COMMUNICATIONS  

1.  Court backs Comcast, puts Maine’s à la carte cable law on hold
2. Court Blocks Maine Attempt To Force Cable Providers To Sell Individual TV Channels
3. New Law Finally Bans B.S. Cable TV Fees
4. DOJ Antitrust Boss Delrahim Ignored Hard Data As He Rubber Stamped T-Mobile Merger
5. Wired for sound: How SIP won the VoIP protocol wars
6. FCC Postpones Filing Deadline for First Annual Children’s Television Programming Report and Announces Effectiveness of Other Changes in Children’s Television Rules

DIGITAL

1. European Court of Justice’s Landmark Decision on the Resale of E-Books
2. U.S. Internet Access Provider Hit with a Billion Dollar Verdict for Copyright Infringement by its Subscribers
3. Internet Access Provider Gets Another Devastating Result in a Secondary Copyright Infringement Case – Sony v. Cox (Eric Goldman)
4. Huuuge Mistake in Contract Formation
5. A Lost Gamble on Enforcement of Electronic Terms and Conditions in a Browsewrap Agreement
6. Internet Access Provider Gets Another Devastating Result in a Secondary Copyright Infringement Case—Sony v. Cox (Eric Goldman)
7. Federal Circuit Decides Apple’s Invalidity Challenges Were Properly Litigated; Are Precluded
8. Sour Note: Mraz Sues MillerCoors for ‘I’m Yours’ Clip in Instagram Ad
9. Doctor’s Promotion of ‘Vampire Facial’ a Pain in Kim Kardashian’s Neck
10. FTC Approves Settlement with Former Cambridge Analytica CEO and Application Developer Over Claims of Deceiving Consumers
11. Amid Ongoing ‘Explore’ Tab Tests, YouTube Makes ‘Creator On The Rise’ Shelves More Prominent
12. Facebook Wants To License Official Music Videos — A Massive Draw On YouTube
13. YouTube Takes Down Chanukkah Parody Of Old Town Road… Because It Infringes On A Date?
14. Why the 2010s were the Facebook Decade
15. Turkish Court Says Government’s Two-Year Ban Of Wikipedia Violates Freedom Of Expression Rights
16. Driver training was reportedly too much of “a bottleneck” for Amazon
17. Spotify will ‘pause’ political ads in early 2020: The platform says it does not have the capability to ‘responsibly validate’ ad content
18. Spotify Says “No” to Political Advertising
19. Cloudflare Removes Warrant Canary: Thoughtful Post Says It Can No Longer Say It Hasn’t Removed A Site Due To Political Pressure
20. CMA seeks new regulatory regime to regulate online platforms
21. “They’re abysmal students”: Are cell phones destroying the college classroom?
22. Travis Kalanick quits Uber’s board, sells off all his Uber stock
23. NYTimes Predicted San Francisco Would ‘Drown In Millionaires’ Post IPO Boom; Now Whines That It Never Happened
24. NIST digitized the bullets that killed JFK
25. GPS is going places
26. 88% of Americans use a second screen while watching TV. Why?
27. No foolin‘—the 2010s were a crazy decade for tech
28. New Year’s Message: Opportunities Come From Unexpected Places

A.I.

1. Enhanced Intelligence, VR Sex, and Our Cyborg Future: Recent progress in AI, many believe, makes the promise and peril of transhumanism increasingly possible.
2. NIST Study Of 189 Facial Recognition Algorithms Finds Minorities Are Misidentified Almost 100 Times More Often Than White Men
3. Counting the Countless: Why data science is a profound threat for queer people
4. How AI helps unlock the secrets of Old Master and modernist paintings
5. Attack of the terrifying robot vacuum
6. Data Science as Political Action Grounding Data Science in a Politics of Justice (Ben Green)
7. The Second Wave of Algorithmic Accountability (Frank Pasquale) 

PRIVACY

1. IoT vendor Wyze confirms server leak: Details for 2.4 million users were exposed online for 22 days.
2. Employee error to blame for massive data leak, Wyze says
3. Tracking College Students Everywhere They Go On Campus Is The New Normal
4. Survey of Fortune 500 Companies’ Privacy Representations
5. NAI Issues New Guidance on Consumer Opt-In Consent for Sharing of “Sensitive” Data
6. SEC reminds public companies to assess technology and IP theft risks when preparing their disclosures
7. The 2019 Privacy Legislation Bomb Cyclone

CREATIVITY

1. UK Metropolitan Police Admit They’ve Finally Shelved ‘Investigation’ Into Journalists Who Reported On Snowden Docs
2. Federal Court Blocks Unconstitutional Arkansas Law That Prevents Plant-Based Food Companies From Using Meat Words
3. Chris Cornell’s Widow Sues Soundgarden for Copyrights to Unreleased Songs
4. No Apologies: Marc Jacobs Pushes Back on Nirvana’s Copyright and Trademark Infringement Claims
5. Washington Court Says Local Pot Dealers Can Hang Up Christmas Lights That Spell ‘POT’
6. Austrian Hotel Drops Libel Lawsuit Against Guest Who Complained About Pictures Of Nazis In The Lobby
7. Too Funny to Be Believed? NAD Says No.
8. IP Alert: Copyright Course Correction of the Year
9. Right of Publicity Punch: Bruce Lee Enterprises Sues Kungfu Catering
10. Trump could mandate free access to federally funded research papers
11. The 2010s were a veritable golden age of opening credits in television
12. TV Technica 2019: These were our favorite shows and binges this year
13. Journalists under siege around the world: The global assault on journalists continued unabated in 2019.
14. Ars Technica’s best films of 2019
15. 2019 – The Copyright Year
16. The 2020 Intellectual Property Year in “Preview” Article

GAMES

1. Running Man Stars Suing Epic Games for Fortnite Dance
2. Fortnite Lawsuit a Battle Over Jack-o’-Lantern Figures
3. Corinna Kopf Leaving Twitch to Stream Exclusively on Facebook Gaming
4. Blog: Scalable content management with Unity addressables
5. The one video game my kids played all year long
6. How much of a genius-level move was using binary space partitioning in Doom?
7. UK Charts: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is the final No.1 of the year – Official charts to change suppliers in 2020 and to include a digital chart
8. Police Departments Are Using Swatting Registries To Help Protect Swatting Targets From Police Officers
9. U.S. Patent no. 10,272,346: Bounded competitions in a video game framework
10. The 2010s were full of video games we’ll gladly revisit for decades to come
11. Best of 2019: How Steam users see your game
12. Gamasutra’s Best of 2019: 8 standout Apple Arcade games
13. Gamasutra’s Best of 2019: Bryant Francis’ Top 10 Games
14. Gamasutra’s Best of 2019: Chris Kerr’s Top 5 Games
15. Gamasutra’s Best of 2019: Alissa McAloon’s top 5 games (from 2018’s backlog)

Jon

COMMUNICATIONS

1. The CRTC Imposes New Obligation on Telecommunications Service Providers to Combat Nuisance Calls
2. Mozilla, Consumer Groups Petition For Rehearing of Net Neutrality Case
3. FCC’s “illogical” claim that broadband isn’t telecommunications faces appeal
4. Bernie’s Broadband Plan Gives A Big Green Light To Community Broadband 
5. CRTC Enforces CASL in Case of Malware Distribution 
6. CASL Enforcement Action – $115,000 in Penalties for Distributing Malware
7. Netflix Data Suggests Streaming Giant Spending One-Third of Canadian Revenues on Film and TV Production in Canada (Michael Geist)
8. Tax Policy Confusion: What Digital Taxes are on the Canadian Government’s Agenda? (Michael Geist)
9. New communications law research platform will strengthen policymaking: Analyzing millions of pages of legal documents, new tools will simplify legal data for the public
10. AT&T Said Trump Tax Cuts Would Create Thousands Of Jobs. Instead, AT&T’s Laying Off Thousands.
11. AT&T doesn’t want you to see its slow Internet speed-test results 
12. The FCC Helped AT&T Hide Its Crappy Broadband Speeds 
13. FCC Proposes Fines of Over $600,000 to Two Boston-Area Pirate Radio Operators 
14. Cheaters Never Prosper: FCC Proposes $10MM Fine On Man Who Used His Business Rival’s Phone Number on Spoofed Robocalls
15. TCPA Legislative Update — After Much Negotiation, House Passes Consensus Robocall Legislation; Senate Vote Imminent
16. Constitutional Challenges to TCPA: What’s Next?
17. TCPA Regulatory Update — FCC Wakes from TCPA Hibernation with Orders Granting Two Petitions
18. FCC Admonishes and Cites ISPs for Failure to Comply with the Transparency Rule
19. FCC Seeks Comment on Cable Service Change Notifications 
20. FCC Seeks Comment on Establishing 988 Suicide Crisis Hotline 
21. FCC Announces Deadlines for the Next Auction for New FM Channels – And a Filing Freeze 
22. FCC Adopts Changes to Rules for New Noncommercial FM and LPFM Stations – Changing Application Processing Procedures and Holding Periods
23. No-fiber zone: FCC funds 25Mbps, data-capped satellite in rural areas
24. 5G deployment stands ready to supercharge the Internet of Things 
25. 5G Phones Will Be Bigger & More Expensive With Crappy Battery Life. Excited Yet? 
26. Commerce Department Takes Steps To Thwart Use of Information and Communications Technology and Services Associated With Foreign Adversaries 
27. What now for UK telecoms regulation? 
28. The Access Act: Can Data Portability Increase Online Platform Competition? 
29. €2.6bn for the Irish National Broadband Plan Approved by the European Commission
30. 988 will be the new 911 for suicide prevention—by sometime in 2021 

DIGITAL

1. People who are given correct information still misremember it to fit their own beliefs: “What we have had in lieu of a well-informed citizenry is what might be termed a  myth – the myth of the attentive public.”
2. Can fact-checkers save Taiwan from a flood of Chinese fake news?
3. Change to Chinese university’s charter dropping ‘freedom of thought’ stirs debate
4. Chinese students denounce limits on free speech, in a rare protest
5. Iran Accelerates Longstanding Quest To Cut Itself Off From The Internet
6. Nevada’s Top Court Says The State’s Journalist Shield Law Also Applies To Bloggers
7. Maryland Disclosure Requirements for Online Political Ads Violates the First Amendment–Washington Post v. McManus (Eric Goldman)
8. Breach of Contract/Promissory Estoppel Claims Bypass Section 230 But Fail Anyways—Yue v. Miao (Eric Goldman)
9. AG William Barr Attacks Section 230… Even Though It Doesn’t Hinder The DOJ At All
10. Engineer says Google fired her for browser pop-up about worker rights
11. This 3D-printed Stanford bunny also holds the data for its own reproduction
12. Russian media group Rambler attempting to hold Nginx hostage
13. Facebook fails to convince lawmakers it needs to track your location at all times
14. Twitter and Facebook Want to Shift Power to Users. Or Do They?: A decentralized internet was hailed as a way to dethrone Twitter and Facebook. But to the tech giants, the idea could unload some of their burdens.
15. Hungary Has Fined Facebook For ‘Misleading Consumers’ Because It Promoted Its Service As ‘Free’
16. FTC may block Facebook from integrating messaging apps, per WSJ report
17. Regulator weighs action against Facebook over plans to integrate WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger
18. Instagram to start warning users before they post ‘potentially offensive’ captions: The AI-powered feature came to comments earlier this year
19. Instagram Launches AI Tool That Warns Users Before They Post Potentially Offensive Captions
20. Instagram now lets you upload multiple photos on one Story post with ‘layout’ feature: A third-party tool brought inside
21. Instagram Won’t Pull These Racist, Violent, Russian-Inspired Accounts: Neo-Confederates are posting racist memes – and reusing material from Kremlin trolls. But Instagram says the accounts don’t violate its rules.
22. Sons Of Confederate Veterans Sued Over Bogus DMCA Takedown
23. NC, Or Not NC: Why Suing The Sons Of Confederate Veterans In N.D.Cal For Violating The DMCA Makes Sense
24. Bing’s Top Search Results Contain an Alarming Amount of Disinformation
25. Are you sharing too much about your kids online? Probably
26. Lumen Presents Comments to the Third Meeting of the Stakeholder Dialogue on Art. 17 of the Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market in Brussels
27. Shedding light on fraudulent takedown notices: Berkman Klein Center’s Lumen database helps bring attention to falsified court orders
28. Beware your automatic email footer!
29. Where’d You Get Your Tech? New Rules May Allow the U.S. Government to Unwind Your Latest IT Purchase
30. Samsung chair imprisoned and 24 others found guilty in union-busting case
31. Netflix docuseries Broken highlights prevalence of counterfeit cosmetics products on online marketplaces
32. Another ex-Google employee accuses company of union busting: A fifth fired worker attests company let her go for coding internal notification about workers’ rights
33. Trump administration says employers can ban organizing via company email
34. Rather Than Radicalize, YouTube’s Algorithm Brings Viewers Toward “Mainstream” Content, CEO Says
35. Robert Downey Jr.’s Long-Awaited YouTube Original To Drop Dec. 18
36. Susanne Daniels, Robert Kyncl Talk Pros And Cons Of YouTube’s Switch To Ad-Supported Originals
37. Billboard 200 to Include Official Video Plays From YouTube, Streaming Services
38. These Are The 10 Most-Viewed YouTube Ads Of The Year
39. Ryan Kaji Is Reportedly YouTube’s Top-Earning Creator This Year, Raking In $26 Million
40. For The First Time, YouTube Consumption Will Inform The ‘Billboard 200’ Albums Chart
41. YouTube Music gets Spotify-like personalized playlists
42. Apple’s new Screen Time Communication Limits are easily beaten with a bug
43. iPhones and iPads finally get key-based protection against account takeovers
44. Mac Pro teardown finds a largely traditional desktop inside
45. Apple Filed A Silly, Questionable DMCA Notice On A Tweeted iPhone Encryption Key… Before Backing Down
46. Bogus DMCA Notices Still A Huge Problem As Apple Gets Unfairly Blamed For Reddit Takedown
47. Abbott Laboratories Sends Heavy-Handed Copyright Threat To Shut Down Diabetes Community Tool For Accessing Blood-Sugar Data
48. Copyright Trolls Go Mostly Silent In US Federal Courts
49. Yup, Strike 3 Is Going The Prenda Route By Filing ‘Pure Discovery’ Suits In FL State Court
50. Spotify debuts a new original podcast that looks back on the last decade in music
51. Spotify prototypes Tastebuds to revive social music discovery
52. Sponsorship: good faith and measuring the value of influencers
53. Tana Mongeau, Jake Paul Land Linear MTV Series ‘Bustedness’
54. Snap Dropping Complex-Produced Doc About Incarcerated Rapper Tekashi69
55. Deji Olatunji Appealing U.K. Court’s Decision To Euthanize His Dog After “Nasty” Attack
56. Bretman Rock Lands ‘No Filter’ Digital Reality Series At MTV
57. Streamys Bestows ‘Premiere’ Awards To Ninja, JoJo Siwa Ahead Of Tomorrow’s Flagship Ceremony
58. Here Are Your 2019 Streamy Awards Winners
59. NLRB Restores Employers’ Right to Restrict Employees’ Personal Use of Company Email and Other IT Resources
60. Be Careful What You Wish For: TikTok Tries To Stop Bullying On Its Platforms… By Suppressing Those It Thought Might Get Bullied
61. Parents Sue TikTok for COPPA Violations, Settle for $1.1M
62. VidCon 2020 Goes All In On TikTok With Featured Creators Andre Swilley, ThunThun Skittles, More
63. VidCon Makes Middle Eastern Foray In 5-Year Deal With Abu Dhabi Tourism Department
64. TikTok Inks Deal With WWE For 30 New Wrestler Accounts, Entrance Music Licensing
65. Amazon bans third-party merchants from shipping with FedEx
66. Some junk for sale on Amazon is very literally garbage, report finds
67. Amazon Prime Reportedly Lands Rihanna Documentary For A Cool $25 Million
68. Amazon and Google Are Practically Giving Away Smart Speakers. Here’s Why.
69. Hulu debuts a new type of ad that will reward binge-watchers
70. Large tech merger provides an early opportunity to test the fitness of the competition regime in 2020
71. What’s App? – End of Year Round-up on mHealth App Developments
72. Trust, Decentralization, and The Blockchain
73. Exhume dead cryptocurrency exec who owes us $250 million, creditors demand
74. This alleged Bitcoin scam looked a lot like a pyramid scheme
75. Controversial sale of .org domain manager faces review at ICANN
76. The idiot’s guide to why you should not steal a domain name at gun point
77. This “essential piece of computing history” just sold for $43,750
78. The LawBytes Podcast, Episode 36: The Year in Canadian Digital Law and Policy (Michael Geist)

