Sony has acquired the esports platform Repeat.gg, a site that hosts leaderboard tournaments and tracks player performance.
In a statement to GamesIndustry.biz, Steven Roberts, Sony vice president of global competitive gaming said: “At PlayStation, our vision for esports has always been about breaking down barriers for gamers to compete at all levels.”
“Repeat.gg was designed to enable new tournament formats that are easy to enter and scalable to millions of players,” added Repeat.gg CEO Aaron Fletcher. “We’re thrilled to join the PlayStation team and work together to enhance the variety of tournament experiences gamers can enjoy, regardless of their skill level.”
Repeat is excited to announce we are now a part of the Sony Interactive Entertainment family, the home of @PlayStation and many amazing game studios.
Read more here -> https://t.co/YSTWDqCIMO pic.twitter.com/Nxa02HE4HF
— Repeat.gg (@Repeatgg) July 18, 2022
Jeff Shull, digital marketing and growth manager at Repeat.gg, said that joining PlayStation will give the platform access to more resources, game titles, and technology, thus allowing it to grow further. He clarifies that the platform will not be limited to only supporting PlayStation and that the gaming community comes first.
“We will continue to support PC, mobile, and other consoles alongside PlayStation,” says Shull in a statement. “This includes the addition of the most popular competitive game titles, regardless of what platform they are available on.”
While mostly known for its extensive single-player exclusive titles nowadays, PlayStation has been more active in the esports industry recently. The company acquired Evo, the fighting game tournament, last March.
In addition to that strategic push, Sony has committed to launching at least 10 live service titles by 2026. It acquired Bungie and Haven this year, with the latter’s first game to be a live service one. Sony’s investment in these live services synergizes well with its venture into the esports space.
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.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.