Your Gaming and Esports Update
Deals
Roblox Raises $520M
User-generated game platform Roblox has raised $520 million in a new round of funding, and it will still go public through a direct listing where the company’s existing shareholders directly sell shares to investors. The private funding deal values Roblox at $29.5 billion. The direct listing offering, or DPO, circumvents the usual initial public offering (IPO) process, which can be costly. Roblox hasn’t said when that DPO will actually happen yet, but it announced the funding round ahead of that future DPO.
Epic Games Acquires RAD
Epic Games has acquired the technology and business of RAD Game Tools, according to a post made on the official Epic Games site. RAD Game Tools is a video game software development company. According to the post, its “products and technology appear in close to 25,000 games and are leveraged by the world’s leading gaming companies, including Epic.” Members of the RAD team will partner closely with Epic’s rendering, animation, insights, and audio teams, integrating key tech and improvements across Unreal Engine and beyond. RAD and Epic combining forces will allow even more developers access to tools that make their games load and download faster, and offer their players a better, higher quality video and gaming experience.
Nintendo Acquires Luigi’s Mansion 3 Developer, Next Level Games
Nintendo has acquired the Canadian video game studio Next Level Games, the developer behind Luigi’s Mansion 3. The studio also developed that title’s predecessor, Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon, for the Nintendo 3DS. Aside from the Luigi’s Mansion franchise, Next Level Games has also worked with Nintendo on both Super Mario Strikers and its sequel Mario Strikers Charged — there’s even a Mario Strikers Easter egg hiding in Luigi’s Mansion 3 in the form of a painting just before the player enters Paranormal Productions.
Cavea Raises $1.23M
Danish esports and gaming sponsorship and advertisement analytics firm Cavea announced that it has raised a $1.23M financing round from new and existing investors with additional support from The Danish Growth Fund, Vækstfonden. The company is looking to use the additional funding to “consolidate and expand the product offering, grow the team, and put full focus on commercialization.”
Niantic Buys Mayhem
Pokémon GO creator Niantic has acquired a small SF gaming startup building a league and tournament organization platform to help gamers create their own communities around popular titles. Mayhem was in Y Combinator’s winter 2018 batch and went on to raise $5.7 million in funding, according to Crunchbase. Other backers include Accel, which led the startup’s Series A in 2018, Afore Capital and NextGen Venture Partners. Terms of the acquisition weren’t disclosed by Niantic.
GameSquare Esports To Acquire Reciprocity
Canadian company GameSquare Esports has signed an agreement to acquire esports organization Reciprocity. GameSquare, which is the parent company of Code Red Esports, will issue $11.4 million in shares to Reciprocity security holders when the deal closes. They will receive additional shares if the company meets revenue and profit marks within 12 months. Reciprocity is a gaming and esports company based in Toronto, in operation since 2017. It co-owns a CrossFire franchise in China and a 40 percent interest in a League of Legends team in Latin America. Its subsidiary corporation, GCN, Inc., is a digital media company focusing on gaming and an esports audience in Los Angeles.
Updates
Minecraft Earth To Be Shutdown
Throughout 2019, Microsoft experimented with building a real-world, augmented reality Minecraft game designed in the same vein as Pokémon GO. Called Minecraft Earth, they finally opened it up to everyone in November of 2019. Due to the pandemic and the current global situation, Minecraft Earth will be shut down. This is from the Minecraft Earth team: “Minecraft Earth was designed around free movement and collaborative play — two things that have become near impossible in the current global situation. As a result, we have made the difficult decision to re-allocate our resources to other areas that provide value to the Minecraft community and to end support for Minecraft Earth in June 2021.”
Pokemon Go Surpasses $2B in Revenue in 2020
Pokémon GO made an estimated $1.92 billion in 2020 according to SuperData, by far a yearly record of the game, and in the top 5 of all global mobile games, despite its uniquely social focus that should have been hurt by the pandemic. This is astonishing after reading the report that Minecraft Earth shut down due to the pandemic. It seems like, though, the pandemic was good for Niantic due to players wanting to get out and walk around, and playing made walking around at least a little more enjoyable.
Epic Games Agrees to Pay $95M for Cary Towne Center
Epic Games Inc., the closely held company based in Cary, N.C., said it is planning to convert the 980,000-square-foot Cary Towne Center mall into offices and recreation space for its growth in the long term. Epic plans to open the new campus by 2024, which would represent a sizable upgrade from the company’s 250,000 square foot headquarters. The acquisition and office-expansion plans show that even as many companies aim to reduce office space and embrace work-from-home policies, others still see a new and larger office location as a big part of the future.
Shanghai Builds $900M Hub in Push to be Esports Leader
China has begun building a $900 million facility it hopes will be the envy of eSports and seal its push to make Shanghai the global capital of the fast-growing professional gaming industry. The Shanghai International New Cultural and Creative E-sports Center is scheduled for completion in 2023 and will cost at least 5.8 billion yuan, Chinese authorities and media said.
