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09/28/23: Counter-Strike 2 has officially launched

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Medias First Morning Read
Thursday September 28, 2023

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

Counter-Strike 2 has officially launched, and around 24 hours after its debut, fans and the esports community have a better idea of how the sequel to one of the most popular competitive titles ever will shake up the game.

Late last week, Counter-Strike publisher Valve began teasing a Wednesday release for Counter-Strike 2 on X, the social platform formerly known as Twitter. A simple callout – “What are you doing next Wednesday?” – caused a flurry of chatter on the platform, followed by the account replacing its banner image Tuesday with “Dawn of the Final Day,” a Legend of Zelda reference and callout to the upcoming release.

The quick-and-easy social campaign reignited more than enough excitement as CS2 made its official debut Wednesday. With its launch comes the end of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, the title that truly turned the game into a global phenomenon and the most popular first-person shooter esport in the market.

Pro players, teams, tournament organizers and, yes, marketers and brands, will need to react quickly; the weeks following a launch are among the most important to authentically connect to a community, and this is a rare opportunity to engage with a dedicated, veteran audience alongside a new product.

We’ll be talking about the implications of CS2 and what’s to come for the esports ecosystem throughout the Esports & Gaming Business Conference from Oct. 22-24 in Las Vegas. Get your tickets HERE to stay up-to-date on the biggest conversations in the industry.

COMPETITION AND GAMING NEWS

Electronic Arts announced the launch of FC Pro, the esports arm of EA SPORTS FC, on Monday, including a $1 million prize pool for its FC Pro Open competition, partnerships with a myriad of pro soccer leagues for its FC Pro League circuit, and more. The inaugural FC Pro season will culminate with 32 players – 28 from the Pro Leagues and four from the Open bracket – competing through a single-elimination bracket with another $1 million on the line. Registration for Open play began this week, with the overall competitive circuit running from October 2023 to June 2024.

The success of the Souls-like continued this week as Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice announced it has sold 10 million copies globally. The game, created by Dark Souls franchise masterminds FromSoftware, is another intensive, punishing game title that has made a mark in the mainstream. Along with titles such as Elden Ring, this genre, despite its sometimes brutal difficulty, has reached new heights even among casual players – as shown by the lofty sales numbers across multiple recent FromSoftware properties and similar titles from other publishers.

Following industry-wide backlash, Unity has backed off some of its Runtime Fee plans and cut its per-install charge policy for Personal plan holders. The decision provides some relief for smaller developers, and Unity has also expanded its Personal plan to include companies that make more than $200,000 in revenue per year (previously, the max was $100K). The company also removed the requirement that any games built via the Personal plan have a “Made with Unity” splash page on launch. Unity also announced some changes for bigger customers, including the option for developers to give Unity a 2.5% revenue share based on self-reported data instead of the Runtime Fee per-install method. Whether these changes will be enough to right the ship following an extended PR nightmare for the development software provider won’t likely be clear until the next quarterly revenue reports.

SPONSORSHIP & ACTIVATION

Riot Games has brought in K-pop girl group NewJeans for its League of Legends World Championship anthem, the developer announced. Riot will debut the anthem, “GODS,” on Oct. 3, as NewJeans prepares to perform in front of a home crowd in South Korea later this year during the Worlds finals. NewJeans, which came into the limelight in mid-2022 has had an explosive year and became the fastest-ever group to hit 1 billion streams on Spotify earlier this year, according to Time.

Evil Geniuses has extended its partnership with Thunderpick to include EG’s Dota 2 roster, the organizations announced. Evil Geniuses, which will participate in the world championship of Dota 2, The International, in October, will bring some additional awareness to the crypto casino brand, which had partnered with EG’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive squad earlier this year.

Organizers of multiple esports and gaming events in Georgia will come together for a joint event, Games Week Georgia, later this year, in celebration of the city’s burgeoning presence in the games community and a wide array of late-year events in Atlanta. DreamHack Atlanta, along with the Esports Summit, GirlGamer Atlanta and SIEGE conference will take over the city from Dec. 11-17 alongside several affiliated activations. “This jam-packed week invites gamers from around the world to celebrate the breadth and depth of the incredible ecosystem we have quietly built here in recent years,” Atlanta Esports Alliance vice-chair Grant Wainscott said in a statement.

Nick “Nickmercs” Kolcheff is coming to the Esports & Gaming Business Summit for a discussion about how his content creation career has led into activations beyond the gaming realm. Nickmercs, one of the most popular first-person shooter streamers with more than 15 million followers across social platforms, will take part in EBS alongside his manager, Justin Miclat of The Kinetic Group, with Forbes writer Matt Craig as moderator. EBS runs Oct. 22-24 in Las Vegas at MGM Grand. Get your tickets HERE.

STREAMHATCHET

MMORPGs are credited with laying the foundation for immersive, interactive gaming experiences, enabling players to traverse expansive realms and combat formidable foes collectively. Despite not reigning supreme in gaming rankings, the reach of MMORPGs transcends mere numerical dominance. It’s the fervor of the gaming communities and their engagement that distinguishes MMORPGs, especially in maintaining consistent engagement metrics post-launch.

