In The News
For the featured story, please see the Overwatch section.
Brianna Wu’s bid for Congress failed, according to her announcement on Twitter. She posted a series of tweets detailing shortcomings and an intention to run again in 2020 because “this is PUBLIC SERVICE. We are literally trying to save this country. America needs better leadership more than we need another videogame. So, I am here for good.”
Tencent will start “verifying the identities of Chinese Honor of Kings players against a police database,” GI.biz’s Matthew Handrahan reports, “a new measure designed to restrict the amount of time minors spend in the game.”
Nintendo’s Fire Emblem Heroes is “raking in more money than ever” according to Sensor Tower. “Players worldwide spent approximately $63 million in the game, the equivalent of more than one million $60 console games. This spending represented a 34 percent increase from summer 2017.”
FIFA flew over 260 million copies sold for EA’s franchise.
Acquisitions:
Pearl Abyss is acquiring CCP Games for $425 million, VentureBeat’s Dean Takahashi reports.
Nielsen Holdings acquired SuperData, AListDaily’s H.B. Duran reports.
PlayStack acquired Hisome, GI.biz’s Rebekah Valentine writes.
Funding News:
Roblox pulled in “$150 million in a new round of funding aimed at expanding the international growth of its social platform for user-generated games,” Takahashi reports.
Robot Cache “secured a new investor, raising its funding by $3 million” from Millennium BlockChain, GI.biz’s James Batchelor reports.
Caffeine received $100 million from 21 Century Fox, Batchelor reports. Caffeine’s a “new streaming platform focuses on video games and other forms of entertainment.”
Team Dignitas and Champion Athleticwear are partnering, TEO’s Ben Fischer reports. “Champion will become the organization’s official provider of competitive jerseys, casual wear and athletic wear, and will launch and maintain an online sales platform for Dignitas. A women’s line is also planned.”
People are still unclear about Valve’s Steam content policy, and a new blog post is out with additional clarity.
Oh Sea of Thieves, that’s not where spyglasses go.
Extra Esports News:
PGL is hosting “the first Dota 2 Major of the new Dota Pro Circuit Season in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia” with a $1 million prize pool, TEO’s Trent Murray writes.
Germany is relaxing “previously stringent regulations on non-EU esports athletes entering and staying in the country,” Unikrn’s Dustin Steiner reports. “The new regulations have come as a result of letters written by the Free Democratic Party parliamentary group to the German Federal government.”
FaZe Clan Call of Duty player Thomas “ZooMaa” Paparatto had his Twitch account suspended for 7 days, Dexerto’s Albert Petrosyan reports.
Interviews: compLexity Gaming CEO Jason Lake and Stephanie Harvey (CG Magazine).
Happy birthday Alexandru “Semper” Dimitriu!