MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

1.  Court Rules It’s Fine If FCC Wants To Deem Just One Available ISP As ‘Competition’
2. Millions could lose cheap phone service under FCC’s overhaul of Lifeline
3. FCC Criticized for Surrendering Power to Punish Verizon After Firefighters Got Throttled During Wildfire
4. Verizon’s Oath Will Still Scan Your E-mail For Advertising Purposes Because Hey, It’s Verizon
5. Ajit Pai Coddles Big Telecom, Demonizes Silicon Valley
6. Ajit Pai Is Suddenly Very Concerned About Whether Tech Companies Are Censoring Conservatives
7. Man who threatened to kill Ajit Pai’s children pleads guilty, faces prison
8. T-Mobile/Sprint merger will bring higher prices, small carriers tell FCC
9. California Is Now Inches Away From Restoring Net Neutrality
10. California Shakes Off ISP Lobbyists, Embraces Real Net Neutrality
11. “Gold standard” state net neutrality bill approved by California Assembly
12. Calif. Senate approves net neutrality rules, sends bill to governor
13. Comcast Is Trying To Ban States From Protecting Broadband & TV Consumers
14. That Time Telco Lobbyists Sent Me All Their Talking Points About Trying To Shift The Blame To Internet Companies
15. RTL CEO Bert Habets on Record Results, ‘American Idol’ Reboot and Taking on Netflix in Europe
16. AT&T’s Top Anti-Net Neutrality Lobbyist In California Doesn’t Register As A Lobbyist
17. AT&T and Verizon Are Making Very Different Bets on What 5G Will Mean for Consumers and Content: Next generation of wireless tech promises to make carriers more competitive with traditional TV providers
18. Telecoms privacy and data security provisions in the USA

DIGITAL

1. DOJ: We will examine social media firms that “may be hurting competition”
2. We Shouldn’t Want Internet Giants Deciding Who To Silence; But They Should Let Users Decide Who To Hear
3. Netflix and Other Streaming Services May Soon Be Legally Required to Make Content for Europe
4. Netflix and Amazon will have to make more European content by law: A quota on local shows and movies will likely become official in December.
5. Amazon’s valuation briefly surpassed $1 trillion
6. Amazon achieved a market value of $1,000,000,000,000
7. Amazon hits $1 trillion market cap one month after Apple: Online giant becomes second ever company to reach the milestone
8. Amazon’s ad-supported video service faces many hurdles, but the upside is huge
9. IP Address Subscriber Isn’t Liable for Copyright Infringement by Users Sharing That IP Address–Cobbler v. Gonzales (Eric Goldman)
10. Copyright in Data Compilations Is Thin
11. Wikimedia Warns: EU Copyright Directive Could Drastically Change The Internet We Know And Love
12. YouTube’s Robert Kyncl Urges Creators To Speak Out Against Proposed EU Copyright Law
13. California Lawmakers Want a Study of Fake News (If Someone Else Pays for It) (Eric Goldman)
14. There’s A Reason That Misleading Claims Of Bias In Search And Social Media Enjoy Such Traction
15. A Federal Anti-SLAPP Law Would Make CDA 230 More Effective
16. Louisiana Police Appear To Be Using A Hoax Antifa List Created By 8Chan To Open Criminal Investigations
17. Jack Dorsey Woos Irate Republicans by Calmly Explaining Twitter Is Indeed Messed Up
18. How a Twitter account convinced 4,000 companies to stop advertising on Breitbart: Sleeping Giants founder tells Recode that he wants to be “the source of some kind of conscience” for social media.
19. Facebook and Twitter’s Biggest Problems Follow Them to Congress
20. How Trump Could Trigger Armageddon With a Tweet
21. The President v. Tech
22. How Trump’s Pressure on Google Threatens Government Manipulation of Search Results
23. Censorship and Collateral Damage: Analyzing the Telegram Ban in Iran
24. Google turns 20: how an internet search engine reshaped the world – The biggest moments, product launches, and acquisitions throughout Google’s two-decade history
25. _{­­­­­­­}
26. Google Reportedly Bought Your Banking Data in Secret, and That’s Not Even the Bad News
27. Google: Sorry professor, old Beethoven recordings on YouTube are copyrighted
28. Why I Can’t Quit Chrome
29. 6 Ways Google Chrome Changed the Way We Web
30. Senator to FTC: You guys really should look at Google one more time
31. Google celebrates a decade of Google Chrome, launches major redesign
32. Google wants to get rid of URLs but doesn’t know what to use instead
33. And Here Come The Completely Ridiculous Lawsuits Over Internet Company ‘Bias’
34. How Duterte Used Facebook To Fuel the Philippine Drug War
35. Facebook is building a ‘war room’ for the midterm elections: The company is taking a ‘laser-focused’ approach to ‘the bad actors.’
36. Instagram is coming after Amazon with plans to launch a standalone shopping app
37. The state of advertising on Instagram Stories in five charts
38. YouTube banned Alex Jones, but it’s letting white supremacist content thrive: Creators are profiting off hateful content
39. YouTube is fighting for a slice of the premium-video market
40. YouTube Exec Says Using All Caps Titles Causes Videos To Perform Worse
41. You Can Now Watch The KSI And Logan Paul Fight For Free On YouTube
42. Nerd City Video Raises Question: Does Jake Paul Hawking Merch To Kids Cross Legal Lines?
43. Here’s Exactly How Much Money One YouTuber Made Off His First Million Views
44. Popular YouTuber ‘The Fitness Marshall’ Breaks Down His Four-Year Ad Earnings
45. How Do Viral Videos Make Money? YouTubers Share Their Secrets
46. Hello Kitty Is The Latest Beloved Fictional Character To Become A YouTube Vlogger
47. Philanthropic YouTube Star Lilly Singh To Headline Mashable’s 9th Annual ‘Social Good Summit’
48. Claire Wineland, Who Chronicled Her Cystic Fibrosis Battle On YouTube, Has Passed Away At 21
49. ‘Live With Kelly And Ryan’ To Welcome Digital Stars All Week As Part Of ‘LIVEtember’ Initiative
50. YouTube Premium, YouTube Music Roll Out To 4 More Countries, Bringing Tally To 21
51. 21st Century Fox Tenders $100 Million Investment In Buzzy Livestreaming Platform Caffeine
52. 21st Century Fox sinks $100M into social streaming platform Caffeine
53. 21st Century Fox invests $100m into streaming startup Caffeine: Newly-formed Caffeine Studios’ will use Fox Sports’ experience to create esports and games programmes for new broadcasting platform
54. Lawyer in trouble with LSO for tweets
55. $400,000 Raised for Homeless Man on GoFundMe Is Completely Gone, Lawyer Says
56. The Mystery Of Columbia Pictures DMCAing Its Own Leaked Promotional Posters For Its ‘Holmes And Watson’ Movie
57. Disney Fixes Its Sketchy DVD Rental License, Wins Injunction Against Redbox Over Digital Downloads
58. Disney Enterprises Inc. v. Redbox Automated Retail LLC
59. Researchers show Alexa “skill squatting” could hijack voice commands
60. Microsoft is finally going to make the Skype UI good for the things people use
61. “How can they be so good?”: The strange story of Skype
62. The Scunthorpe Problem, And Why AI Is Not A Silver Bullet For Moderating Platform Content At Scale
63. New Artificial Intelligence Does Something Extraordinary – It Remembers
64. Engineering tour de force births programmable optical quantum computer
65. Special Report: In Venezuela, new cryptocurrency is nowhere to be found
66. Crunch Time in the NAFTA Negotiations: What’s at Play for Canada on Digital Policy (Michael Geist)
67. The Rise of the Cyber-Mercenaries: What happens when private firms have cyberweapons as powerful as those owned by governments?
68. Illusion of control: Why the world is full of buttons that don’t work
69. I Invented the iPhone’s Autocorrect. Sorry About That, and You’re Welcome
70. Between Cintiq and streaming, animation is thriving—ask Titmouse’s Chris Prynoski 

CREATIVITY

1. Ontario Court of Appeal decision answers ‘big legal questions’ on SLAPP suits
2. More On Mass Copyright Litigation in Canada – Part II (Howard Knopf)
3. Tanksley v. Daniels
4. Ninth Circuit Stops Monkeying Around And Denies En Banc Review Of The Monkey Selfie Case
5. LEGO built a drivable Bugatti Chiron out of a million pieces of Technic: It’s the first-ever life-size drivable car made from technic bricks.
6. How Not To Freak Out When Someone Copies Your Product
7. Are campaigns running on infringement?
8. Listen: ‘The Business of Television’ Author Reveals How Peak TV Shook Up Studio Dealmaking
9. Reading the Star Wars: Episode IX Script Has Made Domhnall Gleeson Paranoid
10. How ‘Fake News’ Was Born at the 1968 DNC: The madness of the 1968 Democratic National Convention pushed conservatives’ distrust of ‘the establishment’ into overdrive.
11. Pottery Barn Is Going to Bankrupt Harry Potter Fans Wanting to Redecorate Like Hogwarts

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

1. Canada’s privacy deficit
2. Cheese danish shipping, warrantless GPS trackers, and a border doctrine challenge
3. Apple will require all apps to have a privacy policy as of October 3
4. Five Eyes Surveillance Agencies Say Encryption Is Good, Except When It Keeps Them From Looking At Stuff
5. DHS Continues Facial Recognition Deployment With An Eye On Expanding Program To All Domestic Travelers
6. How Location Tracking Actually Works on Your Smartphone
7. The Physical Security Key That Keeps Google Employees From Getting Phished Is Now Available
8. Indian Police Adding Pre-Crime Software To Their Long List Of Snooping Tools
9. Australian Gov’t Likes Intrusive Border Device Searches Just As Much As The US Does
10. Unpatched routers being used to build vast proxy army, spy on networks

