Top-tier Italian football club SS Lazio is the latest team to join the partner program for Konami’s eFootball PES franchise. 

The partnership will see Konami’s eFootball PES feature a fully-licensed, authentic virtual recreation of SS Lazio, with the developer enjoying rights to the team name and crest, team kits, select club legends, and a various marketing activities.

Commenting on the news President at Konami Digital Entertainment B.V., Naoki Morita, said:

“Through our new partnership with SS Lazio, it is our strong belief that we can reach an even broader range of football fans and gamers in Italy and beyond. We’re looking forward to a long and successful partnership.”

While President of Società Sportiva Lazio, Dr. Claudio Lotito, added:

“The spirit with which KONAMI has worked in these difficult months to create a collaboration that will be winning is beautiful. We will be happy to work with KONAMI to promote activities aimed at developing and increasing the awareness of the Lazio brand as soon as the pandemic allows it. 

“The values of KONAMI, world leader in games, are fully married to the spirit of the Lazio family by developing together to also benefit the wider community of Lazio fans and video gamers. It is great when two international brands come together to create and develop added value.”

Konami and Lazio are marking the partnership by offering PES 2021 console and mobile players Paul Gascoigne and José Marcelo Salas Melinao as log-in bonuses between 10/12/2020 15:00 UTC and 16/12/2020 23:59 UTC.

Since launching in 1995, the eFootball PES franchise has sold over 100 million copies. 

All original content featured on this site is © Pentagon Digital Limited, 2020.

The historic Spengler Cup is the latest sporting event to go virtual in the face of the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. 

Held annually in Davos, Switzerland, the international ice hockey competition was cancelled earlier this year due to the pandemic. Now, with the crisis continuing to rage on, the organising committee has announced a virtual version of the event, the eSpengler Cup, will take place this month. 

The virtual version is being supported by Spengler Cup partners UBS, Würth, Schenker Storen, and Škoda, and will use EA Sports NHL 21 on Playstation 4. 

Qualifying rounds are set for 14-16 December, with the quarter-final stage slated for the 19 December, and the grand final for 26 December, playing in the “Spengler Cup mode” of the game. 

Commenting on the news Spengler Cup OC president, Marc Gianola, said:

“I used to re-live the Spengler Cup playing street hockey in our neighborhood, whereas today, with all the digital opportunities, there are new ways of celebrating the excitement around the Spengler Cup.”.

The tournament will be hosted on the GameTurnier platform, and is open to the public, while professional Swiss ice hockey players Davyd Barandun and Yannick Frehner, who play for Hockey Club Davos, will also be taking part. 

1st prize is CHF 6K ($6.7K USD), 2nd is CHF 2,500 ($2.8K), and 3rd is CHF 1,500 (approx. $1.7K). The grand final will be broadcast on SRF Sport’s website, with commentary by Swiss Radio and Television’s Steven Krucker. 

AYO.NEWS says:

Back in March, when the COVID-19 storm broke across Europe, few would have expected sports competitions would still be going virtual in December! But, once again it shows how those organisations, even ones as old as the Spengler Cup (founded in 1923), that are willing to adapt can still thrive while we wait for some form of normality to return to the world. 

‘AYO.NEWS says’ features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited or its affiliates or associates. 

All original content featured on this site is © Pentagon Digital Limited, 2020.

Ultimate Gamer is partnering with global real estate firm Jamestown for an epic Virtual New Year’s Eve celebration in Times Square. 

The world’s first and only multi-genre esports and gaming proving ground is working with Jamestown to create VNYE: a brand new, immersive virtual experience that will bring the world of Times Square to everyone, everywhere, starting from 19 December. 

As exclusive gaming partner, Ultimate Gamer will be providing unique virtual experiences, interactive content, and streams geared toward gamers and esports fans, through the app and website – VNYE.com. 

From 19 December 2020 , through 3 January 2021, Ultimate Gamer will be hosting a variety of streams on VNYE, featuring popular esports teams like Misfits Gaming and Team Furia; gaming personalities including HipHopGamer and Jobless Gamer; and entertainment from NBA2K content creators HankDaTank, BreeZe, ColeTheMan, and Hollywood, among others.

Fortnite, Valorant, Apex Legends, and League of Legends competitions, with fun prizes and giveaways, will also be hosted in the run up to New Year’s Eve. 

Additionally, Ultimate Gamer will be working with its partners including Kinguin, Western Digital, CLX Gaming, Turtle Beach, and Roccat, and teaming up with the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, to produce educational content and host online esports competitions to raise funds to support people living with paralysis. 

Looking forward to the events Ultimate Gamer CEO, Steve Suarez, said:

“2020 has been a landmark year for the gaming industry as gaming played a vital role in providing community and connection during a global pandemic. It is our hope that the planned virtual events offer a refreshed and innovative way to ring in the new year and create loyalty among the younger generation to this novel version of New Year’s Eve. 

“With over 2.7 billion gamers in the world, it’s time that one of the most-watched global events focuses its attention on this rapidly evolving audience. By providing a modern twist to a historic event, we are in essence symbolically passing the torch to the next generation and entrusting them to create highly entertaining and memorable experiences for years to come.”

While President of Fly Studio and Executive Producer of the VNYE Experience, Jean-Francois Talbot, added:

“It is more important than ever to continue the time-honored tradition of ringing in the New Year from Times Square. At Fly Studio, we were proud to collaborate with Jamestown to reimagine this experience for the virtual world and provide a way for everyone to celebrate safely this year.

