PlayStation is skipping on attending E3 this year, just a few months before it plans to launch the PS5. A decade or so ago, that would have seemed like a very peculiar move. E3 has long been the place to announce and launch the biggest games and gaming platforms. It is famed as a media frenzy, where the world’s press amass to collect and share all the key gaming news. Indeed, it was the very first E3 in 1995 that saw one [...]

TheGamingEconomy Daily Digest brings you the trending business stories in gaming. In today’s edition: Facebook acquires cloud gaming outfit PlayGiga; Bidstack secures £10m Agency Trade Deal; and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare clears USD$1bn (£776.4m) in sales Facebook acquires cloud gaming outfit PlayGiga Social networking giant Facebook has acquired Madrid-based cloud gaming company PlayGiga. As reported by CNBC, the move furthers Facebook’s increasing presence in the gaming space, following the news that it picked up VR studio Beat Games last month. Equally, with [...]

TheGamingEconomy Daily Digest brings you the trending business stories in gaming. In today’s edition: Adobe acquires Facebook’s VR sculpting tool Medium; Epic Game Store enables third-parties to offer in-game purchases; Bethesda puts The Elder Scrolls Legends development on hold. Adobe acquires Facebook’s VR sculpting tool Medium Creative software provider Adobe has acquired the VR sculpting tool Medium from Facebook for an undisclosed sum. Launched by the social media giant in December 2016, the art tool previously let users of VR systems paint, sculpt [...]

Twitter isn’t a gaming platform. The social network may have seen a major uptake in gaming engagement in recent months, but while the likes of Facebook, WeChat and Kakao Talk have become homes for hyper casual, the micro-blogging platform has not. Still, there are lessons to be learned for game ad-tech providers – as well as game makers and publishers of ad-monetised games – after Twitter had a somewhat bad week. As reported by the BBC, on Thursday shares in Twitter fell by [...]

TheGamingEconomy Daily Digest brings you the trending business stories in gaming. In today’s edition: The FCC can repeal net neutrality; Rune raises USD$2m (£1.62m); and AlphaDream files for bankruptcy. The FCC can repeal net neutrality – Court of Appeals The US District of Columbia Court of Appeals has upheld the right of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to repeal net neutrality, ruling against Mozilla which brought the court case forward. However the court also ruled that individual states could maintain net neutrality [...]

Instant gaming outfit Knock Knock has secured USD$4m (£3.3m) in a Series A funding round led by March Capital Partners. It’s another encouraging story of success in the casual games sector, but there’s something more fascinating beyond the investment itself. Knock Knock is focused on instant games for messenger platforms, having so far launched two titles for the Facebook Instant Games platform. It’s relatively early days for the 2018-founded company, but those two games have enjoyed five million organic and viral installs. [...]

TheGamingEconomy Daily Digest brings you the trending business stories in gaming. In today’s edition: gamescom attracts 373,000 visitors; Steam business model ‘unrealistic’ according to Ubisoft; and Tik Tok adopts F2P-style video ads. gamescom attracts 373,000 visitors The 2019 edition of gamescom attracted record visitor numbers of 373,000 to Cologne from over 100 nations, according to figures released by organisers Verband der deutschen Games-Branche. This represents a rise of 3000, or 0.8%, on last year’s conference. A total of 1153 companies held exhibits [...]

Facebook is reportedly pursuing acquisitions and exclusivity deals in an effort to supply its VR hardware with big name, triple-A productions. That is according to The Information, which cites two insider sources with knowledge on the matter. One of those sources reported that deals have already been signed around Ubisoft game series like Assassin’s Creed and Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell. The idea appears to be to bolster the fortunes and longevity of Facebook’s Oculus VR hardware range through high-profile titles. Meanwhile, the [...]

As one of the dominant social platforms for teenage and young adult users, Snapchat is an obvious home for hyper casual instant games. That’s something the platform’s team are keenly aware of, it would seem, as a number of games have recently become available for Snapchat, each playable directly within the messaging service. Yesterday, for example, the internal Snapchat games division Snap Games released its seventh titlefor the platform, Bitmoji Tennis. The launch coincided neatly with Wimbledon, and continues the platform’s Bitmoji [...]

Seattle start-up Against Gravity has raised USD$24m (£18.9m) of VC funding. The money will help bolster Rec Room, the studio’s blend of social space, game compilation and user content generation platform. As reported by TechCrunch, Against Gravity raised the investment over two rounds of funding. The first Series A funding round was led by Sequoia, while Index Ventures spearheaded the second, Series B, which concluded recently. Investors in Against Gravity include Acequia Capital, Anorak Ventures, Betaworks, DAG Ventures, First Round Capital [...]