GAMES

1. Jacksonville Shooting Victim Sues EA And Venue
2. Madden NFL 19 shooting victim sues EA, claiming negligence
3. Jacksonville shooting survivor files lawsuit against EA and others for negligence
4. Jacksonville shooting victim suing EA for negligence: Also seeking damages from seven other defendants, including tournament venue Chicago Pizza and Jacksonville Landing mall
5. EA donates $1 million to newly established Jacksonville Tribute fund
6. EA donates $1m to victims of Jacksonville shooting: Publisher sets up Jacksonville Tribute fund in support of those affected
7. Electronic Arts Delays Popular Video Game, Sinking Stock
8. EA Bioware commits to free story DLC for Anthem: “We want people to be able to experience the same stories so none of that is going to be locked”
9. Battlefield V pushed back from Call of Duty and Red Dead Redemption release window: EA stock drops as DICE delays until November to make “final adjustments to the core gameplay”
10. FIFA 18 sells over 24 million copies: FIFA franchise overall totals 260 million copies sold; FIFA Mobile reaches 193 million installs
11. Battlefield 5 Dev Says It’s A “Shame” Battlefield 1 Didn’t Initially Include Women: “I don’t think it’s a bandwagon thing…it’s about gamers wanting to express themselves in different ways.”
12. NBA 2K producer: Microtransactions are ‘unfortunate reality’ of modern games
13. Microtransactions “an unfortunate reality in modern gaming” – NBA 2K19 dev: Every game tries to get additional revenue from players in some way, says senior producer Rob Jones in wake of NBA 2K18 criticism
14. And Now Comes The Pushback As One ROMs Site Is Challenging Nintendo’s Takedown Of ROM Sites
15. Switch sales nearing 5 million units in Japan
16. Nintendo Switch nears 5m sales in Japan: Only 2m behind lifetime sales of PlayStation 4
17. Nintendo’s big mobile earner Fire Emblem Heroes had a bumper summer
18. Diablo 3, Untitled Goose Game lead PAX West’s Nintendo Switch lineup
19. Gallery: Exploring Nintendo’s flagship New York City store
20. Let’s Sing 2019 heading to PS4, Xbox One, and… the Nintendo Wii?
21. “Aren’t you a little too old for that?” Two decades of playing Pokémon
22. Congressional Candidate Fights Boston Globe’s Use of Gamer Photo
23. Tencent suspends community manager following sexual harassment accusations
24. Tencent suspends global community manager after multiple sexual harassment claims: Full investigation pending as Arena of Valor CM accused of sending inappropriate messages to women
25. Tencent’s value drops by $20 billion following new Chinese regulations: Company has lost more than $160 billion in value this year, falling behind rival Alibaba Group
26. China to crack down on children’s video gaming time amid fears over addiction
27. China increasing video game restrictions to combat myopia in children
28. Chinese Ministry of Education recommends fewer game approvals to combat myopia: Also encourages regulations for screen time and introduction of age ratings for video games in China
29. Riot’s struggle with toxicity turns inwards: After years of focusing on toxicity in its player base, Riot Games faces up to unpleasant revelations about its own work culture – and the industry at large should take note
30. Riot responds to controversy over women and non-binary PAX workshops: “No matter how heated a discussion, we expect Rioters to act with respect”
31. YouTube Orders Pilot For Comedy Series ‘It’s A Man’s World’ About Sexism In Gaming
32. PewDiePie On Track To Be Overtaken As YouTube’s Most-Subscribed Channel In October
33. CCP Games: ‘We’re not interested in [harassers] being part of our community’
34. How Mulaka reflects a culturally respectful development process
35. European ratings board adding in-game purchase label to boxed games
36. PEGI adds in-game purchase warning to boxed games: Descriptor will be added to physical releases by the end of the year
37. Social gaming and gambling advertising, how to deal with them?
38. No esports in Olympics because ‘killer games’ promote violence: “They, from our point of view, are contradictory to the Olympic values and cannot therefore be accepted”
39. F1 2018 dominates EMEA charts: But Rainbow Six tops the digital rankings
40. UK Charts: PES launch sales drop 42% year-on-year – F1 2018 retains pole position
41. Nazi tattoos scrubbed from Scum days after Early Access debut
42. Devolver removes neo-Nazi tattoos from Scum: Imagery was included to emphasise ‘prison culture’, review being conducted to check for other potentially offensive content
43. Video Game Industry Plays for FTC Approval of COPPA Program
44. BioWare: “Anthem is not a departure, it’s the continued evolution of our craft” – Game director Jon Warner discusses the terror and excitement of leading BioWare’s new flagship IP
45. How Nicki Minaj and a Drag Race superstar inspiredMonument Valley
46. Sony scrapping PS2 aftercare service in Japan
47. Sony Japan Is Finally Saying Goodbye To The PS2
48. Sony CEO says limited cross-platform play provides the ‘best user experience’
49. No Fortnite PS4 cross-play because ‘PlayStation is the best place to play’: It’s all about the user experience, says Sony CEO
50. CEO: PS4 blocks cross-console play to provide “best user experience”
51. Ten surprising things battle royale can teach us: Will Luton reflects on the lessons developers and publishers can learn from the rise of Fortnite, PUBG and their rivals
52. Rocket League takes a page from Fortnite with new limited-time Rocket Pass
53. Markiplier And Pokimane Will Battle It Out In Twitch ‘Fortnite’ Stream To Benefit ‘Stand Up 2 Cancer’
54. Rainbow Six Siege takes after Fortnite by offering in-game reward for using 2FA
55. Anthem isn’t charging for story DLC in an effort to keep its audience undivided
56. More competition means players won’t always stay for DLC, warns Anthem dev
57. YouTube Taps Gamers To Use New ‘YouTube Giving’ Tools In Fundraising Partnership With St. Jude
58. How Paradox combines business strategy and game dev
59. Square Enix and Tencent want to make triple-A games together
60. Square Enix to create AAA original IP with Tencent: ‘Strategic alliance’ between two firms will also see the creation of a new joint-venture company
61. Valve is making Counter-Strike: Global Offensive free to play, sort of
62. Valve: Creating Artifact is not a “zero-sum game” – How the company is keeping its focus narrow for the upcoming online trading card game
63. Final Fantasy XIV surpasses 14 million lifetime registered players
64. Green Man Gaming’s £100m IPO: “We’ve grown between 25 to 30% every year”
65. Skipping Steam: Why Jason Rohrer independently distributes One Hour, One Life 
66. Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end – 10 Years Ago This Month: Microsoft announces Ensemble’s closing time months before it wraps development on Halo Wars
67. ‘Minecraft’ Competitor ‘Roblox’ Raises $150 Million At $2.5 Billion Valuation
68. Roblox closes on $150 million Series F funding round: Company’s largest funding round to date will go toward continued international expansion
69. QC Games: “We may make terrible calls, but at least they’re ours” – Why the Breach developers left BioWare and EA for life as a AAA independent
70. The video game creator turning his grief into art: Indie developer Dan Hett talks us through the therapeutic power of games development after the loss of his brother in the Manchester Arena bombing
71. Blog: Why academics can no longer compete in game AI competitions
72. Marvel’s Spider-Man Understands the Amazing Fantasy of Becoming Peter Parker 
73. Spider-Man PS4 review: Does whatever a spider can—and then some
74. Games intelligence firm SuperData acquired by analytics company Nielsen
75. SuperData acquired by Nielsen Holdings: Major industry market intelligence company joins analytics group to bolster digital gaming, esports data
76. Book Excerpt: Understanding video games as culture
77. Check out Rolling Stone’s 1972 coverage of Spacewar!

Jon

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

1. Telus class action case heads to the SCC
2. This Really Isn’t Our Fight and It Will Cost Us”: Behind the Scenes of CBC Support for Bell’s Website Blocking Plan (Michael Geist)
3. Email Marketing In Canada (CASL)
4. Maximum Mudslinging: How Powerful Lobby Groups Are Working to Sideline Civil Society Voices on Digital Policy (Michael Geist)
5. ‘Oversight’ Hearing Fails Utterly To Hold FCC Accountable For Lying To Congress About Fake DDOS Attack
6. Ajit Pai Knew FCC Cyberattack Was Fake for Seven Months but Kept Quiet
7. Ajit Pai knew DDoS claim was false in January, says he couldn’t tell Congress
8. Ajit Pai Opposes Effort To Update The Definition Of Broadband
9. A Senator Says U.S. Broadband Maps ‘Stink.’ Here’s Why Nobody Wants To Fix Them.
10. ISPs say they can’t expand broadband unless gov’t gives them more money
11. 23 Attorneys General Urge Appeals Court To Restore Net Neutrality
12. Verizon Throttled The ‘Unlimited’ Data Plan Of A Fire Dept. Battling Wildfires
13. Verizon throttled fire department’s “unlimited” data during Calif. wildfire
14. Verizon Throttled Fire Department’s ‘Unlimited’ Plan While They Were Fighting Mendocino Complex Fire
15. Verizon Is Wrong. Throttling Emergency Responders’ Data Is Definitely About Net Neutrality.
16. Fire dept. rejects Verizon’s “customer support mistake” excuse for throttling
17. AT&T/TIME Warner DOJ Smack Down: You Don’t Need a Weatherman to Know Which Way the Wind Blows
18. A Victory for Introductory Offer and Subscription Advertisers: FTC Fails to Prove Deception Against DIRECTV
19. DirecTV beats $4B lawsuit that alleged it tricked customers into paying more 

DIGITAL

1. Will the Canadian Voltage Reverse Class Action Now Fizzle?
2. Twitter Gets Powerful Win in “Must-Carry” Lawsuit–Taylor v. Twitter
3. Appeals Court Says Of Course Twitter Can Kick Racists Off Its Platform
4. As Press Freedom Dies In Turkey, Twitter Is There To Help Dig Its Grave
5. Dutch Government Prosecuting Dutch Citizen For Insulting Turkish President Recep Erdogan
6. EU Commission Moving Forward With Legislation Demanding One Hour Removal Of ‘Terrorist Content’
7. Section 230 Survives to Fight Another Day Following California Supreme Court Decision
8. Automated ‘Content Protection’ System Sends Wave Of Bogus DMCA Notice Targeting Legitimate URLs
9. Automated Filter Removed Parliament Member’s Article Warning About Censorship By Automated Filters
10. 3D-printed gun activists set to face numerous US states in court
11. Microsoft shuts down phishing sites, accuses Russia of new election meddling
12. Man sues over Google’s “Location History” fiasco, case could affect millions
13. Google reportedly plans flagship retail store (again), this time in Chicago
14. After employee revolt, Google says it is “not close” to launching search in China
15. Apple complies with China’s rules again, pulls gambling apps from App Store
16. Apple Store Shoppers Tackle Suspects in $18,000 MacBook Grab-and-Dash Heist
17. Huawei was caught using a pro camera to fake smartphone photos (again)
18. UK Consumer Watchdog Is Monitoring Social Influencers Who May Be Failing To Disclose Paid Promotions
19. Couple behind “prolific” dark net fentanyl sales busted by DOJ
20. The Internet is making us stupid (Andres Guadamuz)
21. Facebook: Iran has been posting hundreds of fake pages since 2011
22. Facebook removed hundreds of pages from Iran and Russia as part of ongoing investigation into platform abuse
23. Facebook begins rating users on how trustworthy they are at flagging fake news
24. Facebook Helps Landlords Discriminate Against Minorities, Says U.S. Government
25. DOJ Asking Court To Force Facebook To Break Encryption On Messenger Voice Calls
26. ‘Facebook What?’ Half of Users Have Never Heard of Facebook’s Watch Video Service
27. The Media Tried To Game The Machines and You’ll Never Guess What Happened Next (Facebook Won)
28. Elon Musk Explains Why He Quit Instagram: ‘I Didn’t Like It’ [Updated]
29. Brands Are Reaching Out To Young Teens On Instagram To Negotiate Cheap Product Endorsement
30. Laura Lee Apologizes For Racist Tweets Amid Loss Of 240,000 Subscribers In Roughly 1 Week
31. Once Again, Court Rejects Silly Claims That YouTube Provided Material Support For Terrorists
32. Rutgers University Study Warns Against Glut Of Misleading Plastic Surgery Videos On YouTube
33. “Re-Inspired” Kandee Johnson Returns To YouTube After Months-Long Absence
34. YouTube Millionaires: MacDoesIt Says YouTube Has “Made A Home” For Him And Other Marginalized Creators
35. Philip DeFranco Testing New Show Format To Avoid “Suppressed” YouTube Videos
36. YouTuber True Geordie, The Commentator For KSI And Logan Paul’s Match, Launches Mobile Boxing Game
37. YouTube Premium Is Readying 50 Originals For 2019. Here’s The Kind Of Content It’s Looking For.
38. YouTube Outlines Originals Strategy in Europe, Middle East, Africa
39. YouTube Music Signs American Music Awards Two-Year Title Sponsorship Deal
40. YouTube Music Inks Two-Year Sponsorship Deal With The American Music Awards
41. Ariana Grande Using Snapchat to Launch ‘Sweetener’ Merchandise via a Shoppable Selfie Lens
42. Viacom Lays Off A Number Of AwesomenessTV Employees
43. Walmart’s Streaming Video Service Plans Coming Into Focus, Will Launch Late 2018
44. Relax, binge watchers. Netflix is not adding commercials
45. Netflix will now interrupt series binges with video ads for its other series
46. Netflix Is Testing Personalized “Surfacing Recommendations” — AKA Ads — Between Episodes
47. 35% Of Millennials and 42% Of Gen Z Share Their Streaming Service Passwords (Study)
48. Study Finds Streaming Service Usernames And Passwords For Sale On Dark Web
49. Check’s in the Mail: Sony Music Disburses $750 Million to Artists in ‘Spotify Windfall’: The “completely voluntary” payment will not count against unrecouped earnings.
50. Vice Media signs long-term content deal with Bell: Move comes after Rogers walked away from previous $100M pact
51. Amazon Apparently Wants to Destroy TiVo Now
52. Amazon Is Planning Live TV Recorder, Challenging TiVo: Box would record live TV and stream that video to smartphones; Device competes with offerings from TiVo, Dish’s Slingbox
53. Giphy Adds Curated Stories to Desktop, Mobile Web
54. AT&T Sued After SIM Hijacker Steals $24 Million in Customer’s Cryptocurrency
55. Ouch, These Stories From the Crypto Crash Are Hard to Stomach
56. The blockchain bonanza is over for graphics card makers
57. NVIDIA cryptocurrency revenues fall 82% below $100m estimate for last quarter: Revenues up but OEM segment declines 54 per cent with crypto shortfall
58. Saving Lives With Tech Amid Syria’s Endless Civil War: The Bashar al-Assad regime’s indiscriminate air strikes have terrorized civilians for years. Now a small band of activist-entrepreneurs is building a sensor network that listens for warplanes
59. To Build Trust In Artificial Intelligence, IBM Wants Developers To Prove Their Algorithms Are Fair
60. To Lead in AI, House of Lords Urges UK to stay nimble, focus on ethics, and look to Canada
61. AI-Generated Art Will Go On Sale Alongside Human-Made Works This Fall
62. A realistic look at AI in science fiction
63. The Viral Robot Video That’s Freaking Everyone Out Is Totally Fake
64. A Robot Will Become A Real-Life Movie Star
65. Baseball Players Are Sick of Fallible Umpires. Robots Should Make Calls Instead.
66. The gig economy and the law
67. Massachusetts gives workers new protections against noncompete clauses
68. Prenda Scam Boss, Paul Hansmeier, Pleads Guilty
69. Paul Hansmeier finally cops to being a porn troll, after a years-long saga
70. Bitmovin Takes A Scorched Earth Approach To Patent Troll, Who Limps Away Quickly
71. Before You Talk About How Easy Content Moderation Is, You Should Listen To This
72. The four ways that ex-internet idealists explain where it all went wrong: 21st-century digital evangelists had a lot in common with early Christians and Russian revolutionaries.
73. Bill Gates Says We Need New Economic Models That Take Tech Into Account
74. These 3,800-Year-Old Peruvian Carvings Look Like Modern Emoji 

