News of the Week; July 24, 2019

DIGITAL

1. FTC fines Facebook $5 billion, imposes new privacy oversight
2. Facebook Agrees to New FTC Privacy Oversight, Will Pay $5 Billion Fine Under 20-Year Settlement
3. FTC’s Privacy Settlement With Facebook Gets Pretty Much Everything Backwards; Probably Helps Facebook
4. Facebook Knows More About You Than The CIA
5. Facebook: Hypothetical Risk Factors are Insufficient Disclosure When the Risk has Occurred 
6. Still available via Google Analytics: Data slurped from 4 million browsers
7. Google Finally Settles Lawsuit Over Decade-Old WiFi Snooping Accusations
8. Justice Department launches antitrust probe into big tech
9. Antitrust as a Tool to Regulate the FANG Companies: Differing Approaches in the United States and in Europe
10. It’s Time to Reboot the Startup Economy: The new laws and antitrust actions that would resurrect American innovation (Tim Wu)
11. As Russian “FaceApp” gobbles up user photos, Schumer asks FBI to investigate
12. Advanced mobile surveillanceware, made in Russia, found in the wild
13. Section 230 Works: Russian Trolls Don’t Get To Sue Facebook For Being Kicked Off Facebook
14. Russia F’d With American Democracy, But It Can’t F— With Section 230 – Federal Agency of News v. Facebook (Eric Goldman)
15. “We’re not ready” for foreign election interference in 2020, says Rep. Adam Schiff: Democrat has warned Facebook, Twitter, and Google to be on notice for deepfakes and other dirty tricks.
16. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg Says $5 Billion FTC Settlement Terms “Go Beyond Anything Required Under U.S. Law”
17. Breaking: US to ban Facebook Cryptocurrency
18. Crypto and Blockchain Markets Signal Growth Amid Regulator Skepticism, Hacks and Sanctions Warnings 
19. Judge allows suit against AT&T after $24 million cryptocurrency theft
20. Google’s Project Dragonfly ‘terminated’ in China: Google’s controversial plan to launch a censored search engine in China has been “terminated”, a company executive has said.
21. Google pays $11 million to settle 227 age discrimination claims
22. For All Of Trump’s Complaints About Social Media ‘Censorship’, The White House Itself Moderates Content Similarly To Social Media Sites
23. Trump’s Tweets: A Warning That Public Officials’ Personal Social Media Posts Might Actually Be The Government’s
24. Police Union Responds To Outing Of Officers’ Bigoted Social Media Posts By Offering To Erase Officers’ Online Presences
25. The Man Who Built The Retweet: “We Handed A Loaded Weapon To 4-Year-Olds” – The button that ruined the internet – and how to fix it.
26. Leave.EU may keep name after no-deal Brexit if ownership handed to EU citizen: UK-based owners of .eu domains could use transfer loophole to keep name
27. Brexit funder Arron Banks threatens Netflix over Great Hack documentary: Legal threat comes as campaigners warn UK government that courts are being used to intimidate journalists
28. Netflix Hit With Class Action Shareholder Lawsuit Following Dismal Q2 Earnings
29. Copyright Infringement Confirmed, but No Damages for “Cordoba” Photographer
30. Court Holds that Arbitration Clause in “Hybridwrap” Terms Is Unenforceable 
31. Lessons from Bumble’s Choice of Law Clause–King v. Bumble
32. Instagram Hides Likes And Video Views In More Countries To Cut Down On “Pressure” Users Face, While TikTok Tests Adding Another Public Metric
33. Why hiding likes won’t make Instagram a happier place to be: Mark Zuckerberg’s app is making likes invisible in a new trial. The aim is to “reduce pressure” on users, but it’s not clear how (or if) this will work
34. Judge Tosses Crazy Copyright Lawsuit Over Gigi Hadid Photo
35. Dear AHL: Get Your App S— Together Because You’re Freaking Us Out
36. Another Blocked Facebook User Loses in Court–Dipp-Paz v. Facebook
37. The Fall Of Mic Was A Warning: “I don’t need a pair of Nikes. I need a 401(k)” — and other lessons from the death of a venture-backed, Facebook-dependent, millennial-focused news site.
38. Web Search Data Indicates Soaring Interest for Facebook Libra in China
39. Facebook is backpedaling from its ambitious vision for Libra
40. Facebook Watch Scares Up 5-Series Content Slate From Horror Hub Crypt TV
41. Facebook is both killing and funding local journalism
42. Snap Stock Skyrockets as Company Adds 13 Million Daily Active Users in Q2
43. Netflix Takes Aim at Facebook With ‘The Great Hack’: A new documentary out July 24, explores Facebook’s role in helping get Trump elected and pushing Brexit – among other things.
44. Netflix Sees First Subscriber Losses Ever
45. Netflix lost US subscribers in Q2 over price hikes; how can it win them back?
46. Netflix’s Original Content Strategy Is Failing
47. Netflix Hit With Class Action Shareholder Lawsuit Following Dismal Q2 Earnings
48. Adware Is The Malware You Should Actually Worry About
49. Which Sports Brands Have Been Viewed The Most In 2019 So Far?
