In The News
Lawsuit Fun:
Warner Bros. called Bethesda’s lawsuit “baseless,” GI.biz’s James Batchelor reports. Bethesda sued Warner Bros. and Behaviour Interactive over the Westworld mobile games’ alleged similarity to Fallout Shelter. “‘Warner Bros. has been assured by the game developer, Behaviour Interactive, that Bethesda’s allegations are untrue and that none of Bethesda’s code was used in the Westworld game. Moreover, contrary to Bethesda’s baseless accusation, Warner Bros. at no time ‘induced’ Behaviour to use the Fallout Shelter code in Westworld.’”
ZeniMax Media was dealt a blow by a judge in its dispute with Facebook, Bloomberg’s Tom Korosec reports. “Facebook Inc. won a ruling that halved a jury’s $500 million verdict against its Oculus unit for using computer code in its virtual reality headset that was taken from another company.”
Australia’s Senate “announced its intention to back a motion that will result in a vote on whether the ‘use of loot boxes in video games, whether they constitute gambling, and whether they are appropriate for younger audiences’ should be investigated by a committee enquiry today,” MSN’s Alex Walker reports.
Acquisition News:
United Talent Agencysnapped up Press X Agency and Everyday Influencers, ESPN’s Jacob Wolf writes. “The new group will be overseen by Press X and Everyday Influencers co-founder Damon Lau, according to a statement. He will report to UTA Games head Ophir Lupu and UTA Ventures head Sam Wick.”
CORSAIR acquired Elgato Gaming, TEO’s Trent Murray reports. “Elgato Gaming produces some of the key pieces of a video game streamer’s livestreaming setup.”
Investment News:
High Fidelity “raised $35 million in funding for its open source platform for building distributed social virtual reality worlds,” Dean Takahashi at VentureBeat reports.
Oh BiBi “raised $21 Million as the company seeks to accelerate the rollout of its mobile-first portfolio of games,” VentureBeat’s Chris O’Brien writes.
Partnership News:
Tyler “Ninja” Blevins and PSD Underwear are partnering for a line, TEO’s Taylor Cocke reports. “PSD will make a Ninja-themed collection and have a giveaway for fans of Blevins.”
ESforce and Acuvue and partnering for Acuvue Golden Lens, TEO’s Brandon Brathwaite writes. It’s “highlighting past Dota 2 International moments and rewarding new ones made during International 8 qualifiers.”
Koji Miyake was promoted to Nintendo’s European CEO.
Oculus users, you’ll need Windows 10 “to power the full Rift experience.” The minimum specs have been updated.
Halo News:
Marty O’Donnell could be coming back to compose for Halo Infinite.
Halo’s next novelis out, called Halo: Bad Blood.
Miscellaneous Esports News:
David “Dog” Caero says he prioritizes streaming over competing in Hearthstone, according to Dot Esports’ Callum Leslie.
Geoff Moore joined Team EnVyUs as “its first President & COO,” SBD’s Ben Fischer reports.
Happy birthday Li “TIME” Peinan and Jeffrey “Trump” Shih!