In The News
The Entertainment Software Association is rolling out new interviews in its “Heartland Series.” ESA intends to highlight “the geographic diversity of the video game industry,” according to its press release. The first interview was with Phosphor Studios CEO Justin Corcoran.
ESA president Mike Gallagher also was recently featured on episode 190 of TechFreedom’s Tech Policy Podcast. He talked about “video game and technology policy” with TechFreedom’s Evan Swarztrauber.
Do the Olympics really have the long-term power to deny “violent” esports? TheScore esports’ Daniel Rosen argues they are going to realize sooner rather than later that the Olympics need esports if they want to attract steady viewership in the years to come. Here’s a portion of his take on the matter:
“The Olympics are about celebrating the very best athletes in the world, and they need something like esports to stay alive. If they aren’t willing to take esports as they are currently, we don’t need them at all…”
Congratulations to PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds on 10 million sales and Skullgirls on hitting 1 million Steam sales.
Really, the best part of this whole thing is the first 3 comments on the PUBG Twitter announcement.
Microsoft’s mixed reality headsets will not run Steam content right out of the gate. They’ll be available Oct. 17 in the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, ComputerBase’s Jan-Frederik Timm reports, but ‘”work on integrating the mixed reality headsets in Valve’s platform has just begun.”
Pokemon Go’s next biggest announcements after Legendary raids have been confirmed. Players will eventually be able to trade Pokemon and do 1 vs. 1 battles, Bloomberg’s Yuki Nakamura writes. “Tsunekazu Ishihara, chief executive officer of Tokyo-based Pokémon, says … including the ability to trade the virtual monsters and battle one-on-one” are real concepts they plan to implement.
Minecraft Marketplace, a place where Minecraft enthusiasts can create and sell their own content, has paid “out $1 million in earnings to community members,” VentureBeat’s Jeff Grubb reports. “That number only includes the money that went to the community creators and not the cut that goes to Microsoft or the 30 percent that goes to Google, Apple, or (eventually) Nintendo for the add-ons bought in Minecraft on Android, iOS, or Switch.”
The Korean eSports Association is partnering with Los Angeles-based Legacy Pro Law “to offer legal counsel to players on KeSPA teams” in League of Legends and FIFA. It made the announcement Tuesday, Slingshot Esports’ Andrew Kim reports. “The MOU stipulates that Legacy Law will give legal advice regarding visa acquirement, taxes, contractual concerns, and other areas for players who compete in League of Legends and FIFA Online 3.”
Nintendo vs. Smash is a new article out by HTC Esports’ Trent Murray detailing the relationship between Nintendo and the unaffiliated — and beloved — Super Smash Bros. esports scene. Broken down into 6 sections, the substantial read details “the relationship between the passionate competitive community and the apathetic, at times confrontational, developer.”
Nintendo Switchs now have Nintendo-certified microSD cards to help run “games that contain an especially large amount of content.” Matthew Handrahan at GamesIndustry.biz reports that Nintendo is partnering with Western Digital Corporation to produce “officially branded SanDisk memory cards” available in 64GB and 128GB sizes. You can get your hands on one sometime in October, but the price is not yet known.
Player ratings for 100-81 in FIFA 18 have been released by EA Sports. GameSpot’s Eddie Makuch has the list.