New Brazilian esports, gaming, and geek culture TV channel Loading has descended into farce just a week after going on air.

As previously reported, the Grupo Kalunga-owned channel had acquired the former MTV Brasil broadcasting concession and moved into its old studios. Headed by CEO Thiago Garcia, it had put together an impressive team of local esports journalists and talent, including Bárbara Gutierrez (from IGN Brasil), and Chandy Teixeira (from Globo’s GE). 

However, according to the Esports Observer, which spoke to sources familiar with the channel on the condition of anonymity, the channel’s entire editorial staff has resigned.

Apparently, the launch of the channel has been plagued by issues, with employees never receiving their contracts or agreed benefits, including healthcare insurance, and the former MTV studios being about two decades out-of-date, equipped with obsolete technology. 

But, it seems that an investigative report into a possibly fraudulent fundraising campaign, fronted by an esports player on Twitch, by Teixeira, followed by a negative portrayal of Riot Games regarding Brazilian League of Legends Championship (CBLoL) coverage, was too much for the channel’s management, who just wanted entirely ‘happy content’, minus any controversy or realism.

As such, esports Editor-in-Chief Vicenzzo Mandetta was fired, and the journalist staff ordered to strictly follow a ‘positive agenda’ – extending even to the point where covering sexism or discrimination in esports woudl be banned. 

Reports suggest a rebellion followed, with staff attempting to make a stand to protect their integrity, but their demands fell on deaf ears, and the entire team resigned the next morning. 

Loading’s management have referred to the incident as a “misalignment between Loading’s positioning, focused on entertainment, and the Metagaming program’s editorial team.”

AYO.NEWS says:

While it’s very early days for Loading, this doesn’t bode well for the channel’s future. Quite apart from the ‘misalignment’ issues, the allegation that the channel’s owners haven’t even invested in the right equipment should ring alarm bells, and very strongly suggests those in charge have no idea of what is required to be relevant in 2021. 

Can Loading bring things back from the brink, and get back on track? Interesting times…

‘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.

$40B US-based video games giant EA has foiled Take-Two’s plans to acquire Codemasters, after making a higher bid. 

Early this morning, Electronic Arts (EA) announced that it has reached an agreement with the Board of Codemasters for the recommended acquisition of the UK-based game developer and publisher.

The transaction will see Codemasters’ shareholders receive 604 pence (approximately US$7.98) for each ordinary share, giving the company an implied enterprise value of $1.2B USD. The acquisition is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2021. 

Commenting on the news Chairman of Codemasters, Gerhard Florin, said:

“Electronic Arts and Codemasters have a shared ambition to lead the video game racing category. The Board of Codemasters firmly believes the company would benefit from EA’s knowledge, resources and extensive global scale – both overall and specifically within the racing sector. 

“We feel this union would provide an exciting and prosperous future for Codemasters, allowing our teams to create, launch and service bigger and better games to an extremely passionate audience.”

While CEO of Electronic Arts, Andrew Wilson, added:

“We believe there is a deeply compelling opportunity in bringing together Codemasters and Electronic Arts to create amazing and innovative new racing games for fans. Our industry is growing, the racing category is growing, and together we will be positioned to lead in a new era of racing entertainment. 

“We have admired Codemasters’ creative talent and high-quality games for many years. With the full leverage of EA’s technology, platform expertise, and global reach, this combination will allow us to grow our existing franchises and deliver more industry-defining racing experiences to a global fan base. 

“We are pleased that both our Boards of Directors are recommending this transaction, and we look forward to welcoming such an exciting and talented team to the Electronic Arts family.”

Codemasters is well-known for its popular sim racing games, including Dirt 5, Dirt Rally 2.0, Project Cars 3, Fast & Furious Crossroads, F1 2020, F1 2019, F1 2018, F1 Mobile Racing, Grid, and Onrush. 

As reported last month, Codemasters had previously agreed to an acquisition by US-based Take-Two Interactive Software, in a $980M USD deal. Take-Two’s popular titles including the NBA 2K series, Grand Theft Auto V, Red Dead Redemption 2, and the WWE series. 

AYO.NEWS says:

Ouch, that sucks for Take-Two, whose acquisition of Codemasters would have instantly catapulted it up the scale considerably, but, who can resist the might of EA?

It will be interesting to see where Codemasters goes under EA’s leadership – will we see entirely new titles, or just the development of the existing hugely successful ones, especially regarding esports? Interesting times, and once again, the move shows how despite the world facing an unprecedented economic crisis, the video games industry is on fire. 

‘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.

UK-based esports and video games jobs platform Hitmarker has smashed its latest crowdfunding target by 260%. 

The company says it has raised £521,283 GBP within just seven days, and will use the new capital to establish localised offerings in new markets, including Spain, Brazil, and the Asia-Pacific region. 

Some 487 investors from 50 countries took part in the Crowdcube campaign, with a single, as yet undisclosed, investor contributing £250K. Hitmarker have said it was a “significant industry figure”, and their identity will be revealed once the Crowdcube process and legal reviews have been completed. 

Hitmarker’s original target was just £200,000 in return for 4% of equity. The success of this second crowdfunding round follows its initial campaign last year, which also significantly beat its target. The latest funding round values Hitmarker at 2.5X its November 2019 valuation.

Commenting on the news Managing Director at Hitmarker, Richard Huggan, said:

“We came into this raise much more confident than we were last year. Not only due to having a network of existing investors, but also because Hitmarker is now operating in a much wider market.

“Even so, the response from our community, and that of the wider esports and video game industry, has blown us all away. We want to thank everyone who put their faith in us, and promise that we’ll continue working hard to reward it.”

