Activision Blizzard announced that the Call of Duty League will shift to an online-only competition, shedding the in-person events because of the coronavirus.
The fear of COVID-19 is taking its toll on esports events held in live venues, where there are risks of the virus spreading from person to person. Yesterday, Activision Blizzard’s Overwatch League also announced that it would cancel all…
Esports is tough: Super League Gaming lost $30.6 million on $1 million in revenue in 2019
March 12, 2020
Super League Gaming, an esports company that holds events for amateurs, reported that it lost $30.6 million in 2019, on revenues of $1 million.
That illustrates the reality of how it isn’t easy to make money in the fledgling esports market, at least for some…
Epic Games has acquired Cubic Motion, a provider of automated performance-driven facial animation technology for video games, film, broadcast, and immersive experiences such as virtual reality.
Cubic Motion has helped Epic on its quest to create graphically realistic virtual…
Activision Blizzard has named Google executive Daniel Alegre as president and chief operating officer, effective April 7. He will report to CEO Bobby Kotick and replace Coddy Johnson, a 12-year veteran at the big game publisher.
Johnson will serve as special advisor to the CEO. The Alegre appointment is significant, as Kotick has been in his role for decades.
Alegre isn’t a gaming executive.
Not even Doom Eternal will run at 4K on Google Stadia
March 11, 2020
Ultra HD 4K was one of the major promises that Google laid out for its Stadia cloud-gaming service at last year’s Game Developers Conference. Now, developer id Software is backpedaling on its claims of supporting that resolution on the platform.
While Doom is going to hit…
GamesBeat Decides 141: A Nintendo Direct approaches
March 11, 2020
We gotta go fast on this week’s episode of the GamesBeat Decides podcast. Reviews editor Mike Minotti has to run to get to his World of Warcraft raid because he is very cool, so that leaves PC gaming editor Jeff Grubb with a tight timeline to fit in all the news. And this…
Israel’s Toya creates social games for girls on Roblox
March 11, 2020
Toya is a game studio that makes social games on top of Roblox, but it is different because it is making games with girls and women in mind.
Roblox has 115 million monthly active players, and people engage with it more than 1.5 billion hours a month. The top games are getting more than a billion plays, and so it should come as no surprise that startups are forming to make products for this…
Twenty years ago, I remember interviewing Joe Kucan, an emerging star of video game acting, for his role as the villainous Kane of Command & Conquer. His bald head and mean face epitomized why the player had to save the world from this evil.
And now he’s coming back.
Blockchain Game Partners is building a blockchain-based infrastructure dubbed Gala to enable games where players own their own content and platforms don’t fleece developers for the games that they create.
It’s the brainchild of Eric Schiermeyer, the founder and CEO of…
The next Nintendo Direct is in the works. The publisher hasn’t confirmed the event yet, but it’s in the final stages of putting the video presentation together. That’s based on what we’re hearing as well as some other indicators. Expect a Nintendo Direct soon. The company is penciling in one of its indie showcases (like the one it released around GDC 2019) for next week — likely March…