50. Social Media Platforms Under Attack in the Senate
51. Influencer and Content Marketing: IP, Privacy and Compliance Issues
52. KLM and Its Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day on Social Media
53. 51% Of Gen Z, Millennials Daydream About Life Without Social Media, Fullscreen Study Finds
54. FTC Seeks Public Comments to Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule 
55. HQ Trivia Turns Down New Funding Amid Layoffs, Internal Petition To Oust CEO 
56. Andy Signore Acknowledges “Appalling” Behavior, But Fiercely Refutes Allegations Of Sexual Assault
57. Stream-Ripping Sites And YouTube Now Engaged In Whac-A-Mole
58. YouTube, FTC reach settlement over child privacy
59. FTC’s YouTube Privacy Settlement Pisses Everyone Off; Perhaps We’re Doing Privacy Wrong
60. YouTube shifts the burden: requires manual copyright claimants to timestamp the allegedly infringing material; simplifies the rectification process
61. YouTube’s Autocomplete Feature Has a Huge Spoiler Problem: If you type “Iron Man” into YouTube, the top suggestion is a major “Avengers: Endgame” spoiler. And that’s just the tip of the spoilerberg.
62. Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody video hits 1 billion views on YouTube: It’s the first pre-1990s video to reach that milestone.
63. Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” Becomes Oldest Music Video In YouTube History To Hit 1 Billion Views
64. Creators Going Pro: Married YouTubers ‘Rose & Rosie’ Have Made A Career Of Candid, Clever Content About Their Life Together
65. YouTube Will Exclusively Livestream Fuji Rock, Japan’s Largest Outdoor Music Festival
66. MLB to livestream 13 games exclusively on YouTube in Canada
67. Odell Beckham Jr. Launching Production Company, YouTube Channel With Wheelhouse 
68. Odell Beckham Jr. Forms Content Company To Launch His Own YouTube Channel
69. Logan Paul Reveals Income Woes, Hypes His Upcoming YouTuber vs. YouTuber Event ‘The Challenger Games’
70. Zefr Sells YouTube Management Businesses RightsID And ChannelID To Vobile Group For $90 Million
71. Zefr Sells Its Copyright-Flagging and YouTube Channel-Management Businesses to Vobile for $90 Million
72. YouTube Music Now Lets Users Switch Seamlessly Between A Song And Its Music Video
73. Apple Music Launches ‘Rap Life’ Playlist: The rebrand replaces “A-List: Hip-Hop.”
74. Apple closes in on $1 billion deal to buy Intel’s modem business: report
75. Dropbox irks Mac users with annoying Dock icon, offers clueless support
76. Very Confused Judge Allows Bizarre Copyright Lawsuit Against Cloudflare To Continue
77. The CASE Act: The Road To Copyright Trolling Is Paved With Good Intentions
78. The Amazon dilemma: how a tech powerhouse that fulfills our every consumer need still lets us down – Despite criticism, Amazon refuses to acknowledge unintended consequences of its rise
79. Amazon warns customers: Those supplements might be fake
80. Hulu’s Longtime CFO Elaine Paul Joins Amazon Studios In Same Role
81. Hulu Launches Collection Of Space-Themed Content From NASA, Including 24-Hour NASA TV Feed
82. Microsoft closes fiscal 2019 with revenue spikes driven by cloud services
83. Microsoft has a wild hologram that translates HoloLens keynotes into Japanese: Azure and HoloLens combine for a hint at the future
84. Can Disney’s Circle really deliver a porn-free Internet?
85. BuzzFeed To Host ‘Internet Live’ Variety Show With Lil Nas X, JoJo Siwa, Jason Nash
86. Fanjoy To Host Creator Pop-Up Series At Los Angeles Mall This Summer, Starting With Sam And Colby
87. Creators For Social Good: Jackie Aina Is Pushing The Beauty World To Be Better For People Of Color, One Video At A Time
88. Dude Perfect’s 2016 Collab With Serena Williams Sees Viral Resurgence After Polarizing Survey
89. Shane Dawson’s Surprise Eugenia Cooney Doc Nabs 21 Million Views In 3 Days
90. WarnerMedia’s HBO Max Unveils Content Team
91. Vice Media, Mailchimp Partner on Original Docuseries ‘Second Act’
92. iHeartMedia Stock Drops in NASDAQ Debut
93. Why The Appearance Of A One Terabyte microSD Card Means The War On Unauthorized Music Downloads Is (Almost) Over
94. Love letter to my iPod Classic
95. Open Source Is Becoming a ‘Best Practice’ 
96. Why Carl Malamud’s Latest Brilliant Project, To Mine The World’s Research Papers, Is Based In India
97. Texas Rule on “Gig Workers” Takes Effect
98. Second Circuit Upholds Ban on In-Uber Advertising
99. How Humans Will Bring the Internet to Space: In the future, orbiters, rovers, deep space probes, and even human space habitats will be nodes on the internet of things.
100. John McAfee believed to have been detained, campaign manager says: Data secreted across the world will be released if McAfee stays missing, his Twitter account says.
101. After outcry, DoorDash promises workers will get 100% of tips
102. Tech Tax – Times Are A Changing? 

