In The News
Layoffs are hitting Volition, the developer behind Agents of Mayhem. It “laid off over 30 people this week including general manager Dan Cermak, three sources tell Kotaku. The studio previously had around 200 employees,” Kotaku’s Jason Schreier reports. “Sources say that Deep Silver, the publisher and parent company of Volition, was unhappy with Agents of Mayhem’s sales.”
Cloud9 is boasting another $19.7 million raised toward its $25 million goal, Blitz Esports’ Mark Register writes. “Cloud9 has not made any public statements about this financing.”
Take a Discovery Tour through Assassin’s Creed: Origins and learn more about the ancient Egypt Ubisoft created. Discovery Tour “will serve as an education title, taking people into the world of the ancient Egyptians … Discovery Tour will debut in early 2018, and it will be available as a free update for all Assassin’s Creed Origins players,” Dean Takahashi at VentureBeat reports.
Fortnite is posting numbers for launch day of Battle Royale, its PUBG-style game mode. “Epic Games announced today [Wednesday] that more than one million players took part in Fortnite Battle Royale on launch day, Sept. 26,” Polygon’s Michael McWhertor reports.
Android and iOS users, you have a Battle.net Blizzard app to download. “‘Available for iOS and Android, the Blizzard Battle.net mobile app brings social features from the Blizzard Battle.net desktop app to your phone,’” the announcement reads, according to PC Gamer’s Andy Chalk. “You can add friends via their Battletag, email address, or QR code, chat with them, and mark yourself as online, away, or busy.”
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, Hearthstone, Overwatch and Madden 18 all helped bump August’s digital sales by 11%. “The worldwide digital video games market grew 11% year-over-year in August to $7.9 billion,” GamesIndustry.biz’s James Brightman writes.
We’re not going to speculate too much on Mario and Yoshi’s relationship, but Nintendo has confirmed that Mario was “originally punching Yoshi, causing the character’s tongue to shoot out in surprise,” Kotaku’s Brian Ashcraft writes.
Don’t hold your breath, Vita 2 is probably not going to be a thing. “Sony Corp.’s gaming chief Andrew House sees limited global potential for handheld gaming,” Bloomberg’s Yuji Nakamura and Yuki Furukawa report. “The company doesn’t have any concrete plans to take on Nintendo Co.’s Switch.”
Unikrn has pulled in names like Mark Cuban to participate in its “unique initial coin offering,” GeekWire’s Taylor Soper reports. “Unikrn is selling virtual tokens called UnikoinGold that can be used on its platform to bet on esports matches. Those tokens can be exchanged for other major cryptocurrencies, such as ethereum and bitcoin, which can then be exchanged for U.S. dollars.”