While Founder of Hitmarker, Philip Huggan, added:

“Hitmarker started as a passion project to fill a clear need for a job portal dedicated to the esports industry. That we now have 12,000+ live jobs, a constantly-growing user base, and the expertise required to bring our product to new territories is a testament to our team, who works relentlessly to make Hitmarker the best it can be.

“We have lots of goals that this capital will help us realise. Not only are we going to roll out new platforms dedicated to specific regions, there are also a plethora of new features coming. We’re all excited to grow our team, improve our product, and continue bringing value to the esports and video game community.”

AYO.NEWS says:

Congratulations to everyone at Hitmarker on another incredible achievement in their road to global esports and video games jobs domination! One thing we’ve noticed about Hitmarker is the team’s modesty, so maybe they deliberately set the bar low? Either way, it works, and the response shows people’s faith in the company and its plans. 

Last month AYO.NEWS’ very own Simona Pinterovacaught up with Richard Huggan, MD of Hitmarker, to find out more about the company’s story and future plans. 

‘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.

Esports tournament organiser BLAST has extended its partnership with major Danish broadcaster TV2, to cover the BLAST Premier 2021 season.

The renewal will see TV2 obtain exclusive BLAST Premier broadcast rights in Denmark for a third consecutive year. The broadcaster will cover all seven BLAST Premier events in 2021, on TV2 ZULU and online platform TV2 PLAY. 

BLAST will also be working closely with TV2 to create bespoke Counter-Strike content outside of BLAST Premier events. 

Commenting on the news VP, Programming and Distribution for BLAST, Alexander Lewin, said:

“We are delighted to extend and expand our long-term partnership with TV2. TV2 continues to provide the perfect home for BLAST Premier’s Danish audience and we are excited to continue to push the boundaries and explore ways to produce premium and exclusive Counter-Strike content.”

While Content Manager for TV2 ZULU and TV2 PLAY, Sune Roland Jensen, added:

“ZULU and Counter-Strike have for several years proved to be a perfect match and a wonderful and playful partnership. We are excited to renew our agreement with BLAST, which represents many of the highlights of the esports calendar, and we strongly hope that during 2021 we can move from our own rooms and back to the arenas where the amazing and fast-growing e-sport also belongs. 

“That said, it has been top-notch to note that the limitations of the pandemic have not stopped the unique commitment that embraces Counter-Strike across rooms and studios in the fast-growing ZULU CS:GO community, which is built on social media.”

The renewal of the TV2 agreement follows news that the BBC has become the latest broadcast partner to join BLAST’s global portfolio of TV and online partners, which together reach over 151M TV households, across 105 territories and 18 languages. 

AYO.NEWS says:

Nothing says a partnership has been a success like a renewal for another year! With BLAST now having such a huge mainstream global reach, it looks set to continue to play a pivotal role in fuelling the insane growth of esports. 

‘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.

In-game advertising platform Adverty has partnered with global mobile-first advertising tech company InMobi. 

Adverty delivers unobtrusive advertising which connects brands and audiences through patented technology built specifically for gaming, while Mobi’s mobile marketing technology is connected to every relevant programmatic DSP, allowing advertisers and publishers to engage consumers through contextual mobile advertising. 

Technical integration of the platforms should be completed during Q1 2021, after which even more advertisers will be able to leverage Adverty’s programmatic in-game offering. 

Discussing the partnership CEO of Adverty, Niklas Bakos, said:

“There is significant demand for Adverty’s seamless in-game inventory at scale and this development enables our team to bring it to a wider range of brands and agencies. Advertisers are certainly waking up to the untapped potential of this burgeoning media channel.”

While VP of Marketplace Development at InMobi, David Di Angelo, added:

“As the leading global independent advertising platform across mobile apps, mobile websites and connected TV, InMobi has enabled the world’s biggest brand advertisers to connect with audiences through the apps they use every day. 

“With this new partnership with Adverty, InMobi is able to provide even more opportunities for brands to effectively reach and engage with premium gaming audiences through non-intrusive in-game ads that blend seamlessly into the gaming experience.”

Earlier this year, Adverty invented and launched a new in-game brand advertising format with seamless In-Menu™ ads, which enable deeply integrated, contextually relevant IAB display banner ads in between gameplay. 

AYO.NEWS says:

Given the size of the global gaming community (some 2.7 billion users according to NewZoo), the potential for in-game advertising is truly staggering, and already we’re seeing some of the world’s biggest brands start to dip their toes. 

In September, AYO.NEWS’ very own Simona Pinterova caught up with Adverty CEO and Co-founder, Niklas Bakos, to find out more about the company and its plans for the future. 

‘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.

UK-based GINX Esports TV has partnered with esports analytics startup Mobalytics to create exclusive content. 

Initial content efforts will be focused on League of Legends and VALORANT, and the collaboration will also provide players with insights to help them hone their skills. 

Discussing the agreement Marketing and Creative Director for GINX, Solenne Lagrange, explained:

“Mobalytics’ innovative and very high-quality approach to providing useful tips provides a powerful proposition for our ever-growing community of players.

“This new relationship with Mobalytics is a significant step in GINX’ ambitions to provide an exhaustive, video-focused coverage of gaming and its competitive side to players. It naturally complements our already wide proposition of news, event-coverage, guides and TV shows dedicated to esports lifestyle.”

In addition to its gaming companion app that delivers real-time statistics, feedback, and tips, Mobalytics also creates guides for League of Legends, Teamfight Tactics, Legends of Runeterra, and VALORANT. 

Last year, the California-based company became a partner of Riot Games’ LCS Scouting Grounds, and earlier this year it received an investment from T1 Entertainment & Sports. In July, the company announced it had secured a further $11.25M in funding. 

As previously reported, last week GINX announced a content partnership with esports talk show network Preediction. 

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