A.I.

1. A sobering message about the future at AI’s biggest party
2. I created my own deepfake—it took two weeks and cost $552
3. Owning Intelligence: The United States Patent and Trademark Office is trying to answer a very complicated question: who owns artificial intelligence?
4. Does AI generated work give rise to a copyright claim?
5. Deep Learning breakthrough made by Rice University scientists
6. Rigid machines meet human creativity: Advising on data strategies

PRIVACY

1. Avast CEO Downplays Collection Of 400 Million Users’ Browsing Data
2. Guess What? Many Cookie Banners Ignore Your Wishes, So Max Schrems Goes On The GDPR Attack Again
3. Recent Developments on Cookies – a Pan-European Overview
4. Chrome’s data disaster: Browser update wipes out Android app data
5. Chrome 79 will continuously scan your passwords against public data breaches
6. Building trust as a foundation for a growth mindset around data
7. Nebula VPN routes between hosts privately, flexibly, and efficiently
8. Feds reap data from 1,500 phones in largest reported reverse-location warrant
9. Michael Hayden Ran The NSA And CIA: Now Warns That Encryption Backdoors Will Harm American Security & Tech Leadership
10. Florida Appeals Court Says Govt’s Lack Of Good Faith Can’t Save A 2012 Warrantless Stingray Deployment
11. Inspector General’s Report On Investigation Of Trump Campaign Finds More FISA-Related Abuse By The FBI
12. FISA Court Benchslaps FBI For Its Abuse Of The FISA Warrant Process During The Trump Campaign Investigation
13. Hackers steal data for 15 million patients, then sell it back to lab that lost it
14. LifeLabs pays ransom after cyberattack exposes information of 15 million customers in B.C. and Ontario
15. What is the IAB’s CCPA Compliance Framework for “Do not sell my personal information?”
16. The CCPA is Only Two Weeks Away and Only 6% Of Companies Have Deployed a “Do Not Sell My Personal Information” Link
17. California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) – You are not California Dreamin’!
18. Resetting the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)…with 2 Weeks To Go! (Part 1 of 3) (Eric Goldman)
19. Some Lessons Learned from the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), 18 Months In (Part 2 of 3) (Eric Goldman)
20. Eric Goldman’s Comments to the California DOJ Draft Regulations for the Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) (Part 3 of 3) (Eric Goldman)
21. EDPB Publishes Guidelines on the Right to Be Forgotten in Search Engine Cases
22. Purple Communications, Inc. Overruled: Employees have no presumptive statutory right to use employer equipment, including email systems, under the NLRA
23. Privacy Peril: Is Your Smart TV Too Smart?
24. Wave of Ring surveillance camera hacks tied to podcast, report finds
25. Online Forum Members Exploited Weak Credentials To Turn Ring Cameras Against Their Owners
26. Privacy Tip #219 – Holiday Shopping Tip for Internet-Connected Gifts
27. A new draft code of practice for consumer IoT devices – hardening IoT supply chains
28. Evaluating Risks in the IoT Supply Chain
29. The IOT is Here and so is the Regulation
30. Upload – 2019 Data Protection update

CREATIVITY

1. Objections Filed re Access Copyright Proposed Post-Secondary Tariff for 2021-2023 and Update re 2011-2017
2. Why Are Members Of Congress Telling A Private Organization Not To Comment On Copyright Law?
3. Free-riding on reputation of LOUIS VUITTON mark
4. Pepsi Scores Dismissal Of Copyright Dispute Over Super Bowl Ad
5. Arsenal’s Mesut Özil Slams Uighur Repression and China Pulls Premier League Game: The move puts Beijing in conflict with a second major global sports league
6. Hallmark Apologizes for Pulling Commercials That Show Brides Kissing
7. Does Elon Musk’s Defamation Defense Verdict Spell “Open Season” for Social Media Insults? Answer: Nope.
8. Robyn Openshaw, ‘The Green Smoothie Girl,’ Threatening SLAPP Suits Over Mediocre Reviews
9. Tennessee Doctor Decides He Wants To Take The State’s Anti-SLAPP Law For A Spin, Files Bogus Defamation Lawsuit Over A Negative Review
10. No, Filing A Defamation Lawsuit Is Never The Only Way You Can Clear Your Name
11. Teespring Takes Down Our Copying Is Not Theft Gear, Refuses To Say Why
12. Why Intermediary Liability Protections Matter: Our ‘Copying Is Not Theft’ T-Shirt May Be Collateral Damage To A Bad Court Ruling
13. Delhi High Court Rules That Making A Copy Of The Film Is Not Only Restricted To Making A Physical Copy Of The Film But It Also Includes A Substantial And Fundamental Reproduction Of The Original
14. US government is entitled to all Snowden book proceeds, judge rules
15. Restaurant Association Looks To Take Back Taco Tuesday For The People
16. Beyond The Taco: Someone Is Now Trying To Trademark ‘Breakfast Burrito’
17. Copyright in designs: G-Stars in their Eyes
18. University of Phoenix Settles FTC Deceptive Advertising Law Allegations
19. Intellectual Property Rights and the Employer-Employee Relationship: A Canadian Law Q&A
20. At Oral Argument Justices Consider Copyright Protection for Legal Annotations
21. European Copyright: Memes, GIFs, and Other Images on the Internet

GAMES

1. Russia’s Rambler Group suing Twitch for $2.8 billion: Internet giant takes takes legal action against streaming service in the region over pirated football broadcasts
2. Twitch facing $2.9 billion lawsuit over broadcast of pirated soccer streams
3. Nreal files motion to dismiss Magic Leap copycat suit
4. Company fined nearly $100k for publishing unapproved game in China: Chinese law allows companies to be fined between 5 and 10 times their revenue for unlicensed titles
5. Dangen chief Judd steps down following harassment, mismanagement allegations
6. Ben Judd departs Dangen, DDM amid accusations of harassment, bad business: Sources allege Judd mishandled communications and payments, publicly exposed himself, upheld harmful power dynamic
7. Bethesda adds John Romero Sigil mod to Doom console ports: Publisher recognises unofficial sequel alongside other free community mods
8. Xbox Series X is Microsoft’s next console, launching holiday 2020
9. Xbox’s next-gen Project Scarlett revealed as Xbox Series X
10. The Xbox Series X will support backwards compatibility at launch
11. The next Xbox has a name and a new design: Behold, 2020’s Xbox Series X
12. Microsoft returning to simpler “Xbox” branding for next gen hardware: Xbox Series X is not the brand, Microsoft says, and name will allow “room for additional consoles in the future”
13. Nintendo Switch outsells Xbox One worldwide
14. Developing Switch-first eases the porting process, says Axiom Verge dev
15. Sony launching DualShock 4 rear button attachment: Plug-in peripheral will let players map actions to two new buttons on the back of the controller
16. Apple Arcade introduces a cheaper annual subscription option
17. Apple Arcade rolls out $50 yearly subscription option
18. Apple Arcade now has a cut-price annual payment tier: New subscription option gives a year’s access for the price of ten individual months
19. Atari details revenue splits, engine partnerships ahead of Atari VCS 2020 launch
20. Atari offers 88% of revenue to exclusive VCS games: Non-exclusive games will get an 80/20 revenue split from sales through the VCS store
21. Gameloft teams up with Blacknut for new cloud gaming service
22. Why new consoles probably won’t be enough to save GameStop
23. Mortal Kombat 11 will soon bring cross-console ‘Krossplay’ into the fray
24. Mario has the most fans in the US, but Call of Duty ranks higher for most people: Over 44% of Americans are fans of Nintendo’s mascot, but 26% put Activision’s shooter in their Top Five
25. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare narrowly beats Star Wars ahead of UK Christmas chart – There are nine Mario-related games in the Top 40
26. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare has topped $1 billion in sell-through revenue
27. FIFA 20 is still at the top of the EMEAA charts: EA’s latest entry returns to No.1 for the sixth week since its launch
28. Mobile games made 15 times more revenue than entertainment apps in a single year: Liftoff report on app industry shows games leading the way in downloads, in-app revenue and number of new releases
29. Survey finds parents getting stricter on kids’ in-game spending: ISFE finds parents more likely than last year to have an agreement with children regulating purchases or to forbid children from in-game spending entirely
30. Undead Labs setting up new studio, game development academy in New Orleans
31. Warcraft III: Reforged will release on January 28, not in 2019
32. Rainbow Six Siege switches core team: Leroy Athanassoff to lead new group as Xavier Marquis and Alexandre Remy move on to new projects at Ubisoft
33. Animoca Brands buys Power Rangers: Legacy Wars developer nWay
34. Animoca Brands acquires Power Rangers developer nWay: Studio behind mobile fighting game Legacy Wars purchased for $7.69 million
35. Brawl Stars brought in $422m in its first year: Sensor Tower – Supercell’s multiplayer arena brought in $94m in South Korea alone
36. Final Fantasy XIV Online has passed 18 million registered players
37. Wargaming finally branching beyond World of Tanks with UK studio’s new IP: CEO Victor Kislyi and UK studio director Sean Decker discuss how the publisher’s newest team aims to conquer the West
38. Zynga opens new UK mobile studio to expand racing game portfolio
39. Zynga starts a new racing game studio in United Kingdom
40. Analyst: Clash of Clans claimed the most consumer spend of any mobile game this decade
41. Riot Forge is publishing two new League of Legends games
42. Dobre Brothers Launch ‘Dobre Dunk’ Mobile Game With BroadbandTV
43. Just 15% of Shroud’s US audience followed him to Mixer: Shroud’s US audience on Mixer is one-third of what it was on Twitch
44. Game.tv raises $25 million to bring esports to Discord, Twitter, and Facebook
45. Esports platform Game.tv secures $25 million in funding: Also launches AI-driven platform via Discord and web app
46. EA, Respawn announce Apex Legends Global Series: $3m at stake in the game’s first international, multi-tournament esports program
47. League of Legends World Championship 2019 was the most-watched LoL esports event ever: The Finals reached an average minute audience of 21.8m, and 44m peak concurrent viewers
48. Local split-screen has been added to Fortnite on the PS4 and Xbox One
49. PewDiePie Quits Twitter Over Amount Of “Virtue Signaling,” Says He’ll Take A Break From YouTube In 2020
50. Playable Gothic prototype will let fans decide direction of possible remake
51. High Fidelity lays off half of studio in pivot away from VR
52. High Fidelity lays off half of staff, pulls plug on open-source VR platform: Company cuts headcount for second time this year, says it is refocusing on new project early in development
53. Boneworks review: An absolute VR mess—yet somehow momentous
54. Blog: Analyzing the pitfalls of the Virtual Boy
55. N3twork acquires Funko Pop! Blitz: The game, along with several key developers, picked up from defunct NBCUniversal gaming arm
56. Why the creator of Kerbal Space Program is returning to the troposphere: After leaving Squad, Felipe Falanghe has created his own two-person studio to make Balsa Model Flight Simulator
57. How ArenaNet is rewriting the narrative for its narrative writers: Novera King and Bobby Stein discuss the studio’s first run of a narrative writing mentorship program — and its next iteration
58. A QA breakdown of The Outer Worlds’ elusive companion killing bug
59. Watch the lead dev of Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition break down the game’s rebirth
60. Blog: Building a fantasy VR world in Unity
61. Blog: Practical tools for game designers
62. Video: Designing efficient, effective branching narratives for games
63. Video: To make 1997’s Blade Runner, Westwood first had to create the universe
64. Video: Inside the UX of onboarding and player engagement 
65. Case Study: A ‘peek’ at Golf Peaks’ multiplatform sales
66. Industry vet Kate Edwards to be honored with Ambassador Award at 2020 GDCAs!
67. Kate Edwards to be honored with GDCA’s Ambassador Award: Former IGDA head and current executive director of Global Game Jam to accept award at GDC in March
68. Naughty Dog to donate all cash from Jak and Daxter re-releases to charity
69. The 12 biggest announcements from The Game Awards 2019
70. Sekiro claims GOTY, but Disco Elysium leads The Game Awards winners
71. The Game Awards: Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice takes game of the year
72. The Game Awards reached 7.5m concurrent viewers: Total livestreams of the event were up 73% from last year to 45.2m
73. People of the Year 2019: From charity pioneers and environmental movements to legendary designers and AAA studios, our choices reflect the depth and breadth of the modern games industry
74. Epic’s exclusivity push leads to ugliness – 2019 in Review: How consumer grumbling over Steam’s newest competition snowballed into outright abuse
75. People of the Year 2019: Respawn Entertainment – Starting with Apex Legends and finishing with Jedi Fallen Order, in 2019 Respawn became EA’s single most important studio
76. Analyst: Clash of Clans claimed the most consumer spend of any mobile game this decade
77. Subway Surfers is the top mobile game of the decade by downloads: Clash of Clans was No.1 in consumer spend from 2010 to 2019
78. The 50 best games of 2019
79. Games of the Year 2019: Sea of Thieves – Rare’s pirate adventure offered an object lesson in how service-based games can get better and better with age
80. Games of the Year 2019: Untitled Goose Game: Is the goose horrible, or is it me?
81. Games of the Year 2019: Heaven’s Vault – Inkle delivers a deep adventure where everything from the world’s history to individual puzzles is open to interpretation
82. Games of the Year 2019: Divinity: Original Sin II – The Switch version of Larian’s latest captures the feel of pen-and-paper role-playing in ones and zeroes
83. Games of the Year 2019: Super Mario Maker 2 – Nintendo delivered the sequel Super Mario Maker deserved this year and finally learnt to trust its community
84. Best of 2019: Designing the gameplay and aesthetic of Diablo IV
85. Best of 2019: Former Fortnite UX lead digs into ethical game design
86. Gamasutra’s Best of 2019: Alex Wawro’s top 5 games
87. Video Game Deep Cuts: (More Of) The Best Games Of 2019 
88. The GamesIndustry.biz Podcast: Games of the Year 2019 – Download the latest episode now to find out which games have most impressed the editorial team this year
89. GamesIndustry.biz presents… The Year In Numbers 2019: Find out this year’s global games market value, biggest games on social media, speediest digital discounts and more
90. U.S. Patent no. 10,265,621: Tracking specific gestures related to user movement

