Hogwarts Legacy is an action role-playing game developed by Avalanche Software and published by Warner Bros. Games under its Portkey Games label. The game is set in the Wizarding World universe, based on the Harry Potter novels. Hogwarts Legacy already topped pre-order charts in the weeks up to release. Only those who purchased the $80 / £75 Deluxe Edition can play before February 10th. 

On the game’s first day of availability via Early Access numbers peaked at 1.3 million concurrent viewers, beating the 1.1 million record achieved by Cyberpunk 2077 in December 2020. According to figures, only online titles Valorant (1.72 million in April 2020), League of Legends (1.78 million in November 2019), and Fortnite (2.3 million in June 2020) have attracted more viewers for a single game.

Warner Bros.’ head of gaming is currently David Haddad.

One key focus is giving streamers more options to monetize on the platform. Twitch will be releasing Sound Bites (first-party audio alerts) and updating Cheering so viewers can further customize their interactions with streamers. These personalization features will also allow streamers to recognize their top supporters. Twitch will also experiment with personalized discounts based on viewer behavior to encourage more interaction with highly engaged fans.

Additionally, Twitch is testing a more meaningful sponsorship solution. The platform will start with channel skins and clickable branded graphics. Ads that interrupt livestreams are particularly disruptive so Twitch hopes this will provide an alternative and more engaging solution. Interestingly, many of these monetization features will be available on mobile.

Polygon will also be making a strategic investment in Fractal, deepening the partnership and allowing the team to better serve Web3 game developers and players.

Founded in 2021 by Justin Kan, cofounder of the popular streaming service Twitch, Fractal helps game developers with tools to solve their most pressing blockchain and infrastructure needs. F Studio is a suite of developer tools for incorporating web3 technology into projects quickly and easily, with features such as a gamer-friendly wallet and account management system, in-game marketplace APIs, fiat on-ramp, and NFT minting on demand.

Wagyu Games are the creators of the web3 zombie survival blockbuster Undead Blocks. They recently revealed a partnership with Immutable X, the industry-leading L2 scaling solution on the Ethereum blockchain. Undead Blocks is described as a multiplayer zombie survival game where kills earn players tokens and guns as NFTs. Undead Blocks apparently already has over twenty-five thousand plus downloads & two thousand plus weapon loadout NFTs in their few months of live beta play.

Over 200 web3 games can win up to sixteen awards on offer. The judges have a great deal of gaming experience and include former Square Enix CTO who directed games such as Sonic: Unleashed and Final Fantasy XIV Online (Yoshihisa Hashimoto) and former Senior Director of Partnerships at Electronic Arts (Edward Chang). Additionally, industry leaders from companies such as Electronic Arts, Riot Games, Zynga, Xbox Game Studios, Amazon Gaming, and Unity Technologies will also be involved in the judging process – including RealThirdWeb CEO Jonah Blake!

Winners of the first-ever GAM3 Awards will have a chance at $300,000 worth of prizes. The rewards are coming from the event sponsors, including Immutable X and many more. 

Community voting opens in mid-November on the Polkastarter Gaming website.

Marcus Graham previously worked at Twitch for ten years, having been the site’s nineteenth employee. He was, at different times, the site’s director of programming, head of Twitch Studios, and head of creator development. Before that, he was an early, popular game commentator and shoutcaster. He announced his departure from Twitch in November 2021.

Fortis, a subsidiary of Las Vegas Sands, launched in March. Its president, Steven Chiang, said of Graham’s involvement: “Marcus has made a career of building communities where none existed before; without him, neither esports or game streaming would look at all like they do today. With our goals to create meaningful social experiences, relationships, and memories through games, we knew we needed a person who could help us break down the walls between community and game development, and help us move games into the future we know players deserve. Marcus is that person.”

Ready Player Me is described as a “cross-game metaverse avatar platform that allows users to explore virtual worlds with one consistent identity.” To date, Ready Player Me has partnerships with more than 3,000 game and app companies using its avatars.

The 3,000 apps across both web2 and web3 include the likes of VRChat, Spatial, Somnium Space, RTFKT, and many more. The company also already works with individual creators and fashion brands such as Adidas, New Balance, Dior, Pull&Bear, and Warner Brothers (Dune movie outfits) to enable cross-game avatar assets across the metaverse.

Wisdom Gaming has just announced it is launching a new development division called Wisdom Labs to expand its web3 offerings for other game companies. Wisdom Labs will apparently be both a creative agency and a development team. 

Service offerings will include web3 integrations, smart contract development, security audits, token development, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), blockchain-based mobile game development, decentralized app (Dapp) development, and in-app purchase support.

In addition to web3 services, Wisdom Labs will offer web2 capabilities including full-stack development, UX/UI design, Twitch extensions, and eCommerce platform development. 

Wisdom Labs’ first engagement is to help Kingdom Studios to develop and build blockchain services for its Defi Kingdoms player-versus-player game mode expansion.