CREATIVITY

1. Only 12% Of Music Revenue Goes To Actual Artists
2. Stan Lee Has Been Granted a 3-Year Restraining Order Against His Former Manager and Guardian
3. Kevin Spacey’s new movie might make less than $500 this weekend
4. Kelly Marie Tran Speaks Out Against Racist Star Wars Fans With Some Powerful Words
5. Movie Company Sues Post-Production Studio For $5 Million For Leaking ‘Kickboxer’ Film That Grossed $5k Domestically
6. Museum Visitor Falls Into Giant Hole That Looks Like a Cartoonish Painting on the Floor
7. Judge In Broward County Documents Case Decides The First Amendment Doesn’t Cover These Public Records
8. Elected Official Files Business, Trademark Registrations Using Name Of Website That Frequently Criticized Her
9. In-N-Out Sends Punny Cease And Desist Over Fairly Clear Trademark Infringement
10. Heaven Hill Distillery Knocks On Bob Dylan’s Door Over His Heaven’s Door Whiskey For Trademark Infringement
11. As Academic Publishers Fight And Subvert Open Access, Preprints Offer An Alternative Approach For Sharing Knowledge Widely

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

1. Canadian Privacy Commissioner says public profiles are private
2. FBI Tried To Get Google To Turn Over Identifying Info On Hundreds Of Phone Owners
3. FBI Warning: Data Security Issues Posed by the Internet of Things
4. Just say no: Wi-Fi-enabled appliance botnet could bring power grid to its knees
5. The limits of intelligence collection 
6. Toward defining privacy expectations in an age of oversharing: Our digital data deserves protection, writes Margot Kaminski, a law professor 
7. Voting Machine Vendors, Election Officials Continue To Look Ridiculous, As Kids Hack Voting Machines In Minutes
8. Researcher Says Police Body Cameras Are An Insecure Mess
9. Let’s Retire the Phrase ‘Privacy Policy’: People assume it means their information will be kept private. Nothing could be further from the truth.
10. Teen Hangout Site Shuttered for COPPA Violations
11. Recent Developments Regarding the California Consumer Privacy Act

GAMES

1. Liftoff: Women make in-app purchases at a 79% higher rate than men – iOS user acquisition more expensive, but also more lucrative than Android
2. Analyst: More players are making in-app purchases (with less nudging)
3. 2K tweaks loot boxes in NBA 2K to comply with new Belgian gambling laws
4. Loot Box Regulation: The State of Play
5. China’s censors may target business models, not content: With no games approved in four months, China’s censorship regime is in flux; could game monetisation be in the sights of the new authorities?
6. Games of Skill v. Games of Chance – The Legal Analysis
7. Indictment: Congressman spent campaign funds on $1,500 in Steam games [Updated]
8. U.S. judge blocks sale of GTA Online cheat programs
9. US judge blocks man from selling Grand Theft Auto Online cheat programs: Take-Two claims software by David Zipperer has cost the firm more than $500,000
10. Judge Stanton grants preliminary injunction against creator of “grand theft Auto V” cheat software
11. Game dev suffers broken teeth, skull fracture after trying to film arrest
12. Veteran game designer arrested after altercation with police: Industry crowdfunds legal and medical fees for former Disney and Turbine developer Patricia A. Pizer after alleged assault
13. Discrimination Lawsuit Filed Against ‘League of Legends’ Developer Riot Games
14. Riot Games exec Greg Street promises change to sexist culture
15. Video: How Riot partners with players to positively impact the world
16. How Not Tonight went from workplace sim to twisted Brexit vision
17. Video: How to foster diversity in games 
18. Developers of adult games on Steam should “assume months” before game approval
19. Valve makes Windows games playable on Linux with Steam Play update
20. Steam Play update makes Windows-only games playable on Linux: Valve rolls out new open source compatibility tool Proton, complete with Vulkan support
21. “No school shooters”: Robot Cache promises more curation than Steam – CEO says every game submitted will be reviewed for content on blockchain-based marketplace
22. THQ Nordic team-up brings select Microsoft Studios games to Steam
23. Judge Orders Alleged EA Games Hacker to Pay $750,000 Bail in Cryptocurrency
24. ROM sites are falling, but a legal loophole could save game emulation
25. FTC Approves Changes to Video Game Industry’s Safe Harbor Program Under COPPA
26. Clash of Clans, Fortnite lead top mobile games for session time: Users spent 3.83 billion hours playing Clash of Clans in May through July of this year
27. Please Don’t Download Fortnite for Android From Sketchy Places
28. Impostor Fortnite Android Apps Are Already Spreading Malware
29. Pokémon Go file check opens new front in war on rooted Android phones
30. Fortnite’s five-month iOS revenue on par with Clash Royale: Epic’s blockbuster reaches $200 million revenue on the App Store, according to Sensor Tower estimates
31. PUBG Mobile surpasses 100 million downloads since launch 
32. PUBG Mobile hits 100 million downloads: Battle royale’s mobile version also reaches 14 million daily active users
33. Capcom has shipped 10M copies of Monster Hunter: World
34. Assassin’s Creed to skip major release in 2019: Ubisoft avoids spin-off titles as well, focusing on support of Odyssey
35. Minigame integrated into EVE Online helps scientists understand cells
36. EVE Online players further scientific research using pattern-matching minigame
37. Blog: Making the first game containing Nazi symbols in Germany
38. How Six Ages builds a game around the power of myth
39. Steam’s content-driven freeze on game approvals expected to last for months
40. Valve accidentally unveils Steam.tv broadcasting platform
41. Valve launches streaming platform Steam TV: Quiet launch of new broadcasting arm gives Twitch and YouTube gaming a new competitor
42. Some Twitch Users’ Private Messages Were Exposed To Other Users. Here’s How To Check If You’re One Of Them.
43. Twitch Prime Will Rescind Ad-Free Viewing Beginning Next Month
44. Pay now or kiss Twitch Prime’s no-advertising perk goodbye starting Sept 14
45. Mad Machines to debut as a “First on Discord” game: Rocket League-like robot spike hockey game will be exclusive to Discord at launch
46. Blog: Honest reflections on Patreon from a game media creator
47. Sony Finally Gets A Little Weird With Its New DualShock 4 Colors
48. Citing ‘Sony’s plans to discontinue the Vita,’ Bloodstaineddev cancels port
49. Bloodstained Vita release canceled due to “Sony’s plans to discontinue” handheld: Kickstarter update delays game to 2019, offers refunds to Vita backers
50. PlayStation VR Passes 3 Million Units Sold
51. Worldwide PlayStation VR sales have topped 3 million
52. PlayStation VR hits 3 million sold: Sony says PSVR software sales approaching 22 million; Skyrim tops the list of most-played PSVR games
53. VR’s slow growth ideal for indies – Moss dev
54. EA Respawn’s Unannounced Oculus Exclusive Characterized as a “AAA VR Shooter”
55. EA, Unity, Epic, and others unite to promote best practices for HDR
56. Inside Two Bit Circus, LA’s new VR and arcade amusement park
57. Zynga to develop a Star Wars mobile game following Disney partnership
58. Zynga’s NaturalMotion studio partners with Disney for new Star Wars game: Publisher will also take over mobile tower defense game Star Wars Commander
59. Microsoft’s Moon Studios, Activision Blizzard stand out in Gamescom Awards: Koch Media, Nintendo also take home multiple honors
60. Microsoft prepares to kill the Windows 8 store: No new apps from November
61. Microsoft, Sony, other major publishers form HDR Gaming Interest Group: Group aims to specify and share public guidelines to improve HDR gaming
62. Minecraft: Education Edition is coming to iPad
63. Keywords Studios acquires Studio Gobo for £26m: Technical services provider continues spending spree with eighth acquisition this year
64. Profits tumble 57.5% at Rovio, despite rising games revenue: Angry Birds 2 pulls in €29.7 million but developer admits it “did not see the growth we wanted” from other games
65. Realm Royale loses 97% of its players in two months: Steam user reviews suggest balancing issues lie at the heart of Hi-Rez Studios’ battle royale decline
66. Despite millions of downloads, publishers won’t sign the sequel to Velocity 2X
67. FuturLab: No publisher will sign Velocity 2X sequel, despite millions of downloads – UK studio shares turbulent journey behind Velocity Supernova, the secretly-developed sequel it might never release
68. Gameseek founder returns with toy and video games retailer: Just three months since the website entered administration leaving customers out of pocket
69. OK Fine, Maybe Nintendo’s on to Something With the Labo Vehicle Kit
70. InkyPen brings comics, graphic novels to Nintendo Switch: Comic subscription service’s debut marks first worldwide media app of its kind on the console
71. Nintendo’s Switch has been hiding a buried “VrMode” for over a year
72. Shuhei Yoshida’s first play of God of War – “He was horrified”: At Devcom 2018, creative director Cory Barlog laid out the difficult user responses to the in-development God of War, from both playtesters and SIE’s top brass
73. Cliff Bleszinksi to address Boss Key failure in new book: Industry veteran’s memoir “closes the chapter” on studio that shut down less than a year after its debut title Lawbreakers launched
74. Scammers are still trying to snag free games from indie devs 
75. The Division 2 “is like a second marriage”: Massive’s David Polfeldt talks us through his team’s ‘endgame first’ mentality and why the first Division could last longer than we expect
76. In Octopath Traveler, jobs define more than just gameplay mechanics
77. Playne: Encouraging mindfulness through video games – Developer Krish Shrikumar on using video games to break down stigma against meditation and mindfulness
78. The creators of the Nintendo 64 GoldenEye have officially ruled: Oddjob is cheating
79. Developing GoldenEye 007 when the technology didn’t exist 
80. F1 2018: More than a great game, it’s an interactive history lesson
81. Don’t Miss: Devs reflect on the impact and legacy ofBurnout Paradise
82. Shenmue I & II impressions: A gaming history lesson, but it feels like school
83. Ubisoft’s once-yearly Assassin’s Creed series is skipping a 2019 release
84. Don’t Miss: The physics of trains in Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate
85. Dontnod’s Vampyr picked up for TV adaptation by Fox21
86. Fox21 adapting Dontnod’s Vampyr for TV: Series based on video game will be produced by same company behind upcoming Life Is Strange TV show
87. Ustwo Games’ Monument Valley picked up for film adaptation
88. Lakers, Timberwolves, Nets, and Hawks Join NBA 2K League’s Second Season
89. Valve’s nearly $25M The International prize pool sets esports-wide record
90. The International brings record-breaking prize pool: Dota 2 tournament’s $24.8 million pool once again largest in esports history
91. Esports official medal in 2022 Asian Games up in the air again: OCA backtracks, citing lack of overarching governing body as key hurdle in recognition as a medaling event
92. NASCAR Team Properties extends gaming license through 2029, expands Esports initiatives.
93. As Esports Race to Turn Pro, Madden NFL Stays Open to All Gamers
94. This Is The Longest Madden Glitch I’ve Ever Seen And It Keeps Getting Stranger
95. Facebook removes its revenue share from Instant Games on Android
96. Facebook drops its revenue share for Instant Games on Android: Social network will no longer take a cut of in-app purchases on Google devices, applies new rates retroactively
97. Amazon removes its 20 percent preorder discount on games
98. Amazon Prime eliminates 20% discount on game pre-orders
99. GAME’s full-year revenues expected to suffer slight decline
100. NVIDIA Demo Shows Off Real-time Ray Tracing Capabilities of RTX Cards
101. ‘Battlefield V’ Shows What NVIDIA RTX Ray Tracing Means for the Future of Gaming
102. What Will Quantum Computer Games Be Like?  
103. Rules of the game (part 1): Copyright protection of video games in Canada
104. Raytracing explained: Nvidia, Microsoft lead the way in revolutionizing gaming graphics

Jon

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

1. FCC lied to Congress about made-up DDoS attack, investigation found 
2. Here’s the Internal Report Proving the FCC Made Up a Cyberattack
3. That Hack of the FCC’s Comment Section Last Year? It Never Actually Happened, Agency Admits
4. Ajit Pai Throws His Employees Under The Bus After Investigation Proves FCC Made Up DDOS Attack
5. Ajit Pai admits FCC lied about “DDoS,” blames it on Obama administration
6. Trump admin asks Supreme Court to re-kill already-dead net neutrality rules
7. Trump Admin Hopes Kavanaugh Supreme Court Delivers The Killing Blow To Net Neutrality
8. Report Highlights How U.S. Telcos Abandoned Rural American Broadband
9. ISPs’ listed speeds drop up to 41% after UK requires accurate advertising
10. FCC sides with Google Fiber over Comcast with new pro-competition rule
11. Verizon lied about 4G coverage—and it could hurt rural America, group says
12. FCC Tackles “Slamming and Cramming” 
13. Charter CEO Apparently Unaware He Runs One Of The Most Despised Companies In America
14. Will The “Real Journalists” At Fox News Please Stand Up?: It’s time for the Shep Smiths of Fox News to speak out against the pro-Trump propagandists like Hannity, Carlson, and Pirro.
15. AT&T Acquires The Chernin Group’s Stake In Otter Media In Reported $1 Billion Deal
16. $50 a month for 1Mbps: How AT&T and Verizon rip off DSL customers
17. Behind Ryerson’s Support for Site Blocking: Bell Reviewed Draft Submission, Was Warned It Did Not Represent Faculty View 
18. “One of Our Key Hiring Companies”: The Missing Link in the George Brown College Support for Bell’s Site Blocking Plan 
19. Aiding by Omission in CASL? Good Enough, CRTC Says

