News of the Week; June 5, 2019

GAMES

1. Mario Kart-themed go-kart company loses against Nintendo in court, again
2. Iron Maiden is suing Ion Maiden dev 3D Realms for trademark infringement
3. Iron Maiden sue 3D Realms over Early Access title Ion Maiden: Metal band accuses developer of “incredibly blatant” infringement
4. Mobile developer DoubleJump accused of cloning: Cannon Brawl creator Theresa Duringer claims Canadian studio copied her competition entry
5. Blog: FAQ on The Protecting Children from Abusive Games Act
6. United States Senator Proposes Law to Regulate Microtransactions and Loot Boxes
7. Games on the Google Play Store now required to disclose loot box odds
8. Google Play mandates odds disclosure for loot boxes: Android storefront also tweaks rules regarding hate speech and sexual content
9. Google Play Now Requires Disclosure of Loot Box Odds
10. Google’s New Play Store Policies Make Developers Disclose The Odds Of Getting Good Items In Loot Boxes
11. Google introduces stricter Families policies to protect younger players: Android developers will now need to declare their target audience and ensure their title does not unintentionally attract children
12. Google to reveal Stadia pricing information this week: More details on the streaming service’s launch and games will arrive on Thursday
13. Report: Destiny 2 is coming to Google Stadia
14. 238 Google Play apps with >440 million installs made phones nearly unusable
15. Don’t Miss: How Dicey Dungeons balances chance and predictability
16. Cloud platform Coherence wants to ‘democratize’ online game development
17. Sony: Microsoft cloud partnership was a response to Google Stadia – PlayStation’s Jim Ryan says new thinking is required to avoid, “having events around us overtake us”
18. Sony could use ‘cross-generational play’ to soften next-gen transition
19. PlayStation Plus prices to rise in Asia and Europe: Price increases take effect in August, will vary by country and type of subscription
20. Online gaming disorder test calls for volunteers: Academics plan to use the data to further study the impact of newly-classified condition
21. Researchers pit DeepMind AI against human Quake IIIplayers
22. Did Fallout 76 launch too early or just in time to be saved?
23. Niantic is ending Apple Watch support for Pokemon Go
24. tvOS 13 and iOS 13 will support PlayStation 4 and Xbox One controllers
25. Minecraft Earth gets first live demo, coming to iOS “this summer”
26. Support for Telltale’s Minecraft: Story Mode will end this month: “As you might have heard, its publisher is no longer in business,” Mojang said
27. Apple expands tvOS gaming with PS4, Xbox One S controller support: Say goodbye to fiddly third-party MFi controllers.
28. Missed Kinect-tions – E3 in the time of motion controls –  10 Years Ago This Month: Microsoft unveils Project Natal, Sony debuts the Move controller, and optimism runs unchecked
29. Who really won E3 2018?: With another E3 fast approaching, we look back at the big games of last year that went on to become commercial hits
30. First UK digital chart: Total War: Three Kingdoms was last week’s true No.1 – Team Sonic Racing would have had to settle for No.2
31. Three Kingdoms breaks Total War records with 1m sold: Strength in the Chinese market pushed Creative Assembly’s game to a new launch week record
32. War Stories: How This War of Mine manipulates your emotions
33. Next-gen consoles must not “segregate” Rainbow Six community: Ubisoft’s Alexandre Remy wants to maintain one community for Rainbow Six Siege
34. Microsoft rebrands Windows 10 Xbox app as the Xbox Console Companion 
35. Gears 5 to launch on Steam as Xbox opens up to other PC stores: Xbox Game Studios titles will now launch on multiple PC stores to provide, “choice in where you buy your PC games”
36. BlueStacks Inside aims to give mobile devs a painless way to launch on Steam
