News of the Week; May 15, 2019

DIGITAL

1. White House refuses to sign international statement on online extremism: Trump administration is “not currently in a position to join” global statement.
2. Chinese owners of Grindr forced to sell by US over spying and blackmail fears
3. CBS Happily Engages In Censorship To Placate China
4. Your 5G Phone Won’t Hurt You. But Russia Wants You to Think Otherwise.
5. Facebook co-founder calls for breakup of Facebook
6. While Trump Complains About Facebook Takedowns, Facebook Is Helping Trump Take Down Content He Doesn’t Like
7. Facebook is a capitalism problem, not a Mark Zuckerberg problem: Regulating social media is more important than breaking up Facebook.
8. Facebook Says New Political Ad Policies are being Circumvented
9. How far-right extremists rebrand to evade Facebook’s ban
10. Facebook Should Be Broken Up Because Mark Zuckerberg Has ‘Unchecked Power,’ Company Co-Founder Says
11. It’s Time to Break Up Facebook
12. Breaking Up Facebook? 
13. Facebook Co-Founder Chris Hughes Calls For Facebook’s Breakup… But Seems Confused About All The Details
14. More Democrats are considering a breakup of Facebook: Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are the latest to say they are thinking about it
15. Facebook: Brussels Court of Appeal refers case to Court of Justice of the EU
16. Facebook’s ‘Please Regulate Us’ Tour Heads To France
17. Facebook sues app maker, says it made millions misusing Facebook user data
18. Imagine A Facebook Without Facebook: How A.I. Will Soon Disrupt Social Media
19. Facebook imposes restrictions on live-streaming to prevent future abuse: ‘Our goal is to minimize risk of abuse on Live,’ Guy Rosen said
20. Facebook Implements One-Strike Policy Barring Users From Livestreaming If They Post Hateful Content
21. Section 230 Protects Facebook’s Account and Content Restriction Decisions–Ebeid v. Facebook
22. Vox Admits It Got Section 230 Wrong, Fixes Its Mistake
23. Section 230 Keeps The Internet Open For Innovation
24. Democracy’s Dilemma: Democracies rely on the free exchange of ideas, but that freedom can be weaponized. How can democratic societies protect the free flow of information? (Henry Farrell, Bruce Schneier)
25. The Bizarre Accuracy of Online Ads: A Case Study of Trackers on the Internet – A call for transparency and consent
26. Online Retailer Redbubble Says It Will Pull Auschwitz-Themed Merchandise
27. Google, Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, Microsoft Take On Hate Content With ‘Christchurch Call To Action’
28. Selling Fear? There’s An App For That
29. Audit suggests Google favors a small number of major outlets
30. White House launches tool to report censorship on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter: ‘If you suspect political bias caused such an action to be taken against you, share your story with President Trump’
31. Friend portability is the must-have Facebook regulation: FTC must pave the path to competition
32. Taliban fighters double as reporters to wage Afghan digital war
33. French media is polarizing. But not in the way we expected.
34. Higbee Tries To Shake Down Forum For Deep Linked Photograph
35. Strike 3 Gets Another Judge To Remind It That IP Addresses Aren’t Infringers
36. Don’t Suppress Customer Reviews: The FTC Really Means It
37. You can’t spell FinTech without FTC
38. Broad Coalition Tells Congress To Bring Back The Office Of Technology Assessment
39. Instagram blocks vaccine hoax hashtags
40. How Silicon Valley’s successes are fueled by an underclass of ‘ghost workers’: The invisible labor that makes our technology run
41. Court Filing Reveals Kim Kardashian West Can Command $500,000 Per Sponsored Instagram Post
42. Terms and Conditions: Recent Supreme Court Decisions Highlight There is More to Consider than Just the Privacy Policy 
43. Disney takes full control of Hulu as Comcast steps aside
44. Comcast is giving Disney full control of Hulu
45. Disney In Total Control Of Hulu After $5.8 Billion Deal With Comcast
46. Disney Takes Full Control Of Hulu, Ending Years Of Managerial Schizophrenia
47. Hulu CEO Randy Freer explains why Hulu never promoted its ad-free version: The more expensive Hulu No Commercials plan was announced in 2015, and almost four years later, the company is finally ready to start advertising that it exists.
