In The News
Engaged. This isn’t about me, rather, it’s about battle royale players. GI.biz’s Haydn Taylor reports they’re “among the most engaged gamers, spending more time and money on their game of choice, plus watching and streaming more content … 88 per cent of battle royale players spend money in-game as opposed to 75 per cent of people who play competitive games.”
The American Customer Satisfaction Index 2018 Telecommunications Report made a lot of room for streaming, TEO’s Trent Murray writes. “Video streaming services outscored all other industries measured in the report … Twitch tied for the highest score in the industry.”
Overwatch artist Thiago Klafke “sought to remind developers that crunch can hasten burnout and have a severe impact on the mental health, even when that crunch is self-imposed,” Gamasutra’s Alissa McAloon writes. “Game developers tend to place a lot of pressure on themselves and their own work, driving themselves to create and excel at a rapid pace and unfortunately putting their own mental health at risk.”
Hi Sam! “Ubisoft’s gamer-centric virtual assistant … is available to everyone worldwide, but still only in English,” Engadget’s Rob LeFebvre reports. “Sam uses Google’s Dialogflow system to answer all your questions about Ubisoft games and services.”
Open And Close:
YoYo Games “has announced a new indie publishing division” that “will be geared exclusively towards GameMaker titles,” Taylor reports.
Wargaming Seattle shut down. It affects “over a hundred jobs,” Gamasutra’s Alex Wawro reports. “Wargaming Seattle is the Redmond-based studio formerly known as Gas Powered Games, which was founded in 1998 by Chris Taylor and other former Cavedog devs.”
Sponsorship News:
FC Schalke 04 and Deutsche Glasfaser are partnering. “Deutsche Glasfaser signed a three-year deal with FC Schalke 04. Schalke 04 plans to use the partnership to improve German awareness of its esports,” TEO’s Max Miceli writes.
NETGEAR increased its “Gen.G sponsorship to include all teams,” Esports Insider’s Lydia Mitrevski reports. “The sponsorship will add players from Gen.G’s teams in Clash Royale, League of Legends, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, and Heroes of the Storm.”
ChiliZ is investing “at least $10m (£7.4m) into organisations who compete in Battle Royale esports, with PUBG and Fortnite currently the biggest games in this genre,” Esports Insider’s David Hollingsworth reports.
We Happy Few was refused classification in Australia, and Compulsion Games is speaking out. “We are looking into it, and have asked for more information on the decision,” the press release reads. “To our Australian fans, we share your frustration.”
Congratulations to Minecraft on topping 100 million registered Chinese users.
Runescape’s “servers are finally going offline,” Game Informer’s Imran Khan reports. “The servers will shut down on 12:00 AM PT August 6.”
Evil Geniuses posted “Xfinity Presents: Up To Speed with EG COD | Episode 11 – “Father & Son”.”