Tag: Gaming

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Tencent acquires Supercell, makers of Clash of Clans.

Clash of Clans

Reuters:

China’s biggest gaming group Tencent Holdings Ltd (0700.HK) is to buy a majority stake in ‘Clash of Clans’ mobile game maker Supercell from SoftBank Group Corp (9984.T) in a deal valued at roughly $8.6 billion.

That’s impressive.

According to Supercell’s blog:

The total equity value of $10.2 billion dollars also recognizes the value of the phenomenal company that our people have built.

Whether it is $8.6 billion or $10.2 billion, Supercell has become one of the major developers of mobile gaming. As of  June 21, 2016, Supercell has 2 games on U.S. iTunes App Store Top Grossing Apps, Clash of Clans and Clash Royale at number 4 and 6, respectively.

What’s really interesting from Supercell’s blog:

Tencent’s people seem to love games as much as we do. In fact, in one of my meetings with Martin (their President), he had just dropped out from Clash Royale global top-100 players

The President of Tencent likes Supercell games so much, he acquires the company.

Currently Supercell has four games:

  • Clash of Clans
  • Hay Day
  • Boom Beach
  • Clash Royale
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Amazon to Acquire Twitch

From Amazon.com Press Release (August 25, 2014):

SEATTLE–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Aug. 25, 2014– Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) today announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire Twitch Interactive, Inc., the leading live video platform for gamers. In July, more than 55 million unique visitors viewed more than 15 billion minutes of content on Twitch produced by more than 1 million broadcasters, including individual gamers, pro players, publishers, developers, media outlets, conventions and stadium-filling esports organizations.

According to TechCrunch, Amazon acquired Twitch Interactive for $970 Millions in cash.

From Twitch CEO, Emmet Shear’s letter:

Today, I’m pleased to announce we’ve been acquired by Amazon. We chose Amazon because they believe in our community, they share our values and long-term vision, and they want to help us get there faster. We’re keeping most everything the same: our office, our employees, our brand, and most importantly our independence. But with Amazon’s support we’ll have the resources to bring you an even better Twitch.

Congratulations to Twitch on getting acquired.

Now, let’s get to the serious part of this news. Back in May, 2014 there were rumors of Google’s intent to buy Twitch. Remember that it is a rumor of an acquisition. On July 24, 2014, VentureBeat ran a story with headline: “Google’s $1B purchase of Twitch confirmed — joins YouTube for new video empire” – link to the Internet Archive version.

“Confirmed”

No other news site reported this, just VentureBeat. One would think that Google would leak this news to Kara Swisher than VentureBeat. I did not buy it at all.

Every time someone cited @VentureBeat, I rolled my eyes. That’s because Venture Beat is less reliable than Supermarket Tabloid.

iVeryAm Tweet VentureBeat Roll Eyes 

For the next two weeks, many speculations abound. On August 6, 2014 I tweeted this:

Wonder why no one else is calling bullshit on @VentureBeat 2014-07-24 story about @Google’s $1 Billion purchase of @Twitch?
Confirmed???????

iVeryAm Tweet Twitch Google VentureBeat BullPie

Comes August 25, 2014, it is apparent that VentureBeat is an example of bad journalism.

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Angry Birds Toons: Fired Up

The episode number thirty-six of Angry Birds Toons is now playing at your Angry Birds App. “Fired Up” features Chuck and the birds.

Angry Birds Toons Fired Up

Stay Tooned for next episode titled “Clash Of Corns”.