“We are thrilled to be working with Ultimate Gamer as the exclusive VNYE gaming partner to bring this iconic experience to new viewers in an interactive and engaging way.”

From 19 December 2020 fans can download the VNYE app from all app stores, or visit VNYE.com to find out more about the Ultimate Gamer tournaments, esports content, and giveaways. 

AYO.NEWS says:

There’s no doubt about it, the upcoming New Year’s celebrations are going to be very different, but Ultimate Gamer and VNYE are proving that it can still be entertaining and uniting, bringing people together wherever they happen to be in the world, and raising funds and awareness for a great cause in the process. 

Last month, AYO.NEWS’ very own Simona Pinterova caught up with Steve Suarez, CEO of Ultimate Gamer, to find out more about what inspired the world’s first and only multi-genre esports and gaming proving ground, and where it’s going. 

‘AYO.NEWS says’ features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited or its affiliates or associates. 

All original content featured on this site is © Pentagon Digital Limited, 2020.

Zynga Inc. subsidiary Rollic has fully acquired popular matching game Onnect from CHEF Game Studio in a $6M-$7M deal.

$6M has been paid, with a further $1M potentially payable at a future date, if certain conditions are met.

Onnect is a connection-based pair-matching game with multiple levels. Player must find matching tiles and connect pairs of up to three lines to remove all tile pairs before the time is up. 

The  game was developed by CHEF Game Studio and published and partially owned by Rollic. Following its full acquisitions, the title will be developed in-house and become part of the studio’s portfolio, which includes eight titles that have reached #1 or #2 top free downloaded games positions in the US App Store.  

Discussing the acquisition Founder and CEO of Rollic, Burak Vardal, said:

“We are proud to be a part of the rapidly expanding games community in Turkey where developers are creating stand-out, successful game experiences across every vertical.

“Onnect is a great example of innovative game design, and we are excited to acquire the game in full and to continue developing around its proven success. Onnect’s viable roadmap will encourage developers, creating their path to product-oriented success.”

San Francisco-based Zynga Inc., acquired Istanbul-based Rollic in August 2020 for a staggering $168+ million. 

AYO.NEWS says:

Hyper-casual games are interesting not just because of their sheer commercial success, but because they are blurring the lines between proper video games and the type of digital games offered by igaming providers – who are increasingly mixing skill elements to random number generator (RNG)-based games. 

Illustrating this evolution well is Bet4Fun, the new app that lets players challenge each other on a growing range of hyper-casual titles, with both free play and real-money play on offer. Recently AYO.NEWS caught up with the Bet4Fun Co-founder and Marketing Director, Michael Klawiter, to find out more. 

‘AYO.NEWS says’ features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited or its affiliates or associates. 

All original content featured on this site is © Pentagon Digital Limited, 2020.

After 26 years, global esports event and tournament organiser DreamHack has rebranded with a new visual identity. 

The new visual identity was revealed yesterday, on the company’s annual DreamHack Day, and features a new logo, new colours, bold typeface, and “energized” graphics. 

It’s the first time that DreamHack, which began in 1994 as a LAN-event at a Swedish primary school and has since grown into one of the world’s biggest gaming brands, has gone through this kind of deliberate, carefully designed rebrand. 

Joining the iconic DreamHack orange are black, red, yellow, and white, while the wordmark has “been carefully crafted with unique letterforms”, with letters counters “perfectly squared to create a visual representation of screens.” The new brand headline font is Tusker Grotesk, while the core identity device is “the Warp”, which “pays homage to DreamHack’s heritage and represents the extraordinary things that happen when the gaming community gets together.”

In true 2020-style, DreamHack have also published a manifesto, committing itself to “infuse a sense of meaning” to its business, and guide it in creating future experiences. It reads as follows:

DreamHack is where our community join arms.

Around massive stages and booths made by hand.

In numbers, in spirit, and in any city brave enough to have us.

To discover where years of training can get you.

Or try something new for the very first time.

To play games that took years to create, and games we made up on the spot.

To embrace old enemies and fight new friends.

Play as hard as we can, mess about with a vengeance.

And crown the champion of everything – from Counter-Strike to cosplay to cabbage bowling

Because whether we’re first-timers or twenty-year veterans, eventually every one of us lives, breathes and sleeps DreamHack.

Some of us sleep at DreamHack.

So wherever gaming goes and however gaming grows,

this will always be the place where it all comes together.

In all our energy, creativity, glory, and absurdity.

And we will always be DreamHack.

Where the gaming community comes to life.

Of course, there’s also a brand new merchandise collection available, with the first drop featuring a hoodie, t-shirt, and sweatpants. 

In September, DreamHack merged with ESL, as part of a structural change in the MTG-owned businesses to better position them for the coming years. 

All original content featured on this site is © Pentagon Digital Limited, 2020.

Simona catches up with Michael Klawiter, Co-founder and Marketing Director of Bet4Fun – the new gaming app that is defying established norms by allowing players to challenge each other and earn rewards, for free or real money, on a range of hyper-casual partner games.

Watch to get the inside view on how skill-based casual games are challenging the existing order, bridging the gap between video gaming and online casino-based igaming, and what Bet4Fun has planned for the coming months as it rolls out into new territories.

Bet4Fun is now available on the App Store and coming soon to Google Play.