1、Nintendo almost completely squeezed Sony out of the Japanese game market
According to Japanese media News Post Seven, Switch completely dominates the sales of hardware and software in Japan's game market, with PS4 hardly appearing and PS5 missing. Switch sales remained strong during the outbreak of Covid-19, with 18.88 million sold in Japan, accounting for 25% of global sales. From November 2020 to January 2021, 1.72 million Switches were sold, with an increase of 9% over the same period last year. Switch accounted for 91% of Japan's game hardware sales during the holiday season, according to sales data from Famitsu. On the other hand, PS4 only accounted for 4.7% of the Japanese game market, while PS5 only accounted for 3.7% when put on sale. 2、EA acquired mobile game manufacturer Glu Moblie with US $2.1 billion to promote mobile game business EA announced on February 9, 2021 that it has reached an agreement with the well-known mobile game manufacturer Glu Mobile to acquire Glu at a price of US $2.1 billion, so as to continue to expand its influence in the mobile game market. Andrew Wilson, CEO of EA, believes that as a leader of mobile games, Glu's joining will make EA have a better game team and promote the development of EA in the mobile terminal. "As the fastest growing gaming platform in the world, with the addition of Glu's gaming talent, the scale of our mobile business will double." he said, "With our deep IP product portfolio and expanding global audience, we will provide more exciting experiences for our players and promote the further development of EA." 3、The complaint of Switch controller drifting has been submitted to the European Commission for investigation Several European consumers complained to BEUC and expressed their strong dissatisfaction with the repeated drifting problem of Switch controller Joy-Con. Controller drifting will make the game difficult to operate, or even completely unable to play normally. After receiving nearly 25000 complaints, BEUC and its members have submitted complaints about Nintendo to the European Commission and national consumer protection authorities on the function of Nintendo Switch controller. BEUC and its members are calling for a Europe wide investigation of the problem, and Nintendo has an obligation to urgently address the problem of premature damage to its products. At the same time, before that, free maintenance service should be provided to consumers, and consumers should be informed of the actual service life of the product. As of September last year, Switch had sold 68 million units worldwide, including Europe as a major market. 4、Valve paid $4 million for steam controller infringement case Ironburg Inventations said that the Steam controller prototype of Valve used the same patent as Ironburg used. Moreover, Ironburg had warned Valve before, but Valve ignored it and continued to sell Steam controllers. It is reported that 1.6 million Steam controllers were sold before the shutdown in 2019. Valve claimed that there was no infringement. But the jury found that this was not the case, and ordered Valve to compensate Ironburg for the loss of $4 million. Although the verdict met the minimum damages claimed by Ironburg, it is still possible to increase the amount of compensation as the jury found that Valve intentionally infringed and used the patent. 5、Tencent invested more than $616 million in 14 game companies in January 2021 Enterprise search APP shows that in January 2021, Tencent launched 14 investment events in the game industry, with a total disclosure amount of more than $616 million. Among them, Tencent has invested in 10 domestic game enterprises, including Zhaixing Network, Anxing Information, Versus Programming Network, Xuanxing Network, XBreak, BAIOO, Funtoy Games, LRGames, Zhaolu Game, and Independent Developer Alliance. Most of the game research and development directions are ACG and action mobile games. In addition, Tencent invested in four overseas game manufacturers in January. Klei Entertainment, the developer of series of Don’t Starve, announced in a statement on the Forum on January 23 that it has reached an agreement with Tencent, under which Tencent will acquire most of the shares of the company. 6、RIOT GAMES is trying to move the gender discrimination case to arbitration As early as 2018, the "Brotherhood culture" of League of Legends developer, Riot Games, including workplace misconduct and gender discrimination, was exposed by the media. Two employees filed a class action against Riot after sexual harassment, discrimination and unequal treatment. The lawsuit against Riot was previously thought to be closed in December 2019. However, in early 2020, DFEH and DLSE came forward to say that women are entitled to about $400 million in compensation for Riot’s violations. The plaintiffs are now seeking new legal counsel to claim for a $400 million settlement, but Riot is now trying to move the case to arbitration. This would take the suit out of court and allow neutral institutions to try to resolve the case. It is probably because Riot does not want to agree to the entire $400 million settlement.
