GAMES
- Blizzard president gives vague apology for Hong Kong protest response
- Blizzard president J. Allen Brack apologizes for bungled Hearthstone punishment
- Hong Kong protesters shine, but don’t quite spark at BlizzCon
- Blizzard’s substance-less BlizzCon statement speaks volumes | Opinion: Allen Brack’s speech rings hollow as company changes no policies, stands by Hearthstone pro’s ban for supporting Hong Kong protesters
- Allen Brack apologizes for Blizzard’s “tough Hearthstone esports moment”: At BlizzCon, company president alludes to ban of Hearthstone player Blitzchung for pro-Hong Kong support, welcomes protests
- Brack confirms Blizzard won’t repeal Blitzchung ban: The sanction against the casters won’t be withdrawn either, Blizzard’s president said
- Blizzard won’t reverse Hearthstone pro’s Hong Kong protest suspension: Blizzard boss shifts some blame for initial decisions to Chinese publishing partner.
- Blizzcon: Blizzard Apologizes For Banning Blitzchung, Keeps Him Banned, More Fallout Ensues
- Hearthstone developers think Blizzard was “too harsh” with Blitzchung: But creative director Ben Thompson said that taking control of a platform that is “very much not your own” is not free speech
- Xiaomeng ‘Liooon’ Li is the first woman to win Hearthstone GrandMasters: Li is also the first woman to win a major competition across all Blizzard games at Blizzcon
- China fears young people are addicted to video games. Now it’s imposing a curfew
- China gaming regulator publishes new rules for minors targeting playtime, spending: Age-rating system still in the works as restrictions are tightened, expanded to mobile games
- “If we’re going to be drug dealers, let’s not literally mine for addicts”: At Reboot Develop, indie publisher Mike Wilson used the game addiction debate to call for devs to “be intentional” about what they create
- Video: Addiction science and advice for devs on promoting healthy play
- ‘Fortnite’ Pro FaZe Jarvis Banned From Game For Life After YouTube Videos Showed Him Cheating
- Aimbot video leads to lifetime ban for popular Fortnite pro
- General Court says that relevant public’s attention is ‘average at best’ when assessing likelihood of confusion relating to games and computer games (“Dungeons” is confusingly similar to “Dungeons & Dragons”)
- Reselling Digital Video Games Now entering the age of the digital yard sale?
- ZeniMax ordered to issue refunds for Fallout 76 in Australia: Well, this can’t be good.
- ZeniMax to offer refunds for faulty Fallout 76 in Australia: ZeniMax admits it likely misled consumers over their digital rights
- ZeniMax to grant Fallout 76 refunds under pressure from Australian commission
- Less than half of US gamers purchased in-game content last month – SuperData: Additional content spending stagnating on PC and console as players gravitate toward fewer titles overall
- Fabulous investigating after Devolver Digital accuses its app of ripping off Gris
- Self-help app “investigating” after accusations of stealing art, animation from Gris: Devolver Digital shares side-by-side comparison of Fabulous video, Gris gameplay and cutscenes
- Brendan Greene: “I [only] have one woman on my team, and I hate that” – At the View Conference, PUBG’s creator discussed hiring for diversity, and why education will be the best long-term solution
- Amazon blocks sales of all unauthorised Nintendo products: Third-party sellers now need platform holder’s approval before selling second-hand games or hardware
- Amazon reverses sudden restriction of third-party “Nintendo product“ sales
- Report: Amazon cracking down on third-party sales of Nintendo products
- Switch Lite sells strong at launch, as total Switch sales near 42M
- Nintendo: Switch Lite is expanding the Switch market, especially with women
- The Nintendo Switch has sold over 10 million units in Japan
- The Nintendo Switch has sold 10m units in Japan: Japanese sales make up nearly one-fourth of total console sales (including the Lite)
- UK Charts: Luigi’s Mansion 3 is the biggest Switch launch of 2019 (so far) – At least until Pokémon comes along
- Nintendo Profits Lifted by Switch Lite Sales
- Nintendo has nearly doubled its first-party game sales in 2019
- So far, game spending is over $27 billion for 2019 in the US
- US gamers have spent $27.9bn in 2019 so far: Spending is only up 1% over 2018 year-to-date, with hardware sales down 23%
- How Arcade1Up found a sweet spot for scaled-down home game cabinets
- Abbey Games ‘scoping down’ and terminating all employee contracts by 2020
- Call of Duty was the UK’s best-selling game in October
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare dominates the EMEAA charts – Meanwhile, FIFA fends off new releases The Outer Worlds, MediEvil and WWE 2K20
- Supercell scraps upcoming title Rush Wars after failing to find the fun
- Supercell shuts down Rush Wars after three months of beta: PvP strategy title cancelled due to “repetitive” nature, concerns about longevity
- Profits down 48.1% for Rovio Entertainment in Q3: Angry Birds dev in discussions to potentially lay off staff as The Angry Birds Movie 2 falls short of expectations
- PS4 slows as the transition nears | Opinion: Sony’s next year will be vital; as PS4 sales decline faster than expected, can the company balance support for its older console with building excitement for the new?