DIGITAL

1. How bots amplify hoaxes and propaganda on social media: Zignal Labs CEO Josh Ginsberg says consumers and companies need to know what’s bot-generated and what’s not so they can make informed decisions about things like elections.
2. ‘It’s our time to serve the Motherland’ How Russia’s war in Georgia sparked Moscow’s modern-day recruitment of criminal hackers
3. As ‘DNC Hacked Itself’ Conspiracy Theory Collapses, Key Backer Of Claim Exposed As UK Troll
4. Bill Says US Tech Companies Must Let The Feds Know When Foreign Companies Poke Around In Their Source Code
5. Court Says Comey And Other DOJ Officials Must Answer BuzzFeed’s Questions About The Steele Dossier
6. The Expensive Education of Mark Zuckerberg and Silicon Valley: They have weaponized social media, and we are all paying the price.
7. Alex Jones’ Infowars Channels Scrubbed From YouTube, Facebook, Apple, And Spotify
8. YouTube bans Alex Jones, following Facebook and Apple’s lead
9. YouTube Bans InfoWars Following Removals From Apple, Facebook, and Spotify
10. Alex Jones hit with bans from Facebook and Apple
11. Alex Jones podcast episodes yanked from Spotify over “hate content”
12. Alex Jones Is Shirtlessly Screaming Into the Void on Popular Social Network Google+
13. Filling the void Alex Jones left behind: YouTube’s attempt to burst the (far-)right bubble is a chance for Fox News
14. Twitter Founder Jack Dorsey Explains Why Twitter Isn’t Banning Alex Jones
15. Op-ed: Alex Jones is a crackpot—but banning him from Facebook might be a bad idea [Updated]
16. How journalists should not cover an online conspiracy theory: The QAnon narrative shows the need for better practices in reporting on baseless claims and hoaxes. Here’s how the media can take action
17. Online Hate Is Rampant. Here’s How To Keep It From Spreading
18. Report: Feds investigating whether Musk’s buyout tweet broke the law
19. In Germany, a news site is pairing up liberals and conservatives and actually getting them to (gasp) have a civil conversation
20. Saudi State Media Posted a Photo That Sure Looks Like a Threat to Attack Toronto 
21. Senators Demand Answers on Google’s Reported Plans for Censored Search Engine in China
22. BBC Migrates Everything To HTTPS, Immediately Finds Itself Blocked By The Chinese Government
23. Apple becomes first US public company worth $1 trillion: Q3 earnings report bolsters stock to record amount, maintained to market close
24. That’s trillion with a T—Apple hits market value of $1 trillion
25. Apple Kills App Affiliate Program In Pointless Move
26. Apple shuts App Store affiliate program, imperiling recommendation sites
27. Sensing Blood In The Water, All Major Labels Sue Cox For ‘Ignoring’ Their DMCA Notices
28. Indian Court Grants PepsiCo’s Takedown Request Targeting Thousands Of ‘Disparaging’ Social Media Posts
29. Yet Another Study Shows You Beat Piracy Through Innovation, Rather Than Enforcement
30. SESTA, FOSTA, And How To Make Sense Of The Acronym Soup
31. Evidence Mounts: UK Study Shows Better Legal Alternatives Pushing Pirates To Become Customers
32. The War On Fan-Subtitles Comes To Australia in The Form Of Site-Blocking
33. Microsoft adding support for Movies Anywhere, giving away free X-Men movie
34. Amazon’s Head Of Unscripted TV Out After Investigation Into Inappropriate Comments (Report)
35. Wells Fargo Admits ‘Computer Glitch’ May Have Contributed to 400 Foreclosures
36. Only a small percentage of users buys stuff through Alexa, report claims
37. Report: Almost Nobody Is Using Amazon’s Alexa to Actually Buy Stuff
38. Amazon launches grocery pickup at Whole Foods for Prime members
39. Facebook Faces Another Consequence of Its Privacy Problems: Shareholder Lawsuits
40. Facebook Wanted Us to Kill This Investigative Tool
41. Facebook Is Asking Banks to Share Data on Customers’ Spending Habits
42. Facebook: We’re not asking for financial data, we’re just partnering with banks
43. This Facebook Feature Shouldn’t Exist
44. Facebook Asked To Change Terms Of Service To Protect Journalists
45. ‘People You May Know:’ A Controversial Facebook Feature’s 10-Year History
46. YouTube Set To Overtake Facebook As Second Largest Website In America
47. YouTube is about to pass Facebook as the second biggest website in US, according to new study: Facebook’s web traffic has declined by nearly half in the last two years, while YouTube is climbing.
48. YouTube Premium Announces First Spanish-Language Slate With Gael García Bernal, Maluma, Sofia Niño de Rivera
49. Go90 or bust: How AwesomenessTV’s fate was tied to Verizon
50. Easier streaming services put dent in illegal downloading
51. Fight Over Virginia Tech Sportswriter’s Twitter Account: Who Owns Employees’ Social Media Accounts?
52. Warner Music Group Acquires UPROXX: The 10-year-old online hub and video production house aimed at youth boasts a reach of 40 million people.
53. Warner Music Group Sells Its Entire Stake in Spotify
54. Spotify’s $30 billion playlist for global domination
55. Bytedance Nixes Musical.ly Brand As Short-Form Video Site Merges Into Sister Platform ‘TikTok’
56. Music Streaming Service Deezer Raises $185 Million
57. Crowd-Sauce: How Memes Are Helping Rappers Reach Number One
58. Why Fitness Is The New Hot Marketing Platform And Revenue Stream For Music
59. Snapchat Made $262 Million During Q2 But Lost 3 Million Daily Active Users
60. Roku Exceeds Q2 Earnings Expectations, Brings Free Streaming Service To Web
61. Why Did Anyone Think MoviePass Could Have Worked?: The company had deep-pocketed backers and a plan. It just overlooked a few important details.
62. Katzenberg’s WndrCo Confirms $1 Billion Raise For Shortform Subscription Service, Doesn’t Plan To Compete With Netflix, Hulu
63. Warner Bros. And DC Comics’ ‘DC Universe’ Streaming Service Launching In Beta This Month
64. Disney Will Shuttle Marvel Cinematic Universe To Its Own Streaming Service Starting With ‘Captain Marvel’ In 2019
65. Peloton Raises $550 Million As It Builds “A Media Company Akin To Netflix,” Says CEO
66. Researchers Inadvertently Discover Crypto Scam Involving 15,000 Twitter Bots
67. Some Traders Are Talking Up Cryptocurrencies, Then Dumping Them, Costing Others Millions
68. America Needs a Blockchain Strategy ASAP
69. 3D-printed (and CNC-milled) guns: Nine questions you were too afraid to ask
70. New in School: AI-Driven Gun Detection Systems
71. The Algorithm That Could Save Vulnerable New Yorkers From Being Forced Out of Their Homes
72. Uber driver who struck, killed young girl is convicted of vehicular manslaughter
73. Patreon Creators See Dip In Earnings Due To Payments Being Mistakenly Marked As Fraudulent, Company Says
74. Silicon Valley Writes A Playbook To Help Avert Ethical Disasters
75. The Free-Market Fraud: Tech Innovation and Alternatives
76. New open source effort: Legal code to make reporting security bugs safer
77. Is there such a thing as Internet politics? (Andres Guadamuz)

CREATIVITY

1. Some Notes About Recent Developments at the Copyright Board of Canada (Howard Knopf)
2. When Copying Isn’t Infringement
3. Court Awards $12,500 For ‘Emotional Harm’ From Bogus Copyright Lawsuit
4. Alvin Toffler Investigated by FBI for Communist Activities According to Newly Released Files
5. Moneyballing the Movies: How the Box Office Became a Sport – Every weekend, new releases are graded on their box office returns. How did covering the movie business become a haven for statheads?
6. Warner Bros. Is Finally Realizing Supergirl Should Be the Center of the DC Universe
7. Is This the End of the TV Writers’ Room as We Know It?
8. ‘Anything For A Hit’ Exclusive Book Excerpt: Atlantic Records in the ’80s Was Like Plunging Into ‘A Circus Mixed with an Orgy’
9. MPAA: To Save Free Speech, We Must Broadly Censor Free Speech

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

1. Does the Canada Border Services Agency Have the Authority to Search Your Electronic Devices?
2. The Pentagon Tells Soldiers To Stop Sharing Their Locations With Apps
3. Pentagon tells troops: Turn off fitness tracker GPS when you head to warzones
4. Facebook Granted ‘Unprecedented’ Leave To Appeal Over Referral Of Privacy Shield Case To Top EU Court
5. FTC Asks Whether to Expand Enforcement Power over Corporate Privacy Practices 
6. ICANN Loses Yet Again In Its Quixotic Quest To Obtain A Special Exemption From The EU’s GDPR
7. China’s influence on digital privacy could be global
8. Cramming Software With Thousands of Fake Bugs Could Make It More Secure
9. Unixiz Agrees to Settle Charges Under COPPA and the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act 
10. The Legal Paradox of Commoditizing Athlete Data Trade Secrets
11. How to win (or at least not lose) the war on phishing? Enlist machine learning

