In The News
Who came out on top at this year’s E3? That would be Nintendo, if Twitter is anything to judge by. “Nintendo earned the most tweets of any game publisher this year, followed by Xbox, Sony (impressive, considering the Japanese company was absent from this year’s convention), Square Enix and Bethesda,” The Hollywood Reporter’s Patrick Shanley writes.
America is set to overtake China as the “top gaming market in the world,” according to Newzoo. “It will be the first time since 2015 that the U.S. has been the No. 1 country, and this forecast isn’t just because of the 2018 freeze on gaming licenses in China,” VentureBeat’s Jason Wilson writes.
Publishers on the App Store are making significantly more than those on Google Play, Sensor Tower reports. “The top 100 earning app publishers across Apple’s App Store and Google Play generated a combined average of $130.4 million in consumer spending globally during the first quarter of 2019,” Sensor Tower found. “The App Store’s top publishers saw average gross income of $83.8 million, which was 64 percent more than the average of $51 million spent across Google Play’s 100 highest-earning app makers.”
Fallout Shelter has pulled in $100 million since it launched 4 years ago, Sensor Tower reports. “Store Intelligence data shows that it has performed best in Western markets, with Great Britain delivering about 9 percent of spending, or $9 million, making it the game’s second largest region by revenue.”
Square Enix’s ethics department told the company to reign in Tifa’s chest for the FF7 remake, Wesley Yin-Poole at Eurogamer writes. “The original Final Fantasy 7 character models, created for PSone, are of course unrealistic. 20 years later, making highly-detailed, modern characters for PlayStation 4 threw up new issues.”
Connected Play companies, those that “allow people to interact, play, or learn in the physical and digital world,” have grown “150% in the past year to 262 companies,” VentureBeat’s Dean Takahashi reports. “They include products in categories such as the internet of things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), robots, augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR)…”
IN: EA named Sam Ebelthite as its country manager for the UK and Ireland.
Sarah Iooss joined Twitch as head of North America sales.
Interviews: Niantic’s John Hanke (GI.biz), Shifting Tides’ Aria Esrafilian and Nima Memari (GI.biz).
Extra Esports News:
Congratulations David “Dog” Caero on winning Hearthstone’s Masters Tour Vegas!
Twitch acquired Bebo to help bolster its esports competitions. “Twitch paid up to $25 million for the company earlier this month, after beating out at least two other bidders,” TechCrunch’s Ingrid Lunden reports.
DJ Nicky Romero invested in Rekt Global, Takahashi reports. “The addition of the new music mogul as an investor comes a week after RektGlobal announced that it was acquiring Greenlit Content (which is run by friends of mine).”
Partnerships:
Ubisoft and Acer Predator are partnering “season 10 of Rainbow Six Siege Pro League. The sponsorship will cover standard Pro League play and majors,” Dot Esports’ Colton Deck writes.
Legacy Esports and Optus are partnering, Esports Insider’s Adam Fitch reports. “This partnership is an expansion of the deal that already exists between the football club and Optus, a subsidiary of Singtel.”
Heretics and Logitech G are partnering, Fitch reports. “The organisation’s players will train with Logitech G’s peripherals moving forward.”
OUT: Kim Phan has left Blizzard Entertainment. Here’s a portion of her goodbye letter: “Going forward, I will be pursuing a new endeavor within the gaming industry. My last day with Blizzard was Friday, June 14th. As I hang up my sword and shield, I look forward to a bright future and wish all my Blizzard friends and family the very best.”