48. Hulu’s VP Of Brand Nick Tran On Influencer Marketing: “It’s Not Bad To Be A Sellout If You Embrace It”
49. #Advert – Transparency requirements for influencers
50. How low prices could make for an antitrust case against Amazon: A theory of ‘predatory pricing’
51. Talking to the Law Student With a Novel Theory About Amazon’s Power
52. Is Amazon Violating the Sherman Act? (Shaoul Sussman)
53. Prime Predator: Amazon and the Rationale of Below Average Variable Cost Pricing Strategies Among Negative-Cash Flow Firms (Shaoul Sussman)
54. Exclusive: Amazon rolls out machines that pack orders and replace jobs
55. Amazon to employees: Quit your job, we’ll help you start a delivery business
56. “Goodwill Hunting”: Latest on Cybersquatting 
57. Accessing a Deceased’s Digital Accounts
58. New Citizen Lab report suggests Iran spreads fake news
59. Editorial: Can Apple News+ kill ‘fake news’ and save journalism?
60. Apple Launches New TV App, Providing Access to Over 150 Video Apps Including HBO, Hulu, CBS, Showtime, Starz, ESPN and Amazon Prime Video
61. Parodies are coming for house HBO
62. The Tinder Hacker: When I asked Sean about his hobbies, I wasn’t prepared for what he said.
63. Gigi Gorgeous, Troye Sivan To Feature In YouTube’s Pride Month Programming
64. VidCon Pacts With The Trevor Project To Curate LGBTQ+ Programming And Panels
65. VidCon Unveils Creator Attendees, Industry-Track Lineup for 2019 U.S. Confab
66. The EU Copyright Directive Passes – But Member States Remain Split on Upload Filters
67. YouTube and its users face an existential threat from the EU’s new copyright directive
68. CJEU considers individuals’ liability under data protection law in respect of videos published on YouTube: Individuals publishing online in breach of data protection laws may benefit from a ‘journalistic exemption’.
69. YouTube Premium, YouTube Music Now Available In More Than 50 Countries
70. Digital Rights Startup SuperBam Wants To Help YouTubers Reclaim The Millions They Lose From Piracy
71. Is the war on piracy over?
72. Tati Westbrook Rockets Past 10 Million Subscribers After Cutting Ties With Mentee James Charles
73. Amid YouTube Beauty Rift, James Charles Loses 2.8 Million Subscribers As Tati Westbrook Gains 3.2 Million
74. Tati Westbrook-James Charles Scandal Spawns Thousands Of Third-Party Videos And Tens Of Millions Of Views
75. James Charles’ Sisters Apparel Seemingly No Longer Affiliated With Jeffree Star’s ‘Killer Merch’ In Wake Of Scandal
76. James Charles’ YouTube downfall is big business for the rest of the community: Commentary and news channels are the big winners
77. There’s No One To Root For In The James Charles Beauty YouTuber Drama
78. YouTube Launches ‘Bumper Machine’ Tool, Which Auto-Generates 6-Second Ads
79. YouTube Creators Will Receive Revenue From New Google Shopping Features
80. Google’s Translatotron can translate speech in the speaker’s voice: It’s the first tool that can directly translate speech from one language into another.