GAMES

1. Tired of legal threats, emulation hub EmuParadise drops its ROM library
2. Inside The Culture Of Sexism At Riot Games
3. Current and former Riot employees discuss the toxic feedback culture of the studio
4. Riot Games responds to sexist work culture exposé: “We haven’t lived up to our own values,” says League of Legends developer as criticism mounts in wake of damning report
5. Minecraft boss says US work culture needs more “off-ramps” for employees: Employees should be able “immerse themselves in their life experiences” without damaging their careers, says Helen Chiang
6. SNK artist discusses discrimination in the Japanese games industry 
7. EA issues apology after removing Kaepernick’s name from song in Madden 19 [Updated]
8. EA says mistake led to censorship of Colin Kaepernick’s name in Madden 19’s soundtrack
9. EA made “unfortunate mistake” removing Colin Kaepernick’s name from Madden 19 song: Company issues official statement on omission after it was discovered in early copies
10. GameFly to axe video game streaming service in August
11. BioWare is still exploring new projects outside of Anthem
12. “Netflix of games” a threat to developers: If subscription streaming services take off, creators likely to lose leverage in dealing with platform holders
13. IGN Pulls Review After Plagiarism Accusations 
14. IGN drops Dead Cells reviewer after plagiarism investigation
15. Fallout 76 won’t be launching on Steam
16. War changes: Fallout 76 is series’ first in a decade to skip Steam
17. Fallout Shelter surpasses $90M in lifetime mobile revenue
18. ZX Spectrum and Sinclair trademark holder to pull branding rights from Vega+
19. EmuParadise removes ROMs: Users won’t be able to download games from long-running site any more; “It’s not worth it for us to risk potentially disastrous consequences”
20. Facebook introduces AR games to group chats
21. Fake apps find a way to Google Play!
22. Confirmed: Fortnite on Android will drive its bus past Google’s 30% cut [Updated]
23. “30% store tax is a high cost,” says Sweeney as Fortnite skips Google Play: Epic Games CEO explains studio’s decision to aim for direct downloads, praises openness of Google’s platform
24. Epic Games is bypassing the Google Play Store forFortnite’s Android release
25. Google not at fault for clones and unsanctioned apps on Google Play, says Epic CEO
26. Analyst: Fortnite streams have racked up over 600M hours viewed in 2018
27. The battle royale boom helped Turtle Beach achieve a record quarter
28. Gamefly ends video game streaming service
29. Faeria: The CCG that abandoned free-to-play and went premium
30. New Unity report suggests 67% of indies plan to self-publish
31. Unity survey shows over half of indie studios working in mobile, 40% in VR or AR: Top-ranking studios by revenue and DAU showed a preference for mobile and freemium models
32. Unity partners with Google to introduce AdMob integration for mobile games
33. Minecraft’s studio head says devs and studios benefit from generous time off policies
34. Netmarble’s Lineage 2: Revolution has seen $1.3 billion in player spending – Sensor Tower data indicates the importance of the mobile RPG to Netmarble’s business
35. Crackdown and confidentiality: Sumo Digital’s approach to AAA development – The UK studio discusses handling coveted IP and why it’s not afraid of missing out on the limelight
36. Nexon withholds shareholder dividends to “review and execute effective investments”: Korean games firm sees simultaneous two per cent revenue increase and profit decline
37. Sony and Nintendo’s strategies converge: Bumper results for both platform holders point to a similar key to success – seeing themselves as game creators first and foremost
38. WarioWare Gold: A fine example of Nintendo’s weird “end of life” history
39. How do you pronounce “NES”? Nintendo throws a wrench in the debate
40. You Can’t Compete With Free Meets Its Ultimate Counterexample In The NES Classic
41. With $400M+ revenue, Fire Emblem Heroes reigns as Nintendo’s big mobile earner
42. Octopath Traveler has shipped 1M copies worldwide
43. Elon Musk adding Atari classics to Tesla software, wants original games for car display: Billionaire reveals Tempest, Missile Command and Pole Position coming in next four week – with the latter controlled by steering wheel
44. Mobile revenue failed to meet Square Enix’s expectations this quarter
45. Square Enix sees revenue and profit tumble in quiet Q1 for games
46. Bandai Namco sees flat first quarter with little help from game sales
47. Game sales and revenue down at Bandai Namco
48. Game revenue down at Sega despite increase in physical sales
49. Sega Sammy net sales down 35.8% in latest financial report: Entertainment contents arm suffers least with only 10.5% decline
50. Capcom: “We’d prefer a game that got a 9 and sold less, than a 6 but sold more.” – Publisher on its fear over Resident Evil 2’s E3 reveal, the Monster Hunter gamble and new IP
51. Harmonix signs multiplatform publishing deal with NCSoft
52. Take-Two expects GTA Online sales to ‘moderate’ as it beats estimates again: Publisher anticipates international growth for NBA2K, too
53. Digital sales drive Take-Two’s rising profits ahead of Red Dead Redemption 2
54. NBA 2K18 reaches ten million units sold: Lifetime franchise sales exceed 80 million
55. Activision Blizzard exceeds Q2 revenue goals thanks to in-game spending
56. Activision Blizzard exceeds second quarter outlook despite headwinds: Call of Duty season, record Hearthstone pre-purchases drove $1.64 billion in net revenue
57. Activision Blizzard: Tech issues will halt wide adoption of streaming in the near term
58. Blizzard confirms “multiple Diablo projects” in production, news by end of 2018
59. Spyro Reignited Trilogy only has one game on the disc: Activision warns that second and third instalments will need to be downloaded after purchase
60. Tencent and Activision bringing Call of Duty to mobile in China
61. Fire Emblem Heroes earns $400 million globally: Mobile game nearly ten time more profitable than Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp
62. Fallout Shelter surpasses $90m lifetime revenue
63. China’s “enormous opportunity” for Eve Online
64. CCP partners with NetEase to grow Eve Online in China: Major local publisher takes over Serenity server following collaboration on mobile spin-off Eve Project Galaxy
65. Tyler ‘Ninja’ Blevins Becomes First Creator In Twitch History To Amass 10 Million Followers
66. Fortnite powers Ninja to become first Twitch streamer with 10m followers
67. No Man Sky scores biggest Twitch numbers since launch
68. With NEXT update, No Man’s Sky finally brings it all together
69. After two years, is No Man’s Sky everything Hello Games originally promised?: Hello Games’ procedurally generated creation is better than ever after two years of persistent updates
70. Opinion: Battle for Azeroth and the death of nuance
71. Frostkeep Studios is serious about making “the game that players want” with Rend
72. PUBG developers launch “Fix PUBG” campaign
73. PUBG dev launches ‘Fix PUBG’ website to address longstanding bug complaints
74. Elon Musk-funded Dota 2 bots spank top-tier humans, and they know how to trash talk
75. Newzoo: Esports viewership will continue to bear greater resemblance to traditional sports
76. Overwatch League adds new teams in Guangzhou and Atlanta
77. Kakao Games sinks $16.8M into esports studio Neptune
78. Esports Business Projected to Reach $1.5 Billion in Revenue by 2020
79. EA: Diversity and engagement key to growing FIFA eWorld Cup – FIFA competitive gaming commissioner shares how the game’s accessibility will lead to success across a wider swath of media
80. Inside Magic Leap’s Quest To Remake Itself As An Ordinary Company (With A Real Product)
81. After years of hype, Magic Leap starts selling $2,300 AR headset
82. Inside Magic Leap: How it works and what it means for game devs
83. Oculus Removes Handful of Fake Game Reviews, Says They’re Uncommon
84. Facebook introduces AR games to Messenger
85. Augmented Reality Recreates A New York City Not Seen for Centuries
86. Innovation Report: 1 in 3 AR/VR/MR devs are making a platform exclusive
87. Metaari: Game-based learning market will reach $17 billion by 2023 – Improved VR, AR, and AI technology will drive further investment, development opportunity
88. Halo TV series confirmed for a 2020 release
89. Digital collectable card games will generate $1.5 billion revenue in 2018: SuperData report forecasts global rise to $2 billion by 2020
90. Blog: What men and women consider hardcore gaming are not the same
91. Tips and best practices for localizing licensed IPs
92. Book Excerpt: Tips on negotiating key legal agreements in games
93. Real Estate Developer Found Using Video Game Footage In Marketing Material… Which Is Pretty Cool!

Jon

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

1. Court Rules Quebec Plan for Mandated ISP Blocking of Online Gambling Sites is Unconstitutional
2. A $250,000 Reminder that “CASL” is Not Just an AntiSpam Law
3. CRTC Issues Penalties to Middle Men Under CASL to Combat Malware Installation
4. Audio Bulletin – CRTC Issues Penalties to Middle Men Under CASL to Combat Malware Installation
5. How far will the FCC pursue Sinclair Broadcasting’s “misrepresentations” now that Trump has intervened?
6. FCC votes against Sinclair/Tribune merger, likely dooming deal
7. FCC Confirms Sinclair Misled Agency To Try And Get Its Megamerger Approved
8. Trump tweets anger at FCC after Pai blocks Sinclair/Tribune merger
9. Comcast Drops Its Bid to Buy Fox, Meaning There’s Nothing Stopping the Disney Deal Now
10. Comcast admits defeat in bidding war for Fox, clearing path for Disney
11. Ajit Pai gets message from his hometown ISP: Don’t hurt us small ISPs
12. Viacom in Talks to Buy AwesomenessTV
13. Viacom In Advanced Talks To Acquire AwesomenessTV (Report)
14. Verizon Took A $658 Million Hit “Mainly Related To The Discontinuation” Of Go90
15. FCC will now take your comments on whether to allow T-Mobile/Sprint merger
16. Wireless Carriers Have A SIM Hijacking Problem They Don’t Want To Talk About
17. Massachusetts Just The Latest State To Embrace Net Neutrality
18. India Embraces Full Net Neutrality As The U.S. Runs The Opposite Direction
19. NYC Will Stop Gouging Incarcerated New Yorkers For Calling Home
20. Personal liability for directors over nuisance calls
21. Sen. Ron Wyden On Breaking Up Facebook, Net Neutrality, And The Law That Built The Internet
22. Survey: 5.4 Million Americans Will Cut The Cable TV Cord In 2018

DIGITAL

1. Microsoft exec: We stopped Russia from hacking 3 congressional campaigns
2. Yes, Russians Hacked U.S. Electric Companies, Homeland Security Confirms
3. Breaking With 30 Years Of Traditional Opacity, DOJ Releases FISA Warrant Applications For Surveillance Of Carter Page
4. Wikileaks Refused To Publish Manafort Family Texts, So Someone Else Did
5. Digital age reinforces the need for judiciary to act as a bulwark against tyranny
6. The ‘Guerrilla’ Wikipedia Editors Who Combat Conspiracy Theories
7. How Silicon Valley Turned Evil: What Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey, and Elon Musk can learn from their predecessors – before they destroy the world.
8. Is Any Press Really Good Press? California Supreme Court Rules on Fate of Defamatory Yelp Reviews
9. Facebook stock dives nearly 20% on warning of slow revenue growth
10. Facebook Just Learned The True Cost Of Fixing Its Problems
11. Facebook Sets Up China Subsidiary to Build Local Innovation Hub
12. After a single day, Facebook is pushed out of China again
13. Facebook follows SpaceX and OneWeb into high-speed satellite broadband
14. Senators Wyden & Rubio Ask Google And Amazon To Bring Back Domain Fronting
15. Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Twitter partner for ambitious new data project: An open-source collaboration for ‘the future of portability’
16. Study: Analysis of top Facebook pages covering American political news – Study of 463 leading Facebook pages shows that partisan pages have roughly equal engagement, but right-wing pages drastically outnumber left-wing pages
17. Facebook bows to WA state pressure to remove “discriminatory” ad filters
18. Facebook’s Fight Against Fake News Keeps Raising Questions
19. Departing Facebook Security Officer’s Memo: “We Need To Be Willing To Pick Sides”: In a brutally honest note about his departure, Facebook’s Chief Security Officer Alex Stamos calls on his colleagues “to intentionally not collect data where possible”
20. Listen To Stephen Fry Perfectly Analogize The Moral Panics Around Facebook To The Ones Over The Printing Press
21. Should Your Family Be Able to Inherit Your Facebook Messages?
22. Appeals Court Won’t Yet Review Awful District Court Decision That Says Embedding Could Be Infringement
23. Does the Public Have a First Amendment Right to Post Comments on a Public Official’s Twitter Feed? First Amendment Challenges to Social Media Access in the 21st Century
24. Twitter courted comedians, then the opposition: How jokes became ammo during the social media platform’s shift from distraction to political warzone
25. Was It Ethical For Dropbox To Share Customer Data With Scientists?
26. The Internet Apologizes …:Even those who designed our digital world are aghast at what they created. A breakdown of what went wrong – from the architects who built it.
27. Cyberbullying
28. Leaders Who Pledged Not To Build Autonomous Killing Machines Are Ignoring The Real Problem
29. U.S. Department of Defense Established A Center To Better Integrate AI
30. ‘The discourse is unhinged’: how the media gets AI alarmingly wrong
31. We Need Transparency in Algorithms, But Too Much Can Backfire
32. Google’s iron grip on Android: Controlling open source by any means necessary
33. Advertiser’s Suit Against Google Loses for Third (and Final) Time–Abid v. Google
34. Google Wants You to Use Physical Security Keys So Bad It’s Willing to Sell You One
35. Google launches “Shielded VMs” to protect cloud servers from rootkits, data theft
36. Big News: Big Internet Platforms Making It Easy To Move Your Data Somewhere Else
37. Science Fiction Is Not Social Reality: The tech industry is inspired to create our world from linear, scripted science fiction stories.
38. Delete your account: It’s a “great shame,” says Silicon Valley insider Jaron Lanier, that so much of big tech’s AI has been aimed at manipulating you.­­
39. Brainwashing your wife to want sex? Here is adtech at its worst
40. Resale Price Maintenance, Pricing Algorithms and Monitoring Software: a Recipe for Disaster 
41. DARPA Is Funding Research Into AI That Can Explain What It’s “Thinking”
42. Robots And Racism (Bartneck, C., Yogeeswaran, K., Ser, Q. M., Woodward, G., Sparrow, R., Wang, S., & Eyssel, F.)
43. Influence and responsibility: New Canadian influencer marketing guidelines emerge
44. The Database: A Look At The Growing World Of Streaming And Over-The-Top Video
45. Mozilla Exec Says YouTube Runs Five Times Slower Than Chrome On Firefox, Offers Solution
46. YouTube Streams Over 180 Million Hours to TV Screens Every Day
47. YouTube Deletes Videos Posted by Infowars, Suspends Alt-Right Channel From Live-Streaming
48. YouTube Issues Another Strike Against InfoWars For Hate Speech, Child Endangerment
49. Documentary Series ‘Best Shot,’ Co-Produced By Lebron James, Tips Off On NBA YouTube Channel
50. YouTube Will Distribute Grants To Education-Focused Channels Via ‘YouTube Learning’ Fund
51. YouTube shuts down FamilyOFive channel over ‘child endangerment’ concerns
52. YouTube Finally Terminates Channels Belonging To Notorious ‘DaddyOFive’ Parents
53. YouTube Blocks ‘FamilyOFive’ Account of Parents Convicted of Child Neglect
54. Carrie Hope Fletcher Urges Boycott Of Fellow YouTuber Alex Day’s Upcoming Book
55. Ahead Of Boxing Match, Deji Olatunji Says He’s Being Sued For Greg Paul Press Conference Assault
56. Logan Paul And KSI Have Launched A Pay-Per-View YouTube Channel Dedicated To Their Upcoming Boxing Match
57. YouTube Is Reportedly Combatting Instagram’s IGTV By Cutting Six-Figure Checks To Creators
58. YouTube Experimenting With ‘Explore’ Tab To Expose Viewers To Broader Video Variety
59. What would you do if your teenager became an overnight Instagram sensation?
60. Mac ’n Cheese bubbles over in Instagram copyright dispute
61. GoDaddy & Instagram Avoid Liability for Users’ Photos of Knockoff Goods–Franklin v. X Gear 101
62. Insights: As Subscriptions Drain Wallets, Ad-Supported Online Services Find New Fans
63. Netflix Launches Its First European Production Hub in Madrid
64. Shonda Rhimes’ Eight-Show Netflix Slate Has A Some Romance, Some History, Some Intrigue
65. Petition To Halt Release Of Netflix Series ‘Insatiable’ Garners 123,000 Signatures
66. Netflix Will Enable Subscribers To Use Its Popular Characters As Their Profile Icons
67. Sony Looking To Sell Stake In Crackle And Onboard Strategic Partner (Report)
68. Musical.ly Reportedly Shut Down Live.ly Because Its Owner Didn’t Want A LiveMe Competitor
69. How radio found new life on the internet and changed music discovery forever
70. Twitch Launches Creator Camp Channel To Help Its Users Become Better Streamers
71. Snapchat Opens A Private Marketplace For Brands To Buy Ads In Discover Shows
72. Snapchat and Nielsen Partner to Integrate Offline Data For Audience Targeting
73. Snapchat is shutting down Snapcash
74. Snapchat starts to syndicate video shows on Discover
75. Snapchat Is Launching A Show Where Parents Look At Their Kids’ Dating App Profiles
76. Sony’s Monstrous New Smartphone Camera Sensor Could Make Us Care About Megapixels Again
77. Research Confirms The Anecdotal Evidence: Internet Content Filters Are A Waste Of Money
78. ‘Piracy Audiences Are Untapped Pools of Wealth’
79. Chinese Citizens Are Using Blockchain to Warn Each Other of Unsafe Vaccines
80. CSA reinforces position that securities laws apply to cryptocurrency offerings, confirms regulatory scrutiny for industry participants
81. Hacker Exposes Security Vulnerability in Popular Cryptocurrency Site Etherscan
82. The Role of IP in the Crypto Bubble
83. Declining cryptocurrency prices are making graphics cards affordable again
84. Behold This Disastrously Bad Op-Ed Calling for Amazon to Replace Libraries
85. Amazon Studios’ Top Film Executive Is Departing Amid Strategic Shift
86. Best Buy Should Be Dead, But It’s Thriving in the Age of Amazon: The big-box retailer doesn’t just want to sell you electronics. It wants its in-home consultants to be “personal chief technology officers.”
87. Amazon’s Face Recognition Falsely Matched 28 Members of Congress With Mugshots
88. Can We Make Non-Racist Face Recognition?
89. For One Last Night, Make It a Blockbuster Night: Everything is 10 years behind in Alaska—including the way people see movies.But now, the late fees are finally coming due, and the end of the Blockbuster era is upon us.
90. Click-wraps the way of the future ‒ but make sure they’re legal
91. A new digital divide: Young people who can’t use keyboards

