In The News
Team EnVyUs owner Mike Rufail tweeted this yesterday: “Confirming for all of you today that we have accepted a multi 8-figure investment from a great new partner in the Hersh Interactive Group … I will continue to be the principal owner and operator of the team. I’m not going anywhere. In many ways, we’re just getting started. #EoD … In addition, I’m coming home to Texas and bringing the entire team with me. Get ready Dallas, we have some neat things on the way.”
Ever wonder what the age difference is between esports players and traditional sports players? ESPN did a comparison of “the age of top-tier players for a variety of games with the age of professional athletes in the NBA, NFL, NHL and MLB.” What they found is that the average age of all esports games is lower than 4 traditional sport averages.
The closest age difference was between Super Smash Bros. Melee (25.2) and the NFL (26.6). The youngest average is for League of Legends, at 21.2. The oldest goes to the MLB, at 29.2.
If you missed the Tokyo Games Show Conference, Game Informer’s Imran Khan has a good roundup.
Xbox’s Phil Spencer piped up about the brief window of cross-platform play between Xbox One and PlayStation 4 that Fortnite players encountered. “Spencer, who has openly called for Sony to allow cross-play with Xbox One, told a fan on Twitter, ‘I would have liked to see them leave it on,’” GameSpot’s Eddie Makuch reports. “The feature was swiftly disabled, with Epic saying it was a ‘configuration issue’ that led to cross-play being available in the first place.”
(Credit: TechnicolorTraveler)
Creative cosplay can take many shapes and forms. Sometimes, you aren’t just the character, you’re 4 sides of infinite possibilities. TechnicolorTraveler made a Magic: The Gathering suit of armor entirely out of playing cards, Kotaku’s Luke Plunkett reports.
It took 42 musicians to create the Cuphead soundtrack, Engadget’s David Lumb reports. “Studio MDHR released a teaser video showing a ‘making of’ look into recording the title’s breakaway hit, ‘Floral Fury’ … The soundtrack was composed by Kris Maddington and performed by 42 musicians, including a 13-piece big band orchestra and various soloists and ragtime pianists.”
Hearthstone’s Americas Summer Playoffs have not been smooth sailing. Dot Esports’ Callum Leslie explains that “some players were held back by venue problems and connection issues. In some cases, it even affected whether they won or lost.”
Someone is already working on the next PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds-style game. PC Gamer’s Joe Donnelly writes that Automaton Games “will support 1,000 concurrent players within a shared world, however will also include a last-person standing, PUBG-like arena combat mode that supports up to 400 players ‘in direct combat.’”
Chet Faliszek, formerly a writer for Valve, has joined Bossa Studios. Bossa is widely known for Surgeon Simulator.
Jen MacLean has been named “the new interim executive director for the International Game Developers Association (IGDA),” Dean Takahashi at VentureBeat reports. IGDA is a nonprofit. “MacLean replaces Kate Edwards, who resigned from the post at the end of June after a five-year stint.”
Reality Gaming Group has raised $3.5 million, GamesIndustry.biz’s James Batchelor writes, “for its next project through an Initial Coin Offering, a form of fundraising that centres around cryptocurrency … The fundraising is to drive development for Reality Clash, a mobile FPS that uses augmented reality to allow gamers to shoot it out in real-world locations.”
ELEAGUE is sexing up its broadcasting technology. “In conjunction with the 3D experience, one of the most interesting additions to Turner’s esports broadcast production was that of state-of-the-art eye tracking technology which made its debut,” Kevin Hitt at Red Bull writes.
TheDW mentioned Golf for Nintendo Switch yesterday, and VentureBeat’s Jeff Grubb reports that someone actually unlocked it. Pixelpar “shows a video of a Switch running Nintendo’s 8-bit golf game for the NES. This is something Nintendo has never talked about or confirmed … That emulator is apparently ready to run NES Golf, and Nintendo has even allegedly updated that classic with motion controls.”