- Retrospective: As Sony Clearly Wins This Generation’s Console Wars, Let’s Recall How It All Began
- Watch Dogs Legion, Rainbow Six Quarantine and Gods & Monsters heading to PS5, Project Scarlett: Delayed Ubisoft titles will be joined by two unannounced AAA games in the next fiscal year
- Industry veterans form ‘diverse and inclusive’ studio Brass Lion Entertainment
- Brass Lion Entertainment aims to diversify the industry: New studio from AAA vets will focus on original games “that center on Black and Brown characters, cultures, and stories”
- Epic Games Store update brings new navigation and in-game store options
- Epic adds free Infinity Blade content to Unreal Engine Marketplace
- Does French streaming platform Shadow have its head in the clouds?: Co-founder Emmanuel Freund on opening up games to more people, the tech side of things and Google’s entry into the space
- F1 extends licencing deal with Codemasters until 2025: Codemasters has extended its deal for exclusive video game rights for the Formula 1 World Championship until 2025, with an option for a further two years.
- Modern Warfare dev compares game’s “awareness building” to Schoolhouse Rock: Narrative director responds to criticism about ‘Highway of Death’ mission: “This is not some kind of propaganda”
- Modern Warfare. Modern Warfare never changes.: 10 Years Ago This Month: No Russian turns the mass shooting into mass market entertainment and Nokia buries the N-Gage for good
- Which platforms are publishers and investors really interested in?: Xsolla shares lessons from its funding club and offers advice on how to impress potential investors
- Death Stranding is Kojima unleashed, and it’s as weird as you’d expect
- Death Stranding: Critical Consensus – A haunting experience that succeeds in spite of its own clumsy excess, Death Stranding arrives to frequently mitigated praise
- Hideo Kojima and Kojima Productions to start making movies
- Hideo Kojima to venture into film production: “Games, films and dramas will have to compete in the same space,” Death Stranding director said
- Blizzard announces Overwatch sequel at BlizzCon
- Overwatch 2 announced, will be cross-compatible with original game: Overwatch surpasses 50 million players, all of whom will be able to PvP match with, transfer cosmetics to Overwatch 2
- Jeff Kaplan: Leaks impact developer morale more than anything else
- Hearthstone Battlegrounds is Blizzard’s card-based take on auto chess
- Blizzard confirms Diablo IV is coming to consoles and PC
- Diablo IV is revealed, sure looks like a supercharged Diablo II
- Designing the gameplay and aesthetic of Diablo IV
- Don’t Miss: David Brevik’s tale of designing the original Diablo
- Blizzard is adding ethnically diverse character skins with World of Warcraft: Shadowlands: Fifteen years after launch, players will be able to customise their character to match their ethnicity
- Wargaming partners with Gearbox for its first full retail release: World of Warships: Legends will get a retail version in Firepower Deluxe Edition
- Vainglory dev Super Evil Megacorp raises $10.5 million as it refocuses on next project
- Super Evil Megacorp closes $10.5m financing round as it prepares to launch new project: Vainglory developer hands off publishing responsibilities for its cross-platform MOBA to Rogue Games
- Improbable and Tencent Cloud team up to help devs bring games to China
- Improbable partners with Tencent Cloud for game development program: New Improbable/Tencent Cloud Developer Program to support creators making games in SpatialOS for the Chinese market with cloud services
- Unity acquires 3D application streaming platform creator Obvioos
- Unity acquires cloud application streaming service creator Obvioos: French studio begins aligning Furioos’ 3D application streaming tech closely with development platform
- Video: Inside BioWare’s embedded QA process
- Video: Advice for game devs on creating believable heroes