A.I.

1. Ticketmaster Reaches Settlement with Ticket Broker over Unauthorized Use of Automated Bots 
2. China’s deepfake celebrity porn culture stirs debate about artificial intelligence use
3. Jazz Generated By A Neural Network Is Absolutely Terrifying
4. Microsoft invests $1 billion in OpenAI
5. Microsoft invests $1 billion in OpenAI: Group commits to using Azure as exclusive cloud provider in its pursuit of artificial general intelligence
6. Elon Musk Details ‘Neuralink’ Brain Interface Tech, Oculus CTO Calls It “very bold work”
7. Pedestrian collision puts Vienna’s driverless bus trial on hold: The city has paused Navya’s trail pending a full investigation
8. The Algorithmic Colonization of Africa: Startups are importing and imposing AI systems founded on individualistic and capitalist drives
9. AI and IoT Legislative Update: Second Quarter 2019
10. The Human Brain Project Hasn’t Lived Up to Its Promise: Ten years ago, a neuroscientist said that within a decade he could simulate a human brain. Spoiler – It didn’t happen.
11. An introduction to Artificial Intelligence for in-house lawyers in the Retail and Consumer sector
12. Mayer Brown’s Tech Talks: Smart Licensing of AI
13. Shall we play a game? Reinforcement learning and the AI training data challenge 

COMMUNICATIONS

1. DOJ to approve T-Mobile/Sprint merger despite 13 states trying to block it
2. Telecom Union Got Hoodwinked Into Supporting AT&T’s Shitty Merger
3. Verizon wants you to pay $650 plus $85 a month for a 5G hotspot
4. Claims Of 5G Health Risks Are Frequently Based On A Single, 20 Year Old Flawed Graph
5. Who is leading the 5G patent race? July 2019 update 
6. Early 5G Plans Show Cell Carriers Haven’t Learned Much About Misleading ‘Unlimited’ Plans
7. TV blackouts hit record high as customers get screwed by industry squabbles
8. FCC Aims to Make Broadband Deployment Data More Precise
9. FCC’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, Better Broadband Mapping – Two More Reverse Auctions 
10. Latest Huawei ‘Smoking Gun’ Still Doesn’t Prove Global Blackball Effort’s Primary Justification

