Hollywood Reporter reports: “A federal grand jury on Tuesday returned an indictment that charged eight people with conspiring to violate federal criminal copyright law by allegedly running two of the largest unauthorized streaming services in the United States, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.”
Hypebot reports: “DistroKid has become the first DIY music distributor to add TikTok to its offering. The short video app has more than 500 million active worldwide and served as the launchpad for the longest-running #1 in chart history, “Old Town Road” by Lil Nas X.”
VentureBeat reports: “Ubisoft was one of the first major publishers to jump aboard both the Epic Games Store and Google Stadia streaming platform. And the company is embracing those alternatives to the Steam market in part because Valve’s game-distribution portal takes too much money, according to Ubisoft digital publishing boss Chris Early.”
Variety reports: “Major label-owned Vevo has struck a partnership with smart TV operating system provider Vewd to bring music videos to TiVo DVRs as well as smart TVs from manufacturers like Sony, Hisense and Philips.”
Hollywood Reporter reports: “A Manhattan Beach resident on Tuesday surrendered to federal authorities to face federal charges that he allegedly bulked investors out of millions over a fake Netflix deal.”
The Verge reports: “Telltale Games is getting a second life. After a tragic and well-publicized decline, the game studio — best known for adaptations of series like The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones — is coming back after a group of investors purchased the company’s assets with plans to relaunch.”
Hollywood Reporter reports: “Some 42 percent of millennials say they’d be likely to subscribe to the offering of Hulu, Disney+ and ESPN+, a Hollywood Reporter/Morning Consult survey finds.”
Hollywood Reporter reports: “Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, the studio’s video game division which launched in 2004, is opening a new studio in San Diego focused on creating free-to-play mobile games.”
VentureBeat reports: “Reinforcement learning, the AI training technique that’s brought to fruition systems capable of defeating world poker champions and guiding self-driving cars, isn’t the simplest thing in the world to wrangle. That’s particularly true in the gaming domain, where cutting-edge approaches sometimes require bespoke tools that aren’t publicly available.”
VentureBeat reports: “Ready, the maker of The Ready Games hyper-casual esports tournament platform, has raised $5 million in funding. Bitkraft Esports Ventures led the round with participation from new investors Comcast Ventures and Eldridge Industries. Ready defines hyper-casual games as simple tap games where the player can control gameplay with no more than two tap gestures.”