Jon

COMMUNICATIONS

1. Canada’s New Internet Code
2. Huawei funds $56M in academic research in Canada. That has some experts concerned
3. Huawei is now shipping smartphones with zero US components
4. Current “Whole of Government” Approach to Perceived National Security Risks from Chinese Technology Reflected in the FCC’s Latest Universal Service Fund Order
5. The True Impact of the Chinese Telecom Ban on Government Contractors
6. FCC Seeks Comment on All-Digital AM and Radio Non-Duplication NPRM
7. DOJ Wimps Out On Wireless Sector eSIM Antitrust Investigation
8. Mobile industry has stifled eSIM—and the DOJ is demanding change
9. Prison Telecom Monopolies Bring Their ‘Innovation’ To Prison Ebooks
10. Priority Filing Deadline Set for Tribes’ Access to Spectrum
11. 5G on the horizon: Here’s what it is and what’s coming
12. T-Mobile’s ‘Nationwide’ 5G Isn’t Nationwide, Only Slightly Faster Than 4G
13. T-Mobile touts “nationwide 5G” that fails to cover 130 million Americans
14. FCC tries to bury finding that Verizon and T-Mobile exaggerated 4G coverage
15. FCC to Propose National Crisis Hotline, Tackle Mid-Band Spectrum Items at December Meeting
16. FCC Suspends the Processing of Renewal Applications for the 470-512 MHz Spectrum Band (T-Band)
17. Vulnerability in fully patched Android phones under active attack by bank thieves
18. Librem 5 backers have begun receiving their Linux phones
19. What is a Prerecorded Call for TCPA Purposes?: The Czar and the Baron Speak with the FCC to Push for Clarity on this Critical Issue 
20. IoT Update: FCC Proposes New Spectrum Plan for Vehicle Safety and Unlicensed Uses
21. Today’s Hot Topic: News Simulatio
22. AMFM Act Introduced in Congress to Impose Sound Recording Performance Royalty on Broadcast Stations
23. Telecoms Law Update – The Right to Survey Clarified by the Court of Appeal 
24. Court of Appeal confirms that telecoms operators can obtain Code rights to carry out site visits
25. AT&T says TV losses have peaked after latest loss of 1.3 million customers 

DIGITAL

1. China Uses DNA to Map Faces, With Help From the West: Beijing’s pursuit of control over a Muslim ethnic group pushes the rules of science and raises questions about consent.
2. Ukraine condemns Apple for calling Crimea part of Russia in its apps
3. Apple ‘looking at how it handles borders’ after Crimea map controversy
4. Apple ‘taking a deeper look’ at map policies after calling Crimea part of Russia
5. Apple ‘looking at how it handles borders’ after Crimea map controversy
6. When politi-fact veers into politi-fiction, broadcast and internet advertising rules diverge sharply
7. As Devin Nunes Threatens More SLAPP Suits, He May Have To Explain Why Cows Can Type In His First SLAPP Suit
8. Devin Nunes Follows Through And Sues CNN In Laughably Dumb SLAPP Suit
9. Tony Robbins Crosses The Atlantic For Some Libel Tourism In Ireland; Files SLAPP Suit Against Buzzfeed
10. Human rights standards apply to online sellers on sites such as Kijiji, says N.L. Human Rights case­­­­­­­­­­­­
11. Copyright Troll Threatens Criminal Charges In Germany Against Domain Registrar
12. Warner Music and Sony Music win copyright case against internet music radio service TuneIn
13. Capitol Records v ReDigi appeal decision
14. TekSavvy Appeals Canada’s First Site-Blocking Order
15. Canadian ISP Teksavvy Fights Back Against Overbroad Copyright ‘Blocking Order’ For GoldTV
16. A Tale of Two Copyright Decisions: Canada’s Federal Court Issues First Site-Blocking Order & Denies Certification of Reverse Class Action Test Case
17. Justices debate allowing state law to be “hidden behind a pay wall”
18. Copyright Clash to Receive Supreme Treatment
19. The US’s reaction to France’s DST
20. Notifying Twitter of TOS Violations Isn’t Tortious Interference–Illoominate v. CAIR (Eric Goldman)
21. Content Moderation At Scale Is Impossible: That Time Twitter Nazis Got A Reporter Barred From Twitter Over Some Jokes
22. Online harmful content: the race to regulate
23. Bipartisan Bill Seeks to Increase Internet Transparency and Consumer Control Over Content
24. Microsoft shareholders reject call for gender pay gap report: Additional proposal to report on employee representation on board of directors also dismissed
25. Twitter introduces a Privacy Center to keep users informed: Its new privacy policies go into effect January 1st.
26. Intimidation or Free Speech: Are Trump’s Tweets Witness Tampering?
27. Study Says Russian Trolls Didn’t Have Much Influence On Election; But It’s More Complicated Than That
28. Assessing the Russian Internet Research Agency’s impact on the political attitudes and behaviors of American Twitter users in late 2017
29. Facebook Now Altering Users’ Posts To Add Singapore Government’s ‘Fake News’ Warnings
30. Facebook updates crisis response tools, adds WhatsApp integration
31. UNC Gave Racists $2.5 Million To Settle A Lawsuit That Hadn’t Been Filed Yet, And The Racists Are Abusing The DMCA To Hide The Details
32. Amazon Faces Widening U.S. Antitrust Scrutiny in Cloud Business
33. Intellectual Property Alert: Amazon Creates a Cost-Effective and Efficient Patent Infringement Remedy for Infringing Products Sold on its Marketplace by Third Parties
34. CreateSpace Isn’t Liable for Publishing Allegedly Infringing Uploaded Book–King v. Amazon (Eric Goldman)
35. Copyright, State Sovereignty, and Pirates: Some Thoughts on Oral Argument in Allen v. Cooper
36. This free tool maps propaganda and misinformation as it goes viral
37. The Baby Yoda gif debacle exposes the messy world of meme law: Gifs from The Mandalorian went viral on social media. But then they disappeared
38. Why Baby Yoda Unequivocally, Unfortunately Rules (Column): The breakout star of ‘The Mandalorian’ is impossibly cute for a reason.
39. TikTok Moderators Were Told To Suppress Videos Made By Marginalized Users Because They Might Be Bullied
40. TikTok Apologizes After Banning A Teen Whose Video About Muslims In China Went Viral
41. TikTok’s parent company sued for collecting data on kids: Everything’s coming up COPPA
42. CJEU: Courts may Order Host Providers to Take Down Illegal Content
43. Instagram finally launches 13+ age checkups
44. Quibi Picks Up Kendall Jenner-Produced Series Based On Parody Instagram Account
45. Insta-Famous Lil Bub, A Special Needs Cat Known For Her Altruism, Has Passed Away At Age 8
46. Insights: ‘Tis The Season For Instagram Sponsored Posts, But Perhaps ‘Tis Too Much?
47. Sundar Pichai becomes CEO of Alphabet and Google, as Larry Page steps down
48. Facebook’s new tool lets you transfer pictures to Google Photos: Available worldwide in first half of 2020
49. Fired Google employees accuse company of union-busting: Group will take grievances to National Labor Relations Board “as a first step”
50. Google workers fired amid organization efforts file retaliation complaint
51. Certiorari Granted in Google LLC v. Oracle America, Inc.
52. Google attempts to protect users from sketchy stem cell clinics
53. Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin step back from executive roles: Sundar Pichai to assume role as CEO of both Google and Alphabet, founders will remain on board
54. YouTube says viewers are spending less time watching conspiracy videos. But many still do.
55. YouTube Says Watch-Time On ‘Borderline’ Content By Non-Subscribers Has Dropped 70% This Year
56. YouTube Has Removed At Least 300 Donald Trump Campaign Ads Since 2016
57. YouTube Says Creators Could See Subscriptions Drop As It Purges Shuttered Accounts
58. Olivia Jade Returns To YouTube Nine Months After College Admissions Scandal
59. YouTubers Attempt Levitation In BBC Original ‘The Edge Of Science’
60. Netflix And YouTube’s Share Of Daily Viewership To Drop As Field Grows (Study)
61. How To Make A ‘Heist’: Markiplier’s Interactive Special Is A Whole New Kind Of Content For YouTube
62. TYT Launches 24-Hour Channel On Xfinity X1, As Election Coverage Looms
63. BBTV Signs Five Creators, Including Purposeful Prankster ThatWasEpic, Rapper-Skater Roy Purdy
64. FTC Releases Disclosure Manual for Social Media Influencers
65. Retailer Reminder: FTC Releases Guidance for Social Media Influencers
66. Collab Asia, A Spin-Off Of The U.S.-Based Influencer Network, Raises $7.5 Million Series B
67. Updated Advice and Practical Tips from the FTC for Social Media Influencers and the Companies that Hire Them
68. Content Changes Challenge YouTube Creators; FTC to the Rescue
69. The FTC Issues a New Disclosure Guide for Influencers
70. Spotify offers half-price annual subscription in India
71. Online shopping on Thanksgiving hit $4.2B, up 14.5% on 2018, 45% of sales via mobile
72. Black Friday shoppers spent more in stores, broke records online over the weekend
73. Never mind the naysayers: Emoji are a vital part of online communication
74. ICANN report wipes the smile off emoji domains
75. Blockchain Basics: Global Regulations
76. Developer faces prison time for giving blockchain talk in North Korea
77. Blockchain and the Financial Industry
78. The Future of Stablecoins—Anything But Stable?
79. Lawyer ‘monopoly’ hampers consumer access to legal tech, says former AG Chris Bentley
80. The LawBytes Podcast, Episode 34: The Fight to Save the Dot-Org (Michael Geist)
81. Honouring Ian Kerr’s Legacy: University of Ottawa Launches the Kerr Fellows Program (Michael Geist)
82. Half an operating system: The triumph and tragedy of OS/2
83. Geo-blocking or global take-down
84. What You Should Know before Launching a Website or App
85. Tech Regulation Series: The End of Permissionless Innovation?
86. Ambush Marketing in the Digital Age
87. Cross-Border Supplies of Intangible Services, Digital Content and Rights: Global VAT Guide – Fourth edition – November 2019
88. Launch of .ευ
89. Brexit from another angle: Domain names and donkeys
90. Competition Law and the Digital Economy in Canada

A.I.