PRIVACY

1. Steve Bannon The Latest To Abuse Consumer Location Data
2. Instead Of Parents Spying On Their Kids Online, Why Not Teach Them How To Be Good Digital Citizens
3. Judge Unseals, Tosses Warrant Used By The San Francisco PD To Obtain A Journalist’s Phone Records
4. I found your data. It’s for sale.: As many as 4 million people have Web browser extensions that sell their every click. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
5. My browser, the spy: How extensions slurped up browsing histories from 4M users
6. Dropbox silently installs new file manager app on users’ systems [Updated]
7. More on DataSpii: How extensions hide their data grabs—and how they’re discovered
8. How private is your browser’s Private mode? Research into porn suggests “not very”
9. DNA Information of Thousands of Individuals Exposed Online for Years 
10. Tech firms “can and must” put backdoors in encryption, AG Barr says
11. Oversight Report: World’s Most Powerful Spy Agency Is An Insecure Mess That Can’t Keep Tabs On Its Own Employees
12. Inadequate Cybersecurity and Data Privacy Due Diligence Alleged in Starwood Deal as UK ICO Fines Marriott $125M for GDPR Violations 
13. Chances of destructive BlueKeep exploit rise with new explainer posted online
14. U.S. Supreme Court Broadens FOIA Exemption 4 for ‘Confidential’ Materials
15. How to make your creative business GDPR compliant
16. GDPR Privacy FAQs: What are the different types of cookie banners?
17. GDPR Privacy FAQs: Do European privacy laws require a cookie banner when a company uses first-party session cookies?
18. FTC reportedly approves $5 billion privacy settlement with social media company
19. FTC Requests Public Comments on COPPA Rule
20. FTC Asks if COPPA Rule Amendments Warrant Further Changes
21. Equifax to pay $575M for data breach, promises to protect data next time
22. What You Should Know About the Equifax Data Breach Settlement
23. Public Records Request Nets User’s Manual For Palantir’s Souped-Up Surveillance Software
24. Privacy Tip #199 – Guard Your Cryptowallet: Cryptoheist in Japan Drains $32 million from Exchange 
25. London Metropolitan Police’s Facial Recognition System Is Now Only Misidentifying People 81% Of The Time
26. FBI, ICE Are Running Facial Recognition Searches Against State Drivers’ Databases
27. Oakland, California On Its Way To Becoming The Third US City To Ban Facial Recognition Tech
28. Facial recognition banned in another city: Oakland, California, has followed San Francisco as the second Bay Area city to vote down the use of the technology.
29. UK Parliamentary Committee Calls For The End Of Facial Recognition Tech By The UK Government
30. CCTV cameras don’t deter crime, so why does Ottawa want them?
31. Chrome 76 prevents NYT and other news sites from detecting Incognito Mode
32. Nigerian scammers slide into DMs, so Ars trolls them: Romance scams persist, somehow, by preying on the gullible; Twitter is fertile ground.
33. Phishing for victims: Cybercriminals can use complex technology but rely on old-fashioned human error to succeed
34. An Old Hack Comes Back to Haunt (Newly-Public) Slack 
35. Recent FinCEN Advisory Details Dramatic Increase in Frequency and Severity of Business Email Compromise Fraud Schemes 
36. One of These Things Is Not Like The Other: Emails Are Not Subject To The TCPA, Even If You Get Them On Your Smartphone. 
37. 8th Circuit affirms reduction in TCPA statutory damages from $1.6 billion to $32 million 
38. GandCrab Ransomware Backers Working on New Ransomware REvil 
39. Researchers Build App That Kills To Highlight Insulin Pump Exploit
40. CCPA Creates Possible Dilemmas for Companies Sending Text Messages. Is Your Business Ready?
41. Global Data & Privacy Update – June 2019
42. 1H 2019 Quick Links, Part 6 (Privacy, E-Commerce, & More) (Eric Goldman)

