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Twitch to acquire eSports agency GoodGame
Leading game broadcasting site Twitch has announced that it has a reached an agreement to acquire GoodGame, a company it describes as "the world's first full-service agency dedicated to the esports and live video game broadcasting communities." Twitch claims the move is aimed at helping the streaming video site to better serve ads to viewers while also highlighting the platform's utility and profit potential to companies wanting to serve ads to the young-leaning Twitch demographic. "GoodGame has an amazing reputation in the industry for its expertise in both sponsorship sales and talent support," writes Twitch COO Kevin Lin. "Their passion for helping content creators and pro players achieve success has elevated the entire industry in the minds of brands worldwide." Twitch fans worried that the site's explosive success of late - Twitch was recently acquired by Amazon for $970 million - will turn the site into a sterile, corporate entity with no concern for the Twitch community, need not worry, according to GoodGame CEO Alexander Garfield. "I believe in Twitch - I really do," Garfield writes in a lengthy explanation of why he chose to sell GoodGame. "They're great at what they do, they understand esports, and they genuinely care about making sure the community grows in the right way. To use an industry meme: they get it." [Image: Amazon]
Rise and Shiny: Habbo Hotel
This week I had the pleasure of testing out Habbo Hotel, a social MMO that takes its art design cues from the world of 8bit and tries to attract a younger audience with bright, accessible gameplay. Really the only thing separating Habbo Hotel from a serious "adult" MMO is how it looks. The systems in-game are no different than those in other social MMOs I have found, and in fact, much of the no-frills gameplay reminds me just how bloated many standard MMOs are. You might have heard of Habbo Hotel because of a recent controversy that resulted in major backers pulling out of the game and forced the developers to literally shut down public chat, but it seems that the worst of the controversy is behind us. I found a few examples of players trying to navigate around chat filters or rules, but that's standard behavior for younger players. Just ask Wizard101's KingsIsle about the difficulty of maintaining clean chat in a "kid's" MMO.
