Two items caught my attention over the past couple of weeks, both which may have an effect on the market.
Roblox is facing increasing heat for its alleged inability to protect children, with Louisiana being the latest to sue the gaming behemoth.
Wednesday, Sony raised the price of PlayStation 5 consoles. As of Thursday, the base model went from $500 to $550, the disc drive-less “digital” version went from $450 to $500, and the top-of-the-line PlayStation Pro hit an astounding $750 from $700. The reason? Well, it’s likely tariffs. As Niko Partners Director of Research and Insight Daniel Ahmad posted on Blusky (follow for the insights, stay for his silly jokes), China is “still an important manufacturing center for Sony,” even as it adds capacity in other nations. Still, Ahmad points out that now, the Trump administration regime of “30% tariff on China, 15% tariff on Japan, 20% tariff on Vietnam, 19% tariff on Malaysia means Sony is impacted no matter what.”
Of course, Trump’s continued hemming-and-hawing on tariffs and attempts at deal-making could cause these duties to shift (lower or higher!), so who knows how long these prices will remain in effect. Still, it’s shocking considering how in gaming, as tech ages, prices used to go down.
Nodwin’s acquisition of Evo from Sony fits with series’ expansion plans
Coming off one of the most successful Las Vegas events since its founding in 1996, the Evolution Championship Series no longer is a Sony Interactive Entertainment property, as the premier fighting-game esports event announced Thursday that it sold controlling interest to India’s Nodwin Gaming. Saudi Arabia’s Qiddiya, the entertainment-focused city project backed by the country’s Public Investment Fund, is also investing in existing Evo owner RTS (it became a sponsor in 2024).
As part of the deal, Sony becomes a global sponsor of Evo, and it’ll continue to support the event series with technology and tournaments. The recent Las Vegas Evo drew 54,000 over three days, which is down from last year’s 60,000. Factors such as tariffs affecting the costs of travel and drops in international tourism under the Trump administration could factor in the decrease. An Evo spokesperson said they were “happy” with the turnout, which included selling out Sunday’s finals.
The Evo spokesperson also said the Nodwin acquisition fits into its plans to expand the series, which is heading to Europe for the first time in October. “The new owners and partners will drive Evo’s international expansion, engaging content and immersive experiences for the fighting game community through 2028 and beyond.” The spokesperson did not comment on questions about agencies used in the transaction, Saudi Arabia’s alleged sportswashing and how much of Evo that RTS retains under the agreement.
Expanding the scene
Evo’s Las Vegas Event championship featured a few milestones that helped it stand out:
- Sponsors: For the first time, Evo had a non-beer alcohol sponsor, with White Claw making its debut (Voodoo Ranger was its second-ever beer sponsor). Chipotle pulled off an interesting activation with its “Burrito Bus,” which allowed eventgoers to buy food without leaving the convention center.
- Scope: This year’s event saw 16 championships decided, the most in Evo history. And while Evo has long been a place for the best players to compete for championships, it’s becoming a showcase for fighting games as well, with publishers making big announcements in Las Vegas over, say, other events such as Gamescom, Tokyo Game Show or even Geoff Keighley’s Summer Games Showcase. It now also features a large — and growing — exhibition of arcade games spanning the industry’s history.
- Global growth: Evo is holding its first event in Europe with Evo at the Palais des Expos in Nice, France, on Oct. 10-11 and now a future event in Saudi Arabia. This gives Evo two events on the far side of two continents — Japan and Las Vegas — with Western Europe and the Middle East in between, providing easier access than ever before for fans who may not want to travel across half the globe to get to Japan or the Western U.S.
Evo’s stage becoming a showcase nearly as meaningful as the old E3 for fighting games is something that’s become “a natural development,” Evo GM Rick Thiher said in an interview ahead of the event. But it continues to grow thanks not just to more publishers participating with their games and championships but also by Evo’s desire to bring fighting-game events closer to its community.
“We do want to make sure that we continue to [expand events] in alignment with what fighting game fandom wants, not necessarily in response to what the general gaming market is doing,” Thiher said. “We ran the largest event of our kind and the largest competitive video game tournament of all time last year in Las Vegas. Our show in Tokyo expanded this year to be the largest of its kind in the history of Japan. The France event that we are going to touch down on for the first time in a few months here later this year, is by registration [numbers] already the largest event of its kind in history. I’m pretty comfortable saying the general response has been pretty enthusiastically positive.”
Sponsors are enabling the expansion of growth as well. Voodoo Ranger’s deal helped make the arcade area larger (at 23,000 square feet and over 300 cabinets, it became the third-largest arcade in the U.S. that weekend). And other venues are interested in hosting Evo events, such as Moody Center in Texas.