81. One Year Later, Restaurants Are Still Confused By Google Duplex: Google Duplex works until it breaks in unexpected ways
82. Top 50 Most Viewed YouTube Channels Worldwide • Week Of 5/12/2019
83. Nest, the company, died at Google I/O 2019
84. Report claims Google has 15m paying music subscribers
85. YouTube Music And Google Play Music Count A Collective 15 Million Subscribers 
86. TikTok Is the New Music Kingmaker, and Labels Want to Get Paid
87. Audible Teams With Reese Witherspoon For Its First Original Programming Slate
88. The Eternal Revenue Stream of Led Zeppelin: In the streaming era, record companies are cashing in anew on old hits – and getting more creative about how to do it
89. As ‘Game of Thrones’ Comes To An End, Maisie Williams Launches Creator Collaboration App Daisie
90. Netflix has made a rare acquisition, to help it make more kids’ stuff: The streaming company has bought StoryBots, a kids’ brand made by the guys who made JibJab.
91. Videos On ‘Avengers: Endgame’ Are Still Racking Up Over 200 Million Views A Day
92. Government of Canada creates Advisory Council on Artificial Intelligence
93. When Humans Attack: Re-thinking safety, security, and AI
94. The AI Supply Chain Runs on Ignorance: Tech companies often fail to tell users how their data will be employed. Sometimes, the firms can’t even anticipate it themselves.
95. Turn Your Pet Into Another Species With This AI Tool: Using similar algorithms to deepfakes, Nvidia developed a new way to turn your pets into tigers, wolves, and other animals.
96. Why Google believes machine learning is its future: We heard so much about machine learning at Google I/O this year.
97. Another Day, Another Company Scraping Photos To Train Facial Recognition AI
98. AI in Focus – Robotics
99. Fired by a robot!
100. Starbucks to test out bean-to-cup blockchain
101. Supply chain is obviously not a blockchain use case
102. Adobe Warns Users Someone Else Might Sue Them For Using Old Versions Of Photoshop
103. New Blockchain Solutions Across Industries, Institutional Cryptocurrency Trading Announced, Major Cryptocurrency Exchange Is Hacked 
104. Bitcoin and cryptocurrency negotiability is an uncertain landscape
105. Bitcoin-Bashing Democrat Calls for Blanket Ban on Cryptocurrencies
106. It took just five days for bitcoin to rise from $6,000 to $8,000
107. Improving upon the SEC’s Blockchain “Framework”: Toward a Reasonable Regulation of Digital Tokens
108. Facebook Updates Ad Policies on Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, and Other Financial Products
109. Legal and regulatory issues for custodians and administrators of digital assets
110. How to Attract Startups and Tech Companies to a City Without Relying on Tax Breaks
111. Why you should be rooting for startups like Uber
112. Esther Wojcicki explains how she raised the CEOs of YouTube and 23andMe
113. Technology Is as Biased as Its Makers
114. We’re a Niche, We Just Didn’t Know: Why you probably belong to an inter-intellect and why this matters
115. Microsoft: The open source company
116. Microsoft open sources algorithm that gives Bing some of its smarts
117. Miami Plastic Surgeon Sues Two Patients For Negative Reviews After He Had Them Sign Illegal Non Disparagement Agreements
118. Lenovo shows off a folding-screen laptop, coming some time in 2020
119. Why I (Still) Love Tech: In Defense Of A Difficult Industry
120. Q&A: Melinda Gates opens up about tech industry, equality and 3 women who changed her life
121. Mind the Gap: The Status of Digital Files Under Property Law (Johan Michaels & Christopher Millard)

COMMUNICATIONS

1. 1.28 Million US Residents Cut The TV Cord Last Quarter
2. All Four Major Wireless Carriers Hit With Lawsuits Over Sharing, Selling Location Data
3. AT&T promised 7,000 new jobs to get tax break—it cut 23,000 jobs instead
4. AT&T, Verizon Employees Caught Up In DOJ SIM Hijacking Bust
5. Ajit Pai’s robocall plan lets carriers charge for new call-blocking tools
6. Pai FCC ‘Solution’ To Nation’s Great Robocall Apocalypse? More Meetings
7. The Pai FCC Sits On Its Hands While Phone Companies Rip Off American Taxpayers 
8. FCC Denies China Mobile Application to Provide Service in US
9. FCC Seeks Comments on Univision Request to Exceed 50% Foreign Ownership 
10. FCC says carriers failed Florida after hurricane—but lets them off the hook
11. 5G likely to mess with weather forecasts, but FCC auctions spectrum anyway
12. Elon Musk’s Starlink Could Bring Back Net Neutrality and Upend the Internet: Thousands of spacecrafts could power a new global network.