37. Blog: Marketing an upcoming Steam game
38. To Infinite and beyond: Attracting new Halo fans without a new game – 343 Industries’ Kiki Wolfkill explains how the studio’s transmedia efforts will prepare the world for Master Chief’s return
39. Two of Korea’s largest gaming firms bid for Nexon parent company: Netmarble and Kakao joined by three equity firms in bid for NXC
40. Mail.ru plans to enter digital distribution space with launch of new gaming brand: My.Games will continue work of parent company’s gaming division in developing, publishing, and funding new titles
41. Hardware and software sales on the decline at GameStop
42. GameStop share price hits 16-year low after Q1 results
43. GameStop shares plummet nearly 39%: VSpecialty retailer trading at lowest price since 2003 after reporting sinking sales and halting shareholder dividends
44. GameStop quarterlies show slumping sales: Collectibles and new Switch hardware sales are up, but nearly everything else is down as retailer eliminates quarterly shareholder dividends
45. GameStop COO and CFO Rob Lloyd steps down amid executive shuffle
46. Sports Direct makes £51.9m offer for GAME: Retail giant triggers cash offer for full GAME retail business after acquiring another 10%
47. Coherence: “Lowering the barrier to entry has always proved to be a game changer” – Dino Patti on joining forces with David Helgason and Peter Björklund to democratise online game development
48. Microsoft is bringing Xbox Game Pass to Windows PC
49. Microsoft to launch Xbox Game Pass on PC: Custom version of the service will have 100+ games, including day-and-date launches of first-party titles
50. Xbox Game Pass is coming to Windows 10, but many questions remain
51. Esports Upstart 100 Thieves Signs Gaming Luminary Jack ‘CouRage’ Dunlop
52. Take-Two CEO: “Fortnite never affected the industry” –  Strauss Zelnick explains why free-to-play games won’t change premium business models, and why platform revenue share splits may soon change
53. ‘Fortnite’ Champ Nick ‘Nickmercs’ Kolcheff Joins FaZe Clan After Abrupt Departure From 100 Thieves
54. Audience Growth For ‘Fortnite’ Gamers Ninja And KittyPlays Stays Strong Ahead of E3
55. FaZe Clan Is Being Sued For “Ransacking” The Office It Shared With Former Partner Company Hubrick
56. Riot Games launches premium viewing service for LoL esports: Pro View will be available for this summer’s esports competitions, with prices starting at $14.99
57. Tencent reportedly gives up on Arena of Valor: Tencent spokesman denies reports overseas marketing and sales team were disbanded
58. Zynga launches Tiny Royale on Snapchat
59. Zynga launches Snap Games-exclusive battle royale game
60. Quake III Arena is the latest game to see AI top humans
61. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare brings cross-platform play to the series
62. In Call of Duty: Modern Warfare’s campaign you’ll play both as soldiers and ‘freedom fighters’ – As special forces you’ll have high-tech gear, but as a rebel you’ll have to make do with improvised weapons and guerrilla tactics.
63. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare reveal: Old name, new campaign, new brutality
64. Apple’s ARKit 3 offers real-time people occlusion and motion capture
65. Dragon Quest Walk is a Pokemon Go-style AR game from Square Enix
66. UK Charts: Blood & Truth is the first VR game to claim No.1: In a tight boxed chart, the PlayStation VR critical hit storms to the top
67. Nintendo brings Labo VR support to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
68. Report: VR/AR company Leap Motion sold to UltraHaptics for $30 million
69. The clash between storytelling and selling in Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery – Jam City president Josh Yguado on the challenge of monetising the world famous franchise responsibly