CREATIVITY

1. The value of a copyrighted photograph is not necessarily in the eye of the beholder
2. When Does “All” Mean All?
3. Tesla clears the air with “farting unicorn” artist after copyright stink
4. Au Revoir, Droit de Suite—9th Circuit Narrows California Resale Royalty Act to a Single Year’s Sales
5. South Africa’s Proposed Fair Use Right In Copyright Bill Is Surprisingly Good — At The Moment
6. False Advertising in a Movie Trailer?
7. Who owns the Roger Federer RF monogram trade mark? 
8. Ecuador Will Imminently Withdraw Asylum for Julian Assange and Hand Him Over to the UK. What Comes Next?
9. The View From Somewhere: The Press Needs To Be Anti-Partisan, Not Bi-Partisan
10. Cambodian Government Latest To Stifle Press With ‘Fake News’ Legislation
11. The Daily News Was Superman’s Paper – Tronc Fed It Kryptonite: The owners fired half the paper’s staff Monday in a savage move that not only guts the newspaper, but also drastically diminishes the reporting of New York City.
12. Tronc Is Incompetent, but Gutting Newsrooms Is Just Normal Capitalism
13. If You’re A Journalist Hiring Lawyers To Intimidate Publishers Into Killing Stories About Your Misdeeds, You’re A Hypocrite
14. Disney confirms Guardians director fired over years-old tweets
15. James Gunn Will No Longer Direct Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 in the Wake of Appalling Tweets 
16. Hollywood’s Zero-Tolerance on Racism, Sexism Is the New Normal
17. The US Army Gets Armistice With NHL Team Over ‘Golden Knights’ Trademark
18. Four ways President Trump is changing prime time TV
19. The Propaganda Films That Saved Walt Disney’s Cartoon Empire
20. Marvel Offers Grief Counseling at Comic-Con for Fans Traumatized by the End of Infinity War 
21. Art technicians: The industry’s dirty secret, or all part of the process?
22. The Standard Consent Agreement That Protects Sacha Baron Cohen
23. The death of Don Draper: Advertising, once a creative industry, is now a data-driven business reliant on algorithms. The implications are deeply sinister – not only for the consumer but for democracy itself.
24. How The Global Music Copyright Business Grew By $1.5bn In 2016 (And Why That’s Amazing News Today)
25. Blurred Lines Between Inspiration and Infringement: Ninth Circuit Holds “Blurred Lines” Infringes Copyright
26. You Don’t Need to Be a Musician to Get a Record Deal in 2018: Streaming has upturned music’s status quo – and labels are looking farther afield for truly fresh talent
27. Trying to protect – and expand – Cuba’s undiscovered musical legacy

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

1. Canadian Court Affirms Citizens Still Have An Expectation Of Privacy In Devices Being Repaired By Third Parties
2. Toronto Approves Gunshot-Detecting Surveillance Tech Days After Mass Shooting: Rattled by a string of gun violence this year, Toronto just approved ShotSpotter, a US-based audio surveillance system that purports to detect the sound of gunshots.
3. Public Facebook Profiles Not Equivalent to Public Information Under PIPEDA
4. Texas Judges Continue To Turn Expungement Orders Into ‘Right To Be Forgotten’ Requests
5. Snoopware installed by 11 million+ iOS, Android, Chrome, and Firefox users
6. Decade-old Bluetooth flaw lets hackers steal data passing between devices
7. Today’s the day that Chrome brands plain old HTTP “not secure”
8. In the Internet of Things, Opportunities Abound for Class Action Litigation
9. UK Court Rules a Suspect in a Criminal Investigation has Reasonable Expectation it will be Kept Private
10. UK Judge Says Accurate Journalism Is An Invasion Of Privacy In Cliff Richard Case
11. Congratulations and Celebrations to Sir Cliff Richards in High Court Privacy Success
12. Sir Cliff Richard wins landmark privacy battle against the BBC
13. Privacy Cliff’s courageous battle with the BBC brings the right outcome
14. Federal Judge Blasts FBI, Agent For Breaking The Law When Seeking Stingray Warrants
15. 24 people have now been sentenced in India-based phone-scam case
16. This school scans classrooms every 30 seconds through facial recognition technology
17. Uber, Lyft driver booted after newspaper reveals he was livestreaming passengers
18. Venmo’s terrible idea
19. British Airways asked customers to post personal information on Twitter ‘to comply with GDPR’
20. Irish Lawmakers Realizing The GDPR’s Consent Requirements Seem A Bit Onerous, Want To ‘Infer’ Consent
21. Demonstrating Compliance with both GDPR and CCPA
22. Cybersecurity, Privacy and Data Protection Alert: California Consumer Privacy Act
23. Once Again…California Sets the Tone for U.S. Data Privacy 
24. California Passes Groundbreaking Data Privacy Law with an Expansion of Consumers’ Privacy Rights
25. A First (But Very Incomplete) Crack at Inventorying the California Consumer Privacy Act’s Problems
26. The World Economy Runs on GPS. It Needs a Backup Plan: The small satellite network, which keeps global computer systems from freaking out, is shockingly vulnerable to all kinds of interference.
27. Ars on your lunch break: The consequences of a government genetic database

GAMES

1. Two Researchers Challenged a Scientific Study About Violent Video Games – and Took a Hit for Being Right: How two researchers paid a price for challenging a retracted study about violent video games.
2. Nintendo files lawsuit against two popular ROM websites
3. Nintendo to ROM sites: Forget cease-and-desist, now we’re suing
4. Nintendo files copyright infringement lawsuit against two console ROM websites: LoveROMs and LoveRETRO are “among the most open and notorious online hubs for pirated video games” says platform holder
5. Roblox: “Our work on safety is never-ending” – Developer behind popular kids game responds to recent gang rape incident, reiterates that hacker behind it has been banned
6. Roblox on track to pay in-game devs $70M in 2018, more than double 2017’s payout
7. Blind Mind Studios releases source code for Star Ruler 2
8. PUBG Corp apologizes, removes offensive Japanese mask from game
9. PUBG developer apologies after controversial World War II references found in game: Purchasable mask and AI bot caused offence across Korea and China with allusions to Imperial Japan
10. Video chat with PUBG creator: “We could put battle royale in everything”
11. PUBG Mobile reaches $30M in revenue 4 months after launch
12. How Landfall accidentally struck a vein with a joke battle royale game
13. Valve bans over 90,000 Steam accounts in one week
14. 90,000 Steam accounts banned in Valve’s biggest anti-cheat purge to date: Just under 30,000 cheaters dealt with on Wednesday, followed by a record-breaking 60,000 yesterday
15. Psyonix shares Rocket League loot box drop rates ahead of progression overhaul
16. Dota 2 loot boxes now reveal contents ahead of purchase for Dutch players
17. Niantic introduces three-strike policy for cheaters inPokémon Go
18. Niantic outlines Pokemon Go cheating policy: Developer offers clarity on three-strike disciplinary system as ban waves ramp up
19. Guiding children towards healthy gaming: “We have amazing materials for parents, we need to shout about them much more,” says Andy Robertson
20. For the record: Report on Saudi Arabia ban of 47 games inaccurate
21. Rebuilding MidBoss – Interim CEO and creative director discuss trying to save the 2064: Read Only Memories studio after sexual harassment and employee mistreatment scandal
22. Gaming’s toxic men, explained: Experts tackle the phenomenon of angry men, trolls, racists and misogynists who hover around the video game industry
23. The GamesIndustry.biz Careers Survey 2018: Lower pay but less crunch
24. Studio Pixel Punk: Getting diversity right means going beyond “good intentions”
25. 2K’s light slate belies bigger ambitions: President David Ismailer discusses publisher’s plans to grow, how it evaluates development partners, and thoughts on esports betting
26. International Olympic Committee hosts forum to discuss esports: Riots Games CEO hopes forum might lead to esports “being more legitimised the world over”
27. Esports Could Enter The Olympics Fray By The 2024 Summer Games In Paris (Report)
28. James Ohlen: Anthem failure won’t mean the end of BioWare – Long-serving designer also disputes “conspiracy theories” that EA is driving studio away from story-driven RPGs
29. Bandai Namco: “We want 50% of our games to be new IP” – Digital and marketing VP Hervé Hoerdt details how the Japanese publisher plans to create new brands that yield movies, toys and more
30. Bandai Namco Amusement Lab Inc. established for VR arcade development
31. Bandai Namco establishes new development team for VR, AR, MR: Bandai Namco Amusement Lab Inc. will focus on XR experiences primarily for arcades
32. This VR Horror Game Is Exactly as Scary as Your Body Can Handle
33. The Magic Hustle: Magic Leap not so Magical – Silicon Valley Global News SVGN.io
34. Unity: “Games wouldn’t see the light of day” without asset stores – Asset Store boss Peter O’Reilly on the misconception around “asset flips”, and why Unity won’t match the Unreal Marketplace’s 88/12 revenue split
35. Minecraft most downloaded Switch game in Japan so far this year: Retail version beats out all other packaged software for 2018 after less than one month on store shelves
36. Blog: Breath of the Wild and the Montessori method
37. Octopath Traveler impresses in European charts
38. Square Enix bets on game streaming with Blacknut partnership
39. Square Enix partners with Blacknut for cloud gaming: Partnership will bring Lara Croft Go, Hitman Go, more to Blacknut-supported devices
40. UK Charts: Crash Bandicoot holds No.1 as Xbox exclusives dominate Top Ten
41. Microsoft’s streaming Xbox will split up games to keep latency low
42. Forward-box: Xbox Adaptive Controller’s packaging is a good Microsoft move
43. Designing accessible packaging for the Xbox One Adaptive Controller
44. Candy Crush Saga revenue spikes 18% in Q2 to over $200m: King’s six-year-old game ranked No. 7 for global app spending and No. 6 for games
45. Next Games looks to The Walking Dead for growth after €7m H1 loss
46. Layoffs at OnRush developer after racer fails to gain traction
47. Onrush struggles lead to Evolution layoffs: Driveclub director Paul Pustchynsky among those who have been made redundant as Codemasters “decapitates” studio
48. Raiders of the Broken Planet going free-to-play less than a year after launch: MercurySteam’s online shooter also rebranding as Spacelords as of August 23rd, director says episodic model “didn’t work as planned”
49. Apple promotes iPhone gaming performance with new ad
50. Analyst: Fortnite now rakes in $2 million per day on iOS alone
51. Fortnite daily mobile revenue reaches $2m: Launch of Season 5 sets new record of $3 million revenue in a single day
52. Why the world loves “Fortnite” and I don’t
53. Epic releases postmortem for Fortnite’s playground mode
54. How Fortnite Captured Teens’ Hearts and Minds: The craze for the third-person shooter game has elements of Beatlemania, the opioid crisis, and eating Tide Pods.
55. Video: The unconventional launch of Fortnite 
56. Report: Epic’s net worth could rise to $8B thanks toFortnite
57. Breaking down Azeroth’s gates: Nostalgia is a powerful force for millions of former WoW players; but to convince them that they can re-engage without facing a time-sink, Blizzard needs to innovate once more
58. In A New Game Available On YouTube, Video URLs Are Hidden Inside Puzzles
59. YouTube Stars Kristopher London, Jesser Play ‘NBA 2k19’ With The Lakers, Get Scanned Into The Game
60. Matthew Patrick Announces The Passing Of Game Theorists Editor Ronnie “Oni” Edwards
61. Halo devs not working on battle royale mode for Infinite
62. Rockfish: Live Steam broadcasting will change the game for indie marketing – Valve’s store page streaming beta helped Everspace to its highest ever single-day revenue, says CEO Michael Schade
63. Blog: Being a solo indie in a post-Steam Greenlight world
64. Oculus Go supporting otherwise faltering VR headset market: Q2 shipments show waning interest in VR as Pokemon Go continues to popularize AR
65. No Man’s Sky Next update attracts over 40,000 players on Steam
66. Bethesda unlikely to use external developers in future
67. Bethesda’s growth makes it ‘less likely’ it’ll let external devs tackle its IP
68. Google Play continues to widen global download gap with iOS: Android storefront saw over 20 billion app downloads in Q2, iOS downloads around 8 billion
69. Microsoft ends fiscal year with $10 billion in games revenue, more Xbox Live users
70. Microsoft annual gaming revenue tops $10 billion: Xbox maker’s full-year results show year-over-year growth in sales, Xbox Live active users
71. Jurassic World Evolution hits one million sales
72. Jurassic World Evolution has sold over 1 million copies
73. Defiance 2050 developer Trion Worlds lays off 15 staff
74. Trion Worlds eliminates 15 positions post-Defiance 2050 launch: MMO studio says round of layoffs necessary to enable continued development on upcoming projects
75. UK tax breaks have helped finance 480 video games: In fact, more games have benefitted from tax relief than TV productions
76. How piracy led to GOG encouraging DRM-free releases
77. Muriel Tramis becomes second-ever game designer awarded the Legion of Honour
78. Understanding the human cost of creating No Man’s Sky
79. Writers discuss the evolving role narrative has in game development
80. Former BioWare dev James Ohlen discusses creative freedom and burnout
81. A quick word on which versions of Mega Man X Legacy Collection to get—or avoid
82. The Game Outcomes Project: How teamwork, leadership and culture drive results

