We are back! The GamesBeat Decides podcast took two weeks off because co-host Jeffrey Grubb had another kid. What was he thinking? But he has returned from parental leave, and co-host Mike Minotti and GamesBeat PC guest post editor Rowan Kaiser joins him. On this week’s episode, the GamesBeat Decides team talks about Apex Legends, […]
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One of my favorite parts of GamesBeat Summit is the connections attendees make, and the speakers we’re announcing today are some of the best people to know in the industry: Michael Pachter, Katie Hutcherson Madding, and Gregory Milken. They come bearing the news you need to know: top trends in the gaming world now, how to […]
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Hyperice has teamed up with the San Francisco Shock Overwatch League team to help cyberathletes with health and wellness initiatives. The deal shows how Hyperice’s business of catering to traditional athletes can transfer to esports players as well. Esports athletes are known to play for more than 60 hours a week, resulting in muscle soreness and […]
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Respawn Entertainment launched Apex Legends one week ago, and it has had a decent seven days since then. The studio revealed today that it has surpassed 25 million total players for the free-to-play battle royale. And the shooter had more than 2 million concurrent players during the peak of its first weekend. Apex Legends is […]
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PlayStation shows no sign of relinquishing its crown when it comes to TV budgets — Sony’s console brand accounted for over 43 percent of all industry spend in January. We also had some notable newcomers to the top five last month: Scopely, Square Enix, and Seriously Digital Entertainment made appearances. GamesBeat has partnered with iSpot.tv, […]
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It’s no secret that Facebook’s mishandling of consumer data has landed it in hot water. This forced the social-media behemoth’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg a date with Congress to explain how data from an estimated 87 million Facebook users was leveraged to influence voters during the 2016 election. And this blunder wasn’t a one time thing. […]
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GamesBeat Summit 2019 is a can’t-miss event. On April 23 + April 24, you’ll have the chance to connect with the biggest, brightest, and most interesting folks in the industry at Two Bit Circus, a “micro-amusement park” that’s like an arcade meets Ready Player One in the L.A. Arts District. To whet your appetite for […]
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Flashbreak has raised $2 million in funding for live mobile game competitions that reward gamers with real-money rewards. It’s sort of like HQ Trivia, in that everybody gathers at a particular time to compete in a show. Paris-based Flashbreak raised the money from French venture capital firm Alven and Kima Venture. It’s a kind of […]
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More than 70 percent of 100 casinos surveyed said that they plan to adopt skill-based games, or those where it takes skill to win, in the future. The survey was done by Synergy Blue, a creator of skill-based games and platforms. You would, of course, expect Synergy Blue to say that, as it wants to […]
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New York Excelsior (NYXL), one of the founding esports franchises of the Overwatch League and the first professional esports team to represent the city of New York, said T-Mobile has signed up as its presenting sponsor for the 2019 season. It’s another sign of the growing maturity of the esports economy, which is expected to grow […]
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Sports entertainment company Topgolf and Super League Gaming have announced a partnership to bring amateur competitive video game events to Topgolf venues across the country. Topgolf has built 52 venues where more than 17 million people a year use their driving ranges and other high-end entertainment. And in December, the company announced that it will create esports lounges at six […]
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NASCAR is hard at work preparing the debut of its new esports league, the eNASCAR Heat Pro League (eNASCAR). eNASCAR, a partnership between NASCAR and 704Games, will utilize 704’s simulation-style NASCAR Heat 3 game and is set to debut this spring. eNASCAR will feature 16 teams, including standout NASCAR teams such as Hendrick Motorsports, Richard […]
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Blizzard Entertainment announced a new wave of nerfs for Hearthstone, which will go into effect on February 5. These mostly target cards from the Classic and Basic sets, which have been a part of the digital card game since its 2014 launch. Hunter, currently the game’s most powerful class, is seeing two of its most powerful […]
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Mobile esports provider Skillz said that the top 10 mobile esports players earned more than $8 million in 2018, with seven of the 10 rankings claimed by women. The prizes earned by this year’s winners were three times larger than that earned by 2017’s top players, which is a good sign of the growth of esports […]
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FanAI, an esports audience analytics company, announced it has acquired esports data startup, Waypoint Media. It’s one more sign that esports is heating up, as market researcher Newzoo forecasts esports will become a $1.7 billion market by 2021. FanAI will integrate Waypoint’s tools into its existing platform to provide additional granular audience data points that […]
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State Farm announced today that it has entered a sponsorship agreement with Benjamin “DrLupo” Lupo, one of the most popular Fortnite streamers in the world. DrLupo often plays with Richard Tyler Blevins, the Fortnite player better known as Ninja, who is the most popular streamer in the world with over 13 million followers on Twitch. DrLupo has just […]
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Riot Games revealed three Asian cities as the 2019 host communities for the League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational, a global League of Legends tournament where the best teams from 13 regions compete against one another. Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City will host the play-in stage and group stage, respectively, and Taipei will host the […]
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Gen.G has signed Samsung Electronics as an official sponsor for the company’s esports teams. The move is the first since Gen.G named Chris Park as its CEO earlier this month, and it’s the kind of move necessary for esports to become a $1.7 billion market by 2020, as predicted by market research firm Newzoo. Seoul-based […]
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The news was still slow this past week, but we have plenty to talk about. On this week’s episode of the GamesBeat Decides podcast, hosts Jeffrey Grubb and Mike Minotti talk about their reviews for Resident Evil 2 and Kingdom Hearts III. The crew also gets into some details about the first 24 hours in […]
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Computers are getting more sophisticated than ever at understanding and playing complicated games. DeepMind, one of the leaders in artificial intelligence, proved that once again today with its latest A.I. agent called AlphaStar. During a livestream, this program took on two StarCraft II pros in a series of five matches for each, and AlphaStar swept […]
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