70. The balance between fact and fantasy when building game worlds: Croteam’s Nika Dvoravic shares how studying architecture has – and hasn’t – helped her work on Serious Sam
71. Failbetter Games’ quest to eradicate crunch: Adam Myers and Hannah Flynn talk about making Sunless Skies with a dedication to ethical development practices
72. Bossa Studios to close Worlds Adrift in July: Ambitious MMO made with SpatialOS lasted one year in Early Access, but didn’t find a big enough audience
73. Bulletstorm and Gears of War developer People Can Fly opens New York studio
74. Stillfront acquires War Commander dev Kixeye for $90 million
75. Stillfront Group acquires Kixeye for $90m: Global studio group continues to grow portfolio with four live titles from mobile RTS developer
76. Discovery launches Discovery Game Studios for licensing, distribution: Label has 12 games launched and more on the way in partnership with Ubisoft, Jam City, and others
77. Starbreeze is laying off a quarter of its entire workforce
78. Starbreeze lays off a quarter of its staff in further efforts to cut costs: Struggling Swedish publisher makes organisational changes that will save £310,000 per month
79. Starbreeze applies for second extension on reconstruction period: Troubled Swedish publisher wants another three months to get itself back on track
80. YoYo Games shuts down publishing division after struggling to ‘add value’
81. YoYo Games closes publishing division: Also halves mobile licence cost in hopes of attracting more developers
82. Quantic Dream pushes into third-party publishing with new hire: Microsoft veteran Sebastian Motte will be director of third-party studios at the French company
83. Zynga sells San Francisco headquarters for $600m
84. Tesla’s next big feature is… a port of Cuphead?
85. Cuphead is launching for Tesla cars
86. Cuphead arriving on Tesla dashboards later this year: Punishing bullet hell platformer joins Atari classics on in-car systems
87. GameBender console merges video games with kid-friendly programming 
88. (Religious Game) Developer or Religious (Game Developer)?
89. Indie publisher Raw Fury has acquired the rights to theKingdom franchise
90. Blog: On narrative from a cognitive perspective
91. Blog: On narrative from a cognitive perspective – Part 2
92. Don’t Miss: Ray Muzyka’s Baldur’s Gate II postmortem
93. Don’t Miss: Why are so many devs employing a retro ’90s aesthetic?
94. Don’t Miss: 9 things we can learn about game design fromDark Souls
95. Video: Using empathy as a game mechanic in Unravel 
96. Video: The things I wish I knew before becoming an art director
97. Video: How Blizzard brought Orphea to Heroes of the Storm 
98. Video: Building interactive worlds the Walt Disney Imagineering way
99. Game Design Deep Dive: Frenetic local multiplayer inEmergency Water Landing
100. Eight ways your games can inspire climate action: “I want to see games trade material growth for social growth,” says Fe designer and climate activist Hugo Bille
101. MAME for the masses? “Legends” arcade cabinet could thread that needle
102. Gearbox names Borderlands 3 gun after fan with terminal cancer: Trevor Eastman was also able to play a section of the game ahead of its September launch
103. The Institute of Play is winding down after 11 years
104. Institute of Play shutting down: New York non-profit focused on integrating game design with education closes after 11 years
105. Control pre-E3 hands-on: The modern-day X-Men video game we’ve always wanted
106. Post-End Game, Russo Brothers to adapt Magic: The Gatheringfor Netflix
107. Netflix and Avengers Endgame directors working on a Magic The Gathering TV show: Wizards of the Coast is bringing its 25 year-old IP to the screen
108. RPG Time: The Legend of Wright, The Missing, and more awarded at BitSummit
109. Detroit: Become Human, Nintendo Labo among Games for Change Awards finalists
110. Thumper: Pocket Edition and Ordia among 2019 Apple Design Award winners

