In The News
Here’s a hint your “journalism” is actually activism: You pay your interviewee for a bombastic hit piece. Enter The Daily Mirror as activist. The article “was criticized yesterday both for its dismissive treatment of mental health and its simplification of gaming’s role in a teenager’s troubles,” GI.biz’s Rebekah Valentine reports. “It also seems to have come from an interview subject who was paid for the account.”
Eurogamer’s Wesley Yin-Poole has a breakdown of the sham article.
Oh, and if you’re a glutton for condescending gaming news this fine Thursday morning, check out this bad boy: “Esports players pushing buttons to be considered athletes.” Laugh, dab your eyes with some $$$ and watch traditional media’s demo grow ever-older.
Gamefly is shutting down “its video game streaming service at the end of August, according to the company’s support line and messages being sent to the service’s users,” Variety’s Brian Crecente reports.
Sega News:
Ian Curran is Sega America’s newest “chief operating officer and president,” Game Informer’s Kyle Hilliard reports.
Sega Sammy sales revenue “has taken a considerable downward turn, falling 35.8 per cent according to its most recent financial report,” GI.biz’s Haydn Taylor writes. “Operating income in entertainment contents arm also suffered, falling 54.9 per.”
Sales News:
Hear NES roar! “The NES Classic was the top-selling console in June in terms of unit sales, according to industry-tracking firm The NPD Group,” VentureBeat’s Jeff Grubb writes. “The resurgence of Nintendo’s mini-NES with 30 built-in games on the market helped reinvigorate hardware sales across the board to $350 million.”
Fire Emblem: Heroes surpassed $400 million from mobile app purchases.
Partnership News:
Google and Unity are partnering to focus on mobile game ads, VentureBeat’s Dean Takahashi reports. “Both companies have been working on the partnership for several years, as they had to do some complicated technical integration of Google’s AdMob platform into Unity’s game engine.”
CCP and NetEase are partnering to “keep … [EVE Online] up and running in China going forward.” CCP previously worked with Tiancity, Gamasutra’s Alissa McAloon reports.
Virtus.pro and Parimatch are partnering, Esports Insider’s David Hollingsworth reports. “As part of this new deal, the Parimatch logo will feature on the Virtus.Pro team jerseys, the team’s website and social media channels. The deal will run until the end of 2019.”
Total esports funding for July was $37 million, up from $26.1 million in June but down from the $50 million it’s used to seeing. “This lack of activity is currently an outlier in what has otherwise been the industry’s most active year,” TEO’s Trent Murray reports.
Vancouver, Canada gets its first esports stadium in 2019. Check out the announcement video here.
Elon Musk teased Atari classics coming to the “Tesla V9.0 release in about 4 weeks.”
Extra Esports News:
Sledgehammer Games is “‘looking into’ … the common issue of players’ ranked play MMR suddenly being reset to 1500 for no apparent reason,” Dexerto’s Calum Patterson reports.
ESPN’s Jacob Wolf did a profile piece on Juan “Hungrybox” DeBiedma.
Hearthstone posted “The Boomsday Project Final Card Reveal + Gameplay Livestream.”
OUT: Counter Logic Gaming released their Rocket League roster.
Happy birthday Sandro “FreaKii” Holzwarth!