13. Advertising Message or Informational Content? – How Israeli Courts Interpret the “Spam Law” 
14. 2019 Ranking Digital Rights: Corporate Accountability Index

PRIVACY

1. Canadian Border Agents Also Routinely Demanding Passwords From Travelers And Searching Their Devices
2. Amazon’s Echo Dot Kids Edition is illegally recording your children, 19 privacy advocates warn
3. Millions of people uploaded photos to the Ever app. Then the company used them to develop facial recognition tools.
4. New Data On London Metro Police Facial Recognition Tech Shows It’s Still Wrong 96 Percent Of The Time
5. San Francisco Bans Facial Recognition Technology
6. San Francisco bans city use of facial recognition surveillance technology
7. San Francisco PD Raids Journalist’s Home To Find Out Which One Of Its Cops Leaked An Autopsy Report
8. Surveillance software targets WhatsApp users
9. WhatsApp reveals major security flaw that could let hackers access phones
10. Justice Department charges Chinese hacker for 2015 Anthem breach
11. Feds charge Chinese national in 2015 breach of health insurer Anthem
12. Hackers breached 3 US antivirus companies, researchers reveal
13. The kidtech is all right: Dylan Collins, CEO of SuperAwesome, describes how his six-year-old company is hitting a growth spurt by leading the charge on digital privacy for children.
14. Ralph Lauren Must Defend TCPA Suit Over Excessive Text Messages 
15. Seventh Circuit Finds That Autodialing Platform Providers Can Be Held Liable Under The TCPA When Controlling Calls Made By Clients 
16. People say they care about privacy but they continue to buy devices that can spy on them: Experts explain why people are giving mixed signals about smart tech.
17. Reading the Tea Leaves: What Do GDPR Enforcement Efforts Tell Us?
18. GDPR Concerns Temporarily Result In The Removal Of Trash Cans From Ireland Post Office
19. Enveloped in Suspicion

CREATIVITY

1. The “Bulte Report” Redux: Canadian Heritage Committee Releases Embarrassingly One-Sided Remuneration Models Study (Michael Geist)
2. The Canadian House of Commons Copyright “Shifting Paradigms” Report – Let’s Just Call it the “Values Gap” Report (Howard Knopf)
3. Heffel Gallery decision is good news for museums building public art collections
4. Hotel Can Legally Destroy Artwork, but Can’t Reproduce It, Says Court
5. Copyright As Censorship: American Law Institute Uses Copyright To Stop Discussion Of Controversial Publication Prior To Vote
6. A Complex Picture
7. Batman-turned-artist faces copyright lawsuit 
8. Arthur Lee Alfred v. The Walt Disney Co.
9. Putting some teeth into Copyright law
10. Conan O’Brien Explains The Insanity Of Fighting Bogus Joke Stealing Lawsuit For Years
11. U.S. journalism really has become more subjective and personal – at least some of it: Analysis finds newspapers are a lot like 30 years ago. But TV news – especially cable news – has ramped up the emotion and arguing.
12. Is It Still Punk When the Musician Makes It Big?
13. Rapper on the Run: When Spanish authorities sentenced this provocative musician to prison for “glorifying terrorism,” his dedicated fans helped him make a daring escape across the border.
14. In the Jungle: Inside the Long, Hidden Genealogy of ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight’ – How American music legends made millions off the work of a Zulu tribesman who died a pauper.
15. Pittsburgh’s Rap Scene Is Wounded But Optimistic:
16. Following the deaths of Mac Miller and Jimmy Wopo, rappers like Benji. and My Favorite Color are doing their best to pick up the pieces.
