GamesBeat reports: “Zynga’s Socialpoint Studio announced today that it’s partnering with YouTuber James “MrBeast” Donaldson on a limited-time battle challenge within the mobile RPG Top Troops. Players who partake in the event can complete the challenge in order to receive rewards themed around the popular influencer. The event is set to run through May 4.”
VGC reports: “The group will separate into three companies – Asmodee, Coffee Stain & Friends and Middle-earth Enterprises & Friends – each of which will be listed as a separate company on Nasdasq Stockholm. As part of the separation process, Embracer has entered into a new financing agreement, through Asmodee, which is worth €900 million.”
Yahoo! Tech reports: “Connected TV usage of YouTube accounted for 9.7% of all U.S. TV viewing in March, according to Nielsen’s latest monthly tube consumption tracker, The Gauge. That’s up from 7.8% in March 2023 and 6% in March 2022. We made an effort to better understand Nielsen’s not-so-transparent methodologies two years ago.”
IGN reports: “After Apple loosened its policies on allowing retro game emulators, developer Riley Testut launched a new, free emulator on the App Store yesterday, offering support for several Nintendo consoles from yesteryear. In a blog post, Testut revealed Delta serves as a successor to GBA4iOS, providing support for not just GameBoy games but also NES, Sega Genesis, SNES, N64, and even the Nintendo DS. More interestingly, Testut teased that it would support more emulators on the App Store listing but did not specify which emulators exactly.”
GamesBeat reports: “Theorycraft has announced that it will team up with Nexon and NetEase Games to publish its game, code-name Project Loki, in Asian markets. On top of that, Project Loki is now in alpha testing. All of that bodes well for Los Angeles-based Theorycraft, which was founded by gaming veterans who managed to raise an astounding $87.5 million from game venture capitalists for a relatively small team.”
Music Business Worldwide reports: “Remember when Concord bought Round Hill Music‘s assets off the UK stock exchange for USD $469 million in November? The US company is now looking to pull off a similar acquisition, this time for the song portfolio of another UK-listed entity – Hipgnosis Songs Fund. The HSF board has this morning (April 18) notified shareholders that Concord has made a cash offer equivalent to USD $1.40 billion to acquire its assets.”
TechCrunch reports: “CommentSold, the e-commerce tech startup that provides web and video tools to online retailers, launched a new generative AI–powered tool on Wednesday that can sift through livestreamed footage and generate short product explainer videos for sellers to post to their website, app and social media platforms.”
Mashable reports: “Twitch is rolling out its new TikTok-like Discovery Feed later this month, joining a growing cohort of tech companies taking design tips from the popular video sharing app. While select users have had access to Twitch’s scrollable video feed test since August last year, the Amazon-owned streaming platform is now finally ready to release the feature to all its mobile users.”
Music Business Worldwide reports: “Since launching in mid-2021, Karta, a metaverse studio that offers in-game experiential marketing, has attracted significant investment and struck major partnerships with brands such as Amazon Music, McDonald’s and Hugo Boss. Founded by industry veterans Erik Londré, former Head of Events at Fnatic, and music business veteran Tony Barnes, Karta bridges the gap between brands, artists, sports teams, and users in virtual worlds like Fortnite and Roblox.”
GamesBeat reports: “A16z announced that it has raised a new $600 million games fund as part of a $7.2 billion raise for the venture capital company started by Marc Andressen and Ben Horowitz. Horowitz said that the $7.2 billion will be spread among the following venture strategies: American dynamism ($600 million), apps ($1 billion), games ($600 million), infrastructure ($1.25 billion), and growth ($3.75 billion).”