1. Senators want answers about algorithms that provide black patients less healthcare
2. To stop a tech apocalypse we need ethics and the arts
3. How neural networks work—and why they’ve become a big business
4. Life Under the Algorithm: How a relentless speedup is reshaping the working class
5. Quantum computing’s also-rans and their fatal flaws 
6. The Rise of Artificial Intelligence Will Usher Changes to Patent Law
7. Patents – When artificial intelligence authors the invention
8. Designing strategically intelligent AI in Halo Wars 2
9. AI Innovators Should Be Listening to Kids: Input from the next generation is crucial when it comes to navigating the challenges of new technologies. (Urs Gasser)
10. Robots Are Taking Over (the Rental Screening Process): Landlords are using artificial intelligence to vet prospective renters
11. What should newsrooms do about deepfakes? These three things, for starters: Researchers argue the dangers of deepfakes are overblown, but require journalists to give thought to how they handle unconfirmed information. 

PRIVACY

1. Cell Phone Searches at the Border: What you need to know
2. Egyptian Government Plans To Track The Movement Of 10 Million Vehicles With Low-Cost RFID Stickers
3. New Iranian wiper discovered in attacks on Middle Eastern companies
4. Cops Are Running Ring Camera Footage Through Their Own Facial Recognition Software Because Who’s Going To Stop Them
5. Draft Code of Practice: securing the Internet of Things for consumers
6. IoT patent owners still hold the future in their own hands – but the clock is ticking
7. HackerOne breach lets outside hacker read customers’ private bug reports
8. Code Blue: Cybersecurity Vulnerabilities for Medical Device Makers Require Urgent Care
9. Ring Coyness About Adding Facial Recognition Tech To Its Cameras Doesn’t Extend To Its Marketing Materials
10. Wireless ISP Starry Says It Will Apply California’s Privacy Requirements Nationwide
11. Payment card-skimming malware targeting 4 sites found on Heroku cloud platform
12. The (Extra) Territorial Scope of the GDPR: The Right to Be Forgotten
13. Revised Guidelines on the Territorial Scope of the GDPR and Local Representatives
14. The Right to be Forgotten Shoots the Shark
15. Privacy & Cybersecurity Update: November 2019
16. EU Cookie Compliance: Getting Ready for 2020
17. The Digitization of Vehicles: Privacy Concerns
18. New crypto-cracking record reached, with less help than usual from Moore’s Law

CREATIVITY

1. Federal Court rejects controversial copyright litigation strategy
2. Right of publicity in Canada
3. Artist wins court battle to stop luxury watchmakers from cutting up his painting
4. Intellectual Property Update – Is there protection in an idea?
5. Copyright licenses are as easy as a quick few words
6. New Balance v Liverpool FC
7. Want To See Pete Davidson Do Standup? There’s An NDA You Have To Sign First…
8. Musk takes the stand in first day of “pedo guy” trial
9. Proving bad faith at registration time could be a good ‘Techtrend’
10. Tenuous Common-Law Trademark Rights Inadequate to Sustain UDRP Complaint
11. Exhaustion of trademark rights: Barcelona Court of Appeal rules in Schweppes case
12. Cambridge University repatriate bronze cockerel to Nigeria
13. Eco-friendly or falsely advertised? Sustainable fashion advertising in Europe: do’s and don’ts
14. State’s Rejection Of Driver’s ‘IMGOD’ Vanity Plate Unconstitutional, Federal Court Rules
15. Author Tries To Trademark The Word ‘Dark’ For All Of Literary Fiction

GAMES

1. Riot Games to pay $10 million in gender discrimination settlement
2. Riot Games to Pay $10 Million to Settle Gender-Discrimination Lawsuit
3. Riot Games offers female employees $10 million in settlement
4. Riot Games to pay out $10m to former employees in gender discrimination settlement: Total will be spread across up to around 1,000 former women employees
5. Ragnarok files legal complaint against Human Head Studios over Rune II assets
6. Ex-Human Head devs sued by Rune II publisher: Ragnarok Game accuses defunct studio and its co-founders of fraud, holding game assets hostage
7. Pausing the Game: Take-Two Seeks to Pause WWE Copyright Infringement Lawsuit
8. EA removes Marco van Basten from FIFA 20 after Nazi comment: Former Netherlands striker was suspended from working at Fox Sports last month
9. Are publishers doing enough with their brands? | Opinion: EA hasn’t produced much with the Star Wars brand, and it’s not alone among publishers in the west — it’s high time they took some lessons from Japan
10. Quantic Dream on the hook for €7,000 for allowing vulgar images to circulate
11. Quantic Dream to pay former employee €7,000 over offensive photoshopped image: Tribunal found the Detroit Become Human developer guilty of having breached the security obligation it has towards its employees
12. Overcoming unconscious bias in the games industry: Diversity advocates Cinzia Musio and Leon Killin discuss the dangers of unconscious bias, and how to foster an inclusive studio
13. Atari VCS enters final stages of pre-production following series of delays: “Atari will always prioritise delivering a high-quality product over a self-imposed deadline,” says Atari VCS COO
14. Patrice Désilets: Ancestors fell foul of critics’ expectations – “People expected my studio of 35 people to ship a game that is close to Assassin’s Creed — and it’s just not possible”
15. Campo Santo’s In the Valley of the Gods on hold as team shifts to Valve projects
16. Firewatch developer’s next game “on hold” after Valve acquisition
17. A group of senior Ubisoft devs have joined Google’s in-house Stadia studio 
18. Google hires senior Assassin’s Creed developers to build Stadia games: Three experienced Ubisoft staff join Jade Raymond’s Stadia Games and Entertainment studio
19. Important Updates to Google Play Developer Policies
20. Call of Duty Mobile is Google Play’s best game of 2019: Tencent and Activision collaboration won top award as well as users’ choice and best competitive
21. Report: A cheaper Project Scarlett alternative remains in Xbox’s next gen plans
22. The next Xbox is in the wild, connecting to current-gen Xbox One players
23. Xbox One was the UK No.1 games console over Black Friday: It narrowly beat Switch, but Nintendo generated the most revenue from hardware sales
24. Microsoft’s cheaper, discless next-gen Xbox reportedly still in the works: New report indicates Lockhart still planned as a logical fit with Game Pass, xCloud
25. Valve Index Backordered Until After Christmas Due to “recent high demand” in Some Regions
26. Half-Life Alyx changes the game for VR exclusives | Opinion: Never mind the hardware — Valve is dipping deep into its own playbook to become the default storefront for VR software
27. Why Steam’s discoverability improvements may still mean your game won’t sell
28. CD Projekt dismisses investor fears over Cyberpunk and Half-Life: Alyx release clash: “That niche is very, very, very — and I could add a few ‘verys’ here — small”
29. CD Projekt Red will shut down Gwent on consoles: Players will be able to copy accounts to PC, mobile via GOG
30. ‘Angry Birds Movie 2 VR’ Studio Raises $2M to Continue Development on AR/VR Games
31. Microsoft Affirms VR Isn’t a Focus for Xbox Scarlett
32. Phil Spencer: “Nobody’s asking for VR” on Xbox – Xbox boss cites concerns with VR’s form and popularity in strategy around Microsoft’s next console
33. Xbox boss: We want to deliver a new first-party game ‘every three or four months’
34. XR Games secures £1.5m investment: Virtual and augmented reality studio looks to grow team and portfolio
35. The GamesIndustry.biz Podcast: How unconscious bias is holding back the industry – This week the team discuss the dangers of unconscious bias, the benefits of diversity, and the slow progress of virtual reality
36. Rocketwerkz CEO shares how and why the studio offers unlimited time off
37. Dean Hall’s Rocketwerkz offers unlimited annual leave: Most experienced staff get unlimited sick days, and four weeks minimum annual leave with no cap
38. Super Mario Maker 2 becomes Super Zelda Maker with playable Link
39. Super Mario Maker 2’s first big update brings new mode, playable Link
40. Nintendo Switch sees best US sales week ever: Thanksgiving week saw a total of 830k Nintendo Switch and Lite units sold
41. The Switch sold over 830,000 units during Thanksgiving week alone
42. Nintendo and Tencent have set a launch date for the Switch in China
43. Tencent launching Nintendo Switch in China next week: Will cost 2,099 yuan (approx $300), comes with New Super Mario Bros U Deluxe demo and a one-year warranty
44. Nintendo to launch Switch in China on Dec. 10 priced $300
45. Nintendo Switch sees best ever week of sales in US as it prepares to enter China
46. Football Manager 2020 releases at No. 1 in EMEAA charts: Football Manager beats out Q4 big-hitters, but otherwise charts remain steady as holiday season looms
47. Sea of Thieves is No.4 as Black Friday transforms UK Charts: FIFA 20 is No.1 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare takes No.2
48. Black Friday weekend digital game spending reached record $4.36b: In-game spending in free-to-play games up 13% YOY as digital interest continues to grow
49. Shenmue III comes up short in the Japanese chart: Ys Net’s sequel failed to make waves in its home market, with less than 18k sales on PS4
50. The truth about revenue sharing | Opinion: Revenue sharing has allowed great games to be made, says Unlock Audio’s Elliot Callighan, but it’s also used as a crutch by inexperienced teams
51. An inside look at one indie dev-publisher relationship (with contract details!)
52. What will the next UK gaming IPO look like? | Opinion: Liberum’s Andrew Bryant reflects on the flood of floatations in the last two years, and discusses why the next will need to be different
53. Codemasters acquires Project Cars developer Slightly Mad Studios
54. Codemasters acquires Project CARS developer Slightly Mad Studios: Racing studio grows to 700 people
55. Codemasters buys Slightly Mad Studios for $30m: Project CARS studio will join the UK publisher in a deal that could rise by $67m based on three-year earnout clause
56. Persona 5 has topped 3.2 million sales worldwide
57. In the Valley of Gods “on hold” indefinitely: Former Campo Santo devs now at Valve have moved to other projects, including Half-Life: Alyx
58. Pathfinder: Kingmaker dev Owlcat Games raises $1 million to fund new project
59. Peripheral maker Logitech pledges to become carbon neutral by 2030
60. YouTube no longer equates video game and real-world violence for age restrictions
61. YouTube’s new gaming policy will allow creators to produce more violent footage: Advertising concerns are still high on creators’ agendas
62. YouTube lightens restrictions on violent video game content: Policy update aims to better reflect difference between real-world and simulated violence
63. YouTube Officially Separates Ad Policies For Video Game And Real-World Violence
64. Dicebreaker launches news and reviews site to serve thriving tabletop community: Editor-in-chief Matt Jarvis discusses how the games industry can capitalise on the explosive growth of board games
65. Streaming startup Genvid nets $27 million to expand ‘dev-grade’ broadcasting platform
66. Twitch introduces new dashboard so more people can create livestreams
67. ESL reportedly shuts down Spain, France branches, UK is “at risk”: Esports league tells GamesIndustry.biz no offices have closed, but are being restructured
68. Counter-Strike World Champions Aim for First Esport Team IPO
69. Astralis Group plans first ever IPO for an esports team: Danish Counter-Strike outfit seeks as much as €20 million from December 9 listing
70. Esports Laws of the World
71. Star Citizen hits $250m raised through crowdfunding: Almost 2.5m players have now funded the game, which is closing in on $300m in total investment
72. Genvid closes $27m Series B round: Interactive streaming tech firm has also opened new offices in Berlin and California
73. Area28 raises $2.15m for cloud-based development platform: Technology will add “significant value to the game development process” says Alibaba investor
74. XR Games raises £1.5 million for new projects and staff
75. Owlcat Games raises $1m for new Pathfinder video game: Gem Capital and My.Games investment arm lead funding for Moscow studio’s second foray into Pathfinder
76. Persona 5 has sold 3.2m copies worldwide: Latest edition Persona 5 Royal has sold 400,000 copies in Japan, series’ lifestime sales now past 11 million
77. Meet the young developer turning her severe anxiety into a games career
78. “Winning and measuring engagement is no longer enough”: Midia’s Karol Severin warns entertainment firms should be measuring positive sentiment in this age of abundance
79. Over 450 million PlayStation home consoles have been sold in 25 years
80. PlayStations 1 to 4 have sold more than 450 million systems: Sony touts Guinness record for “best-selling home video game console brand ever”
81. Don’t Miss: A brief history of PlayStation, from one-time frontman Phil Harrison
82. The $0 marketing game guide
83. Blog: Breaking down the Steam sales of Battle Royale Tycoon
84. Blog: An introduction to wargame design – Part 1
85. Blog: The perception of fairness in games
86. Blog: Lessons learned from building a digital board game business
87. Video: Breathing life into the machines of Horizon Zero Dawn
88. Video: How Oddworld solved its narrative problems with mind control
89. Video: A game dev’s guide to designing games with social impact
90. Best of 2019: The ‘Door Problem’ of combat design
91. Best of 2019: Downscaling, upscaling, same-scaling – Porting to Switch and under-powered consoles
92. How “randomizers” are breathing new life into old games
93. Video Games Without Borders wins UN Refugee Agency’s Innovation Award: Non-profit studio was selected from 259 entries for its mobile game promoting literacy and well-being among Syrian children
94. Logitech commits to carbon neutrality by 2030: “We want to leave our mark on the future. We know that mark can be positive or negative, depending on the large and small decisions we make every day,” says CEO
95. People of the Year 2019: Jeffrey Rosen and John Graham – We explore the legacy of Humble Bundle’s co-founders in the first of this year’s series on outstanding contributions to the industry
96. People of the Year 2019: Remedy Entertainment: The Finnish studio’s bid for independence was about building a more stable future — Control proved it was also about creating the best possible games
97. People of the Year 2019: SonicFox and Blitzchung – In a year where major industry figures were increasingly reluctant to take stances, two esports pros used their reach to demand change
98. People of the Year 2019: Playing for the Planet Alliance – Unifying against climate change is the first of many steps the games industry must take
99. The state of Xbox One in 2019.
100. The state of the PlayStation 4 in 2019.
101. The state of the Nintendo Switch in 2019.
102. EA donating $500,000 to Team Trees: Donation, in the name of new Plants Vs Zombies game, will see half a million trees planted by January 1, 2020
103. Apple has named the best iOS games of 2019
104. Sky Children of the Light and Hyper Light Drifter among Apple’s Games of the Year: Meanwhile, Mario Kart Tour and Minecraft top most downloaded charts and The Gardens Between honoured in Apple Design Awards
105. Google Play names Call of Duty: Mobile as best Android game of 2019
106. Did “Fewer, Bigger, Better” actually work? – 10 Years Ago This Month: Major publishers have been narrowing their release slates for years, but has it produced the intended results?
107. The Game Theorists’ Star-Studded Stream Raises $1.3 Million — And Counting — For St. Jude
108. E3 media study shows declining media attendance, coverage: ESA says over 3,700 members of the media attended E3 in 2019
109. U.S. Patent no. 10,258,880: Dynamic selection of voice quality over a wireless system
110. U.S. Patent no. 10,258,882: Recording companion

