The International could be held outside of the US if travel restrictions remain in place

Valve head honcho Gabe Newell has suggested that his company may be forced to hold The International outside of the US if travel restrictions get any worse. When speaking to Polygon, Newell said that if restrictions on who can enter the US get any worse the company may be forced …

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Publishers report increased digital sales in 2016

It’s financial report season in the games industry, and several companies have revealed that digital sales are on the rise. Microsoft kicked things off stating its software sales and services revenue were up 18 per cent year-on-year, and that digital transactions reached $1bn [800m] this quarter. The company also revealed …

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Overwatch fastest Blizzard franchise to reach 25m players worldwide

Overwatch has become the fastest Blizzard franchise to reach 25m players worldwide, with its Q4 monthly active users reaching a new franchise high, Activision Blizzard revealed in its Q4 financial results. Overwatch also now holds the record for the strongest launch year in terms of financial performance, beating the previous …

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Trump’s travel restrictions force Cloud9 to drop out of IEM Katowice

Cloud9 has announced that they will not be competing at the Intel Extreme Masters Katowice later this month, partly due to the new US travel restrictions.  According to the announcement from IEM, Cloud9 have chosen not to travel over to Poland to compete in order to focus on their run …

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Parent company of the Boston Bruins invests heavily in Splyce

Delaware North, the company behind the Boston Bruins NHL team, has invested in eSports organisation Splyce.  Specifics of the deal were not announced, however Delaware North will be helping out the organization in multiple areas, and will hope to hold eSports events at the TD Garden, a venue that the …

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ESL extends paysafecard deal for another year

ESL has announced that it is extending its payment partner deal with paysafecard for another year.  The deal first started back in 2015, with paysafecard coming in as the payment partner for ESL events such as ESL One, the ESL CS:GO Pro League and many of the company’s regional competitions.  …

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No new Skylanders this year, but toy-to-life franchise isn’t dead yet

Activision’s toy-to-life franchise Skylanders won’t be back for 2017, the company has confirmed, but a new entry in the series will resurface at some point in the future, according to Eurogamer. With most of the Skylanders team at Vicarious Visions having now been moved on to work on Destiny, the …

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Margin Makers: Guide to LEGO merchandise

2016 was another good year for Warner Bros and LEGO in the UK. Although the publisher’s software market share decreased compared to 2015 (from 9.9 per cent in units to 6.4 per cent in 2016), there were still four LEGO games in the year’s Top 50. LEGO Star Wars: The …

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Comedian Rob Beckett to host the MCV Awards 2017

Comedian Rob Beckett will host this year’s MCV Awards. The 8 Out of 10 Cats team captain, plus regular guest on Mock the Week, Taskmaster, Live at the Apollo, has also appeared in sitcom Fresh Meat, Drunk Histories and co-hosted I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! The MCV …

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