17. New rules on harmful gender stereotypes
18. Coalition Of Rights Activists And Journalists Wants To Know Why DHS, CBP, And ICE Are Spying On Activists And Journalists
19. Judge rejects Musk’s arguments to dismiss “pedo guy” defamation suit
20. Guns N’ Roses sue brewery over Guns ‘N’ Rosé beer
21. Copycat Flattened by Patent & Trade Dress Jury Verdict in Win for Tieks Shoes
22. Joel Embiid Registers Trademarks in THE PROCESS
23. Chicago Cubs Successfully Oppose Iowa Man’s ‘Cubnoxious’ Trademark; Court Cites Obnoxious Cubs Fans
24. Using Third Party Trademarks as Hashtags Creates an Implied Association–Align v. Strauss
25. Apples Only For Apple: Apple Opposes A German Bicycle Path
26. A Fight for Authorship and Ownership of 150+ Quilt Patterns, and Bad Business Planning

GAMES

1. Philip Champion v. Take Two Interactive Software, Inc.
2. Champion v Take Two Interactive Software, Inc. (Decided on May 10, 2019 Supreme Court, New York County, Kahn, J.)
3. Hey! That’s My Move!
4. The dangers of in-game data collection: Can your choices come back to haunt you?
5. Devs reflect on the privacy risks surrounding how games subtly collect data
6. Newzoo: More than one billion women are active gamers – Firm’s latest analysis shows 46% of all video game enthusiasts are female
7. Only 9% of ESRB rated-games were deemed Mature in 2018
8. Antitrust lawsuit over iOS App Store to move forward, despite Apple’s arguments
9. Supreme Court Rules Against Apple in Case Alleging App Store Is a Monopoly
10. US Supreme Court says Apple can be sued for monopolization: Decision from lower court that iPhone owners are direct purchasers from Apple rather than from developers is upheld, opening door to future storefront suits
11. Supreme Court Allows Consumers to Sue Apple for Antitrust Violations
12. Supreme Court Says iPhone Users Can Pursue Antitrust Claims Against Apple Over App Store
13. Taking a Bite at the Apple: Ensuring a Level-Playing-Field for Competition on App Stores
14. Supreme Court ruling could threaten Apple’s 30 percent app commission
15. Former Claptrap voice actor details Randy Pitchford assault allegations
16. YouTube Gamer ‘ProJared’ Accused Of Soliciting Nude Photos From Underage Fans
17. Loot boxes should be banned, says US senator
18. Sweden investigating loot boxes: Swedish Consumer Agency has been instructed to review casino-like elements of gaming mechanics
19. What yesterday’s EU court ruling means for the games industry: Companies are advised to start acting quickly or face legal trouble once ruling implemented
20. Employers must track staff working hours, EU court rules: Ruling to help uphold EU Working Time Directive should help tackle industry crunch problem
21. NetherRealm reportedly responding to crunch concerns with meeting, survey: Studio-wide meeting sees employees share experiences, WB assembling focus groups to address issues
22. The GamesIndustry.biz Podcast: Crunch and walkouts are failures of management – Latest episode available to download now, discussing the recent incidents at NetherRealm Studios and Riot Games
23. Big game, small team, no crunch: Behind the success of open world RPG Outward
24. One month later, $249 All-Digital Xbox One S still seems unsustainable
25. Microsoft patented a braille-displaying controller accessory for the blind
26. WWE 2K dev establishing second wrestling IP to foster internal competition: “I think having no competitor isn’t healthy at all,” says Yuke’s senior vice president Hiromi Furuta
27. ESA reportedly troubled by eroded trust, harsh management styles: Former president Michael Gallagher said to have exhibited “challenging” management approach that celebrated burnout
28. Stanley Pierre-Louis named CEO and president of the ESA
29. ESA names Stanley Pierre-Louis CEO: Trade group’s newly appointed head downplays reports of disarray and concerns about E3, crunch, loot boxes, and the WHO’s decision on gaming disorder
30. Revenue and profit up at Tencent despite stagnant games revenue