CREATIVITY

1. New York Court Finds Warhol Series to be Fair Use of Prince Photograph 
2. Sony Music brings recordings and publishing under one roof
3. Dean Guitar Counter-Sues Against Gibson Guitars, Attempts To Invalidate Several Trademarks
4. Gibson Guitar Formalizes Its Hands-Off IP Enforcement Approach With Authorized Partnership Program
5. The U.S. Trademark Office Adopts New Rule Requiring Appointment of U.S. Counsel to Represent a Non-US Domiciliary in Trademark Matters 
6. Filipina Girl From New Zealand Takes Her Slime Show International After Fending Off Nickelodeon Lawsuit
7. Logical? Logos do not necessarily enjoy copyright protection
8. Harmful Gender Stereotypes Banned in UK Advertising: An Update 
9. Nike Strikes Back Against Kawhi Leonard Over Logo Lawsuit
10. Unlicensed “health coach” claims health advice is free speech—court disagrees
11. Olympics Games organisers issue strict guidelines for Tokyo 2020
12. Court Determines That This Duck Doesn’t Look Enough Like Another Duck To Be Infringing
13. You can’t copyright a cocktail, so what’s a creative bartender to do?
14. The art of Hong Kong protests
15. Tales of the ‘Basterds’: The story of Quentin Tarantino’s World War II revenge fantasy ‘Inglourious Basterds’ as seen through the eyes of the ragtag crew he created to take down the Nazis

