Multiplayer

• Humanity, Breadth & Institutional Sponsorship: Mike Murphy O'Reilly on the Evolving Brand Opportunities in Esports

  5 days ago News

  

  For all its snowballing success, esports arguably has a perception problem. Say ‘esports’ to those both inside and beyond the worlds of games, brands, and marketing, and they will perhaps imagine something like a vast arena with sweeping spotlights passing over 20,000 cheering fans, as pro players in heavily branded athletics jerseys do battle in a game like League of Legends. Perhaps a commentator will be unleashing flurries of jargon as a team manager nervously paces back and forth near the [...]

• The End Isn't Nigh? A Look at the Triple-A Gaming Shares Slump

  2 weeks ago News

  

  Over the past days and weeks, a number of the global games industry’s major triple-A publishers have seen share prices drop as finical results have come in. Electronic Arts (EA), which this week saw its Fortnite challenger Apex Legends enjoy a stellar launch, saw its share price fall by a peak of 19%, with Bloomberg identifying disappointing sales of the first-person shooter Battlefield V. As highlighted by Bloomberg, EA’s adjusted revenue is expected to come in at USD$1.17bn (£902m) for the quarter [...]

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• Analysis: Launching Apex Legends. Fortnite's greatest contender yet?

  2 weeks ago News

  

  A lot of businesses in the global game industry would like a slice of the ‘battle royale’ pie. And it’s no surprise. Fortnite is a battle royale game – sometimes called a ‘BR’ title – and we all know how well it has done. The shooter hit 200 million players in November last year. According to a source speaking to Tech Crunch, its creator Epic banked USD$3bn (£2.3bn) in revenue through 2018. But, more than all of that, the free-to-play competitive online [...]

• Behind the Data: Worldwide Digital Games Market Dips 2% Through December 2018

  4 weeks ago News

  

  The worldwide market for digital spending on games dipped 2% throughout December 2018. The festive period is typically a pivotal one for game downloads, as new devices arrive as Christmas presents, and gifted money is spent in app stores. But looking behind the new data – made public by Superdata – it appears that the dip isn’t too much to worry about. The 2% tail-off saw consumers spend a still considerable USD$9bn (£6.9bn) in December. The dip is really a quirk of bundling PC, console, [...]

• Discord's Gaming Store Bolstered by £118m Investment Round

  2 months ago News

  

  The gaming-centric voice chat platform Discord has raised USD$150m (£118m) in a round of funding that may position it to rival Valve and Epic’s efforts to dominate video game distribution platforms. The new round of funding, led by investment group Greenoaks Capital, also includes contributions from Firstmark, Index Ventures, IVP, Technology Opportunity Partners, and Tencent. Discord now courts an impressive USD$2.05bn (£1.6bn) valuation. It has been widely reported that Discord will use much of the money to bolster its restructured curated online [...]

• Out of Step? The Dancers Suing Fortnite Creator Epic

  2 months ago News

  

  Here at TheGamingEconomy, we’re not usually inclined to cover the latest developments in choreography, and muse over the thorny issue of ownership of dance moves. But then with Fortnite’s eccentric game universe continuing to dominate popular culture, anything is possible. And today being the day of the most Christmas parties all year, there’s a slim chance the games industry will be a little more uninhibited when it comes to dance right now. Over the past fortnight – no pun intended – a number [...]

• South Korea Declares Game-Boosting Services Illegal

  2 months ago News

  

  If you’re caught offering ‘boosting’ services to video game players in South Korea, you may now face a USD$17,800 (£14,000) fine, or two-years jail time. Boosting sees less-experienced users of a given game grant accomplished players access to their account for that title. The high-level player then ‘boosts’ the accessed account, deploying their skills to rapidly progress a player-character through a game. ‘Levelling up’ the player account typically opens access to higher levels of game competition, increased powers, and new weapons [...]

• Fortnite Hits 200 Million Players

  3 months ago News

  

  Video game sensation and global cultural phenomenon Fortnite now courts the attention of 200 million players. That’s according to Bloomberg, which points out that the shooter’s user base is now approximately comparable to the populace of sizeable nations like Brazil. Put another way, it’s well over 3x the entire population of the UK. That’s impressive for a handful of reasons. Fortnite is an established success, of course. Even so, the new user numbers mark a 60% increase from the 125 million registered [...]

• Q&A: Reality Clash & the Arrival of Blockchain-Powered AR

  3 months ago News

  

  Reality Clash is an in-development mobile AR shooter that integrates blockchain, cryptocurrencies, dynamic in-game advertising, and geo-mapping technology into the gameplay experience it offers. Yes… there are a lot of tech buzzwords in that opening line. We’d only need to throw in AI and VR and it might seem like a parody of contemporary marketing parlance. But in truth, there’s often a meaningful reality hidden somewhere behind the hype of headline-grabbing tech trends. And it just so happens that Reality Clash [...]

• Network Communication Capabilities Compromise Gamer Experience: Q&A with PacketZoom

  9 months ago News

  

  With a surge in popularity of multiplayer games, it comes in tandem with a number of challenges, not least of all with mobile app communication capabilities. TheGamingEconomy speaks exclusively with Shlomi Gian, CEO, and Chetan Ahuja, CTO, PacketZoom (both pictured), about the challenges developers need to consider, and how their new solution helps to mitigate these. TheGamingEconomy: PacketZoom has recently announced the launch of Mobile Connect – how does it work? Shlomi Gian and Chetan Ahuja: PacketZoom’s Mobile Connect is a turnkey cloud [...]