31. Tencent adds ‘Gameplay Management’ system to PUBG Mobile to encourage “healthy gaming”: Players under 18 will receive pop-ups reminding them to take a break
32. PUBG Mobile now reminds minors to take breaks from playing in some countries
33. Blog: Dealing with China’s ban on blood in video games
34. The Epic Games Store quietly launches in China
35. Epic Games Store stealth launches in China: Chinese players now able to purchase games from Fortnite creator’s marketplace
36. Ghost Recon Breakpoint will skip Steam for Epic Games Store: Newly announced Ubisoft title follows The Division 2 into PC exclusivity
37. Epic bolsters Unreal Engine with Twinmotion acquisition 
38. Epic Games to receive BAFTA Special Award for contribution to game development
39. Epic’s store continues to absorb PC gaming exclusives large and small
40. Crowdfunded Outer Wilds joins growing list of Epic Games Store exclusives
41. Google Play Store tweaks ratings system to focus on recent reviews
42. Sony releases documentary detailing God of War’s development
43. Nintendo Switch sales pass PS4 in Japan
44. Nintendo Switch lifetime sales outstripping the PS4 in Japan
45. Nintendo predicts tough expansion into China despite Tencent partnership
46. Super Mario Maker 2 news dump: Finally, Mario gets an online-versus mode
47. 28 years later, hacker fixes rampant slowdown on SNES‘ Gradius III
48. Blog: Requiem for a Game Gear
49. Sports and mobile titles driving growth at Konami
50. Key franchises boost video game sales at Bandai Namco
51. Bandai Namco sales and profits up last year, led by gaming segment: Company projects fewer releases next year, elevates Tekken producer Katsuhiro Harada to general manager of original IP
52. DeNA and The Pokemon Company have a mobile Pokemongame on the way
53. DeNA reveals new Pokémon mobile game amid declining revenue: Games revenue and profit fell at DeNA, but Mario Kart and Pokémon are due to launch this fiscal year
54. Insights: ‘Fortnite’ Is The New Social-Media Platform – Here’s What It Means
55. Capcom creates feeder leagues to grow Street Fighter esports: Three new competitions kick off this summer to prepare players for professional tournaments
56. Bigben Interactive aims to be “the middleweight champion” of games publishing: Head of publishing describes the French publisher’s escalating ambitions after acquiring Cyanide, Eko and Kylotonn
57. New releases driving sales at Square Enix, but launch costs cause profits to dip
58. Profits tumble at Square Enix due to escalating launch costs: Kingdom Hearts, Tomb Raider drove revenue, but higher costs led to sharp declines in profit
59. Square Enix-founded RPG dev Studio Istolia closes down
60. Studio Istolia closes down: Square Enix assigning staff elsewhere in company as Project Prelude Rune is cancelled
61. Take-Two sees record net bookings thanks to flagship franchises
62. GTA V is nearing 110 million sales worldwide
63. Take-Two ends fiscal year with a group effort: Red Dead Redemption 2 sales slowing down but GTA V and NBA 2K19 continue to drive Take-Two results
64. Grand Theft Auto V has sold 110m copies: Borderlands series has sold over 43m units, with Borderlands 2 accounting for 20m
65. Take-Two: Investors are re-rating the games business –
66. It’s still an entertainment business, reminds CEO Strauss Zelnick
67. Take-Two CEO: Subscriptions not a ‘foregone conclusion’ for game industry
68. Ubisoft sees record player engagement as full-year net bookings surpass $2.2 billion
69. Ubisoft posts record sales again, delays Skull & Bones again: CEO Yves Guillemot says the games industry will reach 5 billion players in the next ten years
70. Record-breaking Q1 revenues for Nexon at $840m
71. Korean publisher exceeds forecasts thanks to stronger-than-expected performances for Dungeon&Fighter and MapleStory
72. EA and Activision need to show us something new | Opinion: The industry’s biggest publishers now focus on pumping old franchises for incremental growth rather than honing their ability to create the next big thing