DIGITAL

1. The New Commissioner of Competition Requests Changes to Address Digital Economy Challenges
2. Fixing Fair Dealing for the Digital Age: What Lies Behind the Copyright Review’s Most Important Recommendation (Michael Geist)
3. The Authoritative Canadian Copyright Review: Industry Committee Issues Balanced, Forward-Looking Report on the Future of Canadian Copyright Law (Michael Geist)
4. This Is Why We Can’t Have Fun Things: The Copyright Dispute Over Lord Buckethead’s UK Political Career
5. Federal Court Issues A Very Good Very Bad Decision Where Copyright And Free Speech Meet
6. European Court Of Justice Suggests Maybe The Entire Internet Should Be Censored And Filtered
7. Facebook Investors Voted in Support of Proposals to Fire Mark Zuckerberg as Chairman, but Zuckerberg Still Holds Power
8. Congressional hearings signal growing antitrust problems for big tech
9. House starts antitrust probe of Facebook, Google, other tech giants: It’s meant to be a sweeping investigation of Silicon Valley companies.
10. Facebook, Google stocks fall on imminent antitrust probes
11. Killing News Comments Only Solidified Google, Facebook Dominance
12. Facebook Screws Up a Critical Piece of Its Anti-Revenge Porn Tech
13. This is Silly: Pelosi Says Facebook Is A ‘Willing Enabler’ Of Russian Election Meddling. It Is Not
14. Shallow Fakes: Why Facebook Was Right Not To Delete The Doctored Video Of Nancy Pelosi
15. Sheriff’s Deputy Sued After Arresting Man For Criticizing Him On Facebook
16. Facebook Fails To Block EU Court Case That Could Rule Against Most Transatlantic Data Flows
17. Twitter acquires AI startup to help it fight fake news: Its technology has a 93 percent success rate in detecting fake news, according to ‘TechCrunch.’
18. Twitter And Liz Mair Explain Why Devin Nunes’ Lawsuit Doesn’t Belong In Virginia
19. We Found The Guy Behind the Viral ‘Drunk Pelosi’ Video: The video was uploaded by a sports blogger from the Bronx, currently on probation for domestic battery.
20. The 2020 campaigns aren’t ready for deepfakes
21. On YouTube’s Digital Playground: YouTube’s Recommendation Algorithm Is Under Scrutiny For Surfacing Harmful Content
22. On YouTube’s Digital Playground, an Open Gate for Pedophiles
23. YouTube’s “Wormhole” Of Videos And Comments Fetishizing Young Children Is Still Thriving
24. An update on our efforts to protect minors and families
25. YouTube bans neo-Nazi and Holocaust-denial videos in push against hate speech
26. YouTube Bans Supremacist Content, Including Neo-Nazi and Holocaust Denial Videos
27. YouTube To Remove Thousands Of Extremist Videos, But Rules Steven Crowder’s Harassment Of Carlos Maza Can Stay
28. YouTube harassment of gay journalist “doesn’t violate our policies”: Video platform appears to demonetize YouTuber Stephen Crowder, conditions of reinstatement unclear
29. YouTube Bans Kids From Live-Streaming Video Unless Accompanied by an Adult
30. YouTube Pivots Physical ‘Spaces’ Strategy To Emphasize Region-Specific Pop-Ups 
31. YouTube Integrates Ticket Vendor AXS To Help Artists Bolster Concert Sales
32. YouTube Will Debut Augmented Reality Ads That Let Users Virtually Try On Lipsticks
33. How T-Series took over YouTube
34. Top 50 Most Viewed YouTube Channels Worldwide • Week Of 6/2/2019
35. Montreal-Based YouTube Giant WatchMojo Taps Bank As It Seeks Potential Sale
36. German Political Leader Questions YouTubers’ Right To Tell Fans Not To Vote For Her Party, Urgently Summons Her Advisers In Response — By Fax
37. Patrick Starrr Launches Influencer Incubator And Management Agency ‘The Beauty Coop’
38. Influencer Marketing Council Releases “Fraud Best Practices and Guidelines”
39. Influencer Marketing Council Provides Tips on Influencer Fraud 
