In The News
Today’s top story can be found in the Extra Esports News section.
THQ Nordic:
THQ is busy. A financial report shows “a unannounced big budget project from Metro Exodus developer 4A Games. By the end of March, it had 80 games in development, 48 of them unannounced,” PC Gamer’s Fraser Brown reports.
Metro Exodus helped out THQ’s financials “in the first quarter, with the publisher confirming that 4A Games’ shooter has recouped all production and marketing costs,” GI.biz’s Matthew Handrahan reports. “In the three month period ended March 31, 2019, the THQ Nordic group earned SEK 1.63 billion (€151 million) in revenue, up 158% over the same quarter last year. Operational EBIT for the period was SEK 395.9 million (€37 million), a 217% year-on-year increase.”
Additionally, the company acquired Piranha Bytes. “THQ Nordic’s statement placed an emphasis on the acquisition of Gothic. The value of the deal was not disclosed,” Handrahan writes.
Tencent acquired Sharkmob, a Swedish game developer. “The team includes veterans from games such as The Division and Hitman. Sharkmob was founded two years ago in Malmö, Sweden,” VentureBeat’s Dean Takahashi writes.
Sales:
The best-selling games from April are out, according to the NPD Group. “Mortal Kombat 11 was April’s best-selling game of the month, and immediately became the No. 2 best-selling game of 2019 so far, only behind Kingdom Hearts III,” GameSpot’s Eddie Makuch reports. “Days Gone was No. 2 in April, and it achieved sales that amounted to the seventh biggest ever for a Sony-published game during its launch month.”
World War Z’s first month saw “just under two million copies sold,” Handrahan reports. Paramount Pictures says “World War Z’s early performance makes it, ‘one of our most successful interactive games to date.’”
God of War ticked over 10 million copies sold in about a year.
Valve is apparently a bit confused about what — if anything — it should do in regard to Assassin’s Creed: Unity’s positive review bomb. “It’s not clear it’s a review bomb. It certainly doesn’t fit our original definition in the ‘aimed at lowering the Review Score’ section,” a blog post reads.
Judgement, the Yakuza spin-off Sega yanked from shelves after “a drug scandal with one of the actors,” is going back on sale. “Sega is finally ready to put the game back in retail and on PSN with a new actor in July,” Game Informer’s Imran Khan reports.
IN: Joel Breton joined Sixense.
Interviews: Ready at Dawn’s Ru Weerasuriya (VentureBeat), Zynga’s Bernard Kim (GI.biz).
Extra Esports News:
The government is becoming interested in visa compliance with esports teams. “Several major esport organizations and players are coming under heavy scrutiny from government entities seeking to enforce proper immigration policy,” Upcomer’s Kevin Hitt writes. “Upcomer has learned through sources that there are multiple foreign players participating in the Call of Duty World League, various Counter-Strike: Global Offensive events, and other esports leagues using an ESTA visa while competing in the US.”
Partnerships:
Evil Geniuses and Razer are partnering, according to a press release. They “entered into a two-year partnership with Razer Inc., who will outfit our top-flight gaming divisions with the tools and peripherals they need to compete at the highest level.”
DreamHack, The European Tour and Omen by HP are partnering for “esports and gaming events in Europe. The European Tour will team up with DreamHack to host its first esports competition, for World Golf Tour, at Made in Denmark,” TEO’s Graham Ashton writes.
IN: Team Liquid joined Tekken 7 with Genki “Gen” Kumisaka.
Interviews: ESL’s Michal “CARMAC” Blicharz (Esports Insider).
Happy birthday Courant “Kaydop” Alexandre!