- Zordix secures $1.4 million in funding, acquires Dimfrost Studio
- Chad Wild Clay And Vy Qwaint’s ‘Spy Ninja’ Mobile Game Surpasses 3 Million Downloads
- Games industry international trade bodies unite on universal esports principles: Set of four principles for engagement agreed upon by representatives of the ESA, ESAC, UKIE, ISFE, and IGEA
- Yoshinori Ono on Street Fighter’s road to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics: The Capcom producer discusses the Intel World Open, a tournament that aims to break the barriers to entry for esports
- Esports tournament platform Mainline closes $6.8m funding round: Funding led by Work America Capital will help expand software platform
- Report: Embattled real estate startup WeWork mulling esports investment
- Esports Org 100 Thieves Signs Rapidly-Ascending Twitch Star ‘Brooke AB’
- Another major streamer leaves Twitch, this time for YouTube
- YouTube Steals CouRage From Twitch As The Celebrity Streamer Gold Rush Heats Up
- CouRage Becomes Latest Streamer To Ditch Twitch — In Exclusive Deal With YouTube Gaming
- 100 Thieves’ Jack “CouRage” Dunlop signs YouTube exclusivity deal: Dunlop asks over 2m Twitch subscribers to follow him as exodus of major streamers from Twitch to other platforms continues
- Twitch Teams With Analytics Provider Moat To Measure Its Unblockable ‘SureStream’ Ads
- Longtime NASCAR Exec Lou Garate Switches Lanes, Becoming Twitch’s First Global Head Of Sponsorship Sales
- Twitch CEO Emmett Shear On How Moderation Creates Communities: Twitch is bigger than it’s ever been, and here’s how it’s going to change
- Mixer Price-Matches Twitch, Dropping Monthly Creator Subscription From $5.99 To $4.99
- New Oculus Social Tools Will Help VR Feel More Like a Place, Less Like a Game
- Facebook CEO: ‘VR is Taking Longer Than Expected, but We’ll See It to Mass Adoption’
- Reality Gaming Group expanding to China: Chengdu government will help promote the studio and its flagship game Reality Clash, as well as AR and blockchain tech
- Rumor: Apple Reportedly Partners With Valve to Develop AR Headset
- Toys R Us partners with Snapchat to create AR shopping experience: The augmented reality experience aims to help users with their holiday shopping
- Niantic opens Niantic Creator Program to fund and support AR-minded devs
- Niantic opens up Pokemon Go sponsored location program for smaller businesses
- Niantic announces Creator Program to support AR development: Pokemon Go developer also offering funding opportunities, AR development kit
- Braid and the beauty of not wasting time – Why I Love: A Duel Hand Disaster dev Jaycee Salinas takes inspiration from the indie time manipulation platformer
- Video: Advice for game devs on creating believable heroes
- Video: Game preservation lessons learned on EA’s biggest sports games
- Blog: Kickstarter lessons learned from a 300 percent funded solo project
- Net sales down at Starbreeze as company readies for Payday-centric future
- Starbreeze losses were $30.8 million for the first nine months of 2019: But company is confident reconstruction efforts and new publishing deal Payday 3 will save the studio
- Bake ‘n’ Switch wins big at the Reboot Develop Indie Awards: Streamline Studios’ original IP picked up GOTY, while Myst creator Rand Miller received the Hero award
- Don’t Miss: Designing the stealth, economy, and encounters of Horizon Zero Dawn
- Red Dead Redemption 2 on PC: More frames, more volumetric beauty, no Steam
- Don’t Miss: Composing the music of Red Dead Redemption
- SingStar servers slated for January 2020 shutdown
- Sony will close down SingStar servers in January 2020: Online sales, support and shared content will be pulled, 15 years after the series debuted
- Just Dance launches campaign to raise money for Alzheimer’s Research UK: Ubisoft will donate £1 for every dance memory shared on social media
- U.S. Patent no. 10,252,163: Music video game with user directed sound generation
DIGITAL
