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FTC Gives Warner Bros a Slap on the Wrist for Shadow of Mordor Promotional Videos
There was a fair bit of controversy over Warner Bros’ promotion of the then-upcoming Middle-Earth Shadow of Mordor. WBIE was very selective about who they gave early access of the game to and who would be able to post video about it before release. This was part of a promotional effort with YouTube influencers to promote the game in the run up to launch.
The US Federal Trade Commission doesn’t have a problem with paid promotional videos for video games. They do have a problem when those videos try to hide or not disclose that they were paid advertisements as was the case with the Shadow of Mordor videos. The FTC and WB reached a settlement over the matter and WB got off fairly lightly.
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Nintendo Shares Soar on Pokemon Go Popularity
It might not be out worldwide yet and revenue totals haven’t been tallied but Pokemon Go is already a smash hit for Nintendo. In the two business days since Nintendo’s latest mobile game was launched, their stock has climbed over 30% and added $7.5 billion to the value of Nintendo.
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Steam Summer Sale Sees 50% Revenue Increase
While many gamers say that they don’t like the new format of Steam’s regular sales which has seen the end of daily and flash deals, the result of the sale says something completely different. According to Steam Spy, the year-to-year sales of the Steam Summer Sale suggests that gamers will more than happily take a discount with revenue increasing by almost 50% from the 2015 sale.
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Tencent Buys Supercell for $8.6 Billion
The ultimate pay-to-win isn’t Clash of Clans or Clash Royale but it’s for Clash developer Supercell itself. Chinese investment company Tencent has reportedly purchased a majority share in the mobile game developer for a reported price of $8.6 billion which would value the company at around $10.2 billion.
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E3 2016: Has The Industry Killed E3?
I don’t know about you but it seems like this year’s edition of E3 was generally underwhelming. It felt like we knew what was coming from the triple-A publishers before most of it ever appeared on stage at a press briefing. Sure, the videos were new content but the actual titles announced and demonstrated on-stage were almost all public knowledge before they were supposed to be public knowledge. The industry has been shifting to a continuous hype train for upcoming games and it’s made E3 needless as a result.
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E3 2016: Microsoft Introduces “Play Anywhere” Cross-Buy Plan for Xbox One and Windows 10
One of the recurring themes of the Xbox press briefing on Monday was that games that are Xbox One exclusive will also be exclusive on PC to Windows 10. For PC gamers who have upgraded to Windows 10, this was the press conference that they’ve been waiting for from Microsoft. However, there was another treat in store for PC gamers. Microsoft announced their new Xbox Play Anywhere program that allows gamers to buy a select game once and play it on both Xbox One and Windows 10.
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Reports Say the “Next-Gen” Xbox One Will Be Four Times as Powerful as Current Model
Much like Sony is working on a not insignificant upgrade to the PlayStation 4, it has been something of an open secret that Microsoft is working on an upgraded version of the Xbox One. What wasn’t known until this week was how much of an upgrade the next Xbox One would be but reports from Kotaku and Polygon suggest that the next Xbox, codenamed Scorpio, won’t just be a minor improvement to balance power with the PlayStation but blow it and the current Xbox One out of the water.
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Report Suggests that ESPN and Riot Games are in Talks for LCS TV Broadcast Deal
With the explosion in popularity of eSports viewership worldwide, people have been wondering if eSports will make the jump to TV. We’ve seen ESPN take an interest in major eSports competitions of late with broadcasts of The International and Heroes of the Dorm on ESPN2 with the League of Legends World Championship streamed on ESPN3 along with a newly-founded eSports news division.
Now, a report from PVP Live suggests that ESPN’s presence in the eSports community could expand. They’re reporting that Riot Games and ESPN have been talking about a TV broadcast deal for LCS.
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Nintendo Rumoured to be Funding Beyond Good and Evil Sequel
It’s not unusual to see console manufacturers step in to bail out third-party publishers to help them make games that wouldn’t otherwise be made. In the last year, we have seen Sony step in to fund Street Fighter V while Microsoft stepped in to continue Lara Croft’s adventure in Rise of the Tomb Raider.
Rumours suggest that Nintendo is getting in on that act. A source for accurate games industry news leaked documents to the press that indicates that Nintendo is throwing its money on a sequel to Beyond Good and Evil.
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Four Companies Won’t Be on the Floor at E3 2016
It used to be the most important week in gaming. Now, it looks as though it isn’t just the gamers and the press that think that the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo, better known as E3, has lost some of its luster. Some of the biggest names in the industry don’t see it as the be all and end all of gaming.
Over the last few months, four companies have publicly announced that they won’t have a presence on the floor of E3 this year. In January, EA announced that they wouldn’t be at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Over the last week, Activision, Disney Interactive and Wargaming all announced they wouldn’t be at the LACC either.
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