games

Mobile-game sidekick apps have become a standard element of tentpole movie releases. And while such games can generate a nice chunk of change in their own right, a prime directive for studios is getting butts into theater seats. For “Ice Age: Collision Course,” 20th Century Fox cut a licensing deal with game developer Zynga to produce a match-3 game (a …

Scopely, the mobile game developer whose titles include a hit spinoff of “The Walking Dead,” announced $60 million in a Series C financing. The latest round brings Scopely to $160 million raised to date, and comes less than a year after it pulled in $55 million. The L.A.-based company says it has a valuation over $600 million and is profitable, …

“Terminator Genisys” may not be coming back to the big screen, but the cyborg franchise is set to get an all-new mobile game release next year. Skydance has inked a pact with game developer Plarium for the rights to develop a mobile game for iOS and Android based on the latest film in the “Terminator” franchise. The clan-based massively multiplayer online …

Facebook is the exclusive broadcast partner for this year’s college eSports tournament “Heroes of the Dorm” from Blizzard Entertainment — an event that was carried on ESPN2 for the last two years. The 2017 spring tournament, produced by Blizzard and Tespa, will feature “Heroes of the Storm” teams from colleges across the U.S. and Canada, giving them a chance to …

ESPN is counterprogramming against the NFL’s Super Bowl LI with the telecast of an eSports competition — the first on the sports giant’s primary TV channel — featuring pro video-gamers playing what everyone outside the U.S. calls football. On cable, ESPN will air a one-hour replay of EA’s Paris regional final of the FIFA 17 Ultimate Team Championship Series on …

A slew of Smurfs is about to swarm over smartphones in a new game — designed in part to drive fans into theaters to see the little blue beings’ new movie this weekend. Sony has launched “Smurfs Bubble Story,” a free bubble-shooter mobile game for kids and Smurfs fans of all ages who care to admit it (Sony says the game …

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 …