In The News
Phew. It’s Duncan Day. Duncan “Thorin” Shields has everyone in a tizzy over this tweet: “Alex Jones is a G and always has been. If you’re one of those people who thinks they have to say ‘yeah but he got this thing wrong so you can’t just believe everything he says’ then here’s a news flash for you: that’s how you should approach literally everyone.”
Public reaction has generally been negative, with personalities like Rod “Slasher” Breslau, Brandon “dmbrandon” Nance, Bassem “Bear” Dahdouh and Petr “czechcloud” Žalud pushing back against the tweet.
This tweet followed a video he put out titled “Thorin vs. Fake News: Gender Pay Gap in esports” on Tuesday that also caused agitation. Dot Esports’ Callum Leslie went after Thorin in a series of tweets you can read here, here and here. Ana Valens also chimed in here and here. Thorin responded to Leslie here.
Reddit threads galore on the video and the tweet can be found here.
IGN’s plagiarism kerfuffle just got a whole lot bigger. It looks like they have scrubbed most everything Filip Miucin has written aside from a few videos from the site. Forbes’ Paul Tassi has a good breakdown of the whole sordid affair.
VP of IGN Video Fran Mirabella had this to say: “Tonight @IGN took down more content over concerns some of the work by Filip may have been copied. After 18 years at IGN as a reviewer, a producer – it’s despicable. Authors and supporters affected: I’m sorry. Nobody at IGN stands for this. This is a personal statement of my own.”
IGN Producer Brian Altano released a statement saying he felt “betrayed” by Miucin’s plagiarism.
Patrick Söderlund is leaving Electronic Arts. He was EA’s chief design operator.
If it takes too long for a gamer to checkout on your site, you’ll lose them. Super Data Research reports that “27% of gamers globally have abandoned checkouts because of slow payment processes.”
Tencent’s Q2 revenue increased 30% year-over-year to $11.1 billion, GI.biz’s James Batchelor writes. “First half revenues fared even better, with a 39% boost year-on-year to 147.2 billion yuan ($22.2 billion).”
THQ Nordic “picked up the Timesplitters property and released trilogy, as well as the rights to Free Radical’s Second Sight,” Game Informer’s Imran Khan reports.
Studio News:
Hi-Rez Studios created 3 “separate developers,” PC Gamer’s Rick Lane writes. “The three new studios are Titan Forge Games, Evil Mojo Games, and Heroic Leap Games.”
Tilting Point is opening a studio in Barcelona “to tighten relations with Europe’s mobile game development community,” VentureBeat’s Dean Takahashi reports.
Sumo Group “acquired independent studio The Chinese Room from its founders, Dan Pinchbeck and Jessica Curry,” VentureBeat’s Mike Minotti reports.
Extra Esports News:
Are Fighting Game Community talent sabotaging each other? VPEsports’ Kevin Hitt is out with a piece alleging just that. “The screenshots from whatsapp appear to show the group going after EU desk host and commentator James Banks … In a private group chat, a series of messages can be seen in which Logan Sama, Femi ‘F-Word’ Adeboye, Jonathan ‘UM Tyrant’ Parkes, and Marcus ‘PackZ’ Parker talk about ways to sabotage Banks on-air by asking him questions they felt he could not answer.”
Hearthstone Global Franchise Lead Che Chou did an interview with Akshon Esports’ Adam Neylan about its esports future.
100 Thieves posted “THE FIRST LOCKER ROOM IN ESPORTS HISTORY | 100 Thieves x StockX.”
Happy birthday Brandon “puCK” Qual and Nicolai “Snaski” Vistesen Andersen!