Jon

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

1. Government Memo Suggests Netflix Outspends Canadian Private Broadcasters on Canadian English Scripted Programming (Michael Geist)
2. The State of Canadian Wireless in One Chart: No One Has Carriers That Generate More Revenue With Less Usage (Michael Geist)
3. Ajit Pai’s FCC Doesn’t Want to Hear Your Complaints Unless You Pay Them $225
4. “This is bonkers”: FCC wants to stop reviewing most complaints about ISPs
5. FCC stands by decision to raise broadband prices on American Indians
6. FCC Refuses to Back Down From Plan to Strip Phone and Internet Subsidies for American Indians
7. Ajit Pai finally gets around to fighting fraud in FCC comment system 
8. Second Circuit Follows D.C. Circuit’s Reasoning in Vacating FCC’s Interpretation of an Autodialer
9. SCOTUS Nominee Kavanaugh Bought Verizon’s Silly Argument That Breaking Net Neutrality Is A 1st Amendment Right 
10. CRTC Issues $250,000 in Penalties for Malware Distribution
11. CASL Enforcement Action – $250,000 in Penalties for Aiding the Distribution of Malvertising
12. Net neutrality makes comeback in California; lawmakers agree to strict rules 
13. Yes, Privacy Is Important, But California’s New Privacy Bill Is An Unmitigated Disaster In The Making
14. Ten Reasons Why California’s New Data Protection Law is Unworkable, Burdensome, and Possibly Unconstitutional 
15. DOJ’s Challenge to Vertical AT&T/Time Warner Merger Experiences Failure to Launch
16. Magic Leap grabs investment from AT&T as it sets up US distribution deal
17. Echoing Apple’s iPhone Launch, Magic Leap Taps AT&T for Exclusive US Distribution
18. AT&T wants to overhaul HBO, says it isn’t profitable enough 
19. After Backlash To AT&T Chicanery, California Salvages Tough Net Neutrality Law 
20. Streaming Video Sees Wave Of Price Hikes In Apparent Bid To Mimic Cable & Embolden Piracy
21. Two years after buying, Univision wants to sell its Gawker, Onion portfolios
22. Charter launches mobile service, throttles all video to 480p
23. US forces smartphone giant ZTE to fire its CEO and leadership team
24. Comcast’s Wireless Service Will Charge You More To Stream HD Video 

DIGITAL

1. NZ court rules Kim Dotcom can be extradited to US on copyright charges
2. Kim Dotcom Loses Latest Round In Extradition Fight, Will Try To Appeal Again
3. Technoleviathan: China, Silicon Valley, and the rise of the global surveillance state.
4. Spy For Us – Or Never Speak To Your Family Again: China is using its huge digital surveillance system, and the threat of sending family members to reeducation camps, to pressure minorities to spy on their fellow exiles.
5. China producing x86 chips nearly identical to AMD server processors
6. iPhone crashing bug likely caused by code added to appease Chinese gov’t
7. Uganda Bans VPNs To Prevent Users From Dodging Its Absurd New Social Media Tax
8. A Numerical Exploration Of How The EU’s Article 13 Will Lead To Massive Censorship
9. EU sends controversial internet copyright reforms back to the drawing board: It’s a strong rejection of the legislation in its current form, but not the end of the battle
10. European Parliament rejects discussions on controversial copyright law
11. EU Parliament Votes To Step Back From The Abyss On Copyright For Now
12. EU copyright law sent back for a rethink
13. Don’t Believe Those Who Wish To Diminish Digital Rights By Falsely Implying It’s All Big Tech Lobbying
14. What can the Copyright Directive vote tell us about the state of digital rights? (Andres Guadamuz)
15. Movie Industry Denies Lawsuit Strategy Despite Proliferation of Legal Actions and Settlement Demands Against Thousands of Canadians (Michael Geist)
16. Lawyer loses appeal, fails to expand internet privileges
17. Trump’s Supreme Court pick: ISPs have 1st Amendment right to block websites
18. Online Review Website Cannot Be Forced To Remove Defamatory Posts
19. Section 230 Immunity Protects Yelp from Injunction Order to Remove Defamatory Posts
20. Section 230 Helps Facebook Defeat Pro Se Defamation Suit–Jefferson v. Facebook
21. Amazon Again Avoids Liability for Defective Marketplace Item–Fox v. Amazon
22. Over The Top Sports Streaming Comes To Europe With Amazon’s Deal With The Premier League
23. Court Rejects Evidentiary and CFAA Vagueness Challenges to Conviction for Botnet Hacking Scheme
24. Sales tax in the digital era : major impacts for retailers in the United States
25. How Facebook’s Rise Fueled Chaos And Confusion In Myanmar: The social network exploded in Myanmar, allowing fake news and violence to consume a country emerging from military rule.
26. Facebook Says It’s Sorry for Removing a Part of the Declaration of Independence That Includes a Racial Slur
27. Facebook Runs Full-Page Ads in Indian Newspapers to Fight Fake News
28. Blaming The Messenger (App): WhatsApp Takes The Blame In India Over Violence
29. Fake News Is A Meaningless Term, And Our Obsession Over It Continues To Harm Actual News 
30. Fining Facebook: ICO issues £500,000 fine following data breach 
31. Facebook could face legal claims totalling ‘hundreds of millions of pounds’
32. When a Facebook Like Lands You in Jail: NYPD’s Social Media Monitoring Raises Civil Liberties Issues
33. Sex, Beer, And Coding: Inside Facebook’s Wild Early Days – When the young Mark Zuckerberg moved to Palo Alto in 2004, he and his buddies built a corporate proto-culture that continues to influence the company today.
34. Cory Doctorow: Zuck’s Empire of Oily Rags
35. Regulation coming for Facebook
36. Facebook Watch May Pay Upwards Of $10 Million For Cristiano Ronaldo Reality Series
37. Facebook will broadcast live Premier League games in Asia: The £200 million deal helps Facebook’s push into the world of sports.
38. Facebook To Launch News Programming On July 16, Will Organize ‘Watch’ With New Categories
39. Reddit CEO tells user, “we are not the thought police,” then suspends that user
40. More Than Half of ICO-Funded Startups Fail Within 4 Months, Study Says
41. Are the UK’s intellectual property laws ready for AI?
42. Google Applies More Machine Learning To Increase The Reach Of Ads Across Its Properties
43. “Google Was Not A Normal Place”: Brin, Page, And Mayer On The Accidental Birth Of The Company That Changed Everything
44. Inside X, The Moonshot Factory Racing To Build The Next Google: Seven years after its secretive launch, X is starting to spawn mind-blowing companies – and show us what an ever expanding Google means for the world.
45. Despite Chrome’s pending “mark of shame,” 3 major news sites aren’t HTTPS
46. What Soda Taxes And Lead Paint Have To Do With Internet Regulation
47. Malaysian Government Decides To Dump Its Terrible Anti-Fake News Law
48. YouTube, Whose Users Promoted Fraudulent Cryptocurrency Bitconnect, Is Added As Defendant In Lawsuit
49. After Losing NCAA Scholarship Due To YouTube Channel, Donald De La Haye Gets A Win In Court
50. YouTube to fight fake news with links to real news and context
51. YouTube Tweaks Site Design, Dedicates $25 Million to Combat “Fake News”
52. YouTube Pledges $25 Million To News Organizations As It Continues Fight Against Fake News
53. YouTube Launches Initiative to Fight Fake News, Pledges $25 Million to Support News Orgs
54. YouTuber in row over copyright infringement of his own song
55. YouTube Guitarist Claims He Got A Copyright Strike For Infringing Upon His Own Song
56. YouTube Rolling Out ‘Copyright Match’ Tool To Creators With More Than 100,000 Subs
57. YouTube to Launch Tool to Detect Re-Uploaded Videos Automatically: New Copyright Match tool initially will roll out to channels with more than 100,000 subscribers
58. YouTube TV Outages Draw Ire From World Cup Viewers
59. Two Co-Creators Of Travel YouTube Channel High On Life Die After Waterfall Accident
60. Constitutional Challenge Against FOSTA Filed–Woodhull v. US
61. More Police Admitting That FOSTA/SESTA Has Made It Much More Difficult To Catch Pimps And Traffickers 
62. Preparing for the Next Phase of Influencer Marketing – The CGI Influencer 
63. Jake Paul’s Team 10 Involved In Yet Another Lawsuit For Trashing Rental Property
64. Logan Paul Is Filming A Documentary About “What Actually Happened” During Suicide Video Scandal 
65. Hank Green Apologizes To Tana Mongeau For VidCon Slight, But Calls TanaCon “Inexcusable And Terrifying”
66. Twitter is Suspending More Than One Million Accounts Per Day in Latest Purge
67. Twitter Users To Lose Tens Of Millions Of Followers After Company Excludes ‘Locked’ Accounts
68. Twitter Sheds $3.1 Billion After Suspending Millions of Questionable Accounts
69. These are the ‘invisible’ challenges that make it harder for Snapchat, Facebook and Twitter to grow
70. Snap and Amazon Are Reportedly Working on a Visual Search Feature for Snapchat
71. Tinder Users Can Now Upload Two-Second Looping Videos On Their Profiles
72. Are You Ready for Even More Expensive Netflix Options?
73. Netflix To Create A Digital Comedy Festival By Releasing 47 Specials At Once
74. Netflix Is Shutting Down User Reviews This Summer
75. Netflix is killing off user reviews
76. European Networks Are Joining Forces to Take On Netflix and Amazon
77. HBO must ‘change direction’ to flourish, says its new boss: User engagement must be increased to make HBO into a perennial product.
78. AT&T Is Very Excited To Try And Ruin HBO 
79. Here are all of the future TV shows that Apple has signed deals for
80. Feds arrest Apple employee for stealing self-driving project secrets
81. Woman who once bought bitcoins for $300,000 cash in paper bags sent to prison
82. ‘It’s not just video games’: Concordia partners with Ubisoft on VR: The initiative will focus on a set of technologies called extended reality, or XR.
83. Ubisoft Opens XR:MTL An Innovation Factory Focused On XR Technologies At Concordia University – The Factory’s focus will be on developing applications that have market potential. 
84. 10 Projects That Have Us Excited About the Next Generation of VR & AR
85. VR Treatment, Even Without a Therapist, Helps People Overcome Fear of Heights
86. Driving Without a Smartphone: A new law in Georgia discourages drivers from even touching a screen. Whether or not it improves safety, it could help break people’s phone habits.
87. How Music Fans Built The Internet
88. What I’ve learned from nearly three years of enterprise Wi-Fi at home
89. Strategies for the Shadows: Protecting your Company’s IP Rights on the Dark Web
90. A Field Guide to “Social Engineering” Cyber Scams
91. How will 3D-printing challenge IP rights?
92. A Landmark Legal Shift Opens Pandora’s Box For DIY Guns: Cody Wilson makes digital files that let anyone 3-D print untraceable guns. The government tried to stop him. He sued—and won.
93. Wait—the RateMyProfessors.com “hotness” chili was about attractiveness? 
94. Hulu Hit ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Bafflingly Launches Wine Line
95. How Wattpad Is Rewriting the Rules of Hollywood
96. What the Russian Revolution would have looked like on social media
97. The AI revolution has spawned a new chips arms race 
98. Understanding Media and Information Quality in an Age of Artificial Intelligence, Automation, Algorithms and Machine Learning (Yochai Benkler, Robert Faris, Hal Roberts & Nikki Bourassa)
99. Algorithms and Justice (Christopher Bavitz & Kira Hessekiel)
100. Global Governance and Inclusion: Reframing the Global Debate Around AI (Ryan Budish, Urs Gasser & Amar Ashar)
101. Designing frameworks that allow for Intentions, Commitments and Exuberance in AI (Bobi Rakaova)
102. The Industrial Era Ended, and So Will the Digital Era
103. Q2 2018 Quick Links, Part 4 (Social Media, Section 230, Defamation) (Eric Goldman)
104. Q2 2018 Quick Links, Part 3 (Privacy, Advertising, E-Commerce) (Eric Goldman)

