In The News
Broadband Genie is out with a survey showing “nearly three-fourths of gamers would prefer a Netflix-style payment model for a cloud gaming service, while only 20% name Google Stadia’s proposed plan as the model they’re most interested in,” GI.biz’s Rebekah Valentine reports. “86% said they expected games purchased on the cloud to be cheaper than physical copies or digital downloads.”
Steam’s released a Steam Labs section “with usable ‘works-in-progress’ that might make it to the regular game portal if there’s enough positive feedback,” Engadget’s Jon Fingas writes. “An Interactive Recommender experiment uses a neural network trained on ‘billions’ of game sessions to suggest titles based on your play history and ‘other salient data.’”
G2A’s proposal to calm angry developers involves “the ability for developers to block keys they don’t want to be sold on its marketplace,” GI.biz’s James Batchelor reports. “Under the proposed system, once developers have verified their identity, they will be able to specify the keys they do not want sold on the marketplace, classing them as either review or giveaway codes.”
Rokit launched Rokit Games, a “$50 million game development fund, to support independent developers of mobile and console games,” VentureBeat’s Dean Takahashi writes.
Microsoft opened its first European store “on Oxford Circus, alongside the announcement of a £1 million digital learning grant to support young people in the local community,” Valentine reports.
Interviews: Supermassive Games’ Pete Samuels (VentureBeat), FlavourWorks’ Jack Attridge (GI.biz), Rebellion’s Jason Kingsley (GI.biz).
Extra Esports News:
Trelleborg Wheel Systems will field a team for “GIANTS Software’s Farming Simulator League. The Italian tire and wheel supplier is the latest in a long list of farming brands to get involved with the league,” Esports Insider’s Adam Fitch reports.
Partnerships:
ESL and Gamers Outreach are partnering for “its newly-launched ‘Gaming for Good‘ initiative. Starting with IEM Chicago on July 20th-21st, ESL and Gamers Outreach will launch a collaborative campaign that focuses on awareness and fundraising,” Fitch writes.
Red Bull and Limit and Pieces are partnering “for the World First Raid: Rise of Azshara. Limit and Pieces will be live for the entirety of the event, with a 24/7 stream featuring the two guilds and eight others,” Esports Insider’s David Hollingsworth writes.
OGN and Com2uS are partnering to produce “the Summoners War Championships 2019 tournament. The season will include an Americas Cup at the OGN Super Arena in Los Angeles, and culminate at the World Finals in Paris in October,” TEO’s Andrew Hayward reports.
Happy birthday Kim “DuBu” Doo-young and David “Deevo” Morrow!