Facebook Live has made no secret of its all-conquering ambition to become the go-to game-streaming hub for gamers everywhere. There’s just one small obstacle that stands in the way of its goal; a platform known as Twitch, which currently boasts a massive legion of viewers.
To help it reach the heights that Twitch has already scaled, Facebook has made the strategic decision to hire an individual who has an in-depth understanding of gaming. Stephen “Snoopeh” Ellis has been assigned the role of e-sports strategic partnerships manager at the social network.
Using the hands-on experience Ellis gained from his pro gaming days on the e-sports circuit — and his extensive list of contacts — he will work to bring developers and players, and their streaming content, to Facebook. Ellis was reportedly recruited in May, and is working under Facebook’s head of games partnerships for North America, Guy Cross, reports TechCrunch.
In the short time that Ellis has been at the social network, several major gaming initiatives have been pushed through. On May 13, it was announced that publisher Activision Blizzard was expanding its MLG.tv streaming platform to broadcast events and its e-sports tournaments using Facebook Live. Less than a month later, on June 6, it was announced that Blizzard would be integrating Facebook login and Facebook’s Live API into all its games, including massive-selling titles World of Warcraft, and Overwatch.
During his pro-gaming peak, Ellis gained acclaim for successfully competing in e-sports tournaments, playing one of the most-popular games in the world, League of Legends. Since putting down the gamepad, Ellis has worked as an adviser for gaming analytics firm Repable, and as a VP at e-sports betting company Unikrn. “I’m going to help shape the future of e-sports and gaming,” he declares on his LinkedIn profile.
Facebook’s own outlook when it comes to game streaming is certainly promising. With an existing audience of 1.65 billion users, Ellis shouldn’t have a hard time luring games studios to the social network. Additionally, as a former professional gamer, he understands what other gaming enthusiasts seek from a live-streaming platform. With Ellis in tow, you may end up seeing a lot more gaming content on Facebook Live in the near future.
For years, Call of Duty’s campaign mode has used big, scripted set pieces to tell the overarching story amid all the adrenaline-pumping action. The 2023 Modern Warfare 3 tried to shake up the established formula by introducing a handful of short open combat missions, and I genuinely liked the idea, but the game's overall negative reception seeped into how those missions were received.
I feared the next iteration might abandon the idea because of the backlash, but I am glad it didn't. MW4’s “Stranded” mission uses the same approach, but instead of fragmenting it across the campaign, it puts it all in a single large-scale open-world mission.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.