Each week the Bidstack team curate the most interesting stories from the world of gaming, advertising and esports to help you keep ahead of the pack when it comes to in-game advertising.
Discover the most interesting news and views from the past week below.
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It's only been out on PC for a few days, but already Riot Games are exploring the possibility of bringing its new shooter, Valorant, to consoles. Valorant's closed beta pulled in 3m daily players, although we'll have to wait to see how their player numbers measure up to other big titles such as Fortnite and Minecraft post-launch.
Bidstack partner Codemasters have signed an exclusive five-year deal to develop and publish games based on the FIA World Rally Championship series and will also handle the esports tournaments associated with the franchise They will release WRC games for console, PC and mobile platforms, including annual titles that will run between 2023 and 2027.
Doritos are teaming up with Twitch to host a series of esports tournaments over the course of the year. The Doritos Disruptor Series, as the games are being called, will host 10 tournaments across five different video games, with the help of five popular Twitch streamers. The first tournament was hosted last weekend by Tyler “TeePee” Polchow, for the game Call of Duty: Warzone. The rest of the events and creators are yet to be disclosed.
Video game platforms such as Fortnite and Roblox have already become go-to spots to celebrate birthdays, hear new music and watch movie trailers. Now they’re pushing to become true media hubs, where entire albums may be distributed exclusively and socialising is just as important as gaming. Even as people begin to emerge from pandemic lockdowns video games look to bolster their status as the new kings of communication.
The fast-evolving tech landscape means it‘s getting harder for brands to reach younger consumers. Linear television is no longer popular among young people. While only 30% of 21-25-year-olds spend over six hours watching linear TV a week, around 50% view the same amount of TV online. Not all is lost. Gaming lets brands promote their offerings in seamless ways that are typically unobtrusive to gamers.
EA has put the first wave of its games back on Steam, including titles from the Dragon Age and Need For Speed series. This is one crop of what EA said will be more than 25 games returning to Valve's platform. However, the publisher's biggest franchises are still absent, including The Sims, Battlefield, Star Wars Battlefront, and Apex Legends.
