#17 Weekly Gaming News Industry Trends Round Up

January proves the esports industry continues to grow quickly. Rocket League expands the in-game store to include ten more RLCS teams. Six Invitational sees G2 Esports dominate. Twitch surpassed 1.9 billion hours watched in January, largely due to esports and Palworld, viewership records are also being broken. Astralis commits with Logitech G. Esports Scotland's late payments raise concerns. Ultimate Endgamers League launches a global, online, free-to-enter esports tournament. Sales of Grand Theft Auto V exceeded 195 million copies and S1mple declared that he'd never sign for Cloud9, all this plus much much more!

Also in our weekly round-up:

• Starfield players leave: Is the new update enough?

• StarCraft II and CS2 events announced for Esports World Cup

• Tekken 8 Twitch Rivals tournament landing next week

• Sims 4 update adds vitiligo skin details for inclusive character creations

• We're in a golden era of game demos as they continue to innovate

• Supervillain Labs partners with investor Aptos Labs for Web3 gaming

• Ubisoft CEO defends Skull and Bones' $70 price tag

Esports Players & Teams News 🏆

• Club Esports trains for virtual victory

• Rocket League adds 10 new RLCS teams to esports in-game shop

• G2 Esports run over Ninjas in Pyjamas in first Six Invitational 2024 match

• LGD sent home after being crushed by Team Spirit

• SK Gaming vs Team Heretics Recap – LEC 2024 Winter Playoffs

• s1mple says he would never join Cloud9 because of Russian players

• Team Spirit shocked the eSports World after destroying FaZe Clan in the Counter-Strike 2 Finals at IEM Katowice 2024

• Who are the VALORANT VCT EMEA partner teams?

• Top 3 teams to look out for ESL Snapdragon BGMI LAN 2024

• Smith helps lead WKU Esports to division championships

• Krafton reveals roadmap for PUBG Mobile Esports South Korea 2024

• FaZe Clan fazed out and miss out on a huge win at one of the world’s biggest tournaments

• Nisha plans to spend his solo tournament winnings on CS and Valorant Skins

• Intel Grand Slam Season 5: How Spirit winning IEM Katowice 2024 affects the title race

• Winthrop’s esports team becomes 1st college group to qualify for prestigious tournament

• York College among winners in national esports championships

Tournament, League & Season News 🏅

• Ultimate Endgamers League launches the Endgame Invitational: A Global, Online, Free-to-Enter Esports Tournament

• StarCraft II and Counter-Strike 2 events announced for Esports World Cup 

• Leading eSports tournaments worldwide as of February 2024, ranked by overall prize pool

• Huge $25k Tekken 8 Twitch rivals tournament coming next week

• Live streaming, ESL Snapdragon BGMI Pro Series 2024 LAN Finals starts on February 16 all the teams and format

• Thunderpick announces $1m Counter-Strike 2 tournament

• 2024 GigaZone Gaming Championship Rocket League will give out over $5,000 in cash and prizes

• Skyesports BGMI Champions Series 2024 underway - get schedule, teams and format

Industry News 🛡️

• XBOX consoles here to stay despite a shakeup on Game Pass

• Rivalry and Blacklist International renew Dota 2 collaboration

• Zowie named official monitor partner for PGL CS2 Major Copenhagen

• Ubisoft beats its sales targets in Q3, net bookings at $675M

• Esports Scotland under renewed scrutiny for delayed payments

• Guild esports partners with ENDX platform in historic first

• Twitch viewership tops 1.9B in January thanks to esports, Palword | StreamElements

• Runescape maker Jagex sold to investors for an estimated $1.1B

• Chris Heatherly’s Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow casual party games studio lands $3M

• Unions call for strikes at Ubisoft studios in France to protest wages

• Astralis secures multi-year Logitech G extension

• Six Invitational 2024 welcomes seven partners on board

• Voices in the Dubai gaming and esports ecosystem

• Gaming's most famous but least recognizable voice has broken cover to chat PEGI 18, AI acting, and his €200 paycheque

• Infinite Reality acquires Ethereal Engine for $75M in share deal

Gaming News 🕹️

• Overwatch 2 Season 9 Pharah Rework – All changes, new ability, and more

• GTA V reaches 195M copies sold while hopes soar for GTA VI

• GTA VI fans excited after leaked controller layout reveals new gameplay features

• Baldur's Gate 3 player completes the game while playing as a party of cats

• Starfield players leave: Is the new update enough?

• Granblue Fantasy: Relink is February's surprise banger, shifting 1 million copies in under 2 weeks

• Diablo 4 players claim getting good items is a “full-time job”

• Toronto Defiant returns for Overwatch Champions Series

• NBA 2K24 Patch Notes v1.009 Update

• Warzone Feb 13 patch note: Striker 9 recoil buff, QoL updates, and more

• Ubisoft CEO defends Skull and Bones' $70 price tag, says it's 'a quadruple-A game'

• Dead Cells is calling it quits 7 years after its meteoric early access release

• WoW players blast “joke” ability in Season of Discovery

Level Up Your Hardware 🎧

• Logitech Wave Keys review

• The best Valentine’s Day gifts for gamer boyfriends

• You can now buy a Playdate console without an obscene waiting period

• Intel Core i9 14900KS surfaces ahead of release with claims to a 6.2GHz Turbo and peak wattage to make your graphics card jealous

• NVIDIA releases Chat with RTX – A personalized AI GPT Chatbot

• Steelseries Alias Pro microphone review

• Flipper Devices and Raspberry Pi unveil Video Game Module for Flipper Zero device

Web3 Games 🎯

• CG partners with World ID for esports player verification

• Matchingham Games web3 spinoff Ginger Joy raises $1.26M

• Supervillain Labs will launch web3 games in partnership with investor Aptos Labs

• Midnight plans to aggregate games inside Web3 Evergreen MMORPG

• SphereOne teams with Rarible for Web3 gaming

• The metaverse is back - But let’s not call it the metaverse 

• Left Fielder Media unveils Member 16 Web3 entertainment project

Trends 📈

• We're in a golden era of game demos as they continue to innovate

• Philippines eyes training facility for esports players

• The Sims 4 free update adds vitiligo skin details in a continued effort for more inclusive character creations

• Whitethorn Games made accessibility the backbone of its Winter Showcase

• Philippine House of Representatives Backs Esports: Unity League Launch with Cash Prizes 

Guides, Tips and Tricks 🗝️

• How to breed Shadowbeak in Palworld

• All Ninja Turtle vending machine locations in Fortnite

Follow us on Twitter to stay up to date with the latest news and announcements!

This round is over
We are reloading our ammo with esports intel for the next newsletter
See you same time next week!

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