Jon

COMMUNICATIONS

1. The US gives Huawei its third 90-day support exemption from export ban
2. Apathy Isn’t A Business Model: Major US Telcos Teeter Toward Bankruptcy
3. Comcast trying to drive local sports network out of business, lawsuit says
4. 46 Cities Sue The FCC For Trampling Their Rights
5. FCC sued by dozens of cities after voting to kill local fees and rules
6. Congress Says The FCC Is Trying To Run Out The Clock On Wireless Location Data Scandals
7. FCC Announces Schedule for Transition to Annual Children’s Television Reports
8. Ajit Pai Does a Good Thing As He Pushes For Public C Band Auction
9. Who is leading the 5G patent race?
10. PSA: DirectTV Pushes Back By Mentioning All The Refunds For Blackouts Its Issued… To Customers That Asked
11. 11th Cir. Reverses Class Cert. in DIRECT TV; Says “Fairly Traceable” Analysis Has Some Bite Under Art. III
12. 11th Circuit vacates class certification in TCPA action against satellite TV provider
13. Clarification of the Electronic Communications Code
14. Federal robocall legislation: “agreement in principle”
15. Federal robocall legislation update
16. As DirecTV tanks, AT&T says it will “re-bundle” TV with HBO Max
17. AT&T to Pay $60 Million to Settle Dispute Over “Unlimited” Claims
18. John Legere leaving T-Mobile after 7 fun years of bashing AT&T and Verizon
19. Knowing What Happens Next, T-Mobile CEO Legere Heads For The Exit 

DIGITAL

1. TikTok Head Says He’s “Quite Optimistic” About U.S. National Security Probe
2. TikTok Hits 1.5 Billion Total Downloads, Driven By Explosive Growth In India
3. TikTok Taps In Social Shopping Tools, Letting (Some) Users Add Buy Links To Bios And Videos
4. Federal Court Short-Circuits Voltage Pictures’ Canadian File Sharing Class Action Copyright Lawsuit Strategy (Michael Geist)
5. Supreme Court agrees to review disastrous ruling on API copyrights
6. Big News: Supreme Court To Hear Google v. Oracle Case About API And Copyright
7. Site blocking orders come to Canada: GoldTV.biz
8. Federal Court issues landmark website-blocking injunction with significant implications for ISPs
9. Fool’s Gold: Why a Federal Court Judge Was Wrong To Issue a Website Blocking Order Against GoldTV (Michael Geist)
10. Bell Media Inc. Groupe TVA Inc. Rogers Media Inc. v. goldtv.biz goldtv.ca  (Federal Court, November 15, 2019)
11. More Evidence That IP Law Protects Individual Emoji Depictions–Nirvana v. Marc Jacobs (Eric Goldman)
12. Rules of the game? Digital political campaigning for the 2019 UK general election
13. Judge Says The FBI Can’t Keep Refusing To Confirm Or Deny The Existence Of Social Media Monitoring Documents
14. Google search results have more human help than you think, report finds: Google is sometimes hands-on under the hood, and investigators want to know more.
15. How Google Interferes With Its Search Algorithms and Changes Your Results: The internet giant uses blacklists, algorithm tweaks and an army of contractors to shape what you see
16. Google outlines plans for mainline Linux kernel support in Android
17. The Ethical Dilemma at the Heart of Big Tech Companies
18. Microsoft says yes to future encrypted DNS requests in Windows
19. Twitter Releases New Global Political Advertising Policy
20. Twitter’s ban on paid political advertisement comes into effect
21. You might be able to schedule tweets from Twitter’s web app starting today: You used to have to use Tweetdeck or another service
22. Evan Spiegel Says Snapchat Has A Team That Fact-Checks All Political Ads
23. Snapchat Introduces Extended Play Commercials: The 6-second non-skip format still applies, but video can run up to 3 minutes
24. Andrew Yang’s Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Tech Policy
25. Disney+ Has a Hacking Problem
26. The version of Star Wars on Disney+ changes the canon once again: Han Solo vs. Greedo might look different than it did in 1977. And 2004. And 2011.
27. Disney+ Promises To Fix Cropped Episodes Of ‘The Simpsons,’ But That’s Not Users’ Only Issue
28. Hulu, Which Reportedly Has Nation’s Most-Subscribed Skinny Bundle, Institutes $10 Price Hike
29. Online content and take down requirements- what are the boundaries?
30. Narcos Defeats Yet Another Silly Copyright Lawsuit
31. Court Sanctions Defendant for Failure to Preserve Text Messages in Copyright Infringement Suit Brought by Prince’s Estate
32. Court Finds Communications Decency Act Protects Tumblr Against Revenge Porn Claim
33. Unrelenting “ad blocker” plasters users with—you guessed it—ads
34. Elsevier Gets Sci-Hub And LibGen Blocked In Austria, Thereby Promoting The Use Of VPNs And Tor In The Country
35. Giant Publisher Macmillan Goes To War Against Libraries
36. David Dobrik Nabs People’s ‘Sexiest Man Alive’ Honors, People’s Choice Award
37. David Dobrik Says Monthly YouTube Ad Earnings Went From $275,000 To $2,000 In Two Years
38. Logan Paul Filing Appeal With Athletic Commission After KSI Boxing Defeat: “I Don’t Think I Lost”
39. Studio71 UK Talent Firm ‘Moxie’ Signs Pro-Biker Ryan Taylor, Comedian Munya Chawawa, More
40. Evangelical ‘Financial Whiz’ Who Apparently Hates Gossip, Sues YouTuber For Criticism
41. James Charles To Host YouTube’s First Beauty Influencer Competition Series
42. Manny MUA, FouseyTube, Andrea Russett Tapped For Season 2 Of ‘The Reality House’
43. ICYMI: FTC Summarizes Existing Influencer Rules
44. Influencing the Influencers: FTC Staff Release “Disclosures 101” Guidance for Online Endorsers
45. Spreading The Influence: FTC Issues New Guidance for Influencers
46. Senators ask if Facebook really lets users opt out of location tracking
47. Facebook Claims Users Sign Up Because They Want To See Personalized Ads, Max Schrems Disagrees — And Usually Wins These GDPR Arguments
48. Facebook Seeks Post-Spokeo Review of Biometric Privacy Class Action
49. Facebook Levels Up Charity Livestreaming Tools, Opening Them To All Partner Creators
50. Facebook quietly built “Popular Photos”, an in-app Instagram
51. Facebook gets into the meme-making biz with experimental Whale app: The app was quietly released in Canada last week
52. Pay Data Pitfalls: What We Can Learn From Facebook’s Discrimination Case
53. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is the single leading source of anti-vax ads on Facebook
54. Is it Time to Prioritize Making Websites and Mobile Apps Accessible?
55. We Need to Fix Online Advertising. All of It.: For the sake of democracy.
56. Troll Lawyer Shows Up In Court To Explain His ‘Dead Grandfather’ Excuse, Gets His ‘Fitness To Practice’ Questioned By The Judge
57. Should Doxxing Be Illegal?
58. Google’s acquisition of Fitbit proves that data is king
59. Google Maps translate feature will speak local place-names
60. Google gives up on US carriers, will roll out its own RCS chat system
61. Google Pixel 4 review—Overpriced, uncompetitive, and out of touch
62. Google Earth gets content creation tools for geography-focused presentations
63. InterDigital reveals new licensing deal with Google secured through mystery platform
64. YouTube’s Top 5 Most-Viewed Music Videos Of 2019 All Belong To Latino Artists
65. Japanese Hotel Charges Guests $1 If They Agree To Stream Their Stays For 24 Hours
66. Following Positive Feedback, Instagram Expands Test Of Hidden ‘Like’ Counts Globally
67. Condé Nast Reveals Latest IGTV Slate Amid Revamped Ad Strategy
68. Instagram tests hiding Like counts globally
69. Apple plans a Prime-like subscription bundle, but that has News+ publishers worried
70. Apple bans vaping apps from the iOS App Store
71. No, Apple isn’t opening a new manufacturing plant in Texas
72. Insurer Must Face Email Spoofing Lawsuit
73. Spotify confirms it’s testing real-time lyrics synced to music
74. Spotify’s free music service will now stream on Alexa devices, plus Bose and Sonos smart speakers
75. Spotify will now make a road trip playlist for you: It’s not as frighteningly accurate as the Daily Mix playlists, though
76. Spotify turns its personalization technology to podcasts with launch of Your Daily Podcasts
77. Amazon makes its music streaming service free with ads
78. It’s the user’s fault if a Ring camera violates your privacy, Amazon says
79. AMS Neve vs. Heritage Audio: What does the CJEU ruling mean for online infringement cases?
80. The LawBytes Podcast, Episode 32: Reflections from the Open Source Member of Parliament – A Conversation with Ex-MP David Graham (Michael Geist)
81. Masnick’s Impossibility Theorem: Content Moderation At Scale Is Impossible To Do Well
82. Shipping Firms Pilot Blockchain, New Crypto Payment Gateways and Products, Wyoming Announces Crypto Custody Rules
83. Financial Institutions and D&O International Review – Facebook’s Libra: watershed moment for digital currencies?
84. Patreon Now Counts 4 Million Patrons That Have Paid Creators $1 Billion To Date
85. Every Tech Company Wants to Be a Bank – Someday, At Least: Apple, Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Uber are all eyeing financial services as the next frontier. Getting there might take some work.
86. IBM, Microsoft, the Linux Foundation and OIN join forces to counter open source threat
87. Price Parity Clauses and Online Platforms: Is There a New Way Forward?
88. Online intermediaries: Fresh guidance from the CJEU on the scope of the E-Commerce Directive
89. “Where the Wi-Fi sucks” is where a new wireless protocol does its magic
90. Should The Big Tech Companies Voluntarily Fund The Journalism Business?

A.I.