Evo’s growth is “a response to what has been happening with our fandom at our show,” Thiher said. “For publishers to converge, and both celebrate their existing and debut their new products, for endemic brands and even artisans to show up and celebrate with that collected fandom in a productized way around merchandise, those things together drive us into the growth curve we’ve had. Do I think that there is an opportunity for that to grow even farther, because there are so many other events that offered variations of this experience that have scaled back or disappeared? Sure. But we do want to make sure that we continue to do that in alignment with what fighting game fandom wants, not necessarily in response to what the general gaming market is doing.”
We’ll see that growth on display in France in November. But will it have the same spirit under new ownership — and amid a connection to Saudi Arabia that some in the fighting-game community will no doubt view as controversial?
MLB 9 Inning 25’s players embrace the Legends during All-Star Game events
Events such as All-Star Games tend to be boons for sports games, especially on the mobile side. They bring back lapsed players or provide a fresh avenue of engagement for those who may still be playing but may not log in every day.
MLB 9 Innings 25’s companion events for July’s All-Star Game just finished. The Com2Us free-to-play mobile and PC game (it’s ranked No. 62 in sports games on the App Store in the U.S., per market research firm Sensor Tower) held events such as “Festival of the Stars” and “All-Star Game Coin Shop” (which boosted the number of in-game currency players receive and wrapped up Wednesday).
“We did notice just really high levels of engagement across the board,” said Rich Grisham, director/business development at Com2Us USA (which also works on Out of the Park Baseball). “We’re in this really beautiful place where we’ve got a development team that really fundamentally understands what makes the game special. You’ve got a community that really, really understands what they love and how to participate with others in the community. And then we’ve got these great partners with Major League Baseball and with the players association. It allows us to do really special stuff.
“We’re really just in a really great place where I feel like every single thing related to our title is really firing on all cylinders. And that’s a credit, like I said, to the development team, the community and to our partners.”
This comes to the fore with the Legendary players Com2Us adds during the All-Star Game festivities. Hall of Famers such as Derek Jeter, Adrián Beltré and Joe DiMaggio arrived in the game for the first time. And players quickly embraced them.
“Our players love the Legends. … Who doesn’t want to have Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb or Pedro Martinez or Lou Gehrig,” Grisham said. “Baseball is the sport, more than any other sport, where the legendary players mean more than they do anywhere else. And that’s not to denigrate any other sport — far from it! — but there’s just something beautiful and poetic about some of the great names over the course of history. Jackie Robinson and Hank Aaron: These players transcend sports.”
Even if they tend to skew toward the Yankees.
“They’re the most legendary team,” said Grisham, a Mets fan. “You could put an entire 25-man squad out there with nothing but Yankees on it. I certainly hear it sometimes from fans: ‘Hey, what’s up with all the Yankees?’ “But on the other hand, they’ve won the most World Series. They’ve been around a long time. They have that sort of lineage that only a few other clubs like the Dodgers or the Cardinals have. … That’s just sort of how baseball has unfolded over the last 150 years or so.”
Gaming speed reads
- Mythical Games’ FIFA Rivals added Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund to its NFT mobile game in a multiyear deal, its first with a single team as the free-to-play soccer game expands its offerings for markets outside the U.S.
- NASCAR and iRacing released the first batch of screenshots for NASCAR 25. NASCAR interactive media guru Nick Rend showed them off on his LinkedIn.
- Voldex Games, a studio specializing in Roblox games, received two Roblox Innovation Award nominations for its work with NASCAR and the NFL: “Best Racing Experience” and “Best Collaboration” for Driving Empire with NASCAR, and NFL Universe, respectively.
- VR game Golf+ added Caves Valley Golf Club, the host of last week’s BMW Championship and the second-to-last event in the FedExCup Playoffs. It also added a “Creator Camera” for capturing shots to broadcast and share on social media. Golf+ worked with LIV (unrelated to LIV Golf), a third-party app developer, on this addition.
- Porsche and Ford are the latest car manufacturers revealed for Project Motor Racing, a racing sim that’s coming out Nov. 25 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and PC.
- 2K Sports is boosting the WNBA’s presence in NBA 2K26, integrating players into the MyTeam mode and other enhancements coming to The W mode, such as top 10 player ratings.
- ZOWIE is now an “official partner” with Blast for the 2025 Fortnite Global Championship on Sept. 6-7 at the LDLC Arena in Lyon, France. ZOWIE is the maker of monitors and other gear favored in esports circles.
- Product Madness, a game studio under the banner of gambling machine maker Aristocrat Leisure, launched NFL Super Bowl Slots on in the Apple App Store and Google Play on Thursday. It’s free-to-play but is only available to players 18 and over as it’s a social casino game.
