Moving assets from game to game is going to be a game changer. However, it really requires the game companies and studios to work together – which they haven’t exactly done well in the past.
Fractal is a very interesting company that can hopefully bring more companies together. I could see this working very well on Steam or by a very large company like Activision Blizzard.
Take-Two Interactive have announced that they are planning to acquire Zynga for $12.7 billion.
This deal will bring the two worlds of Mobile Gaming and Console and PC Games together to make a powerhouse!
“We are thrilled to announce our transformative transaction with Zynga, which significantly diversifies our business and establishes our leadership position in mobile, the fastest growing segment of the interactive entertainment industry,” said Strauss Zelnick, Chairman and CEO of Take-Two, in a statement. “This strategic combination brings together our best-in-class console and PC franchises, with a market-leading, diversified mobile publishing platform that has a rich history of innovation and creativity. Zynga also has a highly talented and deeply experienced team, and we look forward to welcoming them into the Take-Two family in the coming months. As we combine our complementary businesses and operate at a much larger scale, we believe that we will deliver significant value to both sets of stockholders, including $100 million of annual cost synergies within the first two years post-closing and at least $500 million of annual Net Bookings opportunities over time.”
“Combining Zynga’s expertise in mobile and next-generation platforms with Take-Two’s best-in-class capabilities and intellectual property will enable us to further advance our mission to connect the world through games while achieving significant growth and synergies together,” added Frank Gibeau, CEO of Zynga. “I am proud of our team’s hard work to deliver a strong finish to 2021, with one of the best performances in Zynga’s history. We are incredibly excited to have found a partner in Take-Two that shares our commitment to investing in our players, amplifying our creative culture, and generating more value for stockholders. With this transformative transaction, we begin a new journey which will allow us to create even better games, reach larger audiences and achieve significant growth as a leader in the next era of gaming.”
Tencent is a giant in the world of Chinese technology and beyond. Today they have announced that they will be selling most of its stake in JD.com.
Tencent will reduce is staking from 17% to 2.3%.
The proceeds will help Tencent provide shareholders with a $16.4 billion dividend.
After long being JD’s largest stakeholder, Tencent will give the title to Walmart.
This seems to be a Tencent strategy that has paid off in the long term. Instead of Tencent looking to acquire many companies in adjacent industries – they have decided to acquire minority stakes in a huge number of technology companies globally.
Why?
Its far easy to own more when you own a minority. If Tencent were to acquire more companies – they would have issues with Government and regulator approval.
I have been watching Dark play Fortnite since pretty much the beginning of Fortnite. He has been on a long break from the game, but he is back!
We hit those!
Epic Games have announced that Chapter 2 Season 6 of Fortnite is beginning on the 16th March with an explosive event call – Zero Crisis Finale
Chapter 2 Season 6 launches on March 16th with the explosive conclusion of the events of season 5. When you first launch into the new season, you’ll play through the conclusion of Agent Jones’ mission in the Zero Crisis Finale. The aftermath of this event is sure to shape reality as we know it.
Don’t worry, the Zero Crisis Finale is a solo experience and you can play through it whenever you first log in during the season. Want to watch it online first? We’ll share details soon on how you can watch the global premiere with everyone, beginning with our most ambitious story cinematic yet!
There was a lot of talk that Fortnite would have Chapter 3 very soon, but it looks like Epic are going to stick to the 10 seasons inside every chapter.
I can’t wait to see what this event has to show!
It has been confirmed that PUBG Mobile will be removed for all Indian users on the 30th October – this accounts for 50 million Indian gamers.
India banned PUBG Mobile Nordic Map: Livik and PUBG Mobile Lite, along with over 100 apps with links to China on September 2.
Captain America is now live in Fortnite. Captain America costs 2,000 V-bucks (about $20) from the Fortnite in-game store.
Avengers invasion is coming?
Fortnite does seem to be the only game that is trying to cross promote characters from other areas of entertainment into gaming. It’s interesting and it’s fun!
Discord voice chats have been known to have quite a lot of background noise (especially when one of your friends has a mechanical keyboard). However, for sometime Discord has been working on suppressing that background noise and they currently have a new tool in early testing.
The company stressed that the technology, from Krisp, runs entirely locally and doesn’t share data with anyone else.
Development is still “early” for the noise suppression tech, and a phone version is in development. Don’t despair if the technology still feels rough around the edges, then — Discord still has a lot of work to do before noise suppression exits this test phase.
Twitch has seen a huge wave of growth in its viewership in most part due to coronavirus. Twitch wants to generate $1 billion in ad revenue and commerce this year, according to The Information. The company reportedly delivered about $300 million in ad revenue in 2019.
The only way Twitch are going to achieve this is by expanding beyond just hardcore gamers. Brands will want to see diversity of content – Games, Music, Chat, Entertainment and more.
Twitch seems to be the first part of Amazon’s grand plan for gaming. Amazon will soon launch its very first game from its recently established gaming studio.
It seems like in the business chat application world there are really only 2 big players – Microsoft Teams and Slack.
Here is a little list of other alternatives if you are looking for something different.