1. Deepfakes are already breaking democracy. Just ask any woman: It doesn’t take a faked prime ministerial address to threaten the democratic process
2. What should newsrooms do about deepfakes? These three things, for starters
3. Microsoft sends a new kind of AI processor into the cloud
4. Blog: Automating machine learning for mobile games
5. Google’s FreddieMeter AI Experiment rates how well you sing ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’
6. Algorithms were supposed to make Virginia judges fairer. What happened was far more complicated.
7. Improving autonomous autos by having them guess which humans are selfish
8. Protecting AI-Created Works – US seeking comments on copyright. What about Canada?
9. Request for Comments on Intellectual Property Protection for Artificial Intelligence Innovation
10. Will AI replace IP attorneys?
11. AI & Privacy: PrActIcal AdvIce for OrgAnIzAtIons
12. Capital One Asks the FCC To Make It Easier For You Communicate With its Very Polite Texting Robot: Here’s Why That’s a Good Thing
13. Delaware Court Allows Stockholder To Inspect AI Company’s Books
14. Write AI code once, run anywhere—it’s not Java, it’s Intel’s oneAPI 

PRIVACY

1. Federal Court Says ICE, CBP’s Suspicionless Searches Of Electronic Devices Is Unconstitutional
2. Supreme Court’s Warrant Requirement For Cell Site Location Info Apparently Killed Another Domestic Surveillance Program
3. Cops put GPS tracker on man’s car, charge him with theft for removing it
4. Attorney General Calls FOIA Requests ‘Harassment’ During Long Rant About How Much It Sucks To Be Running The Nation
5. Password data for ~2.2 million users of currency and gaming sites dumped online
6. Nikki Haley lost her password, so she sent confidential info over unclassified system
7. Impeachment hearing reveals major White House phone security fail
8. Impeachment Hearings Highlight More Trump Phone OPSEC Failures
9. FTC head asks Congress for real privacy laws he can enforce
10. New EDPB guidelines on processing personal data through video devices
11. Think of the children: FBI sought Interpol statement against end-to-end crypto
12. Official Monero website is hacked to deliver currency-stealing malware
13. How Did A Hacker Allegedly Access A Million Customers’ Personal Data? Let the FTC Count the Ways.
14. Court Provides Guidance on What Constitutes “Telemarketing” to Residential Phone Numbers
15. What the newly released Checkra1n jailbreak means for iDevice security
16. Beware of PureLocker Ransomware
17. Legal Aspects of Managing Data
18. Privacy Policy Requirements
19. Leveraging open source intelligence for cyber threat modeling
20. Watch: Cyber threats in the Internet of Things
21. Brexit and data protection: What to do next (when you don’t know what’s happening next)
22. GDPR Enforcement Update: Can European Union Authorities Enforce Their Laws On U.S.-Based Companies?
23. Interpol Confirms, Denies It’s Against Strong Encryption
24. Google & Samsung fix Android spying flaw. Other makers may still be vulnerable

CREATIVITY

1. Court To Racist Douchebags: It’s Not Defamatory For A Newspaper To Call You ‘Racist Douchebags’
2. Journalists Publish List Of Convicted Cops The State’s Attorney General Said Was Illegal For Them To Have
3. Taylor Swift says she’s been stopped from performing her own music on TV by Scooter Braun.
4. Taylor Swift says she’s being blocked from singing her songs at American Music Awards
5. Taylor Swift’s fight with Big Machine is getting support from Elizabeth Warren and AOC
6. Leave Taylor Alone! Why Swift Action Is Needed Now
7. Rap Song, Video Trigger Sharon Stone Lawsuit
8. Bullock, DeGeneres Fight ‘Celebrity Endorsement Theft Industry’
9. The Ins and Outs of Canadian Copyright: Movies and the real and substantial connection test
10. Universal Music Claims Copyright Over Newly Public Domain ‘Yes! We Have No Bananas’
11. Music Collection Org: Revenues Are Booming… And That’s Proof Why We Need Even More Draconian Copyright Laws
12. Auction of ‘kidnapped’ Banksy work reignites bitter feud
13. Restrictive Covenants Do Not Inhibit Free Speech
14. Needless Trademark Spat In Canada At Least Has Exactly As Polite Ending As You’d Expect
15. Supreme Court to Hear Dot-Com Trademark Issue
16. Trade Marks – where to sue when infringement occurs online
17. Running an International Prize Promotion Without Breaking the Law
18. How to defend yourself in case the artwork you bought at auction does not match its pre-sale description?

GAMES

1. Game On: FaZe Clan’s $20 Million Lawsuit Against eSports Gamer Will Continue
2. To find new games, more women value social circles, while men look to influencers – Newzoo: More women than men tend to value games that are easy to pick up and play quickly
3. Bobby Kotick: Games are not a platform for my political views
4. ‘Perpetual franchises’ are key to Activision Blizzard’s strategy, says CEO Kotick
5. Google’s Stadia Game Streaming Service Arrives To A Collective ‘Meh’
6. Google Stadia Launch Review: A Technical, Conceptual Disaster
7. Google Stadia review: Gaming’s streaming future isn’t here yet
8. Google Stadia launch review: Gaming’s “future” looks rough in the present
9. Google Stadia review — It works, but it doesn’t matter
10. Stadia delivers on low-latency, high quality cloud gaming – but is that enough?
11. Unplayable at times, magical in others: Stadia’s dream is still in the clouds
12. Google Stadia will be missing many features for Monday’s launch
13. Google Stadia will launch without key features: Reddit AMA confirms that streaming service will not have Family Sharing, achievements, 4K for PC or Buddy Pass at launch
14. Will Google’s Stadia Game Streaming Platform Be A Dud?
15. Google Stadia nearly doubles launch lineup to 22 games on eve of debut
16. Google expands today’s Stadia’s launch lineup to 22 games
17. Google expands Stadia launch lineup to 22 titles right before launch
18. Stadia nearly doubles line-up just days before launch: Ten titles pulled forward to November 19 as Google gears up to take streaming service live
19. Stadia what? Xbox game streaming will become part of Game Pass in 2020
20. Finalists named in Google’s annual Change the Game Design Challenge
21. Xbox Game Pass subscriptions have doubled as its library continues to grow
22. Project xCloud preview sees 50 more games, hits Windows 10 in 2020
23. Xbox: “People are using xCloud to create couch co-op” – Microsoft’s xCloud leaders discuss what they’ve learned — and still need to learn — about game streaming
24. From Project xCloud to New Rare Studio Game: Everything Revealed at Microsoft’s X019 Event
25. Logitech has made an expansive accessory kit for the Xbox Adaptive Controller
26. Logitech’s $100 Adaptive Gaming Kit finishes what Xbox’s XAC started: “People buy the XAC, then ask, ‘what should go with this? ’” Logitech made the answer.
27. PlayStation has 100 million reasons to feel confident | Opinion: X019 saw Microsoft ready for the next generation, but the power remains with PlayStation
28. Sony controller patent points to potential PS5 permutations
29. Apple Arcade may be accelerating premium game decline, but not by much: Apple’s subscription service coincided with lower premium revenue during launch month, but sales have already been declining for years
30. Games and datacenter chips drive Nvidia’s Q3 revenue to $3.01 billion
31. Forge of Empires dev InnoGames surpasses $1 billion revenue
32. InnoGames’ lifetime revenues pass €1bn: More than half of this came from Forge of Empires, company has grown revenues every year since 2007
33. Report: BioWare planning revitalizing overhaul for Anthem
34. Sources: BioWare Plans A Complete Overhaul For Anthem
35. NPD: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is the best-selling game of 2019 so far – The Switch remains the best-selling console of the year so far in the US
36. Call of Duty and Mario Kart front a siege of PC and console IP on mobile: Sensor Tower looks back on a busy month in the mobile charts, and reflects on the growing influence of console and PC brands
37. Call of Duty tops EMEAA chart for third straight week: Death Stranding debuts in second spot on the charts as Need for Speed Heat races into third place
38. UK Charts: Pokémon Sword and Shield post huge opening weekend sales – But the new games can’t top Sun and Moon
39. Report: Pokemon Sword and Shield have sold over 1.36 million retail copies in Japan
40. Pokemon Sword and Shield sold 1.36m retail copies in three days in Japan: Sales reportedly mark the best opening week a Nintendo Switch title has had in Japan so far
41. Nintendo is bringing paid subscriptions to Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp
42. Paid subscriptions coming to Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp – Nintendo follows Mario Kart subscription with two tiers for Animal Crossing amounting to $10.98 per month
43. A Nintendo designer reviews your Super Mario Maker 2 levels
44. Analyst: Borderlands 3, NBA 2K20 helped 2K dominate online chatter in Q3
45. 2K Games apologises after social media feeds were hijacked on Friday: Publisher lost control of official Twitter account, along with pages for WWE, Borderlands, and Civilization
46. Sustained mobile portfolio brings continued growth for NetEase in Q3: Chinese mobile giant sees year-over-year increases in net revenue and profit amid new releases, WoW Classic launch in China
47. Southeast Asia is the world’s fastest-growing mobile games market – Newzoo: Mobile revenue expected to be up 17% in 2019 to $2.6 billion, nearly 70% of the region’s total games revenue
48. Niko Partners: Southeast Asia’s $5 billion game market expected to grow to $8.3 billion in 2023
49. Mobile party app Bunch nets $3.85M from Supercell, Tencent, and others
50. Bunch raises $3.85m toward development, expanded partnerships: Supercell, Tencent, and Riot Games among investors in mobile game chat and party app
51. Net profit up 53.7% as Netmarble closes Q3
52. New studio Dream Games raises $7.5 million to fuel mobile game development
53. Dream Games raises $7.5m to develop casual puzzle titles: Investment in Turkish studio made by Makers Fund, Balderton Capital
54. German government to continue $55 million game development fund 
55. Mythical Games closes $19m funding round
56. Mobile party app Bunch nets $3.85M from Supercell, Tencent, and others
57. Take-Two leads $20 million funding round into Spellbreak developer Proletariat
58. Proletariat raises $20m for self-publishing, expansion: Spellbreak developer nets investment from Take-Two as it ramps up development
59. Rune II publisher Ragnarok ‘shocked’ by closure of dev Human Head Studios
60. Rune II publisher “shocked” by Human Head closure: Ragnarok Game confirmed it will continue to support Rune II and launch on other PC platforms in 2020
61. Net game sales up 117% at THQ Nordic parent Embracer Group
62. Wreckfest drives games revenue up 117% at Embracer Group: Company formerly known as THQ Nordic looks ahead to a Q3 with Darksiders and Shenmue 3
63. How Koch Media is ensuring classic brand comebacks are worth the wait: From Shenmue III to TimeSplitters, CEO Klemens Kundratitz discusses the publisher’s upcoming line-up
64. Goodbye Kansas grabs 45 percent stake in Norwegian studio Misc Games
65. Goodbye Kansas Game Invest now owns 45% of Misc Games: Minority stake in ship simulation dev acquired in two separate deals
66. Tencent grabs 10 percent stake in UK game company Sumo Group
67. Revenue up at Paradox as it maintains focus on games with ‘long lifespans and strong IPs’
68. Rebellion launches board games division: UK developer and publisher will kick off new business with tabletop version of Sniper Elite
69. LG and Twitch Reveal Streaming Partnership with Pokimane
70. FaZe Clan’s First Deaf, Female Gamer — 14-Year-Old ‘Ewok’ — Is Latest Twitch Departee To Sign With Mixer
71. Faze Ewok is the latest streamer to jump ship from Twitch: She’s set to stream exclusively on Mixer
72. FaZe Clan To Open First Storefront, Aims To Be Esports’ Supreme
73. Esports Org 100 Thieves Adds Fortnite Pros ‘Falconer’, ‘Grandma’ To Growing Roster
74. esports – gearing up to play in the pro leagues!
75. Esports gamers experience same stressors as pro athletes, study finds
76. The beauty of the indie spin-off: Binding of Isaac developer Edmund McMillen explains how and why he followed up the action game with a deckbuilding puzzle prequel
77. Blog: Going indie in Syria
78. Blog: Understanding Agile game development – Part 1
79. Blog: Designing interesting decisions in games (and when not to)
80. Blog: A guide to scrappy social media management
81. The Game Theorists To Host Nine-Hour Stream For St. Jude With Markiplier, Colleen Ballinger, More
82. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order Review – A Good Feeling About This
83. Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order review: the Star Wars game no one was expecting – Jedi Fallen Order focuses on exploration, with moments of explosive combat
84. Jedi Fallen Order Shows That A Good Star Wars Game Doesn’t Have To Be Original: Part Zelda, part Tomb Raider, part Uncharted – all Star Wars
85. Jedi: Fallen Order game review: More like, the Force goes back to sleep
86. Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order: Critical Consensus – Respawn Entertainment delivers on the experience of being a Jedi, critics say, but did the new film’s imminent release cause EA to push the game out early?
87. Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky’s design lessons from The Outer Worlds
88. Steam’s online couch co-op feature Remote Play Together leaves beta 
89. Genre viability on Steam and other trends – An analysis using review count
90. How players shop during a Steam sale: An in-depth analysis
91. Valve is making a new VR Half-Life game
92. Half-Life: Alyx: What we know about Valve’s upcoming full-length VR game
93. Oculus Link launches in beta, opening Rift games up to Quest owners
94. Oculus Link for PC is live: Everything we know about cables, GPU support [Updated]
95. John Carmack steps down as Oculus CTO to explore artificial intelligence
96. John Carmack moves to “consulting CTO” role at Oculus: Industry veteran will focus on AI, with Oculus now taking a “modest slice” of his time
97. Oculus, Unity partner on free VR development course: 20+ hour course will teach VR build and launch best practices
98. Snapchat Pledges $750,000 To Support AR Influencers In 2020
99. Snapchat Will Invest $750,000 For AR Influencers To Create New AR Lenses
100. Mixed reality game streaming platform LIV secures $2.6 million in funding
101. New 3D display combines visuals, haptic feedback, and sound: A small sphere levitated on sound can be moved around fast enough to be a display.
102. How Mario 64 inspired that horrible goose’s moveset
103. What went into Apex Legends’ surprise launch?: Respawn’s Arturo Castro and Drew McCoy explain how they made and marketed a Titanfall game with none of the key elements of Titanfall
104. Ars talks fighting games with Guilty Gear creator Daisuke Ishiwatari
105. Don’t Miss: Translating the humor & tone of Yakuza games for the West
106. Don’t Miss: Shenmue director Yu Suzuki shares his unique approach to game design
107. Don’t Miss: The secrets of great voice acting
108. Don’t Miss: How Neopets has influenced a generation of game developers
109. Video: Inside Far Cry Primal’s character pipeline and customization tech
110. Video: Top game composers share hard-won advice and lessons learned
111. Video: Inside the art design of Firewatch
112. Video: Game design insights from the GDC 2019 Failure Workshop
113. Video: How Rockstar tackles environment design as spatial cinematography
114. The never-ending journey of No Man’s Sky – Why I Love: EA Vancouver games researcher James Berg loses himself in Hello Games’ vast universe
115. Designing the drunken dialogue puzzles in Night School Studio’s Afterparty 
116. Charity streaming event Desert Bus for Hope surpasses $6 million in lifetime donations
117. Bungie raises $1.6 million for charity through Game2give pledge drive
118. U.S. Patent no. 10,252,167: Location graph adapted video games
119. Smash Bros, Death Stranding among GOTY nominees for The Game Awards 2019
120. EverQuest lead producer and designer Brad McQuaid has passed away
121. Obituary: Everquest designer and MMORPG vet Brad McQuaid

