In The News
Weekend in Review:
Battle Royale-style games “are predicted to generate $20.1 billion in digital revenue in 2019,” Dot Esports’ Preston Byers writes. “Additionally, the battle royale genre is set to make up 12 percent of all digital games revenue this year at more than $12 billion.”
Nintendo is going after emulator sites, PC Gamer’s Jody Macgregor writes. “LoveROMs and LoveRETRO, are the target of a recent lawsuit by Nintendo … In response LoveROMS has removed all Nintendo games, although games for other consoles remain available there, while LoveRETRO ‘has effectively been shut down until further notice.’”
The Saudi Arabia banned games story from last week “was almost entirely false,” GI.biz reports. “Although the games in question are indeed restricted from sale in the region, they were not banned collectively at the same time, and not in response to the alleged suicides.”
Valve News:
Valve had a busy week last week, banning over 90,000 accounts. It’s “the largest VAC wave in the platform’s history,” PCGamesN’s Jessica Wells reports. “It’s likely that the system identified a previously unknown cheat and banned all accounts associated with it.”
Former Valve employee Rich Geldreich took to Twitter to talk about his issues with “self-organizing companies.” While he did not explicitly name Valve, he offered enough clues to make an educated guess.
Shenmue 3 surpassed $7 million, “which means it’s getting assisted combat,” PC Gamer’s Joe Donnelly reports.
IOC Esports Forum News:
The IOC and the GAISF “will now establish an Esports Liaison Group (ELG) to continue engagement between all three sets of major stakeholders,” TEO’s Sara Elsam reports.
IOC Media posted “The Esports Forum – Main event.”
Bethesda’s Todd Howard spoke about how the studio “opens its doors to terminally ill children who wish to see where their favourite games are made,” Eurogamer’s Robert Purchese reports. “It’s part of the company’s quiet ongoing support of the Make-A-Wish Foundation.”
Layoff News:
Trion Worlds laid off 15 employees, VentureBeat’s Mike Minotti reports. “‘This is not related to the performance of the individuals affected nor of Trion Worlds as a whole, but was necessary to enable us to develop the upcoming projects that we have planned in the best ways possible.’”
Evolution laid off “an unknown number” of employees “in wake of its first game launch since PlayStation closed the studio two years ago,” GI.biz’s James Batchelor reports.
Partnership News:
Mike “shroud” Grzesiek is partnering with Postmates, TEO’s Trent Murray writes. “The partnership will feature multiple activations throughout the year and a special code for new users to receive Postmates credit.”
Unicorns of Love and Wacken Open Air, a heavy metal festival, are partnering. “This deal will see the organisation have a presence at the festival, which takes place over August 2nd-4th,” Esports Insider’s Adam Fitch reports.
Team Envy is partnering with OP Live Dallas, Fitch reports. “It will see a number of figures from the organisation make an appearance over the two days that the event will run.”
Bandai Namco “has established a new development team focused on VR, AR, and MR at its Tokyo headquarters,” GI.biz’s Rebekah Valentine writes.
Miscellaneous Esports News:
Congratulations Benjamin “kolemoen” Pfannstiel on winning the July GWENT Open tournament!
Hearthstone posted “Developer Insights: 12.0 Game Mechanics Update.”