Your Gaming and Esports Update
Deals
Mythical Games Raises $19M
Mythical Games — a game technology studio specializing in digital ecosystems around player-owned economies — announced it has closed $19 million a new round of funding led by Javelin Venture Partners. Mythical Gaming offers a platform for game developers to create player-owned economies and producing new tools to provide ownership of in-game assets for content creators and brands to build and customize.The new investors in this round include Avon Ventures, Alumni Ventures, and Hashed as well as participation from current investors Galaxy Digital through its Galaxy EOS VC Fund and Struck Capital. Including this round, Mythical Games has raised $35 million in total.
Facebook Acquires Beat Games
Facebook is acquiring Beat Games, the developer of popular virtual reality rhythm game Beat Saber. TechCrunch reported that Beat Games will keep operating independently, but it will become part of Oculus Studios, Facebook’s VR gaming group. In a blog post, Oculus content director Mike Verdu said the game will keep releasing across all platforms, and the studio won’t prioritize Oculus headsets for updates or new content like music packs. Oculus also doesn’t rule out acquiring more studios. “We’re exploring many ways to accelerate VR, and we think next year is going to be an incredible one of VR game launches and announcements,” says the post. “We are thrilled to have Beat Games join our team. This is just the beginning.”
DouYu Gets Streaming Rights for WESG
Alisports has announced that DouYu will be the exclusive Chinese streaming partner of World Electronic Sports Games (WESG) for the 2019–2020 season. DouYu will also co-host the Chinese online qualification stage, with players able to register through the streaming platform. Rui Zhang, General Manager of Electronic Sports Department at Alisports commented on the deal: “As one of the top streaming platforms in China, Douyu will provide excellent online watching experience for our esports fans and cooperate with us to establish the benchmark of global esports events in the live streaming industry.”
OnePlus to Sponsor PUBG Mobile League
Event organizer Super League Gaming has announced a partnership with Chinese smartphone manufacturer OnePlus. The deal will see OnePlus act as the official smartphone sponsor of the PUBG MOBILE North American Super League for the 2019–2020 season. Super League Gaming’s PUBG MOBILE North American Super League utilizes a city-based system, featuring quarterly ‘city champs’ tournaments. The 16 cities participating in the league are Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Francisco, Seattle, Tampa Bay, and Washington, D.C.
ELEAGUE and Anzu.io Announce Strategic Partnership
ELEAGUE and in-game advertising platform Anzu.io today announced a partnership that is meant to elevate advertising in gaming and esports. Anzu integrates immersive ads into the gameplay and offers real-time data and programmatic to the world of gaming. “ELEAGUE and Anzu’s partnership is a significant milestone in evolving esports advertising innovation. We are consistently developing new avenues to advance esports advertising and introduce partners to this passionate community. Anzu opens the door for another level of advertising impact combined with personalized content discovery,” said Seth Ladetsky, senior vice president of ad sales for Turner Sports.
Updates
Cloud9 Fined by Riot Games
North American organization Cloud9 has been fined by Riot Games after it was found to have violated LCS rules. Cloud9 issued equity through an “employee stock plan” to seven players over the course of 16 months (this broke league rules by issuing organizational stock to active players). The total fine for the organization, according to Riot Games, is approximately between $330,000 (£255,903.45) and $605,000 (£469,156.32), with the latter figure being the minimum that is expected to be paid out. According to Riot, Cloud9 did not proactively notify the developer of contract amendments or extensions that occurred during the season, which violated the rules of disclosure to the league.
Rogue Company Will Have Full Esports Support
Hi-Rez Studios’ new tactical shooter Rogue Company is well on its way, with a confirmed 2020 release. Hi-Rez advanced game designer Evelyn Fredericksen said “We strongly believe that the future of gaming is proving the same game seamlessly as an experience across all platforms and mobile, and that’s what we are doing with Rogue Company,” Fredericksen said. Rogue Company will be playable on PC, Xbox, PS4, Nintendo Switch, and mobile, and it will feature shared progression across all platforms. It’s not certain if the mobile launch will come alongside the regular release or some time after.
Shopify CEO Donates $25k to StarCraft Prize Pool
This weekend some of the world’s best Starcraft II pros will face off in Berlin at HomeStory Cup XX — a grassroots-style tournament organized by TakeTV. The tournament offered a prize pool of roughly $25K USD, but Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke has decided that this number is simply not high enough. In a tweet from Lutke’s official Twitter account he said, “ I just realized that my favourite Starcraft tournament is this weekend near Berlin. I love Starcraft and esports — so I’ll double the prize pool to 50k.” Lutke’s affinity for StarCraft grabbed headlines last month as well as when he offered former pro player Ryoo “SeleCT” Kyung Hyun an internship with his company based on his “StarCraft accomplishments” alone.
New Game Releases (Credit: GameSpot)
- Pine — November 26 (Switch): Pine is a survival game set in a world where humans are not at the top of the food chain. To protect your tribe, you’ll have to craft weapons, trade goods, and befriend or betray other animal races as you journey to safety. Your actions have an effect on the world’s ecology too.
- The Escapists Double Pack — November 26 (PS4, Xbox One): Both of The Escapists titles give you the same task: escape from prison. Doing so requires a combination of planning, crafting, sneaking, and working together with your fellow inmates. The second game lets you do all that with friends in co-op, too. It also goes beyond earthly prisons, asking you to escape your cell in crazy locations like a moving desert train, a snowy mountain, and even outer space.
- Decay of Logos — November 26 (Switch): Taking cues from The Legend of Zelda series, Decay of Logos is full of dungeons to explore, puzzles to solve, and a variety of weapons and magic to try out in combat. As you journey to fight the Crimson Knights, you’ll ride atop your elk companion. The more you learn about the world, the stronger the bond with your elk will grow.
- Five Nights at Freddy’s 1–4 — November 29 (Switch): The Five Nights at Freddy’s games are pretty ubiquitous at this point, but here’s the elevator pitch: terrifying, malfunctioning animatronic mascots are out to get you. Thing is, they can’t move if you’re watching them. You’ll have to juggle security cameras and lock the doors if you hope to survive the night.
- Where The Water Tastes Like Wine — November 29 (Xbox One, Switch): Where The Water Tastes Like Wine is set in the United States during the Great Depression. As you travel around the country, you’ll encounter a cast of intriguing characters — though not all of them are even human. Each has a story to tell, and the more you talk to them, the more they’ll open up to you about their history.
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