In The News
G2 Esports’ latest funding round has brought in investors like “FC Barcelona midfielder André Gomes, Eric Mindich’s Everblue Management, MACRO Ventures, and Marc Lemann of Go4It,” according to their announcement. “As G2 continues to evaluate its growth prospects, it has engaged Inner Circle Sports LLC, the leading global sports & media investment bank, as a strategic advisor.”
Everyone knew betting would be a part of esports, but that also includes cryptocurrency betting. Unikrn plans to take its Unikoin token and move it into blockchain. Unikrn founder Rahul Sood had this to say about blockchain and his company’s efforts in a piece in Medium. Here’s a snippet:
“Unikrn’s core platform and products include esports wagering and non wagering experiences. We have beautifully crafted skill-based gambling and spectator-based gambling products, with new Unikoin exclusive versions to be released later this year. Unikrn’s esportsbook offers one of the widest selections of gambling markets on professional esports matches and tournaments in the world.”
NBA 2K18 is getting around its cover player jumping ship by offering “a second edition in his new threads sometime later,” Polygon’s Owen S. Good reports. “For NBA 2K18, a new cover image should be easy to swap in. In what’s either a happy coincidence or a remarkable piece of far-sightedness, the artist of the NBA 2K18 packshot obscures the Cavaliers’ uniform lettering with Irving’s right arm.”
The first PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds tournament, held at Gamescom, is over. Congratulations to Evermore on winning solo rounds!
The best part of the whole thing was that PUBG “handed out a gold, silver, and bronze frying pan to the top-three performers across a series of matches,” VentureBeat’s Jeff Grubb reports.
Well, at least there’s some hope for Mass Effect. Gamereactor’s Sam Bishop spoke with EA executive vice president Patrick Söderlund at Gamescom about the franchise, which recently got the bad news that it would no longer receive single-player updates for Andromeda.
“‘For Mass Effect as a franchise, that has such a big fanbase, and you know I’ve seen people saying ‘Oh, EA’s not making another Mass Effect’. I see no reason why we shouldn’t come back to Mass Effect. Why not? It’s a spectacular universe, it’s a loved [series], it has a big fanbase, and it’s a game that has done a lot for EA and for BioWare.’”
Monster Hunter: World will receive free DLC just like the older games, according to Polygon’s Chelsea Stark. “‘We will continue to release free quests as we always have,’ Monster Hunter: World producer Ryozo Tsujimoto told Polygon at Gamescom. He did note that the game would require players to sign up for console-specific online services if they want to play with friends.”
Jump on the animated short bandwagon! Hearthstone got its very first mini-movie, called “Hearth and Home.”
EB Games, a subsidiary of GameStop, is testing a pre-owned subscription service that allows unlimited access to pre-owned games for $19.95 AUD in Australia, GamesIndustry.biz’s Matthew Handrahan writes. “At present, the “Swap ‘n’ Play” service is only available in South Australia, where, for $19.95 AUD a month, subscribers can select any pre-owned game in stock, play it, and then swap it for another as many times as they wish.”