In The News
The NCAA is “seeking an agency that would present an initial plan to its board of governors” during their October meeting, according to SportsBusiness Daily’s Ben Fischer. Initial news of NCAA’s interest in collegiate esports had the community riled up.
Need a quick refresher on the NCAA, collegiate esports and why people care? Check out The Daily Walkthrough’s extensive interviews with former professional CS:GO player Tomi “lurppis” Kovanen, National Association of Collegiate Esports (NACE) executive director Michael Brooks and University of California, Irvine Esports acting director Mark Deppe.
Nintendo of America owes iLife Technologies $10 million after a judge ruled in iLife’s favor over a patent infringement lawsuit. “The suit, which was brought forth in 2013, alleged that Nintendo used iLife’s technology when creating its motion-sensing Wii Remote,” Engadget’s Mallory Locklear reports. “It sought $144 million in damages, or $4 for each of the 36 million Wii systems sold prior to the suit being filed, along with an injunction against Nintendo’s use of the technology in question.” Nintendo will appeal the ruling.
Women in Games’ mobile awards has its first official nominees. GamesIndustry.biz’s James Batchelor has the full list, below:
- South Park: Phone Destroyer – led by Neha Joshi, producer at Redlynx, a Ubisoft Studio from Finland.
- Jungle Animal Hair Salon 2 – led by Migle Šaulyte, CMO at TutoTOONS from Lithuania
- Birdie’s Adventure – led by Astrid Refstrup, co-founder at Triple Topping Games from Denmark
- Eden Isle: Resort Paradise – led by Elaine Reynolds, CEO at Simteractive Ltd. from Ireland
- Rocket Rumble – led by Vicky Smalley, CTO at Small Jelly from UK
- Serena Supergreen and the Broken Blade – led by Linda Kruse, co-founder and MD at The Good Evil from Germany
- A Normal Lost Phone – led by Elizabeth Maler, co-founder at Accidental Queens from France
“Of the seven games nominated, two winners will be declared during the European Women In Games Conference 2017.”
ID Software co-founders John Romero and John Carmack are pushing back against Tim Willits’ claim to PCGamesN’s Ben Barrett at QuakeCon that he came up with “the entire concept of multiplayer maps” for Quake.
“‘I designed the shareware episode of Quake. Multiplayer maps – that was my idea. This is a funny story,’” Willits told Barrett.
They were’t overly amused by his claim, it seems, with Romero publishing “a follow-up article on his blog denying various elements. In it, he claims that the proposed interaction between him, Willits, and Carmack never happened, and he also points out some factual inaccuracies.”
Carmack backed Romero’s account of the events to Shacknews’s David Craddock, Tom Hall tweeted his support for Romero and American McGee outright called Willits “a serial credit thief.”
Everyone knows PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is all the rage. But how much rage is it, really? TheScore esports’ David Rabinovitch and Sasha Erfanian put together a handy infographic detailing the phenomenally successful game’s rise.
The Nintendo Switch’s sales volume in its first 26 weeks in Japan compared to PlayStation 4’s original 26 weeks is daunting. Kotaku’s Brian Ashcraft writes that the Switch sold 1,527,962 units while PS4 sold 665,760. PS4 only won in week 2, selling 65,685 units over the Switch’s 61,998.
Mike “Forthog” Forgey, who passed away in 2016 and was previously the executive producer for Middle-earth: Shadow of War, will be immortalized forever as Forthog Orc-Slayer in the upcoming game. PCGamesN’s Ali Jones explains that Forthog “will be available as add-on content in the upcoming game.”
Paladins is getting its second professional league. Here’s what the press release had to say: “WESA is announcing a new Paladins Premier League (PPL) in cooperation with Hi-Rez Studios. The inaugural season of this professional Paladins PC League will begin fall 2017 with participation of ten WESA Member teams including EnVyUS, Fnatic, G2 Esports, mouseports, Natus Vincere, Ninjas in Pyjamas, Renegades, SK Gaming, Splyce and Virtus.Pro.”