You can't dock here

Good afternoon. Dota 2 held The International 2023 in Seattle this past weekend with Team Spirit taking home $1.4M of the $3.1M prize pool. While this number is huge, the first place prize was 85% lower than last year and 93% lower than 2021. Notice a trend?

The difference? Valve usually funds the prize pool with a special Battle Pass. They decided to skip it this year.

— Derek Neville, Jason Liu, Tim Rhyne

MAIN QUEST: 3rd Parties not Welcome

Microsoft has begun blocking “unauthorized” accessories and controllers on their consoles. While it has not been made clear as to the goals behind this move, the gaming community will be affected both positively and negatively.

Speculation is that it’s a targeted effort to combat hardware cheating devices. Meanwhile, the accessibility community is likely silently hurting following this move as they use the largest range of devices. Microsoft does have the Xbox Adaptive Controller, but if it’s the only officially licensed device, we’re once again putting accessibility into a one-size-fits-all box.

Step back: Locking down the wired and wireless protocols will give Microsoft some hefty leverage in curbing hardware-based cheating. This could pave the way for Microsoft to inch closer to the model that Apple has pioneered, with expansive first-party accessorization, disaggregation of product ecosystems, and licensing fees.

HUD

• 🕹️ A Nintendo design filing from last year was recently made public and shows a new handheld device that can be split into 2 devices, allowing for wireless multi-player gaming with 2 players. The design filing is not believed to have anything to do with the upcoming Switch 2.

• 📈 The price of Fortnite’s in-game V-bucks currency has increased, with both the cost of direct V-bucks purchases and some store packs that include V-bucks increasing. The price hike ranges from $0.50-$10, depending on the bundle.

• 🐻 Five Nights at Freddy’s opening weekend was a major success, bringing in $130 million in combined domestic and international sales. The film now has the largest opening weekend ever for a live-action video game adaptation, and the 2nd largest opening weekend for a video game adaptation overall, behind only The Super Mario Bros. Movie.

MAJOR W

• 🕸️ In a recent interview Bryan Intihar, director of Spider-Man 2, revealed that Insomniac Games announced Wolverine game is set in the same universe as the Spider-Man games.

• 🏝️ Epic Games has confirmed the new Fortnite season, set to go live on Friday, will bring players back to Fortnite Chapter 1, with teasers pointing towards a revert to the Chapter 1: Season 5 map.

F IN THE CHAT

• 📆 The physical copy of Dungeons & Dragons’ newest book - The Deck of Many Things - has been delayed due to a manufacturing issue. The digital version will still be released on its original date.

• 💰 With just a little over a month until the full release of Disney Dreamlight Valley, developer Gameloft announced that the game will no longer be free-to-play as originally announced, and will instead have different editions available for purchase, ranging from $39.99 to $69.99.

CAREER CORNER

• Deal Operations Associate Lead — Unity (Austin, TX)

• Data Center Operations Technician — Roblox (Chicago, IL)

• Senior Manager of Revenue — Rockstar (London, UK)

HIVE MIND

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