.”
Kongregate opened a Montreal office.
What’s it like to be an indie developer in 2018? GamesIndustry.biz’s Haydn Taylor interviewed a few devs to get their perspectives. Here’s a snippet:
“‘The era of ‘break-out indie success’ is long dead and developers entering the market need to consider long-term strategy, distribution and funding from the get-go,’ said Table Flip Games co-founder Tommy Thompson.”
Take a stroll through Team Liquid’s brand new training facility, courtesy of The Washington Post’s Noah Smith.
Razer and Nanoleaf are partnering, according to a press release.
Williams Racing “announced it will be joining Formula 1 esports along with eight other teams for the Esports Pro Series beginning later this year,” Esports Insider’s Lydia Mitrevski writes. “With the announcement, Williams also signed drivers Javier Perez, Jani Vitsaniemi and Bernardo Perez.”