73. ‘Record high’ investments see profits fall at Paradox
74. Profit and revenue down at Paradox as investments reach “record high”: Q1 2019 performance “characterised by a focus on long-term growth and expansion” says CEO
75. Nier: Automata has shipped over 4 million copies
76. The Killing Floor series has earned $100 million in revenue in 10 years
77. Discord surpasses 250 million registered users in four years
78. Discord reaches 250m users after just four years: Gaming chat platform has doubled audience in a year, with 56m monthly active users
79. Unity seeks another $125 million in funding
80. Unity is looking to raise $125 million in additional funding
81. Rage 2 aims to encourage streaming through interactive Twitch extensions
82. The Australian Labor Party wants to restart the Interactive Games Fund
83. Australian Labor party pledges to reinstate $25m Interactive Games Fund: If elected, Labor promises to end six years of budget cuts around creative industries
84. Assassin’s Creed should partner with Stranger Things: Lessons from Changing Channels – We report back on the key takeaways from last week’s TV and games conference with BBC Studios
85. Starbreeze lacks funds to operate for another year
86. Rockstar acquires Indian art studio Dhruva from Starbreeze
87. Rockstar acquires Dhruva Interactive from Starbreeze for $7.9m: Indian art production studio joins Red Dead Redemption publisher as Starbreeze continues to struggle
88. Epic Games acquires Twinmotion: Developer offers visualisation toolkit for free with “no strings attached”
89. Following your dreams: Pursuing a career making games | Opinion
90. Blog: Four steps for branding your studio
91. Blog: Tools for selling your story
92. Blog: Creating a physics based fighting game in Unity
93. Don’t Miss: Lessons of game design learned from Super Mario Maker
94. Blog: The challenges of teamwork and game design
95. Blog: We’re looking at accessibility all wrong
96. Blog: Using your YouTube channel to market your games
97. The 12 principles of animation in video games 
98. When grinding is fun: Forager’s compelling approach to ‘idle game’ design
99. Video: Insomniac’s technical postmortem of Marvel’s Spider-Man
100. Don’t Miss: Reflections on the afterimage of Final Fantasy VII
101. How hit crafting game Forager happily handles thousands of instances
102. Sega has acquired Two Point Hospital developer Two Point Studios
103. TinyBuild: Development to publishing, and back again
104. Valve Index asks for innovation without incentive | Opinion: Platform agnosticism and high price may inhibit the innovative VR game development Valve claims the headset was made for
105. Valve breaks down different tools for marketing games on Steam
106. ‘Beat Saber’ Has Been PSVR’s Top Download for 6 Months Running
107. Somnium Space Raises $1M to Expand Social VR Platform
108. High Fidelity lays of 25% of staff and pivots to virtual communications: Founder Philip Rosedale admits “we probably still have a few years to wait” for tech to catch up with original vision
109. Scopely acquires Digit Game Studios 
110. Fig Open Access offers devs an ‘open-ended’ crowdfunding option
111. Facebook’s VP of VR Hugo Barra steps down
112. Hugo Barra steps down as Oculus head for new Facebook AR/VR role
113. Facebook Shuffles Top Oculus Executives
114. Challenging player entitlement by making them homeless: Homelessness is “intimidating for any artists who really wants to take it seriously” says Delve Interactive founder Danny Hayes
115. The timeless magic of Shadow of the Colossus
116. AI-generated pokemon that should not be
117. Detective Pikachu film review: This is how you adapt a video game for theaters
118. Detective Pikachu earned $161m worldwide in its opening weekend: Pokémon tie-in had best ever opening weekend for a video game film in the US, but its worldwide performance is still behind Warcraft
119. Party like it’s 2004 with WoW Classic starting August 27

Jon