In The News
Magic Leap, valued at $6 billion, is reportedly trying to raise another $500 million, Bloomberg’s Ian King, Lizette Chapman and Mark Bergen report. It has already raised over $1.3 billion. “Temasek Holdings Pte., an investment company owned by Singapore, is considering taking part in a new financing round of more than $500 million, valuing Magic Leap close to $6 billion, according to people familiar with the situation.”
A $15,000 loan from grandma. That’s what Mike Morhaime used to found Blizzard Entertainment, according to PC Gamer’s Bo Moore. That fun fact was revealed during yesterday’s pre-BlizzCon livestream. “‘Allen [Adham] and I each contributed $10,00,’ Morhaime explained. ‘In order to get my $10,000, I borrowed $15,000 from my grandmother. She didn’t charge me any interest, that was very nice of her.’” Yes, yes that was very nice.
Bruce Straley, the director behind The Last of Us, has left Naughty Dog. He was with the studio for 18 years, Engadget’s Jon Fingas reports. “Straley hasn’t explained the reasons behind the move (he doesn’t have ‘anything to announce just yet,’) but it’s not for a lack of affection for the studio — this is the ‘hardest decision’ he ever made in his career.”
Ever wonder how many players have been banned from PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, considering it’s massive success? The number currently sits at 150,000. PUBG tweeted out the amount yesterday and said some 8,000 players have been banned in the last 2 days.
Gamers are funny people. Twitter had a meltdown (take that for what it’s worth) over Nintendo showing off Mario without a shirt at its Nintendo Direct yesterday. More specifically, people were entranced by his nipples, Kotaku’s Nathan Grayson reports. Check out his post for more of the Twitter nipple hysterics.
So we mentioned some EVE Online drama yesterday. That drama included one player threatening to harm another player — which, in retrospect, they probably regret. The player, gigX, “was just permanently banned from the game” for threatening to cut off player The Judge’s hands, PC Gamer’s Steven Messner reports.
Esports and cooking. Bon appétit? Team EnVyUs debuted a new cooking show on YouTube. The first episode features Overwatch dps Timo “Taimou” Kettunen, Dot Esports’ Nicole Carpenter reports. Go, uh, check out his meatballs.
Esports has its own cryptocurrency. “Skrilla is a licensed, fully regulated, global esports wagering brand,” the Skrilla-sponsored post on Dot Esports reads. “You can choose to play and wager with traditional currency, however, if you want to take things to the next level, you can also buy Skrilla Tokens which, in the near future, will be used to enter contests and receive winnings.”
Destiny 2’s raid has been beaten in 6 hours. The raid is called Leviathan, and was defeated by “a fireteam from The Legend Himself, a clan on PlayStation 4,” Polygon’s Samit Sarkar explains. “That’s the same clan of Destiny pros that came close to notching the first completion of Wrath of the Machine, the raid from Destiny: Rise of Iron.”
Final Fantasy XIV raised $21,000 for Hurricane Harvey and Irma relief, GamesIndustry.biz’s James Batchelor reports. “Players of Final Fantasy XIV have donated more than $21,000 to relief efforts … Square Enix hosted an in-game charity march last weekend where users joined a specific server and marched across the world of Eorzea. The event was livestreamed and was accompanied a trivia contest and in-game after party, all encouraging both players and viewers to donate.”
Tsk tsk, bad behavior gets you bad results. Team Zealots’ Maksym “Mopsio” Szczypa has been suspended from Heroes of the Storm games for 1 week, PCGamesN’s Richard Scott-Jones writes. “He’ll miss the Heroes Global Championship (HGC) matches this weekend.”
Big Hearthstone changes are coming Sept. 18. “Some of the cards that will be changed in the update include Innervate, Hex, Fiery War Axe, Murloc Warleader, and Spreading Plague,” Dot Esports’ Justin Binkowski reports.
FIFA 18’s soundtrack of 40 songs is out. GameSpot’s Eddie Makuch has more on the specific songs.