- Twitter will ban political ads, Jack Dorsey announces
- Man Sues Twitter For $1 Billion Claiming His Account’s Suspension Violated His Right To Worship President Trump As A Demigod
- Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey Announces New Ban On Political Ads, Takes Shot At Facebook
- Twitter Bans Political Ads – Doing What Broadcasters are Forbidden to Do
- Twitter is rolling out Topics, a way to follow subjects automatically in the timeline: Starting with more than 300 subjects across sports, gaming, and entertainment
- Former Twitter employees charged with spying on users for Saudis
- Twitter’s Decision To Ban Political Ads Is A Moderation Choice Itself That Likely Will Backfire In Its Own Way
- 8chan gets back online—and is promptly forced off again
- Breaking the law: How 8chan (or “8kun”) got (briefly) back online
- Devin Nunes Demands Satirical Internet Cow Stop Making Fun Of Him… Or Else
- Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Apologizes And Unblocks Critic Who Sued Her
- Why America needs a hate speech law
- Former Journalist Decides There’s Too Much Free Speech These Days
- After 10 failed logins, Giuliani had Apple Store wipe his iPhone: Report – The 2017 incident occurred shortly after Trump named Rudy cybersecurity advisor.
- Exclusive: U.S. opens national security investigation into TikTok – sources
- The U.S. Government Is Investigating TikTok Parent Bytedance As A Potential National Security Threat (Report)
- TikTok Integrates Third-Party Editing, Posting Tools Amid Developers Program Launch
- TikTok’s parent company facing national security review, report says
- Antitrust 101: Why everyone is probing Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google
- Competition Bureau Cracks Down on Misleading Advertising in the Digital Economy
- Deadspin Is Being Burnt To The Ground By Its New Management As Staff Quits Or Revolts
- A Thumbs-Up Emoji Doesn’t Mean That Dad Disavowed His Child–Bardales v. Lamothe
- Strike 3’s Copyright Litigation Campaign Completely Strikes Out (Eric Goldman)
- Copyright Lawyer Asks that Judge Recuse Himself for Referring to Lawyer as “Troll”
- No Copyright Case Too Small: Content Creators Rejoice or Casual Infringers Beware?
- The Fine Print of Terms of Use
- Ninth Circuit Preserves LinkedIn Competitor’s Data-Scraping Rights
- Just Another Day In Academic Publishing: Professor Posts His Own Article On His Own Website, Gets Takedown Notice Alleging Copyright Infringement
- Content Moderation At Scale Remains Impossible: Vaccines Edition
- NY Times At It Again: Has To Run Massive Correction For All The Errors In Aaron Sorkin’s Facts Optional Rant About Why Facebook Should Fact Check
- Facebook’s Sues Israeli Malware Marketer With A Lawsuit That Aims To Make An Easily-Abused Law Even More Abusable
- Courts in the EU Can Order Facebook to Remove Defamatory Content Globally and Monitor Republications
- Facebook changes product branding to FACEBOOK
- Microsoft Japan’s four-day week trial boosts productivity by 40%: Company also noted paper and electricity consumption dropped significantly
- Google to Buy Fitbit for $2.1 Billion: The deal represents an aggressive attempt by Google to bolster its lineup of hardware products.
- Google Buys Fitbit for $2.1B
- Google buys Fitbit for $2.1 billion
- What is Google going to do with your Fitbit data? Anything it likes: Fitbit’s teams could soon be working on future Pixel watches. But more importantly, what can Google do with all the health and fitness data?
- Hungary: Google is set to triumph over the Hungarian advertisement tax
- Google workers call on company to adopt aggressive climate plan: Letter signed by more than 1,000 employees calls for zero emissions by 2030 in latest wave of industry climate activism
- FTC Brings First Case against Developers of “Stalking” Applications
- Is A YouTube COPPAcalypse Coming? FTC Rules Could Start Demonetizing Creators In 2020
- Will the FTC Crack Down on Online Influencers?
