The Verge reports: “Facebook is buying the popular GIF-making and sharing website Giphy for a reported price of $400 million, with plans to integrate the massive GIF library into Instagram and other Facebook apps. News of the deal was first reported by Axios, which revealed the $400 million value of the deal.”
The Hollywood Reporter reports: “With the TV Academy banning the panels, parties and other events that have long been staples of the season, the pros must strategize new ways to push contenders in a fragile climate: “No one wants to look promotional right now.”
Deadline reports: “DraftKings reported a 30% upswing in first-quarter revenue from its core sports betting operations as wider legalization offset the impact of COVID-19.”
TechCrunch reports: “New numbers from NPD confirm what we’ve known for a while: the first quarter of 2020 was a very good one for gaming companies. The new report notes that sales hit a record $10.86 billion in the States between January and March of this year, marking a 9% increase over a year prior. $9.58 billion of that figure was from video game content.”
VentureBeat reports: “For anyone sheltering in place during the pandemic, Scener has built a virtual movie theater where you can interact with friends remotely over video chat while watching your favorite programs. Today, the company is announcing it has partnered with HBO to enable co-watching features for HBO Now and HBO Go viewers.”
The Verge reports: “A slow song comes on, and phone flashlights light up across a series of Zoom tiles, swaying like they would at a concert. In a way, these fans are at a concert, but this is a virtual one on Zoom, with over 200 people all listening to the same songs together from their own rooms.”
Gamesindustry.biz reports: “Mobile tools provider AppLovin has acquired Machine Zone, the studio behind popular strategy title Game of War: Fire Age. The studio becomes AppLovin’s second in-house studio, alongside casual games developer Lion Studios.”
Variety reports: “PRS for Music, the organization that represents the rights of British songwriters, composers and music publishers, collected a record £811 million ($990 million) for its members last year, an 8.7% rise. However, CEO Andrea Martin said it would “inevitably see a decline” in royalties this and next year due to the coronavirus pandemic.”
The Hollywood Reporter reports: “From the team that made the cross-network ‘One World: Together at Home’ broadcast possible to the director who cut production costs by acquiring a high school, THR spotlights the boundary-pushers reinventing how content is created, developed and distributed.”
VentureBeat reports: “Epic Games took the wraps off its Unreal Engine 5 today, showing in a demo video how the game engine behind Fortnite will be able to generate outstanding realistic graphics in real-time on next-generation consoles like the PlayStation 5, high-end PCs, and even mobile devices.”
