Electronic Sports League Head of Team & Federation Relations Jan Pommer said that esports "are not just a passing fad" like Pokemon and are "here to stay," according to Julien Pretot of REUTERS. He said that esports were played by more than 400 million people worldwide. Pommer added that about 150 million people were playing esports at a "high level" and 2.2 billion were "gaming" (REUTERS, 5/18).
RECORD SALES: THE ESPORTS OBSERVER's Trent Murray reported French game publisher Ubisoft released its financial report for its '17-18 fiscal year ending March 31, "announcing record sales and higher-than-ever peak concurrent users." Total annual sales grew 18.6% year-over-year to €1.73B ($2.04B). Int'l Financial Reporting Standards gross margin was 82.9%, up from 81.4% in the '16-17 fiscal year (THE ESPORTS OBSERVER, 5/18).
RENEWING PARTNERSHIP: THE ESPORTS OBSERVER's Ferguson Mitchell reported VR League Season 2 was officially revealed on Thursday, the "result of a renewed partnership between ESL and virtual reality company Oculus VR." Oculus is a subsidiary of Facebook (THE ESPORTS OBSERVER, 5/18).
NEW PARTNERSHIP: Murray also reported Code Red Esports announced a partnership with sports and entertainment agency CSM. The two companies will "work together to provide full service esports representation to brands and rights holders looking to enter the esports market" (THE ESPORTS OBSERVER, 5/18).
FUNDING ROUND: THE ESPORTS OBSERVER's Graham Ashton reported Gamelynx, an independent game developer based in Santa Monica, Calif., raised $1.2M with the goal of "developing esports-focused mobile titles." One of the studio's investors is League of Legends developer Riot Games (THE ESPORTS OBSERVER, 5/18).