The richness of content provided by MMORPGs captivates many streamers, providing them with an extensive reservoir of engaging material. The magnetic pull of new game releases hypes audiences, generating a persistent fervor amongst dedicated gamers who are passionate and highly engaged, showing consistent preferences in quality over quantity in audience metrics

Cynopsis 2023 Esports & Gaming Business Summit

BREAKING NEWS: NICKMERCS AT EBS

The YouTube sensation and Twitch streamer Nickmercs will be speaking at this year’s Esports & Gaming Business Summit on Oct. 22-24. Where will you be?

Register today to rub elbows with THE NICKMERCS. PS prices increase TONIGHT!

PURCHASE A TICKET NOW

TEAMS

The best League of Legends player of all time is healthy ahead of the game’s world championship, according to a report from South Korean outlet Naver translated by Dexerto. T1 mid laner Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok, who missed part of the League Champions Korea Summer Split due to a wrist injury, said “the discomfort is gone now” during an interview at the Asian Games in Hangzhou, China, this week. T1 will need Faker in top form for Worlds, which will take place in South Korea this year, if the mid laner laner wants to take home his and the team’s fourth world championship.

Esports organization 100 Thieves has signed former Evil Geniuses coach Tony “Zikz” Gray as its new VALORANT coach, the organization announced. Zikz, coming off a VALORANT Champions title with Evil Geniuses, brings championship pedigree to 100 Thieves, a VALORANT Champions Tour Americas team in the midst of building out a roster for the 2024 VCT campaign.

G2 Esports snagged a VCT Americas spot of their own by picking up the former The Guard roster earlier this week. The Guard, a VALORANT Challengers League squad that won the Americas Ascension tournament, had qualified for a VCT spot prior to the organization dropping out of the esport. G2 moved to acquire the roster for The Guard, while also clearing Riot Games’ review process to take ownership of the VCT Americas slot by proxy.

INDUSTRY

Roblox is taking steps toward voice chat moderation through artificial intelligence with its recent acquisition of Speechly. The company, founded in 2016 by current chief technology officer Hannes Heikinheimo, offers voice recognition software that can be deployed for moderation as well as enabling voice chat. “We are proud of the speech recognition product and solutions our team created that enabled fast, real-time and cost-efficient voice moderation helping developers reduce toxic behavior in online communities,” Heikinheimo said in a statement. “Roblox is building the leading platform for 3D immersive communication and connection. Everyday 65.5 million daily active users of all ages come to Roblox to be together, experience and create memories with friends. With the addition of new voice features, including voice chat, Roblox is solving new challenges—moderating spoken language in real time.

SAG-AFTRA members have voted in favor of authorizing a strike for video game actors and performers if the union cannot reach terms of a new deal with major video game publishers. The move would bring another round of work stoppages to Hollywood following SAG-AFTRA’s efforts to improve working conditions and compensation for members of the Writers Guild of America; that group reached an initial agreement with studios on Sunday, with writers slated to return to work Wednesday. SAG-AFTRA is also representing film and TV actors in their strike, which began in July. Video game voice actors and motion capture performers work under a different contract from that of the film and TV cohort known as the “Interactive Media Agreement,” which includes heavy hitters such as Activision, Electronic Arts, and Epic Games on the other side of the fence.

PlatinumGames vice president and co-founder Hideki Kamiya will leave the company on Oct. 12, he announced. Kamiya, who is credited with creating the Bayonetta franchise that PlatinumGames is best-known for, said the move was “by no means an easy decision to make” but that he is not exiting the industry entirely. “I will continue to create in my Hideki Kamiya way,” he said in a statement on X. “I hope you’ll keep your eyes peeled.”

Capcom president Haruhiro Tsujimoto believes game prices are too low, according to a report from Japanese financial publication Nikkei translated by Kotaku. Tsujimoto, speaking at the Tokyo Game Show, noted that while game prices rose about $10 during the current generation of consoles, development costs have shot up “100 times” since the 1980s Nintendo Entertainment System era. The price hike, Tsujimoto said, might be a prerequisite of industry-wide raises to game developer wages, which along with long hours and crunch time before releases have led to heavy turnover throughout the industry in recent years.

2023 Tempest Esports & Gaming Awards

Reserve Today!

Tables are limited for this year’s Tempest Esports & Gaming Awards, taking place October 23 at the HyperX Arena in Las Vegas. We’re excited to celebrate with you – will we see you there?

REGISTER TO ATTEND HERE

TRIVIA
The Kansas City Chiefs got a 41-10 win over the Chicago Bears last weekend, but Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce had plenty more reasons to be happy. Which superstar artist, who attended Sunday’s game, is Kelce now confirmed (perhaps) to be dating? (Email [email protected] with your answer, and be sure to include your name, company and city).

Answer to Our Last Trivia Question
What is the name of the new Electronic Arts soccer franchise? Answer: EA SPORTS FC. Kudos: Michael Goodman | Radio One Atlanta; Tom Moore | Kalt Productions, Los Angeles; David Westberg | SAG•AFTRA Federal Credit Union, Burbank, California

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