GAMES

1. Court Tosses Lawsuit Claiming Muting A Runescape Character Violates The First Amendment
2. Nintendo facing class action suit over drifting Switch controllers
3. Nintendo faces class action lawsuit over Joy-Con drifting defect: US law firm calls on Switch owners to join suit as plaintiff Ryan Davis seeks monetary relief
4. Nintendo is reportedly offering free repairs for Joy-Con controllers: An internal memo advises support staff that no proof of purchase or confirmation of warranty is required
5. Report: Nintendo offering free Joy-Con repairs after drifting controversy
6. Report: Nintendo quietly owns up to “Joy-Con drift,” will repair for free
7. Miyamoto remembers the late Nintendo president Satoru Iwata in new book
8. Is Playing a Video Game on YouTube a Public Performance? 
9. FIFA’s loot boxes don’t count as gambling, says UK Gambling Commission
10. FIFA packs and loot boxes ‘not gambling’ in UK
11. Grand Theft Auto Online’s new casino is limited by gambling laws in some countries
12. Grand Theft Auto V update adds a casino that can be played with real money: Real money can be spent on chips, though it cannot be cashed back out into actual money
13. UKIE’s Jo Twist is right: the words we use matter | Opinion – If we casually use terms like “addictive” it robs us of the ability to have a proper discussion when games do cross a line
14. Supercell discontinues games in Vietnam due to ‘regulatory issues’
15. Supercell pulls games out of Vietnam, citing “regulatory issues”: 142 other mobile games removed by government agency in legal crackdown
16. A look at The Sims 1 design docs, and a dev’s argument for including same-sex romance
17. Girls’ Game Lab launches to host game development workshops for young girls
18. “If she can do it, I can too”: The message behind Girls’ Game Lab – New not-for-profit team setting up coding workshops for young girls, first one to be held at Playground next month
19. “Employee health, employee happiness, and then the game — in that order”: Michael Paixao on winning a legal battle against former employer ZeniMax Media to create a better work culture with Bad Yolk
20. Ex-MachineGames devs target healthy work-life balance with new studio: Bad Yolk already has a team of ten AAA veterans, with experience on Gears of War, The Darkness and The Division
21. GOG reverses decision to reject Heaven’s Vault: Inkle’s adventure game will be added to the storefront despite GOG’s initial refusal
22. Harry Potter: Wizards Unite’s first month revenue lags far behind Pokémon Go – Sensor Tower data shows Niantic’s new game firmly in Pokémon Go’s shadow
23. After 28 years, cofounder Frank Pearce is leaving Blizzard
24. Blizzard’s bad-news year continues with another co-founder’s departure
25. Blizzard co-founder Frank Pearce ends 28-year career at company: “The time has come for me to step away from Blizzard and pass the torch to the next generation of leaders,” says Pearce
26. Gearbox commits to cross-play for Borderlands 3: The feature will not be available immediately, but Randy Pitchford promises support “as soon as practicable after launch”
27. Don’t Miss: Crafting the oppressive soundscape ofWolfenstein II: The New Colossus
28. Don’t Miss: The challenges and rewards of designing local multiplayer games
29. Don’t Miss: The art of the tutorial
30. Deep Dive: Burdening players with the power of the system in Legal Dungeon
31. Disney and Glu aim to target nostalgia without exploiting it: Both companies address the scrutiny around free-to-play ahead of the launch of Disney Sorcerer’s Arena
32. Tencent and The Pokemon Company are making games together
33. The Pokémon Company teams up with Tencent to create more Pokémon games: Tencent’s TiMi Studio Group will lead development on multiple unknown new titles
34. Tencent makes ‘substantial investment’ in retro streaming service Antstream
35. DouYu goes public with $775m Nasdaq IPO: Tencent-backed Chinese streaming platform is valued at more than $3.7 billion
36. Nintendo, Tencent set a date to discuss Switch launch in China
37. Tencent and Nintendo to host Switch press conference in China on August 2: Shanghai event is the first official update since Tencent was cleared to distribute the console in China
38. NPD: Super Mario Maker 2 warps to the top of June US sales – Nintendo Switch continues its reign as best-selling hardware platform for 2019
39. Bandai Namco combines physical toys and mobile games with Tori: New platform will be an “ecosystem” of toys and software, designed with input from “experts in children’s learning and development”
40. Sega ends publishing partnership with narrative studio Interior Night
41. Sega drops publishing deal with Interior Night: But studio says parting was amicable and a new partnership will be announced soon
42. Microsoft sees dip in quarterly Xbox revenue as hardware sales slow
43. Microsoft hardware revenue dips 48% YOY for fourth quarter: Xbox Live reaches 65 million MAUs as subscriptions offset hardware and software declines
44. Microsoft is ‘well positioned’ to succeed in larger game market, claims CEO
45. Satya Nadella: Microsoft is “well positioned” to expand beyond traditional gaming: CEO says investments in cloud technology will benefit Xbox as well as company’s other divisions
46. The Mirage of Cloud Gaming (And How to Reach the Oasis)
47. Google tries to reassure gamers it’s behind Stadia for the long haul
48. Stadia director of product: “Eventually all games will be in the cloud and we’ll feel great” – Andrey Doronichev responds to concerns about service discontinuation, ISPs, features in Reddit AMA
49. Tools to manage Stadia’s data usage are in the works, says Google
50. Ubisoft says porting games to Stadia hasn’t been a costly affair  
51. Ubisoft pledges support to open source 3D creation tool Blender
