Daily PitStop - Feb 21, 2023
Here's today's top 5 gaming news bite-sized for you:
An extensive gaming agreement has been announced by Microsoft and NVIDIA: Microsoft and NVIDIA have formed a 10-year partnership to bring Xbox PC games to NVIDIA's cloud gaming service, GeForce NOW, which has over 25 million members in over 100 countries. Gamers will be able to stream Xbox PC titles from GeForce NOW to various devices, including smartphones, PCs, and Chromebooks. The partnership will also enable Activision Blizzard PC titles, such as Call of Duty, to be streamed on GeForce NOW after Microsoft's acquisition of Activision closes. The integration of Xbox PC games into GeForce NOW will start immediately, including third-party partner titles where the publisher has granted streaming rights to NVIDIA.
Sign up in advance for Mighty Doom now: Mighty DOOM is a top-down shooter game developed by Alpha Dog Games and set in the DOOM animated universe. Players control a customizable Mini Slayer and fight against hordes of Hell's demons to save their pet rabbit. The game features fast and frenetic arcade action with easy-to-learn controls and intense combat. As players progress through the game, they can upgrade their gear, unlock legendary weapons, and choose powerful abilities. The game is available for pre-registration in select countries on the iOS App Store and Google Play Store, and it will be launched on March 21, 2023. Players who pre-register will receive exclusive weapon skins and more, and Slayers Club members will receive an exclusive themed Mini Slayer skin upon the game's release. Alpha Dog Games is a small studio located in Nova Scotia, Canada, and joined the Bethesda Softworks family in 2019 to develop an original DOOM spin-off game. Registration Link
The lawsuit brought by Maverick Gaming to challenge Washington tribal sports gaming has been dismissed by the court: Maverick Gaming's lawsuit challenging Washington state law that limits sports betting to casinos owned by tribal nations has been dismissed by Chief Judge David Estudillo of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington. Maverick Gaming had filed the lawsuit against Governor Jay Inslee, Attorney General Bob Ferguson, and members of the Washington State Gambling Commission. The case was dismissed after the Shoalwater Bay Tribe intervened as a defendant and 17 other tribes supported their motion to dismiss the case. The lawsuit sought to undermine tribal sovereignty and self-determination by interfering with their right to conduct lawful gaming activities at tribal casinos. The court's decision was seen as a significant victory for tribal sovereignty, and tribal gaming revenue has helped lift many tribal members above the poverty line across the country and provided strong employment opportunities for tribal members.
Curio has secured a seed round of $2.9 million to develop a composable gaming ecosystem: Curio Research has closed a seed funding round of $2.9 million to develop its on-chain gaming lab, which aims to democratize the gaming space by expanding user-generated content within games. The funding will be used to develop new games, build custom infrastructure for on-chain games, and expand the development and design team. Curio's platform allows players to contribute to a shared universe of code and data, enabling maximum transparency and creating games built entirely by players’ creativity and content. The company's first game, Treaty, launched in January 2023 and allows players to draft rules around how they interact with other players in the game.
Blumhouse is set to establish a division for video games: Blumhouse, the horror movie and TV production company known for its success with small-budget films, has announced the launch of Blumhouse Games. The new division will focus on partnering with independent game developers to create horror-themed games for consoles, PCs, and mobile devices with budgets of under $10 million, following a similar strategy to the company's filmed content production. Blumhouse Games will be led by video game industry veterans Zach Woods as president and Don Sechler as CFO. Blumhouse plans to merge with Atomic Monster, James Wan's production company, later this year.