CREATIVITY

1. Unpacking Canada’s IP Strategy: Countering IP Abuse, Addressing IP Administration and Removing IP Barriers to Innovation (Michael Geist)
2. No, you can’t patent the ability to pause a lesson recording, EFF says
3. Lombardo v. Dr. Seuss Enterprises L.P.
4. Selling Items with Political Messages? What about “Impeach 45”?
5. President Trump Sends North Korean Dictator a CD of Elton John’s ‘Rocket Man’ Because Our World is Just One Big Joke
6. Girl Arrested in Iran for Posting Videos of Herself Dancing on Instagram
7. How Warner Brothers Resisted a Hollywood Ban on Anti-Nazi Films in the 1930s and Warned Americans of the Dangers of Fascism
8. Free Speech Doesn’t Protect Nazis. It Protects Us From Nazis
9. Ninth Circuit Recently Slams PETA Over Monkey Selfie Lawsuit
10. Post Office owes $3.5M for using wrong Statue of Liberty on a stamp
11. Police Union Upset Not All Books Paint Cops As Heroes, Calls For Removal Of Titles From School’s Reading List 
12. You Can Only Listen To Jaden Smith’s New Album On Instagram
13. Hobbyists Lose Fight to Escape the FAA’s Toy Drone Rules
14. Why local US newspapers are sounding the alarm
15. 54 newsrooms, 9 countries, and 9 core ideas: Here’s what two researchers found in a yearlong quest for journalism innovation: “Our angle on the current state of journalism is this: The crisis of journalism and legacy news media is structural.” 
16. Cortés-Ramos v. Martin-Morales
17. What You Need to Know About Toronto’s New Arts and Culture Property Tax Subclass 
18. Keep on moving: the bizarre dance epidemic of summer 1518 – Five centuries ago, the world’s longest rave took place in Strasbourg – a ‘plague’ of dancing that was fatal for some. What caused it? Art, poetry and music of the time can provide some clues
19. Creative types all go through hot streaks of superior production  

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

1. Court Compares Car Crash Data To CSLI, Cellphone Contents; Tells Cops Best Bet Is To Always Get A Warrant
2. “Stylish” extension with 2M downloads banned for tracking every site visit
3. Stolen certificates from D-Link used to sign password-stealing malware
4. German Court Issues First GDPR Ruling 
5. CARU Protects Privacy for Child Karaoke Stars
6. California Passes Consumer Privacy Act With “GDPR-Like” Provisions
7. European Parliament Votes to Suspend EU-U.S. Privacy Shield
8. Don’t Misrepresent Your U.S. – E.U. Privacy Shield Status: FTC Brings An Enforcement Action 
9. California Corporation Settles FTC Complaint Regarding U.S.-EU Privacy Shield Compliance Claim
10. Police Chief Tries To Blame Newspaper Shooting On The Loss Of Social Media Monitoring Tool, But It Doesn’t Add Up
11. For $80 Million, Yahoo! Settles Shareholder Class Action Claiming Stock Price Losses from Data Breaches 
12. What we buy can be used to predict our politics, race or education – sometimes with more than 90 percent accuracy
13. DOD seeks classification “Clippy” to help classify data, control access
14. Year-old router bug exploited to steal sensitive DOD drone, tank documents
15. Tech-support scammers know EVERYTHING about my computer, Dell customer says

GAMES

1. Nintendo, Valve, Sony, and EA reported in Norway for breaching European consumer law – UPDATE: NCC reports Nintendo to German authorities after dropping other complaints
2. We need parents on board if we want to protect their children: Following news of a sexual assault in Roblox and ‘addiction’ to Fortnite, parents want to cut kids off from these games – but that will only make the problem worse
3. Video Game Deep Cuts: Livestreaming Your Fortnite Addiction
4. The Truth About ‘Video Game Addiction’
5. French gambling regulator concerned by loot boxes, but won’t take legal action
6. How Journey eliminated online toxicity with a simple ping
7. Fighting a toxic Steam community – and winning: Creative Assembly’s Grace Carroll said the “visible presence of moderation” was enough to turn around a toxic Steam forum in just a week
8. Valve quickly shuts down developer method for estimating Steam sales: Steam API suddenly altered after The End Is Nigh co-dev uses achievements data as SteamSpy alternative
9. Valve swiftly removes new method for estimating Steam sales
10. Valve highlights the best selling and most played Steam games of 2018
11. Valve leaks Steam game player counts; we have the numbers
12. Team Fortress 2 leads as biggest player counts on Steam revealed
13. Steam Spy and the need for numbers: For indie developers in need of metrics Steam Spy is imperfect, “but the other option is absolutely nothing”
14. Launching a successful indie game in 2018: TheMoonlighter story
15. Guild Wars 2 writers dismissed after Twitter spat with streamer
16. ArenaNet cuts ties with Guild Wars 2 writers after Twitter spat: “Their attacks on the community were unacceptable,” says ArenaNet president
17. ArenaNet sends all the wrong messages: Guild Wars 2 studio terminating employees after backlash discourages fan interaction, encourages player outrage
18. ArenaNet “promised me that I wouldn’t have to check my identity at the door”: Fired writer says Guild Wars studio has damaged its reputation, but ArenaNet maintains that Jessica Price “attacked” community over a “perceived slight”
19. ArenaNet firings inspire IGDA to remind devs: Ask about harassment protection
20. IGDA asks studios to “clarify the guidelines and expectations around social media use”: ArenaNet firings show how “interacting with people as a game developer can jeopardize someone’s job and career”
21. ArenaNet president: Fired devs ‘could have chosen not to engage’ on social media
22. Women in Games launches strategy on improving gender diversity in esports: Encouraging women to participate in the industry is critical for the commercial success of the industry, says advocacy group
23. Blizzard’s Pink Mercy event raised over $12 million for a breast cancer charity
24. ESPN, Disney XD, and Blizzard pen deal to bring Overwatchmatches to primetime TV
25. Blizzard and Disney partner to bring Overwatch League to ESPN, other networks: ESPN, Disney XD, ABC, related networks will broadcast the competition’s inaugural season
26. Todd Howard: Games as a service ‘doesn’t mark the future’
27. ESA president: Crunch “hasn’t been a significant issue” for ten years: Industry body’s leader Mike Gallagher also believes call for unions is “in its infancy”
28. ESA: Strong wages and opportunities keep unionization from being a ‘significant issue’
29. Disney’s ‘Moana’ production assets now available for the public
30. RuneScape generates $800M in lifetime revenue during its 17 years online
31. RuneScape has brought in over $800 million in lifetime revenue: After 17 years and three iterations, Jagex’s MMO has over 250 million player accounts and continues to grow
32. Xbox: Accessible games can “mean the difference between existing and living” for disabled people – But platform holder’s Tara Voelker urges developers to add more accessibility options to their titles
33. Monster Hunter World concerns trigger 13% drop for Capcom shares: US analyst predicts “significant risk of sales decline” as console version slows ahead of PC launch
34. Supercell becomes first publisher to operate two multi-billion-dollar mobile games: Clash Royale breaks $2 billion lifetime revenue
35. Durham College embraces eSports with construction of gaming arena
36. ‘The Unspoken’ VR League eSports Final is Cancelled & Not Coming to Oculus Connect 5 After All
37. Valve: Monthly Active VR Users on Steam Are Up 160% Year-over-year
38. “There is no magic formula” for getting noticed on Steam
39. Jurassic World already one of Steam’s 2018 top sellers: Frontier’s dino park management sim rubbing elbows with Grand Theft Auto 5, Far Cry 5 after less than a month on sale
40. The Sims Mobile has amassed $15M in revenue in four months
41. The Sims Mobile brings in over $15 million in four months: Popular life sim game was only EA’s eighth highest earning mobile game in June
42. The Sims Mobile brings in over $15 million in four months: Popular life sim game was only EA’s eighth highest earning mobile game in June
43. EA acquires Industrial Toys: Midnight Star development studio brings mobile expertise to EA Worldwide Studios
44. id Software: Avoiding cannibalization in the post-apocalypse – Tim Willits on the role of Fallout 76 in Rage 2’s pre-E3 reveal, and why id no longer uses its tech to sell its games
45. Nexon and EA cancel Asia-exclusive Titanfall Online
46. Asia-focused Titanfall Online canceled: Nexon, EA, Respawn collaboration abandoned after over three years of development
47. Electronic Arts snaps up Alex Seropian’s studio Industrial Toys
48. THQ Nordic acquires German developer and publisher HandyGames
49. Coming out from under Grand Theft Auto’s shadow: For years, Take-Two’s other games have lingered in the shadow of Rockstar’s series, but GTA V’s monumental status means it’s pointless to compare it to the upcoming Red Dead Redemption 2
50. Todd Howard: Service-based Fallout 76 doesn’t mark the future direction of Bethesda – “Anyone who has ever said ‘this is the future and this part of gaming is dead’ has been proven wrong every single time”
51. “Millions of people” are still playing Skyrim every month – Todd Howard on the many Skyrim ports: “If you want us to stop releasing it, stop buying it.”
52. How do companies like Nintendo and CD Projekt Red approach crunch?
53. ‘Gatcha’ is a good fit for Fire Emblem, but it isn’t Nintendo’s standard for mobile
54. Many more indie games will be coming to Switch if Nintendo has its way
55. Nintendo aiming for 20 to 30 Switch indie releases per week
56. NPD: Nintendo Switch on track to be the best-selling console of Q4, and all of 2018 – Industry analyst predicts all three current generation consoles will sell at least 4m units total this year in the US
57. Nintendo reportedly rolls out hardware patch following Switch exploit
58. Nintendo reportedly rolling out new, more hack-resistant Switch hardware
59. Ideally, Nintendo wants 20 to 30 new indies to hit the Switch per week
60. GameStop says Nintendo Switch sales doubled following E3 
61. Pokemon Quest nabs 7.5M downloads across Switch and mobile
62. Analyst: Two years in, Pokemon Go crosses $1.8B lifetime revenue
63. Pokemon GO has brought in $1.8 billion since launch: Pokemon’s foray into augmented reality sees players spending $2 million per day
64. Pokémon Quest downloads pass 7.5 million: Free-to-play mobile and Switch game gets off to a strong start
65. Niantic’s Ingress to get Netflix animated series later this year: Series based on Pokémon Go forebear will be used to introduce upcoming sequel Ingress Prime
66. The Binding of Isaac card game raises $1 million in a week on Kickstarter
67. Games account for 94% of Google Play revenue in South Korea: Messaging and communication apps only bring in 2.2%, even less from social media and dating apps
68. Newzoo: Taiwanese gamers expected to spend $1.3 billion in 2018 – With 14.5 million players, Taiwan is the world’s 15th largest gaming market
69. Warner Bros. acquires mobile platform Plexchat to improve social features in its games
70. Tencent to publish Game of Thrones mobile game in China: Yoozoo is developing Game of Thrones: Winter is Coming through a partnership with Warner Bros
71. Tencent going global with WeGame digital marketplace as Steam targets China
72. The negativity of Keita Takahashi: The developer behind Wattam and Katamari Damacy has spent his career trying to show the potential of games, but doesn’t think he’s been successful
73. The European TV channel making documentaries with video games: Arte project manager Adrien Larouzée tells us why games are the perfect storytelling media to spread culture from the continent
74. The video games of Ecuadorean fishing village Santa Marianita: We take another look at how people find ways to play games everywhere
75. Shuhei Yoshida reflects on the PS2 launch: “We were awfully unprepared”: President of SIE Worldwide Studios discusses what went wrong and what went right for PlayStation over the years
76. Levine on BioShock: ‘I don’t think I was conscious of how Jewish it was until afterwards’
77. Meet the dev making his first DOS game — in 2018
78. Time bandits: Check out the ’80s and ’90s titles still going strong
79. The 80s and 90s PC games still unbelievably being updated today
80. Blog: Retro games as a revivalist movement

Jon