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American Gaming Market Generates Record $60.4 billion in Spending
Big gaming turns out to be big money. The latest annual report on the US video games industry by The NPD Group shows record spending by Americans on video games with an 8% year-over-year increase from 2020.
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Microsoft Buys Activision Blizzard for Almost $70 Billion (Updated)
One of the biggest publishers in gaming is now part of one of tech’s biggest conglomerates. After being mired deep in scandal for the last seven months, Activision Blizzard has been acquired by Microsoft for $68.7 billion in an all-cash deal.
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PlayStation’s MLB: The Show Franchise to go Multi-Platform
Baseball has been without a major multi-platform game since 2K pulled the plug on the franchise after their 2013 game. Since then, baseball games have been limited to the PC management simulator Out Of The Park Baseball, MLB Advanced Media’s in-house developed RBI Baseball and the PlayStation-exclusive MLB: The Show.
That is soon to change. No, a new player isn’t entering the space but one is expanding. As part of an extension of their licensing agreement, Major League Baseball and Sony Interactive Entertainment announced that not only will the MLB: The Show series continue but it will be coming to multiple platforms as soon as 2021.
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The Revenue and Cost of Games vs. Movies [Infographic]
Analysts and columnists love talking about the spiraling costs of video games. Obviously, video games are getting more expensive over time since the likes of Space Invaders was made by less than two-dozen people while Red Dead Redemption 2 had a staff of over 170 times that of Space Invaders.
However, it’s also not like they can’t afford the costs. The video games industry is worth over $135 billion in revenue annually. For comparison, that’s three times the revenue that the movie industry generates. Sure, microtransactions play a large part in that revenue figure but it’s still interesting to see gaming grow into such a massive industry from both a revenue and expense perspective.
For a little more information, we have these handy infographics.
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Google Stadia to Launch with Only 12 Games
The long-awaited, much-hyped Google video game streaming service is coming next week. However, early adopters of the service when it launches on November 19th will only find a dozen games on the service with only one of those being exclusive to the platform.
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YouTube Terms of Service Update Has Content Creators Concerned
Every so often, something happens over at YouTube that has content creators worried that the end is nigh for them and/or the website that hosts their content. So far, YouTube has come out mostly unscathed while YouTubers have found alternate ways of making a living creating online video content. Between the “adpocalypse,” copyright claim abuses, concerns over the application of community guidelines for monetization and ongoing changes to the YouTube discoverability algorithm, it’s seldom smooth sailing for your favourite YouTuber.
The latest changes to YouTube’s Terms of Service is doing nothing to allay those concerns as two lines are getting YouTubers concerned for their future… again.
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China to Limit Online Gaming Time for Minors
The biggest gaming market in the world is making changes that will limit the length of time and amount of money that minors can spend on their favourite online games. China announced new guidelines that they believe will “[protect] the physical and mental health of minors.”
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Alberta to Eliminate Digital Media Tax Credit
If you’ve ever wondered why so many gaming developers and publishers have studios in Canada, it’s because of various forms of government support given to these companies to create jobs. Various levels of government have provided funding to companies in the forms of loans, grants and tax breaks.
One province that just put some more skin in the game to promote gaming and similar digital industries has just gotten right out of it. The recently elected government of Alberta has announced that their upcoming provincial budget will eliminate the province’s Interactive Digital Media Tax Credit which might leave some current and future plans for developers in the province in question.
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Battlefront II Reducing Hero Prices, Keeping Loot Box Based Progression
A little over 24 hours after its community team scored the worst received comment in Reddit history, EA and DICE have responded to the criticism of the cash-grabbing practices in Star Wars: Battlefront II by announcing changes to the pricing of the unlockable hero characters in the game.
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EA Tries to Defend Battlefront II, Gets Most Downvoted Comment in Reddit History
Gamers have been vocally opposed to the industry’s move to introduce more microtransactions and loot boxes into games, especially when they can upset the balance of a competitive multiplayer experience.
This battle between the gamers opposed to constant and unbalanced microtransactions and publishers who are putting millions in their pockets through said microtransactions has come to a head in the run up to Star Wars: Battlefront II. EA’s defense of their progression through loot box acquisitions and the advantage of paying to progress was so bad that it is the most disliked comment in the history of Reddit.
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