Esports
Raleigh’s esports résumé grows with Rocket League World Championship qualifier
The Rocket League Championship Series Major tournament in
Raleigh this week is expected to draw more than 5,000 fans per day to the Lenovo Center and generate
more than 10,000 hotel room nights, according to the Greater Raleigh Convention and Visitors Bureau.
NBA Take-Two Media CEO aims to create authentic reality programming universe with new venture
NBA Take-Two Media CEO Andrew Perlmutter said the goal
behind the new
media venture is to create an engaging and entertaining universe of reality style programming
where NBA players, celebrities, creators and regular fans can participate.
Counter-Strike’s Austin Major a step toward city, Moody Center building an esports business
Texas is one of the cradles of competitive gaming in the
U.S., with the legacies of studios such as id Software, Ensemble Studios, Origin Studios and Origin
Systems and events such as QuakeCon (coming in August) still felt in today’s scene (over 100
development houses, not counting smaller indies, s...
SBJ Gaming: Out of the Park Baseball’s formula for success
The May 15 edition of SBJ Gaming checks in on Out of the
Park Baseball, Riot Games' latest esports sponsorship deal, Blast's first office in the United
States and Winners Alliance making a 500-player deal with World Cricket Championship 3.
Blast opens U.S. HQ in New York, its first stateside office
Blast is expanding its North American presence with its
first-ever U.S. office in NYC. This joins offices in Copenhagen, London and Berlin for the for the
nine-year-old gaming event organizer, with another outpost coming in Mumbai. The new office will
serve as the HQ for Blast’s U.S. operations, wit...
Riot Games signs Coinbase as League of Legends, Valorant esports sponsor
Riot
Games’ latest multiyear deal is with cryptocurrency
exchange Coinbase, which will become a sponsor of League
of Legends and Valorant events and the exclusive crypto exchange and official blockchain
sponsor for the publisher’s competitive gaming business.
Esports World Cup CEO sees event as extension of Saudi Arabia’s business goals
The Esports World Cup this summer in Saudi Arabia will
bring a lineup of 25 tournaments in 24 games over eight weeks in July and August, with a total prize
pool of over $70 million.
SBJ Gaming: Jessica Pegula answers the Call (of Duty)
The March 20 edition of the SBJ Gaming newsletter features
WTA No. 4-ranked player Jessica Pegula's activation with Call of Duty: Mobile, EA Sports boosting
its NIL money for College Football 26 and the Knicks' Karl-Anthony Towns' snazzy Assassin's Creed:
Shadows apparel.
Raleigh set to host '25 Rocket League Championship
Rocket League is a soccer-like video game for PCs and
consoles where the players are vehicles rather than humans, developed and published by Psyonix,
which Cary, N.C.-based Epic Games acquired in 2019.
Where will A’s and Rays play in MLB: The Show 2025?
I may be the only person thinking about this, but indulge
me, please. With the A’s playing at the River Cats’
SutterHealth Park in West Sacramento for the next few years, and the Rays setting up shop at Steinbrenner Field (the Yankees’ spring training home)
for 2025, I’m quite curious about how whic...
Newzoo’s Pulse shows how the beautiful game trumps football on the world stage
EA Sports FC 25 is the top sports and racing game by
player engagement for 2024, per Newzoo’s Pulse, a market research monitor from SBJ’s sister company
that charts play and streaming activity of games.
Sports Media Podcast: EA's Andrea Hopelain breaks down the 'Madden Cast'
"We are in a really exciting moment in time where what
everybody has known us for over the last many years, building arguably the best sports simulation
video games on the planet, that is true, including our beloved Madden," said Hopelain, a 2024 SBJ
Game Changer. "But we're really beginning to shif...
What will be the biggest thing in sports gaming in 2025?
After more than a year of rumors, look for Nintendo to
confirm that the Switch 2 not only exists but also announce a launch date (my money’s on the 2025
holiday season, but don’t be surprised if it doesn’t come out as late as March 2026). The big sports
games from EA and 2K have struggled to find co...
Return of EA Sports College Football drove gaming headlines in 2024
In sports gaming, the biggest story of 2024 is EA Sports
College Football 25. After sleeping away the past 11 years, it roared back and smashed every
realistic expectation, becoming the best-selling sports game of all time. When it came out in July, it
captured the attention of the wider sports medi...
NBC Sports to produce its first live sports alt-cast in Madden-themed Chiefs-Texans on Peacock
NBC Sports is preparing its first live sports alt-cast,
offering a Madden-themed viewing option on Peacock of the Chiefs-Texans Saturday matinee. The
production is a joint effort from NBC, the NFL, EA Sports and Genius Sports, whose data and graphics
will help annotate the action in the spirt of the...
EA Sports College Football 25 is the best-selling sports game of all time in the U.S.
“EA Sports College Football 25 was a highly anticipated
title prior to launch, but just how big it would be was the question. Once initial sales rolled in,
it was clear that it had a shot at becoming the No. 1 seller, then the question became when it would
overtake,” said Circana Executive Director/...
Golden Tee maker looking to expand games, competitive leagues
Golden Tee has been around 35 years, and Incredible
Technologies is looking for ways to expand not just the games it offers but also strike competitive
gaming deals with companies such as Dave & Buster’s or Buffalo Wild Wings.
Undisputed’s surprising early success shows fan desire for boxing games
Boxing games haven’t garnered the attention of the broader
audience for a long time, but Undisputed is turning heads. It’s performance on the best-sellers list
in October certainly caught me off guard -- as it did with the chart’s curator, Circana Executive
Director/Video Games Mat Piscatella.
TNT, Genius, 2K team on gamified NBA alt-casts
TNT Sports will broadcast gamified alt-casts of next
week’s 2024 Emirates NBA Cup knockout rounds in partnership with Genius Sports and NBA 2K.
Rezzil releases Premier League Player VR soccer game
Cognitive training company Rezzil released Premier
League Player on Tuesday, the first officially-licensed virtual reality soccer game. Rezzil
signed a four-year deal with England’s top soccer league back in March. Built using
Second Spectrum’s next-generation mesh tracking system Dragon— which uses...
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Quote of the Day
If we expand, it provides us with an opportunity to geographically realign. I think we could save a lot of wear and tear on our players in terms of travel. I think our postseason format would be even more appealing for entities like ESPN.-- MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred, on the possibility of realigning divisions based on geography as the league expands in the future.
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