Red Dead Hackers, Gaming Brands and IEM Moves

IEM (Intel Extreme Masters) who host international esports tournaments are not hosting in Sydney this year.

IEM is the largest Australian esports event in the country and has been held in Sydney’s Olympic Park for the last few years. E-sports League has announced that it will be moving to Melbourne with it’s $250,000 event. The move is a huge loss for Sydney’s esports community and adding to Melbourne’s which isn’t just the centre of game development for Australia but also plays host to many other major gaming events such as PAX, Melbourne E-Sports Open and Game Connect Asia-Pacific. Martin Pakula the minister for Victorian Tourism, Sport and Major Events said, “that it’s fantastic for Victoria to be a leader in esports, given that the state already contributes so much to the video game industry.” Michal Blichars the vice president of pro gaming at ESL also said, “Australians have always generated atmospheres that could not be matched by anything else. Coming back for 2020 was a top priority, and the Melbourne Esports Open was a natural match.”

Red Dead Online is getting some unwanted visitors.

Two-headed skeletons are being released into online sessions thanks to hackers. These skeletons are aggressive and spawn in at random locations terrorizing players by surprise. Players have been capturing footage of these evil skeletons on Reddit, Twitter and Steam forums, they’ve been seen popping up throwing punches and kicks. These critters aren’t official parts of the game; however, people have been speculating whether this is part of a secret event put on by the developers Rockstar, but this is not the case. It turns out to be a weird and creative way hackers are trolling players. If you encounter a two-headed skeleton in Red Dead Online be sure to lasso and hogtie it, then drop it off a waterfall or into a lake. Or simply find a new session to play in until Rockstar can address the issue.

Brand Intimacy study shows that gaming brands rank favourably with both millennials and Gen Z.

MBLM an agency that looks at relationships between consumers and brands has conducted their annual study which ranks brands based on emotions across generations using emotional science. The top ten brands in order from 10 to 1 are: Nintendo, Xbox, YouTube, Apple, Jeep, Ford, Disney, Target, Amazon and in the top spot is PlayStation. The MBLM managing partner Mario Natarelli says, “Similar to our 2019 findings, millennials form strong connections with brands in the media and entertainment industry. The combination of the e-sports phenomenon and impact of hardware platforms has likely fuelled PlayStation to rise in the rankings. Many other brands have also risen from the previous year such as: Spotify and Netflix. Looks like the age of tech giants are bonding will with the younger generations.