52. Doppio raises $1.1 million from Google and Amazon for voice-controlled games
53. Google, Amazon invests in voice-controlled games studio Doppio: Portuguese developer secures €1m in seed funding
54. PC overtakes PlayStation 4 as Ubisoft’s most lucrative platform this quarter
55. Zynga is growing its presence in India with a studio expansion 
56. Grand Theft Auto V returns to top spot in EMEAA charts: Super Mario Maker 2 is best-selling physical game for the week
57. SuperData: Crash Team Racing sold over 550k units digitally in June – Overwatch surpasses $1b in in-game spending, Rainbow Six Siege revenue up to $36.8m last month
58. UK Charts: Crash Team Racing returns to No.1 as Amazon Prime Day boosts market – Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 debuts at No.2
59. Tekken 7 has crossed 4 million sales worldwide
60. id Software studio director Tim Willits is stepping down after 24 years
61. Kongregate acquires mobile and browser game Bit Heroes
62. Kongregate acquires Bit Heroes from Juppiomenz: Publisher plans to turn mobile, web-based RPG into larger franchise
63. Bigben acquires Spiders: French studio is the latest in a series of acquisitions bolstering Bigben Interactive’s internal development prospects
64. NetEase opens R&D studio in Montreal
65. NetEase launches Montreal studio: Creation of new R&D-focused development location follows last week’s R&D-minded investment in Montreal’s Behaviour Interactive
66. Rooster Teeth To Drop First Original IP Game In August, Unveils ‘Shark Week’ Collab
67. Techland: “It’s still not a corporate studio. We still get crazy sometimes” – The Dying Light 2 developer on the rise of the Polish industry, and growing from 200 staff to 300 in just a few years
68. Indies on Steam are betting on discoverability: After a year of missteps by Valve, indie devs are cautious about Steam Labs and their future visibility on Steam
69. From platform holder to indie investor: Former PlayStation boss Jack Tretton talks about backing indies like Blue Isle’s Citadel: Forged With Fire
70. 5 tips for surviving and thriving in game design 
71. Inside Steam Diving Bell, a tool for ‘Wikipedia binging’ Steam games
72. Game Seer Venture Partners launches with €10m fund: Company will invest up to €1.5 million in PC and console games, doesn’t require long-term plans
73. Don’t Miss: Making Insomniac’s Spider-Man do what a spider can
74. Don’t Miss: Deconstructing the success of The Witcher 3’s open world
75. Drawkanoid: Launching an indie game in a market where “everything changes”: Nordic Game Discovery Contest winner discusses game launches and monetisation in an ever-changing ecosystem
76. Australian studio Defiant Development is ceasing development of new titles
77. Defiant Development to close after nine years: Pioneering Australian studio was “not able to change quickly enough” to adapt to the changing industry
78. “If you’re trying to make the game of the film, you’re onto a loser”: Outright Games’ Nick Button-Brown explains how the publisher is trying to break the stigma around licensed kids games
79. Blog: Turning my grandmother’s childhood memories into a game
80. Blog: A NASA historian considers Kerbal Space Program
81. Blog: Designing sounds and music for a casual mobile game
82. Blog: The one metric you SHOULD care about when launching your game
83. Video: Letting Go – The Florence postmortem
84. Video: An actor’s advice on getting great mocap performances in games
85. Video: Tips for programmers in the game industry
86. Video: What makes for successful, memorable game trailers
87. Watch a design breakdown of digital card game adventureNowhere Prophet
88. Kind Words: A game of lo-fi beats, letters to strangers, and feeling less alone – Popcannibal’s Ziba Scott on designing and moderating a game exclusively about being kind to other people
89. Brendan Greene: “It’s crazy, the hate I receive. I just have to ignore it”: At Gamelab 2019, Vlambeer’s Rami Ismail talked to PUBG’s creator about the darker side of making a global phenomenon
90. ‘Fortnite’ Partners With YouTube To Give Players Exclusive Loot When They Watch Live Streams
91. The free-to-Play cookbook: Secrets to player engagement – deltaDNA reveals the top tips on monetizing your mobile game
92. NSE and Intel partner for second season of the British University Esports Championship: Long-term strategic partnership committed to investing in grassroots esports
93. Gaming and esports revenues on the rise for MTG: InnoGames’ Forge of Empires was at the heart of the Swedish firm’s growth in the second quarter
94. Echo Fox proposes sale of slot in League of Legends Championship Series: Riot must still review the sale, rumoured to a $30.25 million sale to Kroenke Sports & Entertainment
95. Tencent to stream NBA 2K League in China: Selected playoff matches and every game of the finals to be made available through Tencent Sports, Tencent Video, and Tencent News
96. Geoff “iNcontroL” Robinson dies at 33: Esports broadcaster, streamer, former StarCraft II pro suffered a sudden illness
97. Fight for money and fame in Fortnite and Apex Legends this weekend
98. Football Manager 19 surpasses 2m copies sold across all platforms: It’s the first annual Football Manager game to reach this milestone
99. How Satisfactory’s network optimizations keep multiplayer factories humming along
100. Oculus Go emulation coming to the Quest later this year 
101. Oculus Quest teardown shows how the standalone VR headset was built
102. Digital Catapult launches AR and VR accelerator programme for UK startups: Early-stage companies to receive mentorship and access to investors
103. I Spent a Full Day Working in the Magic Leap One & Discovered the AR Office of the Future
104. Blockchain Gaming: Buzzwords, bulls and bears 
105. Netflix’s ‘The Witcher’ Looks Absolutely Fantastic – ‘Game Of Thrones’ Fans Take Note

Jon