In The News
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German consumer spending on video games rose to “€4.4 million last year,” GI.biz’s James Batchelor reports. “That’s a 9% increase on the €4 billion spent in 2017 … Most of the money has been spent on mobile games and in-app purchases for them, totalling at €1.5 million, while a further €1.27 million was spent on console games, as well as in-game purchases, subscriptions and online services for console platforms.”
NetEase Games invested in Behaviour Interactive, the studio behind Dead by Daylight. “The investment will enable Montreal-based Behaviour to continue to operate independently under the leadership of Rémi Racine, its president and executive producer. NetEase Games will nominate a director to Behaviour’s board,” VenturBeat’s Dean Takahashi reports.
Surrogate raised “$2 million in funding for reality-focused game development and video streaming technology,” Takahashi writes.
Ubisoft is defending itself against criticism about its partnership with HitRecord. “The two companies are working together to crowdsource music for Ubisoft’s upcoming game Watch Dogs Legion,” Gamasutra’s Alissa McAloon reports. “Many in the game development community, however, say that Ubisoft and HitRecord are soliciting spec work, or calling for artists to create and submit their work for free with only the hope they’ll be paid for their time and effort in the long run.”
Epic Games awarded the Blender Foundation “$1.2 million … through its Epic MegaGrants program, money that the Blender Foundation then plans to use to fund its own Professionalizing Blender Development initiative,” McAloon writes.
GameStop is renovating stores in a bid to keep physical locations relevant, according to a press release. They’re partnering with “global innovation design firm, R/GA, to strengthen its focus on creating unique in-store experiences as part of its strategic move in re-affirming its place in the video gaming culture.”
Douyu’s U.S. IPO is alive once more. It’s “now seeking up to $630M USD. The Chinese livestreaming platform has previously received $632M in investment from Tencent Holdings, and initially announced a planned $500M IPO in April,” TEO’s Andrew Hayward writes.
IN: John Drake, formerly of PlayStation, joined Disney.
Alienware co-founder Frank Azor has left to join AMD.
Interviews: EMEA’s Alain Corre (GI.biz).
Extra Esports News:
Twitch growth has stalled for the time being, a report out by Streamlabs shows. “Twitch is still the top live streaming platform; however, for the first time, we have begun to see stats for Twitch decline … People watched 55 million fewer hours of content on the platform, a 2% decrease from last quarter. Hours streamed has decreased 10% from last quarter to 95M hours.”
TEO is out with a report on “non-endemic deals” in esports in Q2. There were “82 such deals between April and June—a 7% increase over the 76 deals reported on during Q1 2019, and a 68% year-over-year increase over the 48 deals covered in Q2 2018.” Read the full report here.
Partnerships:
PGL and The Coalition are partnering for “the 2019-20 season [which] will feature an online Pro League for three regions, as well as three international major tournaments and a World Championship,” Hayward reports.
Method and charity Save The Children are partnering, Esports Insider’s David Hollingsworth writes. “The two parties have set a target of $20,000 (£16,000) for the upcoming event to celebrate the charity’s 100th year.”
Mkers and My English School are partnering, Esports Insider’s Adam Fitch reports. “The deal was facilitated by Infront, the marketing agency that Mkers partnered with in August last year.”
OUT: Splyce released their Rocket League team.
Interviews: Immortals Gaming Club’s Tomi Kovanen (TEO), Hitmarker Jobs’ Cam Brierley (Esports Insider).