Jon

COMMUNICATIONS

1. When does hyperlinking infringe copyright? UK High Court addresses linking to internet radio stations
2. Warner Music UK Ltd. & Sony Music Entertainment UK Ltd v. TuneIn Inc. [2019] EWHC 2923 (Ch)
3. DirecTV kept charging regional sports fee while channel was blacked out
4. FCC Freaks Out About Huawei, But Ignores The Internet Of Broken Things
5. Researchers unearth malware that siphoned SMS texts out of telco’s network 
6. Shocker: ISPs Cut Back 2020 Investment Despite Tax Breaks, Death Of Net Neutrality 
7. Cops Now Using Warrants To Gain Access To DNA Services’ Entire Databases
8. AT&T Will Pay $60 Million to Settle FTC Charges of Unfair Practices
9. AT&T Enters Into $60 Million Settlement With FTC Over “Unlimited” Claims 
10. AT&T Loses Another 1.36 Million Pay TV Subscribers Thanks To Relentless Price Hikes
11. AT&T’s priciest “unlimited” plan now allows 100GB+ of un-throttled data
12. AT&T users whose “unlimited data” was throttled get $60 million in refunds
13. AT&T makes customers work to get refunds they should get automatically
14. 5G Is Not A ‘Race,’ And We’re Incapable Of Determining Winners Even If It Was
15. California Wildfire Cellular Outages Could Have Been Easily Avoided
16. Changes to the Electronic Communications Code 

DIGITAL

1. Twitter will ban political ads, Jack Dorsey announces
2. Man Sues Twitter For $1 Billion Claiming His Account’s Suspension Violated His Right To Worship President Trump As A Demigod
3. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey Announces New Ban On Political Ads, Takes Shot At Facebook
4. Twitter Bans Political Ads – Doing What Broadcasters are Forbidden to Do
5. Twitter is rolling out Topics, a way to follow subjects automatically in the timeline: Starting with more than 300 subjects across sports, gaming, and entertainment
6. Former Twitter employees charged with spying on users for Saudis
7. Twitter’s Decision To Ban Political Ads Is A Moderation Choice Itself That Likely Will Backfire In Its Own Way
8. 8chan gets back online—and is promptly forced off again
9. Breaking the law: How 8chan (or “8kun”) got (briefly) back online
10. Devin Nunes Demands Satirical Internet Cow Stop Making Fun Of Him… Or Else
11. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Apologizes And Unblocks Critic Who Sued Her
12. Why America needs a hate speech law
13. Former Journalist Decides There’s Too Much Free Speech These Days
14. After 10 failed logins, Giuliani had Apple Store wipe his iPhone: Report – The 2017 incident occurred shortly after Trump named Rudy cybersecurity advisor.
15. Exclusive: U.S. opens national security investigation into TikTok – sources
16. The U.S. Government Is Investigating TikTok Parent Bytedance As A Potential National Security Threat (Report)
17. TikTok Integrates Third-Party Editing, Posting Tools Amid Developers Program Launch
18. TikTok’s parent company facing national security review, report says
19. Antitrust 101: Why everyone is probing Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google
20. Competition Bureau Cracks Down on Misleading Advertising in the Digital Economy
21. Deadspin Is Being Burnt To The Ground By Its New Management As Staff Quits Or Revolts
22. A Thumbs-Up Emoji Doesn’t Mean That Dad Disavowed His Child–Bardales v. Lamothe
23. Strike 3’s Copyright Litigation Campaign Completely Strikes Out (Eric Goldman)
24. Copyright Lawyer Asks that Judge Recuse Himself for Referring to Lawyer as “Troll”
25. No Copyright Case Too Small: Content Creators Rejoice or Casual Infringers Beware?
26. The Fine Print of Terms of Use
27. Ninth Circuit Preserves LinkedIn Competitor’s Data-Scraping Rights
28. Just Another Day In Academic Publishing: Professor Posts His Own Article On His Own Website, Gets Takedown Notice Alleging Copyright Infringement
29. Content Moderation At Scale Remains Impossible: Vaccines Edition
30. NY Times At It Again: Has To Run Massive Correction For All The Errors In Aaron Sorkin’s Facts Optional Rant About Why Facebook Should Fact Check
31. Facebook’s Sues Israeli Malware Marketer With A Lawsuit That Aims To Make An Easily-Abused Law Even More Abusable
32. Courts in the EU Can Order Facebook to Remove Defamatory Content Globally and Monitor Republications
33. Facebook changes product branding to FACEBOOK
34. Microsoft Japan’s four-day week trial boosts productivity by 40%: Company also noted paper and electricity consumption dropped significantly
35. Google to Buy Fitbit for $2.1 Billion: The deal represents an aggressive attempt by Google to bolster its lineup of hardware products.
36. Google Buys Fitbit for $2.1B
37. Google buys Fitbit for $2.1 billion
38. What is Google going to do with your Fitbit data? Anything it likes: Fitbit’s teams could soon be working on future Pixel watches. But more importantly, what can Google do with all the health and fitness data?
39. Hungary: Google is set to triumph over the Hungarian advertisement tax
40. Google workers call on company to adopt aggressive climate plan: Letter signed by more than 1,000 employees calls for zero emissions by 2030 in latest wave of industry climate activism
41. FTC Brings First Case against Developers of “Stalking” Applications
42. Is A YouTube COPPAcalypse Coming? FTC Rules Could Start Demonetizing Creators In 2020
43. Will the FTC Crack Down on Online Influencers?
44. FTC to Influencers: Don’t Lie. Be Transparent. Keep It Simple.
45. FTC Releases New Guide for Influencers
46. The FTC Releases New Guidelines (And Its First Creator-Friendly Brochure) For Influencers Who Post Sponsored Content
47. FTC Issues Guidance on Proper Disclosures for Social Media Influencers
48. Key Takeaways from FTC’s “Disclosures 101 for Social Media Influencers”
49. Keeping It Real: FTC Settles Cases Over Fake Social Media Indicators, Reviews
50. FTC Imposed a $2.5 Million Fine on a CEO for Selling Fake Likes and Followers on Social Media
51. “Good Genes?”: Maybe Not. FTC Takes Action Against Sunday Riley and Sunday Riley Modern Skincare, LLC For Employees False Reviews
52. Actively exploited bug in fully updated Firefox is sending users into a tizzy
53. Xiaomi’s Apple Watch clone removes everything good about the Apple Watch
54. YouTube Ads Contain More Male Characters, But Those Starring Females Nab More Views (Study)
55. State Court Rejects Prager University’s Lawsuit Against YouTube
56. Prager University Loses Another Of Its Silly Lawsuits Against YouTube Over Non-Existent ‘Bias’
57. Warner Music UK Ltd. & Sony Music Entertainment UK Ltd v. TuneIn Inc. [2019] EWHC 2923 (Ch)
58. Susan Wojcicki Joins #TeamTrees With $200,000 Personal Contribution
59. YouTube Might Have Banned Former Trump Adviser, Sebastian Gorka, For Copyright Violations
60. YouTube Rolls Out Latest Creator Monetization Tool In The Form Of ‘Super Stickers’
61. YouTube rolls out Super Stickers, a new way for creators to make money
62. These Are The YouTube Music Videos With The Highest Halloween Viewership
63. Halloween Social Videos Amass Over 6.6 Billion Views in October Alone
64. YouTube Testing New App Layout With Three Featured Comments Directly Under Videos
65. RIP OG Pixel: Google ends support after just three years
66. Google Brings ‘Shopping Ads’ Format To YouTube Ahead Of Holiday Frenzy
67. Shopping ads come to YouTube’s home feed and search results
68. Coldplay To Premiere New Album In Two-Part YouTube Stream From Jordan
69. After Boxing Defeat, FouseyTube Launches New ‘YouTube Cribs’ Series With Logan Paul
70. Shane Dawson And Jeffree Star’s ‘Conspiracy’ Launch Hits Hourslong Snag Amid Shopify Crash
71. After Selling 1 Million Palettes In 30 Minutes, Jeffree Star And Shane Dawson Announce ‘Conspiracy Collection’ Restock
72. David Dobrik Swipes Right On Branded Courtship With Dating App ‘Bumble’
73. Man City: controlling brand and reputation in the age of agencies, ads and #influencers
74. Spotify Saved the Music Industry. Now What?: Profits are hard to come by—and Apple and Amazon aren’t going away.
75. Netflix Sinks Its Teeth Into Scripted Podcasting With Post-Apocalyptic Miniseries ‘The Only Podcast Left’
76. Apple TV+ launches with eight TV shows and one movie
77. Insights: Beyond Reflex, React, and Repost Journalism, NewsMatch Boosts Nonprofit Newsrooms
78. With Vice Deal Done, Refinery29 Founders Moving Out of Management Roles
79. Intel hits 10nm goals and signals a shift away from traditional CPUs
80. Just Browsing: District Court Finds Browsewrap Agreement Enforceable
81. Texas court upholds “do it on a computer” check-cashing patent
82. Bipartisan social media data portability bill introduced in U.S. Senate
83. Because Internet makes a linguist’s case for l33t speak, other online-text fads

A.I.

1. The Global Forum on AI for Humanity: A Global Forum That Excluded the Globe (Michael Geist)
2. Can An Algorithm Be An Author? (And Other AI Questions The PTO Is Now Asking)
3. When both drivers are in error, people blame the human one more
4. Deepfakes: is seeing still believing?

PRIVACY

1. New Suit Against Spyware-Maker Demonstrates One Company’s Offensive Strategy Against Cyber Attacks
2. ACLU Sues DOJ Over Facial Recognition Documents
3. ACLU sues feds to get information about facial-recognition programs
4. ISPs lied to Congress to spread confusion about encrypted DNS, Mozilla says
5. FBI’s Top Lawyer From The Apple Encryption Fight Says Law Enforcement Needs To Suck It Up And Embrace Encryption
6. Tipped off by an NSA breach, researchers discover new APT hacking group
7. Researchers hack Siri, Alexa, and Google Home by shining lasers at them
8. New bill would create Digital Privacy Agency to enforce privacy rights
9. DoD’s new cybersecurity compliance program . . . What you need to know
10. Facebook Groups API flaw exposed data to 100 developers, company says
11. Australia’s Idiotic War On Porn Returns, This Time Using Facial Recognition
12. Children’s Privacy Law Updates: Tricks or Treats?
13. GDPR fines were meant to rock the data privacy world. They haven’t: GDPR hasn’t heralded the swarm of huge fines that was predicted. But that doesn’t mean the fines so far haven’t been influential
14. Privacy Shield Third Annual Review
15. Ransomware Hits Hard During 2019
16. FBI Warns of E-Skimming Threats

CREATIVITY

1. Jean Carroll suing Trump for defamation: The 28-page lawsuit filed on Monday outlines Trump’s alleged rape of Carroll 23 years ago.
2. Jean Carroll, Who Accused Trump of Rape, Sues Him for Defamation: The writer says the president hurt her career when he said she had lied about him attacking her in a dressing room in the 1990s.
3. DOJ, Apparently Unaware Of 1st Amendment, Threaten Anonymous White House Official About To Release A Book
4. 9th Circuit Revives Ridiculous ‘Shake It Off’ Copyright Lawsuit, Because The 9th Circuit Loves To Mess Up Copyright Law
5. Bob Murray, Who Sued John Oliver For Mocking His Support Of Trump’s Plan To Bring Back Coal Jobs… Files For Bankruptcy
6. US Government Threatening To Kill Free Trade With South Africa After Hollywood Complained It Was Adopting American Fair Use Principles
7. The bell tolls for alleged copyright claim to skyline photo
8. The copyright woes of Meghan Markle
9. Believe it or not – claim based on belief in copyright fails
10. Prince’s Foundation struck by £100 million art fraud scandal
11. Estoppel based on patent prosecution history in Canada: The Pandora’s box is opened
12. Hall v. Swift
13. G-Star clothing designs not covered by copyright protection
14. Of Passion, Prejudice and Punitive Damages
15. Ex-Wrestlers Argue WWE Hid Risks of Head Injuries in Concussion Lawsuit
16. Employer Pays Millions in Compensation for Employee’s Invention
17. California Man Gets Sued After Trying To Trademark Bully A Theme Park
18. Black Friday – Not Just Shopping Madness, Beware the Trademark Trap
19. Splatter master Jackson Pollock avoided “coiling” when creating his paintings
20. Spooky IP
21. Patent Tips for Halloween

