07/13/23: Microsoft has won its initial battle with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission

Thursday July 13, 2023

Good morning! It’s Thursday and this is your early morning Esports and Gaming brief.

Microsoft has won its initial battle with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission over the tech giant’s $68.7 billion acquisition of game publisher Activision-Blizzard. Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley on Tuesday denied the FTC’s request for a preliminary injunction against Microsoft, citing the company’s commitment to continuing to publish Activision title Call of Duty on PlayStation and the “unpersuasive” arguments put forward by the FTC’s primary witness, Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan. Ryan did not appear in-person for the trial and instead offered a pre-recorded deposition.

The court’s decision makes the case that while the Microsoft/Activision-Blizzard deal might give Sony a smaller advantage in the console and games market, the deal, which Microsoft and Activision executives committed to bring to cloud services as well as potentially the Nintendo Switch, is “perhaps bad for Sony, but good for Call of Duty gamers and future gamers.”

The FTC can appeal, but this decision clears the way for Microsoft and Activision-Blizzard to close their deal ahead of a July 18 deadline that would see Microsoft pay $3 billion and have to re-open negotiations with ATVI. The U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority still stands by its decision to block the deal, but Microsoft could choose to go through with the acquisition and not operate as a combined entity in the country or seek a compromise in the coming week. Microsoft and ATVI are still looking to appeal in the U.K. as well.

This deal will be a hot topic during the Esports and Gaming Business Summit this year, with discussions on its implications as well as where publishers could be headed in this new business climate. In case you missed the news, EBS will now take place Oct. 22-24 in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand, with three days of programming dedicated to helping brands, esports organizations and other stakeholders build connections in the space and learn more about best practices and trends in the industry. Register today HERE.

COMPETITION AND GAMING NEWS

Esports will remain a competitive event at the 2026 Asian Games, the Olympic Council of Asia General Assembly decided over the weekend. The Asian Games Aichi-Nagoya are scheduled to take place from Sept. 19-Oct. 4 and will continue to feature competitive gaming alongside traditional sports competitions. The Asian Games will debut esports as a “full-fledged medal event” this year during competition in Hangzhou, China, with FIFA Online 4, PUBG Mobile Asian Games version, Arena of Valor Asian Games version, Dota 2, League of Legends, Dream Three Kingdoms 2 and Street Fighter V all planned to be part of the event.

The Apex Legends Global Series Split 2 Playoffs kick off today with four days of competition in London, England, and a $1 million prize pool on the line. The tournament, put on by Apex publisher Electronic Arts and developer Respawn Entertainment, will take place at Copper Box Arena, which has housed a multitude of esports events this year including the League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational and the Split 1 Playoffs for ALGS. Forty teams from five competitive regions are set to square off in the battle royale title over the coming days, including Split 1 winner TSM.

The International Basketball Federation (FIBA) announced the return of its NBA 2K competition, eFIBA, with its second season also bringing the event’s first in-person final. The international competition, which features more than 30 countries, will play out on NBA 2K24 in a five-vs.-five format in the ProAM version of the game on PlayStation 5. Regional qualifiers and finals will determine two teams from the Africa, Americas, Asia (including Oceania) and Europe regions who will compete in the global finals later this year. eFIBA will return in October 2023, with dates for qualifiers and the eFIBA Worlds Finals yet to be announced.

The Guard has taken its place in the VALORANT Champions Tour following the team’s victory at VALORANT Ascension Americas, a qualifying event that provided the winner two years as a VCT franchise. Ascension brought together the six best VALORANT Challengers squads in North and South America to contend for a spot in the VCT Americas circuit during a weeklong tournament in Sao Paulo, Brazil. North American rivals The Guard and M80 met in the final, with The Guard winning the series 3-1 to secure its spot in the VCT. However, following news earlier this year that The Guard was shutting down its operations and using a skeleton crew to operate its VALORANT and Apex Legends squads, it’s unclear how the organization will support a full VCT-caliber roster.

SPONSORSHIP & ACTIVATION

100 Thieves has revealed “Bank Heist,” an Unreal Engine for Fortnite activation that is the first real product from the gaming lifestyle organization’s development team for Project X. That project, which is slated to be an individual game release, broke off some of the team from the larger development cycle in May to create Bank Heist, a three-on-three game mode using the development tools of Fortnite Creative 2.0 to drive a quick turnaround. Bank Heist launched July 11, and Project X Chief Product Officer Pete Hawley said UEFN could serve as a conduit to “our own true custom content” in the future as well.

