games

Warner Bros. paid PewDiePie and other digital stars upwards of tens of thousands of dollars each to promote a 2014 game based on the world of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” without properly disclosing the arrangements, according to the Federal Trade Commission. Under a settlement WB reached with the FTC, announced Monday, Warner Bros. has agreed to make such disclosures in …

Twitch, the game-broadcasting and social-video company owned by Amazon, has hired Michael Aragon as senior VP of content. In the newly created position, Aragon reports directly to Twitch CEO Emmett Shear. Aragon is joining the San Francisco-based company to oversee global broadcaster partnerships, eSports, Twitch Studios, content development and content marketing teams. Most recently, Aragon worked at Ellation, parent company …

WWE is featuring fan-favorite wrestlers Triple H, John Cena, Roman Reigns and others in a new free-to-play mobile puzzle and role-playing game, set to launch later this year. “WWE Champions,” being developed under a pact with mobile-game network startup Scopely, will combine match-three puzzle gameplay a la “Candy Crush” with RPG elements. Players can collect more than 100 different WWE …

Before “Doctor Strange” descends on theaters next weekend, the Master of the Mystic Arts and other characters from the film will infiltrate a half-dozen Marvel Entertainment games in a carefully choreographed promo stunt. Starting Wednesday and running through the end of November, “Doctor Strange” content and characters will be appearing throughout six Marvel game titles on PC and mobile: “Marvel …

PewDiePie, the hugely popular YouTube comedy vlogger who specializes in video games, has launched his next mobile game — “PewDiePie’s Tuber Simulator” — through his Revelmode joint venture with Maker Studios. In addition, the Revelmode partners announced they have signed a multi-title development deal with the studio formed by “Goat Simulator” creator Armin Ibrisagic. In the free “PewDiePie’s Tuber Simulator” …

The video game industry gathered in downtown Los Angeles this past week for the annual deluge of announcements, trailers and reveals known as E3 Here are five of our biggest takeaways from this year’s convention. The connection between Hollywood and video games is getting stronger. As the video game industry (and the technology behind it) has continued to grow, Hollywood’s …

Jam City, the fast-growing mobile games publisher, loves Seth MacFarlane’s “Family Guy” so much, it’s teed up another title based on Fox’s sarcasm-fueled animated TV series. The new match-three puzzle game, aptly called “Family Guy: Another Freakin’ Mobile Game,” is set to launch early this summer. The game — which is not for kids, Jam City noted, or people who …

Netflix is going after the kid demo again with “Skylanders Academy,” its first original series based on a video game, from Activision Blizzard. The 13-episode series bowed Friday on Netflix worldwide. Based on Activision Blizzard’s $3 billion Skylanders toys-to-life line, season 1 of “Skylanders Academy” will be followed by a second season slated to debut on Netflix in late 2017. …

Video-game giant Activision Blizzard is teaming up with Facebook to deliver live eSports tournament coverage on the social-media service worldwide. Activision Blizzard Media Networks, headed by former ESPN CEO Steve Bornstein, will launch its new eSports network and programming during the MLG Anaheim Open, a two-day “Call of Duty: Black Ops III” tournament that kicks off June 10, 2016. The …

Twitch and Super Evil Megacorp, the makers behind mobile esport game “Vainglory,” have inked a three-year partnership. This new partnership, the first of its kind for a mobile esport on the streaming website, includes a multi-million dollar investment from each company and a multi-pronged program across sales, promotions, broadcasts and live events as well as working to set up the …