GAMES

1. Blizzard president gives vague apology for Hong Kong protest response
2. Blizzard president J. Allen Brack apologizes for bungled Hearthstone punishment
3. Hong Kong protesters shine, but don’t quite spark at BlizzCon
4. Blizzard’s substance-less BlizzCon statement speaks volumes | Opinion: Allen Brack’s speech rings hollow as company changes no policies, stands by Hearthstone pro’s ban for supporting Hong Kong protesters
5. Allen Brack apologizes for Blizzard’s “tough Hearthstone esports moment”: At BlizzCon, company president alludes to ban of Hearthstone player Blitzchung for pro-Hong Kong support, welcomes protests
6. Brack confirms Blizzard won’t repeal Blitzchung ban: The sanction against the casters won’t be withdrawn either, Blizzard’s president said
7. Blizzard won’t reverse Hearthstone pro’s Hong Kong protest suspension: Blizzard boss shifts some blame for initial decisions to Chinese publishing partner.
8. Blizzcon: Blizzard Apologizes For Banning Blitzchung, Keeps Him Banned, More Fallout Ensues
9. Hearthstone developers think Blizzard was “too harsh” with Blitzchung: But creative director Ben Thompson said that taking control of a platform that is “very much not your own” is not free speech
10. Xiaomeng ‘Liooon’ Li is the first woman to win Hearthstone GrandMasters: Li is also the first woman to win a major competition across all Blizzard games at Blizzcon
11. China fears young people are addicted to video games. Now it’s imposing a curfew
12. China gaming regulator publishes new rules for minors targeting playtime, spending: Age-rating system still in the works as restrictions are tightened, expanded to mobile games
13. “If we’re going to be drug dealers, let’s not literally mine for addicts”: At Reboot Develop, indie publisher Mike Wilson used the game addiction debate to call for devs to “be intentional” about what they create
14. Video: Addiction science and advice for devs on promoting healthy play
15. ‘Fortnite’ Pro FaZe Jarvis Banned From Game For Life After YouTube Videos Showed Him Cheating
16. Aimbot video leads to lifetime ban for popular Fortnite pro
17. General Court says that relevant public’s attention is ‘average at best’ when assessing likelihood of confusion relating to games and computer games (“Dungeons” is confusingly similar to “Dungeons & Dragons”)
18. Reselling Digital Video Games Now entering the age of the digital yard sale?
19. ZeniMax ordered to issue refunds for Fallout 76 in Australia: Well, this can’t be good.
20. ZeniMax to offer refunds for faulty Fallout 76 in Australia: ZeniMax admits it likely misled consumers over their digital rights
21. ZeniMax to grant Fallout 76 refunds under pressure from Australian commission
22. Less than half of US gamers purchased in-game content last month – SuperData: Additional content spending stagnating on PC and console as players gravitate toward fewer titles overall
23. Fabulous investigating after Devolver Digital accuses its app of ripping off Gris
24. Self-help app “investigating” after accusations of stealing art, animation from Gris: Devolver Digital shares side-by-side comparison of Fabulous video, Gris gameplay and cutscenes
25. Brendan Greene: “I [only] have one woman on my team, and I hate that” – At the View Conference, PUBG’s creator discussed hiring for diversity, and why education will be the best long-term solution
26. Amazon blocks sales of all unauthorised Nintendo products: Third-party sellers now need platform holder’s approval before selling second-hand games or hardware
27. Amazon reverses sudden restriction of third-party “Nintendo product“ sales
28. Report: Amazon cracking down on third-party sales of Nintendo products
29. Switch Lite sells strong at launch, as total Switch sales near 42M
30. Nintendo: Switch Lite is expanding the Switch market, especially with women
31. The Nintendo Switch has sold over 10 million units in Japan 
32. The Nintendo Switch has sold 10m units in Japan: Japanese sales make up nearly one-fourth of total console sales (including the Lite)
33. UK Charts: Luigi’s Mansion 3 is the biggest Switch launch of 2019 (so far) – At least until Pokémon comes along
34. Nintendo Profits Lifted by Switch Lite Sales
35. Nintendo has nearly doubled its first-party game sales in 2019 
36. So far, game spending is over $27 billion for 2019 in the US 
37. US gamers have spent $27.9bn in 2019 so far: Spending is only up 1% over 2018 year-to-date, with hardware sales down 23%
38. How Arcade1Up found a sweet spot for scaled-down home game cabinets
39. Abbey Games ‘scoping down’ and terminating all employee contracts by 2020
40. Call of Duty was the UK’s best-selling game in October
41. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare dominates the EMEAA charts – Meanwhile, FIFA fends off new releases The Outer Worlds, MediEvil and WWE 2K20
42. Supercell scraps upcoming title Rush Wars after failing to find the fun
43. Supercell shuts down Rush Wars after three months of beta: PvP strategy title cancelled due to “repetitive” nature, concerns about longevity
44. Profits down 48.1% for Rovio Entertainment in Q3: Angry Birds dev in discussions to potentially lay off staff as The Angry Birds Movie 2 falls short of expectations
45. PS4 slows as the transition nears | Opinion: Sony’s next year will be vital; as PS4 sales decline faster than expected, can the company balance support for its older console with building excitement for the new?
46. Retrospective: As Sony Clearly Wins This Generation’s Console Wars, Let’s Recall How It All Began
47. Watch Dogs Legion, Rainbow Six Quarantine and Gods & Monsters heading to PS5, Project Scarlett: Delayed Ubisoft titles will be joined by two unannounced AAA games in the next fiscal year
48. Industry veterans form ‘diverse and inclusive’ studio Brass Lion Entertainment
49. Brass Lion Entertainment aims to diversify the industry: New studio from AAA vets will focus on original games “that center on Black and Brown characters, cultures, and stories”
50. Epic Games Store update brings new navigation and in-game store options
51. Epic adds free Infinity Blade content to Unreal Engine Marketplace
52. Does French streaming platform Shadow have its head in the clouds?: Co-founder Emmanuel Freund on opening up games to more people, the tech side of things and Google’s entry into the space
53. F1 extends licencing deal with Codemasters until 2025: Codemasters has extended its deal for exclusive video game rights for the Formula 1 World Championship until 2025, with an option for a further two years.
54. Modern Warfare dev compares game’s “awareness building” to Schoolhouse Rock: Narrative director responds to criticism about ‘Highway of Death’ mission: “This is not some kind of propaganda”
55. Modern Warfare. Modern Warfare never changes.: 10 Years Ago This Month: No Russian turns the mass shooting into mass market entertainment and Nokia buries the N-Gage for good
56. Which platforms are publishers and investors really interested in?: Xsolla shares lessons from its funding club and offers advice on how to impress potential investors
57. Death Stranding is Kojima unleashed, and it’s as weird as you’d expect
58. Death Stranding: Critical Consensus – A haunting experience that succeeds in spite of its own clumsy excess, Death Stranding arrives to frequently mitigated praise
59. Hideo Kojima and Kojima Productions to start making movies
60. Hideo Kojima to venture into film production: “Games, films and dramas will have to compete in the same space,” Death Stranding director said
61. Blizzard announces Overwatch sequel at BlizzCon
62. Overwatch 2 announced, will be cross-compatible with original game: Overwatch surpasses 50 million players, all of whom will be able to PvP match with, transfer cosmetics to Overwatch 2
63. Jeff Kaplan: Leaks impact developer morale more than anything else
64. Hearthstone Battlegrounds is Blizzard’s card-based take on auto chess
65. Blizzard confirms Diablo IV is coming to consoles and PC
66. Diablo IV is revealed, sure looks like a supercharged Diablo II
67. Designing the gameplay and aesthetic of Diablo IV
68. Don’t Miss: David Brevik’s tale of designing the original Diablo
69. Blizzard is adding ethnically diverse character skins with World of Warcraft: Shadowlands: Fifteen years after launch, players will be able to customise their character to match their ethnicity
70. Wargaming partners with Gearbox for its first full retail release: World of Warships: Legends will get a retail version in Firepower Deluxe Edition
71. Vainglory dev Super Evil Megacorp raises $10.5 million as it refocuses on next project
72. Super Evil Megacorp closes $10.5m financing round as it prepares to launch new project: Vainglory developer hands off publishing responsibilities for its cross-platform MOBA to Rogue Games
73. Improbable and Tencent Cloud team up to help devs bring games to China
74. Improbable partners with Tencent Cloud for game development program: New Improbable/Tencent Cloud Developer Program to support creators making games in SpatialOS for the Chinese market with cloud services
75. Unity acquires 3D application streaming platform creator Obvioos
76. Unity acquires cloud application streaming service creator Obvioos: French studio begins aligning Furioos’ 3D application streaming tech closely with development platform
77. Video: Inside BioWare’s embedded QA process
78. Video: Advice for game devs on creating believable heroes
79. Zordix secures $1.4 million in funding, acquires Dimfrost Studio
80. Chad Wild Clay And Vy Qwaint’s ‘Spy Ninja’ Mobile Game Surpasses 3 Million Downloads
81. Games industry international trade bodies unite on universal esports principles: Set of four principles for engagement agreed upon by representatives of the ESA, ESAC, UKIE, ISFE, and IGEA
82. Yoshinori Ono on Street Fighter’s road to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics: The Capcom producer discusses the Intel World Open, a tournament that aims to break the barriers to entry for esports
83. Esports tournament platform Mainline closes $6.8m funding round: Funding led by Work America Capital will help expand software platform
84. Report: Embattled real estate startup WeWork mulling esports investment
85. Esports Org 100 Thieves Signs Rapidly-Ascending Twitch Star ‘Brooke AB’
86. Another major streamer leaves Twitch, this time for YouTube
87. YouTube Steals CouRage From Twitch As The Celebrity Streamer Gold Rush Heats Up
88. CouRage Becomes Latest Streamer To Ditch Twitch — In Exclusive Deal With YouTube Gaming
89. 100 Thieves’ Jack “CouRage” Dunlop signs YouTube exclusivity deal: Dunlop asks over 2m Twitch subscribers to follow him as exodus of major streamers from Twitch to other platforms continues
90. Twitch Teams With Analytics Provider Moat To Measure Its Unblockable ‘SureStream’ Ads
91. Longtime NASCAR Exec Lou Garate Switches Lanes, Becoming Twitch’s First Global Head Of Sponsorship Sales
92. Twitch CEO Emmett Shear On How Moderation Creates Communities: Twitch is bigger than it’s ever been, and here’s how it’s going to change
93. Mixer Price-Matches Twitch, Dropping Monthly Creator Subscription From $5.99 To $4.99
94. New Oculus Social Tools Will Help VR Feel More Like a Place, Less Like a Game
95. Facebook CEO: ‘VR is Taking Longer Than Expected, but We’ll See It to Mass Adoption’
96. Reality Gaming Group expanding to China: Chengdu government will help promote the studio and its flagship game Reality Clash, as well as AR and blockchain tech
97. Rumor: Apple Reportedly Partners With Valve to Develop AR Headset
98. Toys R Us partners with Snapchat to create AR shopping experience: The augmented reality experience aims to help users with their holiday shopping
99. Niantic opens Niantic Creator Program to fund and support AR-minded devs
100. Niantic opens up Pokemon Go sponsored location program for smaller businesses
101. Niantic announces Creator Program to support AR development: Pokemon Go developer also offering funding opportunities, AR development kit
102. Braid and the beauty of not wasting time – Why I Love: A Duel Hand Disaster dev Jaycee Salinas takes inspiration from the indie time manipulation platformer
103. Video: Advice for game devs on creating believable heroes
104. Video: Game preservation lessons learned on EA’s biggest sports games
105. Blog: Kickstarter lessons learned from a 300 percent funded solo project
106. Net sales down at Starbreeze as company readies for Payday-centric future
107. Starbreeze losses were $30.8 million for the first nine months of 2019: But company is confident reconstruction efforts and new publishing deal Payday 3 will save the studio
108. Bake ‘n’ Switch wins big at the Reboot Develop Indie Awards: Streamline Studios’ original IP picked up GOTY, while Myst creator Rand Miller received the Hero award
109. Don’t Miss: Designing the stealth, economy, and encounters of Horizon Zero Dawn
110. Red Dead Redemption 2 on PC: More frames, more volumetric beauty, no Steam
111. Don’t Miss: Composing the music of Red Dead Redemption
112. SingStar servers slated for January 2020 shutdown
113. Sony will close down SingStar servers in January 2020: Online sales, support and shared content will be pulled, 15 years after the series debuted
114. Just Dance launches campaign to raise money for Alzheimer’s Research UK: Ubisoft will donate £1 for every dance memory shared on social media
115. U.S. Patent no. 10,252,163: Music video game with user directed sound generation

Jon