In The News
Weekend in Review:
So many leaks today! “A Dutch commentator who does work for FIFA may have slipped that the [UEFA for the Champions League and Europa League] licenses have been added to FIFA 19,” Game Informer’s Matthew Kato writes. ” (Find the rest of the leaks in the Overwatch and Releases sections).
GameStop CEO Michael Mauler resigned his position after 3 months, VentureBeat’s Jeff Grubb reports. Daniel DeMatteo is the new interim CEO. “Mauler is leaving for unspecified ‘personal reasons.’”
Hug it out? No? YouTuber Alinity is no fan of PewDiePie, Dexerto’s Mike Kent reports. She claimed “live on stream that she’s wanted to copyright strike PewDiePie for calling her a ‘Twitch Thot’ in one of his videos, which is a common insult for streamers who people believe exploit their body for views.”
PlayStation continues to be king of TV ad spend, VentureBeat’s Eleanor Semeraro writes. For March to April, “PlayStation was on top, accounting for nearly two-thirds of the industry’s total outlay. It spent an estimated $20.5 million on airing 16 spots that ran over 2,200 times and resulted in 801.9 million impressions.”
Gains and Losses:
GamesIndustry.biz’s James Batchelor writes that “Turtle Beach is on the road to recovery following high losses and near delisting in 2017 … Net income was reported as $2 million for the three months ended March 31st – a dramatic improvement on the $9.9 million loss in the same period last year.”
Esports Insider’s Lydia Mitrevski reports “Hearts United Group EVO Japan 2018, the first Evolution Championship Series event held out of the United States, resulted in a loss of $1.13m (£837,000). Despite the 7,000 entrants, sponsorship did not meet expectations for the cost of running the fighting game tournament.”
Columbus Nova confirmed it “never had any ownership interest in Daybreak. Our former partner Jason Epstein told us in 2015 that he was purchasing Daybreak as a personal investment and Columbus Nova declined to participate in that purchase,” GamesIndustry.biz’s Brendan Sinclair reports.
Live-action Monster Hunter begins production in September, Variety’s John Hopewell reports. “Constantin Film’s ‘Monster Hunter,’ the video game adaptation budgeted at around $60 million, will go into production starting in September.”
Deus Ex “is not dead,” Eidos Montreal studio head David Anfossi told PCGamesN’s Chris Capel. “‘Deus Ex is not dead, I confirm that.’”
Acquisition and Investment News:
Nordisk Film announced in a press release that it “invests in Star Stable Entertainment AB … Nordisk Film will invest EUR 15 million for a substantial minority ownership share of Star Stable Entertainment AB.”
The Esports Observer’s Trent Murray reports that “Huya’s initial public offering raised $180M … The IPO priced 15 million American depositary shares at $12.”
Esports takes the cake for DraftKings’ “fastest-growing fantasy game category last year,” CNBC’s Michelle Castillo reports. “Last year, entry fees for its League of Legends fantasy games were up 59 percent year over year.”
Happy weekend birthdays to Starcraft II player and Hearthstone players Szymon “Guru” Nieciag and Tang “Eloise” Haiyun, and Monday birthdays to StarCraft II and Hearthstone players Cho “Flurry” Hyun Soo and Xiang “XY” Yao!