#19 Weekly Gaming News Industry Trends Round Up

MDL Indonesia Dota 2 tournament features all-women teams. Fortnite Champion Series Finals has locked in its players. Viewership was strong for the VCT Pacific event in Japan breaking records. Twitch received a $300K fine in South Korea but increases subscription prices globally. Nintendo stands strong as the company sued the Yuzu emulator. Sony initiates 900 layoffs, closing down its London Studio however the company is planning PC support for PS VR2. Esports degrees pros and cons: Are they worth the money? Plus much much more!

Also in our weekly round-up:

• The playbook for authentic engagement in esports is revealed

• Riot unveils official Project L name for their upcoming fighter

• GTA 6 fans unconvinced by major GTA IV rumor

• Age of Empires 4 has the series’ best-selling expansion

• Xbox Series X Pro could arrive as soon as this summer

• Japan's gaming renaissance via Web3 

• Report that esports is to beat football on betting markets

• How to get Helldivers 2 Armor piercing rounds

Esports Players & Teams News 🏆

• FNCS Fortnite Champion Series MAJOR1 locks in players for Grand Royale

• MDL Indonesia to feature two all-women teams

• Subliners extend unbeaten mark in CDL Major 2 Qualifying

• VALORANT Champions Tour 2024: Americas Kickoff

• Timado reveals how he landed a spot in OG’s Dota 2 team

• Williams F1 Esports a successful race weekend at Bathurst 12h

• TSM complete roster with poizon and KWERTZZ

• All the VCT team capsules in Valorant revealed

• Perplexed players become WoW MDI 2024 Group B Champions

• Gen.G upset Paper Rex, 3-1, to be crowned VCT VALORANT Pacific Kickoff Champions

• Japan brings numbers for most-watched VCT Pacific tourney

• Sentinels’ VALORANT round count doubles all remaining VCT Americas Kickoff teams

• RISE Academy elevates Canadian esports with career-focused LAN event

• Valorant’s anti-cheat still coming to LoL but not how Riot first planned

• TenZ shared how SEN has started VCT Americas 2024 “I feel a lot better, individually, in our team,”

• Zai returns to Tundra Esports as General Manager

• All teams qualified for Masters Madrid

• LGD Gaming vs. Neon Esports A Clash of Titans in the Dota 2 Games of the Future 2024 Quarterfinals

• Player-reported issues surrounding LoL’s gifting center appear to be resolved following Patch 14.4

Tournament, League & Season News 🏅

• Rainbow Six Invitational 2024 Breaks ticket sales record

• $1m Free Fire tournament to take place at the Esports World Cup

• Rainbow Six Invitational 2024 will be hosted in USA and then France

• The rise of Star Wars eSports Tournaments and Events

Events 🗓️

• Playdate games showcase on February 28

• DevGAMM Gdańsk 2024 (Hybrid) February 28 - 29

• Tokyo Indie Games Summit 2024 March 2nd - March 3rd

• Hamburg Games Conference 2024 March 5th - March 6th

• NextGen Game Development Summit 2024 March 5th - March 6th

• Global Games Pitch – Spring Edition 2024 (Online) March 6th - March 7th

• SXSW Conference 2024 March 8th - March 16th

Industry News 🛡️

• Malaysian milk brand Goodday to sign a senior esports team

• Nintendo is suing Yuzu over Switch emulator

• Sony laying off 900 PlayStation employees, London Studio to close in its entirety

• Twitch fined over $300k in South Korea despite exiting country but is increasing channel subscription prices for the first time

• Unilumin partners with VALORANT Esports EMEA

• Until Dawn studio Supermassive Games to layoff 90 employees

• LG UltraGear partner with Skyesports as title partners for Esports tournaments

• Call of Duty lawsuit could reshape the industry

• Gen.G Global Academy partners with Ribom Hanbang Hospital to push esports education and health in South Korea

Gaming News 🕹️

• Riot unveils 2XKO official Project L name — their upcoming fighting title

• Helldivers 2 developer clarifies what happens when players abandon operations

• First Xbox-exclusive games heading to Switch and PS5

• GTA 6 fans unconvinced by major GTA IV rumour

• All the games featured at the Esports World Cup

• Baldur's Gate 3 has been nominated in five categories at this year's Gayming Awards

• Prince Of Persia: The Lost Crown is getting "free content and modes" in updates soon

• Age of Empires 4 follows up series’ best-selling expansion yet with new season and free-for-all mode in spring

• Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is now the fifth highest-rated game in the series

• LoL early patch notes revealed for Patch 14.5

• Palworld update fixes 35 issues, but accidentally makes your Pals lazy

• Bungie reveals Destiny 2 PvP overhaul plans

• Best GBA game is making a comeback on modern platforms

• Skull And Bones breaks records at Ubisoft despite reportedly low player numbers

• Ubisoft reveals insane year 9 roadmap for Rainbow Six Siege

• CD PROJEKT Red releases free next-gen update for the Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

• A new Fallout anthology stuffed inside a mini-nuke is set to drop the day before the Fallout TV series on Amazon

• Half-Life remake dev finally has a new game, with a beta on the way

• Age of Empires 2 is still getting DLC, a quarter century after its release

Level Up Your Hardware 🎧

• NVIDIA is testing an app that unifies GeForce Experience and Control Panel

• Valve pushes fresh bug fixes to Steam Deck and SteamOS with new Beta Client updates

• Xbox Series X Pro could arrive as soon as this summer

• The next weird device to run Doom is a lawnmower

• NVIDIA's RTX 500 and 1000 Ada GPUs bring more AI smarts to thin and light workstations

• Sony is working on official PC support for the PS VR2

Web3 Games 🎯

• Team Liquid secures multi-year deal with Sui to build loyalty platform

• Kakao's Metabora joins Gaming Giants Ubisoft, Sega on Oasys chain

• Japan's gaming renaissance via Web3 

• Circle joins Overdare to add IP Trading, USDC payouts to metaverse gaming platform

• Telegram Game Notcoin has 25 Million players and a soon-to-be-real token

• Parallel Open Beta is live on Feb 29

Trends 📈

• Sony is now part-owner of Evo esports tournament

• SOFTSWISS Sportsbook report that esports is to beat football on betting markets

• Esports and 5G Integration to accelerate performance and connectivity

• Hero Journey Club wants to meet gamers’ mental health needs, just don’t call it therapy

• Esports degrees pros and cons: Are they worth the money?

• Capcom's Bold Move A $1 Million prize for Street Fighter Esports Champions

• The 2024 Playbook for Authentic Engagement in Competitive Gaming

Guides, Tips and Tricks 🗝️

• How to get Helldivers 2 Armor piercing rounds

• Helldivers 2 players praise “giga-brain” strategy used to kill Bile Titans

• Fortnite bug lets players pretend to play instruments for easy kills

• Fortnite player discovers method to build in zero build

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, industry, gaming news and trends intel for the next newsletter..

See you same time next week!

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