GameSquare and Dairy MAX have extended their partnership to promote the benefits of gamers adding dairy to their diets and exhibiting healthy lifestyle practices. The initiative, known as Level Unlocked, will include GameSquare building content on vertical video platforms, Twitch and more from members of its 2,500+ creator roster, with Repullze, DiazBiffle and Ninjayla named to the initial creator slate. Content will include cooking livestreams and Q&As, the companies said in a statement, “to reinforce the importance of a balanced diet and the impact on performance.”

STREAMHATCHET

How BattleBit Remastered Hit 11M Hours Watched in its First Month of Release

BattleBit Remastered has soared to the top of the gaming charts, selling 3 million copies in just three weeks. The game was 7 years in the making and generated buzz across the gaming world after its early access period mid-June of this year, soaring to the top of Steam’s best-selling games.

Live streaming creators like Dr. Disrespect, Gaules, and LIRIK picked up the game in its early days and helped the game generate 11.3M hours watched in its first 30 days. The game gained popularity early on across Twitch and YouTube Gaming, which helped with sales and pushed it to the top of the charts.

Read more on Stream Hatchet’s blog.

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YOUGOV LIVING DATA INSIGHTS

Esports fans – the perfect audience for tech brands

Given the young profile of esports fans, it is to be expected that the audience is more inclined towards tech products and services. But the extent of the difference between esports followers and the average American adult when it comes to intent for early adoption of tech products is staggering. Three-tenths of esports followers say they are “actively on the look-out to buy new technology devices and services” compared to just over a tenth of American adults on the whole (31% vs 12%).

TEAMS

FaZe Clan plans to address its NASDAQ woes with a reverse stock split, according to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing first reported by The Esports Advocate. In a July 10 meeting, shareholders overwhelmingly agreed to consolidate shares “at a reverse stock split ratio of 1-for-20 or 1-for-30,” to be determined at a future date by the company’s board of directors. The measure could bring FaZe back into compliance with NASDAQ requirements. FaZe must trade at over $1 per share for 10 consecutive business days prior to late September of this year, or it will be delisted.

Relatedly, Danish esports organization Astralis will vote on delisting from the NASDAQ First North Growth Market Denmark in August, according to a statement from the company. Astralis, like several other esports outfits has struggled in the public market. Despite Astralis “consistently [meeting] its financial targets,” the company’s stock price has fallen 80% since its initial listing in December 2019, according to a statement, and the costs to Astralis of being on the public marketplace are significant. “Through a delisting and the consequential significant direct and indirect savings, Astralis A/S aims to create a more profitable business for its shareholders and free up resources and funds for new investments,” the organization said in its announcement. The vote on delisting will take place Aug. 8.

Content creator Jeremy “Disguised Toast” Wang’s VALORANT esports dreams are alive and well following Disguised’s decision to sign another VALORANT Game Changers roster. The team will begin competition with the Game Changers Series II open qualifiers today, with Game Changers mainstays Katherine “Katarina” Patrone and Hannah “hannah” Reyes, who had previously competed for top teams in the league, joining coach Chris “Huijinyong” Yong and some young talent as they vie for a spot in Series II.

INDUSTRY

The latest games industry report from venture capital firm Konvoy indicates VC funding for games ventures fell 38% from Q1 to Q2 2023, though the company expects the games industry itself to grow about 9% and eclipse $200 billion this year. Despite positive tidings in the overall market, the total in VC funding is on-track to be the lowest since 2019, according to Konvoy.

Microsoft is undergoing another round of layoffs following a round in January that cut 10,000 positions. Microsoft did not share the scale of this set of layoffs, though the early 2023 round removed approximately 5% of the company’s workforce. Those cuts were in line with a slew of reductions in workforce across the tech world at the time, with Amazon, Alphabet (Google’s parent company), Meta, and more trimming staff as organizations reel back post-pandemic.

Sega of America’s Allied Employees Guild Improving Sega has voted to unionize and in doing so become the first union at a AAA publisher to include multiple business units. The union will include 200 roles at Sega’s offices in Irvine, California, according to a report from Polygon. AEGIS first petitioned the National Labor Relations Board for election in April and now will await certification before beginning bargaining arrangements with Sega of America itself.

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