In The News
The global console market “saw continued growth in 2018, with total spend across hardware, content, and services reaching $47 billion – up from $42 billion in 2017,” GI.biz’s Rebekah Valentine writes. “Real growth has been specifically in the content and services sectors taken separately. These two, sans hardware, reached nearly $32 billion last year.”
EA reported earnings for the fourth fiscal quarter that exceeding Wall Street expectations yesterday, VentureBeat’s Dean Takahashi reports. EA’s stock rose 6% as a result “to $98.50 a share in after-hours trading.” It reported “fiscal fourth-quarter net income of $209 million, or 69 cents a share, compared with $607 million, or $1.95 a share, in the year-ago period. EA did not report an adjusted earnings figure. Revenue fell to $1.24 billion from $1.58 billion in the year-ago period.”
As for FIFA 19 and 18, “The soccer sim drew 45 million unique players on PC, PlayStation 4, Switch, and Xbox One,” VentureBeat’s Jason Wilson writes. “EA said that lifetime sales of the soccer franchise has passed 260 million copies since its first launch in 1993.” The Sims 4’s audience “grew 35% in the past year,” Takahashi writes.
EA Access will be available for PlayStation 4 in July at $5 a month or $30 a year.
Niko Partners expects China’s domestic game market to grow “from $$30.8 billion in 2018 to $41.5 billion in 2023. During the same time, the number of PC and mobile gamers is expected to grow to 767 million players,” Takahashi reports.
Twitter announced a host of “most talked about” statistics on Twitter including games, esports organizations, esports athletes and gaming personalities.
Supercell invested “€3.4 million in the Malmö-based startup Luau Games,” GI.biz’s Matthew Handrahan reports.
Check out Microsoft’s Braille controller design. “The company filed a patent application for a controller with Braille inputs and outputs,” Engadget’s Christine Fisher reports. “The patent drawings look similar to the current Xbox One controller, with the addition of paddles along the bottom that would allow players to enter text or commands via Braille.”
Ultra Ultra, the developer behind Echo, shut down.
IN: Creative Artists Agency signed Caleb City and SungWon Cho.
Extra Esports News:
The International 2019 Battle Pass is live and already sitting at $6,289,475 at the time of this writing.
’92 Dream Team Rainbow Six player Adam “Drip” Kolodkin apologized after “allegedly using racial slurs in a Twitch clip that surfaced last month. While Drip does not directly acknowledge he used a racial slur, he apologized for saying ‘very vile, disgusting things,’” Dot Esports’ Colton Deck reports.
Partnerships:
MDL Disneyland Paris Major and SAP are partnering, TEO’s Graham Ashton reports. “The software company will use its SAP Hana system to provide in-game data, to be displayed on-screen with software partner Layerth.”
PGL and Make.TV are partnering, TEO’s John Keefer writes. “The reruns will be hosted on PGL’s Twitch channel with ad breaks.”
Misfits Gaming and Franklin Group are partnering, Esports Insider’s Adam Fitch reports. “The deal also covers Misfits Gaming’s Overwatch League franchise Florida Mayhem and marks Franklin Group’s first involvement in esports.”
Interviews: SAP’s Milan Cerny (TEO).
Happy birthdays Byun “ByuN” Hyun Woo, Josh “bkid” Choi and Kevin “RotterdaM” van der Kooi!