- FTC to Influencers: Don’t Lie. Be Transparent. Keep It Simple.
- FTC Releases New Guide for Influencers
- The FTC Releases New Guidelines (And Its First Creator-Friendly Brochure) For Influencers Who Post Sponsored Content
- FTC Issues Guidance on Proper Disclosures for Social Media Influencers
- Key Takeaways from FTC’s “Disclosures 101 for Social Media Influencers”
- Keeping It Real: FTC Settles Cases Over Fake Social Media Indicators, Reviews
- FTC Imposed a $2.5 Million Fine on a CEO for Selling Fake Likes and Followers on Social Media
- “Good Genes?”: Maybe Not. FTC Takes Action Against Sunday Riley and Sunday Riley Modern Skincare, LLC For Employees False Reviews
- Actively exploited bug in fully updated Firefox is sending users into a tizzy
- Xiaomi’s Apple Watch clone removes everything good about the Apple Watch
- YouTube Ads Contain More Male Characters, But Those Starring Females Nab More Views (Study)
- State Court Rejects Prager University’s Lawsuit Against YouTube
- Prager University Loses Another Of Its Silly Lawsuits Against YouTube Over Non-Existent ‘Bias’
- Warner Music UK Ltd. & Sony Music Entertainment UK Ltd v. TuneIn Inc. [2019] EWHC 2923 (Ch)
- Susan Wojcicki Joins #TeamTrees With $200,000 Personal Contribution
- YouTube Might Have Banned Former Trump Adviser, Sebastian Gorka, For Copyright Violations
- YouTube Rolls Out Latest Creator Monetization Tool In The Form Of ‘Super Stickers’
- YouTube rolls out Super Stickers, a new way for creators to make money
- These Are The YouTube Music Videos With The Highest Halloween Viewership
- Halloween Social Videos Amass Over 6.6 Billion Views in October Alone
- YouTube Testing New App Layout With Three Featured Comments Directly Under Videos
- RIP OG Pixel: Google ends support after just three years
- Google Brings ‘Shopping Ads’ Format To YouTube Ahead Of Holiday Frenzy
- Shopping ads come to YouTube’s home feed and search results
- Coldplay To Premiere New Album In Two-Part YouTube Stream From Jordan
- After Boxing Defeat, FouseyTube Launches New ‘YouTube Cribs’ Series With Logan Paul
- Shane Dawson And Jeffree Star’s ‘Conspiracy’ Launch Hits Hourslong Snag Amid Shopify Crash
- After Selling 1 Million Palettes In 30 Minutes, Jeffree Star And Shane Dawson Announce ‘Conspiracy Collection’ Restock
- David Dobrik Swipes Right On Branded Courtship With Dating App ‘Bumble’
- Man City: controlling brand and reputation in the age of agencies, ads and #influencers
- Spotify Saved the Music Industry. Now What?: Profits are hard to come by—and Apple and Amazon aren’t going away.
- Netflix Sinks Its Teeth Into Scripted Podcasting With Post-Apocalyptic Miniseries ‘The Only Podcast Left’
- Apple TV+ launches with eight TV shows and one movie
- Insights: Beyond Reflex, React, and Repost Journalism, NewsMatch Boosts Nonprofit Newsrooms
- With Vice Deal Done, Refinery29 Founders Moving Out of Management Roles
- Intel hits 10nm goals and signals a shift away from traditional CPUs
- Just Browsing: District Court Finds Browsewrap Agreement Enforceable
- Texas court upholds “do it on a computer” check-cashing patent
- Bipartisan social media data portability bill introduced in U.S. Senate
- Because Internet makes a linguist’s case for l33t speak, other online-text fads
A.I.
- The Global Forum on AI for Humanity: A Global Forum That Excluded the Globe (Michael Geist)
- Can An Algorithm Be An Author? (And Other AI Questions The PTO Is Now Asking)
- When both drivers are in error, people blame the human one more
- Deepfakes: is seeing still believing?