40. Insights: Beating Burnout, The Biggest Threat To Influencers Everywhere
41. Beware of the “influencer” 
42. The Florida Bar Regulates, But Doesn’t Ban, Competitive Keyword Ads (Eric Goldman)
43. ‘They have you in a cultish grip’: the women losing thousands to online beauty schemes
44. KSI’s Video Response To Deji Gets Demonetized After Copyright Claim From Logan Paul
45. Supreme Court Opens Door to Antitrust Claims Against Online Platforms in Apple Inc. v. Pepper
46. Apple CEO Denies the Tech Giant Is a Monopoly but Says U.S. ‘Scrutiny Is Fair’
47. Apple will soon kill off iTunes and, with it, an entire era of music history
48. Insights: Apple Dumps The Web, And iTunes, In An App-Driven Privacy Push
49. Apple Is Officially Killing iTunes for Mac, Replacing It With Three Dedicated Media Apps
50. Apple is being sued by iOS devs over ‘profit-killing’ App Store fees
51. Answers to some of your iTunes questions: Old libraries, Windows, and more
52. Apple’s Hire of a Disney+ Video Executive Highlights Talent Rivalry
53. Disney+ ‘to lead’ doubling of western Europe SVOD base
54. U.S. Now Requiring Visa Applicants to List Social-Media Names
55. Justice Department Is Preparing Antitrust Investigation of Google: Probe would closely examine Google’s practices related to search, other businesses
56. Tubular Labs Global Video Measurement Alliance expands with first focus on social video
57. Systemic Algorithmic Harms: Theories of “bias” alone will not enable us to engage in critiques of broader socio-technical systems.
58. Ai-Da, the humanoid robot artist, gears up for first solo exhibition
59. AI may help with alternative dispute resolution: Won’t replace humans
60. This Clothing Line Was Designed By AI: ‘Glitch’ is a new company that sells dresses generated by machine learning algorithms.
61. Watching AI Slowly Forget a Human Face Is Incredibly Creepy
62. New Study Shows That All This Ad Targeting Doesn’t Work That Well
63. Vine Successor ‘Byte’ Has A Live Beta, Tech Review Creator Sam Sheffer Calls It “Very Promising”
64. Snap Sells Its User Location Data Company ‘Placed’ To Competitor Foursquare
65. Foursquare buys Placed from Snap Inc. on the heels of $150M in new funding
66. ESPN Will Test NBA Game Stream Aimed Just at Teens
67. Netflix Unveils Trailer For First Awesomeness TV Series, Teen Shoplifting Drama ‘Trinkets’
68. Netflix Is Piloting An Instagram-Like, In-App Feed To Promote Its Series, Films
69. Netflix Is Nearing Subscriber Peak in the U.S., PwC Says
70. Netflix, Which Has Previously Touted Its Ability To Compete With Piracy, Joins Australian Antipiracy Efforts
71. Chinese Tech Giant Alibaba Invests $100 Million Into TikTok Competitor ‘VMate’
72. Alibaba pumps $100 million into Vmate to grow its video app in India
73. 91% of Hulu Subscribers Still Have Cable
74. Israeli Court Rules Bitcoin is Not a Form of Currency Exempted From Tax
75. Virtual Currency Gets Real Social Media Ads
76. Cryptocurrency firms renew push to break free from SEC rules
77. A Legal Fight Against The SEC May Represent Our Last Hope For An Open, Distributed Internet
78. German Politicians Seek To Regulate ‘Legal Tech’ Companies
79. Massachusetts AG’s Lawsuit Against E-Cigarette Retailer Provides Guidance On How Not to Market to Kids
80. “WHAT HAPPENED????” How a remote tech writing gig proved to be an old-school scam
81. FTC Reminds Crowdfunders: Deliver on Your Promises or Refund 
82. FTC Launches Two More Actions under the Consumer Review Fairness Act, Requires Companies to Stop Restricting Reviews through Form Contracts 
83. eSignature and ePayment News and Trends
84. No Vicarious Liability Absent Financial Benefit, Even in Context of Contributory Infringement
85. Good Faith Belief that Content isn’t Copyrighted is Bad Infringement Defense

