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“We would like to address an expectation of ours that was not met by our newest champion, Chris ‘Dubby’ McFarland.” That’s EA announcing that the Madden Bowl winner was fined $US3,000 ($3,914) for inappropriate posts he made on social media, even after the publisher warned him.
STAT | $US696 ($908) million – The size of the worldwide eSports market in 2017, as projected by Newzoo. The research firm believes most of that money will come from sponsors and advertisers, with only $US64 ($84) million coming from consumer spending on tickets and merchandise.
STAT | $US20 ($26) million – The total investment over five years that Nazara Games has committed to developing the eSports ecosystem within India.
QUOTE | “This move puts us in the best position to grow the service even further.” – PlayStation Now senior marketing manager Brian Dunn explains why Sony is killing the streaming game service on all platforms except the PS4 and PC.
STAT | 12 – The number of times Grand Theft Auto V has topped the UK’s weekly retail sales chart since its launch in 2013. Only Zumba Fitness (13 weeks), Wii Fit (16 weeks), and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (18 weeks!) have taken the top spot more frequently.
QUOTE | “In IT, we have a saying; stay away from the Three Os: Orientals, Old People and Ovaries.” – A piece of advice from a hiring seminar at Magic Leap, according to a sexual discrimination lawsuit against the augmented reality firm brought by former VP of strategic marketing and brand identity Tannen Campbell.
QUOTE | “As soon as game companies start to do well, they cease the sharing of their data.” – Superdata CEO Joost van Dreunen gives one reason that efforts to chart digital sales of games have been slow to develop.
STAT | 1 – The number of weeks in Early Access it took for Funcom’s open-world survival MMO Conan Exiles to earn back the money invested in it, with 320,000 players out of the gate.
QUOTE | “There aren’t many publishers that are really worth your time as a developer. What they bring to you needs to be very clear. If they don’t have good grounding in social media, communication and press then it’s not worth it.” – Reigns developer Francois Alliot offers advice for creators on the lookout for partners.
STAT | $US900,000 ($1,174,320) – The amount of money sought on Kickstarter by a group of developers hoping to make an Apocalypse Now game. When the campaign wound down with only $US173,000 ($225,730) pledged in support, they cancelled the campaign and started a separate crowdfunding push on their own site with a goal of $US5.9 ($8) million.
QUOTE | “It’s not a numbers game. You can’t take 10 or 20 or 30 or 100 stabs and hope one makes it.” – Wilhelm Österberg, GM and managing director of Snowprint’s new Berlin studio, explains how quantity-over-quality attitudes led to layoffs in multiple German developers in the last year.
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