COMMUNICATIONS
- When does hyperlinking infringe copyright? UK High Court addresses linking to internet radio stations
- Warner Music UK Ltd. & Sony Music Entertainment UK Ltd v. TuneIn Inc. [2019] EWHC 2923 (Ch)
- DirecTV kept charging regional sports fee while channel was blacked out
- FCC Freaks Out About Huawei, But Ignores The Internet Of Broken Things
- Researchers unearth malware that siphoned SMS texts out of telco’s network
- Shocker: ISPs Cut Back 2020 Investment Despite Tax Breaks, Death Of Net Neutrality
- Cops Now Using Warrants To Gain Access To DNA Services’ Entire Databases
- AT&T Will Pay $60 Million to Settle FTC Charges of Unfair Practices
- AT&T Enters Into $60 Million Settlement With FTC Over “Unlimited” Claims
- AT&T Loses Another 1.36 Million Pay TV Subscribers Thanks To Relentless Price Hikes
- AT&T’s priciest “unlimited” plan now allows 100GB+ of un-throttled data
- AT&T users whose “unlimited data” was throttled get $60 million in refunds
- AT&T makes customers work to get refunds they should get automatically
- 5G Is Not A ‘Race,’ And We’re Incapable Of Determining Winners Even If It Was
- California Wildfire Cellular Outages Could Have Been Easily Avoided
- Changes to the Electronic Communications Code
PRIVACY
- New Suit Against Spyware-Maker Demonstrates One Company’s Offensive Strategy Against Cyber Attacks
- ACLU Sues DOJ Over Facial Recognition Documents
- ACLU sues feds to get information about facial-recognition programs
- ISPs lied to Congress to spread confusion about encrypted DNS, Mozilla says
- FBI’s Top Lawyer From The Apple Encryption Fight Says Law Enforcement Needs To Suck It Up And Embrace Encryption
- Tipped off by an NSA breach, researchers discover new APT hacking group
- Researchers hack Siri, Alexa, and Google Home by shining lasers at them
- New bill would create Digital Privacy Agency to enforce privacy rights
- DoD’s new cybersecurity compliance program . . . What you need to know
- Facebook Groups API flaw exposed data to 100 developers, company says
- Australia’s Idiotic War On Porn Returns, This Time Using Facial Recognition
- Children’s Privacy Law Updates: Tricks or Treats?
- GDPR fines were meant to rock the data privacy world. They haven’t: GDPR hasn’t heralded the swarm of huge fines that was predicted. But that doesn’t mean the fines so far haven’t been influential
- Privacy Shield Third Annual Review
- Ransomware Hits Hard During 2019
- FBI Warns of E-Skimming Threats
CREATIVITY
- Jean Carroll suing Trump for defamation: The 28-page lawsuit filed on Monday outlines Trump’s alleged rape of Carroll 23 years ago.
- Jean Carroll, Who Accused Trump of Rape, Sues Him for Defamation: The writer says the president hurt her career when he said she had lied about him attacking her in a dressing room in the 1990s.
- DOJ, Apparently Unaware Of 1st Amendment, Threaten Anonymous White House Official About To Release A Book
- 9th Circuit Revives Ridiculous ‘Shake It Off’ Copyright Lawsuit, Because The 9th Circuit Loves To Mess Up Copyright Law
- Bob Murray, Who Sued John Oliver For Mocking His Support Of Trump’s Plan To Bring Back Coal Jobs… Files For Bankruptcy
- US Government Threatening To Kill Free Trade With South Africa After Hollywood Complained It Was Adopting American Fair Use Principles
- The bell tolls for alleged copyright claim to skyline photo
- The copyright woes of Meghan Markle
- Believe it or not – claim based on belief in copyright fails
- Prince’s Foundation struck by £100 million art fraud scandal
- Estoppel based on patent prosecution history in Canada: The Pandora’s box is opened
- Hall v. Swift
- G-Star clothing designs not covered by copyright protection
- Of Passion, Prejudice and Punitive Damages
- Ex-Wrestlers Argue WWE Hid Risks of Head Injuries in Concussion Lawsuit
- Employer Pays Millions in Compensation for Employee’s Invention
- California Man Gets Sued After Trying To Trademark Bully A Theme Park
- Black Friday – Not Just Shopping Madness, Beware the Trademark Trap
- Splatter master Jackson Pollock avoided “coiling” when creating his paintings
- Spooky IP
- Patent Tips for Halloween
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