COMMUNICATIONS

1. SCC decision highlights tension between access to justice and party autonomy: Gives clarity around arbitration clauses
2. Cogeco Warns Against Online Video Services Undermining Canadian Sovereignty in BTLR Submission (Michael Geist)
3. The Trouble with Trebles: Fourth Circuit Upholds Record $61 Million Vendor Liability Verdict in TCPA Class Action
4. If ‘Big Tech’ Is a Huge Antitrust Problem, Why Are We Ignoring Telecom?
5. For 5G, AT&T and T-Mobile buy $1.8 billion worth of 24GHz spectrum across US
6. Trump Whines About AT&T, Ignores His FCC Has Spent Two Years Kissing The Company’s Ass
7. What if Amazon took Sprint’s place as the US’s fourth wireless carrier?
8. DOJ Floats A Truly Stupid Idea To Salvage The Sprint, T-Mobile Merger
9. Now I Get It! FCC’s Potentially Forthcoming Call Blocking Rule Explained- Carriers May Soon Be Able to Auto-Enroll You Into Call Blocking Features By Default 
10. Ajit Pai works to cap funding for rural and poor people, gets GOP backing
11. FCC Broadband Report: What Broadband Competition Problem?
12. US Telcos Are Giving Up On Residential Broadband And Nobody Seems To Have Noticed
13. Verizon avoided a decade’s worth of taxes—a new law could make it pay up
14. Investors Slam Comcast For Lack Of Lobbying Transparency
15. Qualcomm Used Patent Monopolies To Shake Down The Entire Mobile Phone Industry For Decades
16. Techdirt Podcast Episode 214: Blame Fox News Before Facebook

PRIVACY

1. Surreptitious Recordings Offend a Student’s Right to Privacy at School
2. Privacy commissioner suspends consultation following Equifax data breach, say lawyers
3. Privacy Commissioner Consults on Cross-Border Data Flows
4. Organizations Can Expect Increased Canadian Regulation for Privacy Violations
5. Nude Video Chats Are Voyeurism
6. Nearly 50 million Instagram users’ data exposed, adding to Facebook’s privacy woes
7. Moscow to create large-scale facial recognition system, mayor says
8. Army’s Next Infantry Weapon Could Have Facial-Recognition Technology
9. Data Governance Best Practices: How to Oversee Your Content
10. Microsoft practically begs Windows users to fix wormable BlueKeep flaw
11. Microsoft says mandatory password changing is “ancient and obsolete”
12. Baltimore ransomware perp pinky-swears he didn’t use NSA exploit
13. Baltimore’s bill for ransomware: Over $18 million, so far
14. San Francisco Police Union Steps Up To Criticize Police Chief Over His Handling Of The Leak Investigation
15. Internal Report Says DOJ Did Nothing Wrong Targeting Journalists’ Communications To Hunt Down Leakers
16. Australian Federal Police Raid Journalist’s Home Over Publication Of Leaked Documents
17. “WHAT HAPPENED????” How a remote tech writing gig proved to be an old-school scam
18. Happy Birthday GDPR. At one year on, what have we learned?

CREATIVITY

1. CNN harassed while reporting on Tiananmen Square
2. China’s Rebel Cartoonist Unmasks: Badiucao’s work has brought him praise from critics – and threats from Beijing.
3. Which Way with Huawei?
4. Singapore’s Fake News Law Is Also An Internet Surveillance Law
5. Canada Introduces USMCA Implementation Bill…Without a General Copyright Term Extension Provision (Michael Geist)
6. Judge Rules that Documentary’s Use of “Super Bowl Shuffle” Didn’t Violate Copyright
7. Red Label Music Publishing v. Chila Productions
8. Australian police raid public broadcaster over coffee and sandwiches
9. AFEX Deplores Massive Crackdown on Free Expression Rights by Sudanese Army
10. Canadian Copyright Law Updates
11. Paradigm Shift 2: More recommended changes to Canadian copyright law announced
12. Heffel Gallery Limited: The National Importance of Foreign Art in Canada
13. Federal Court of Appeal Weighs in on Cultural Property: A Win For Canadian Museums and Art Galleries
14. Settlement In Tom Brady Photo Case Leaves Issue Of Copyright On Embedded Images Unsettled
15. Salvator Mundi painting pulled out of upcoming Louvre exhibition 
16. Forget Geoffrey Rush: most defamation cases are petty and incredibly local

Jon