Tag: Tencent

Triplepoints of Interest: Jan.22

In this week’s TPoI, Tencent takes $100 million minority stake in Skydance Media, Twitch wins $1.3m lawsuit against a view bot maker, and GPU prices skyrocket due to a swell in cryptocurrency popularity.

Tencent Acquires Minority Stake in Skydance Media

Shenzhen-based social media giant Tencent Holdings announced on Thursday morning that the company has acquired a minority stake in Skydance Media, a Los Angeles-based production company best known for their work on Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation. The Los Angeles Times speculates that this move will help Tencent break into the Chinese movie industry, which is the second largest cinema market in the world. The Hollywood Reporter notes that the stake, while just under a 10% share of the company, is still a huge transaction worth over $100 million. Gamesindustry.biz featured a statement from Tencent chief strategy officer James Mitchell noting that the partnership should help both companies expand in their respective markets.

Twitch Wins Lawsuit Against View Bot Makers

Since early 2016, the livestreaming platform Twitch has been fighting legal battles against seven of the most popular distributors of view bots, software that artificially inflate the view counts of Twitch channels, which has finally led a California judge to rule in their favor. According to Kotaku, a California judge has ordered bot makers Michael and Katherine Anjomi to shutter their view bot service and pay Twitch a total of $1,371,139 in damages. Gamesindustry.biz notes that this case will give the company legal precedence to fight off competing services in upcoming legal battles. PC Gamer speculates that this legal win will help the company legitimize the industry of professional livestreaming.

Graphics Card Prices Skyrocket due to Cryptocurrency

While cryptocurrencies have been steadily gaining popularity in recent years, a swell in value has caused consumers to start buying up high end gaming equipment in hopes to generate more of the virtual money, making it harder for gamers to buy the video cards they need to run games at high refresh rates. GameSpot reports that this surge in interest has led high end GPUs to either go out of stock or rise in prices With the surge, cards that typically cost $200 now cost over $500 at respected retail stores. Forbes notes that many online retailers are trying to offer deals or added value bundles to offset the inflated prices, but that these do not fully make up for the price increase . Gamesindustry.biz speculates that this increased market for video cards may not last, with more companies like Steam cutting support for cryptocurrencies due to their unstable value.

Triplepoints of Interest – Sept. 25

In this week’s TPoI, Atari releases more information about their new Ataribox console, YouTube changes policies on external links for non-monetized users, and Bluehole confirms negotiations with Tencent.

Atari Unveils Details on the Ataribox

Atari sent a newsletter Tuesday morning with details on their upcoming Ataribox retro gaming console, including details on the hardware and initial pricing. TechCrunch reports that the system will run Linux and will be powered by a customized AMD processor and Radeon graphics processing unit. These components, which SegmentNext reports are very similar to parts used in traditional PCs, allow the Ataribox to run modern games as well as arcade classics. The Verge reports that preorders for the system will begin this fall on Indiegogo and that the system will start at $249 and could go up to $299.

YouTube Restricts External Links for Non-Partners

Non-partnered YouTubers have recently been reporting that they are no longer able to post links to online merchandise stores, personal websites, and their crowdfunding platforms. A representative from YouTube told Polygon that the site is changing their external links policy to “combat inappropriate and abusive content.” Engadget reports that this policy change affects non-partnered YouTube channels and that a YouTube channel needs 10,000 views before it can be considered for partnership, a number which many smaller content creators are struggling to meet. VentureBeat mentioned that this change follows YouTube’s recent demonetization policy changes and the decreased advertising revenue which many content creators are struggling with.

Bluehole Begins Business Negotiations with Tencent

South Korean developer, Bluehole Software confirmed on Thursday that they are talking with Chinese publisher Tencent about publishing PlayerUknown’s Battlegrounds in China. Gamesindustry.biz reports that while Bluehole had previously denied rumors of the partnership plans but that Bluehole chairman and cofounder Chang Byung-gyu has now announced that Tencent is interested in buying an equity stake in the company to help encourage development.  Bloomberg reports that Bluehole, which is now worth over $4.6 billion dollars, is interested in expanding the feature set of their game and launching it before the end of 2017. PCGamesN reports that Tencent has now purchased a 5% share in the company and is planning to buy a larger stake in the company in the future.

TriplePoints of Interest – Week of June 20

Tencent is now the proud owner of Clash of Clans thanks to their most recent acquisition. The Chinese publisher continues to establish its dominance in the mobile space. Over in Korean, a female Overwatch pro-player gets accused of cheating because she’s “unbelievably” good. In other news, we’ll be crying over our empty wallets as Valve launches off its annual Steam Summer Sale. Continue reading TriplePoints of Interest – Week of June 20