Games industry roundup: US Senator introduces loot box bill, blockchain gaming's state of play, and influencer distrust

Here are the five hottest stories from our sister-site PCGamesInsider.biz for the last week.

US Senator introduces bill to ban loot boxes in games played by kids

“Social media and video games prey on user addiction, syphoning our kids’ attention from the real world and extracting profits from fostering compulsive habits."

It looks like Anthem sold fewer than six million copies in 2019 fiscal year, EA looking to change how it launches games in wake of BioWare title's troubled release

Publisher says launch failed to meet expectations.

There are over half a billion active EA player accounts, Apex Legends driving digital spending

But the publishing giant is being quiet on user stats for the free-to-play battle royale.

Strap on your headset: Valve's new Index VR kit dominates this week’s Steam Top Ten

Valve's Vive successor sold out in the US within half an hour.

Platinum boss Inaba feels Microsoft bore an unfair share of the blame for Scalebound’s cancellation

“Watching fans getting angry at Microsoft over the cancellation wasn’t easy for us to watch."

Here are the five hottest stories from our sister-site BlockchainGamer.biz for the last week.

Blockchain Games: New State of Play

Believe it or not, something is stirring in the world of blockchain games. And not before time you might be thinking.

2018 was a car crash for the nascent sector, which was hit both by the decline in cryptocurrency valuations and by the failure of any game to substantively build on the foundation created by late 2017 hit CryptoKitties.

Unlimited Tower launches its early access game

While Unlimited Tower stated that in order to get its early access game finished, elements needed to be paused, 24 hours have passed and now the team has officially launched its early access version on the EOS Mainnet.

Forgotten Artefacts begins its pre-sale

Codebit Labs, the development team behind the new blockchain title Forgotten Artefacts, is kickstarting its item pre-sale. Kicking off at the beginning of this week, the sale includes a range of exclusive NFTs.

Battle Racers introduces Bounty Campaign for content creators

Altitude Games is pushing for its community to help get the word out about the game as Battle Racers introduces its new bounty campaign. According to the team’s Twitter, any users looking to help raise awareness can expect to win some nice NFTs and rewards.

POA gives $25,000 grant to geo-location app Geon Network

POA‘s games fund has announced its second winner this week, with a grand prize of $25,000. This initial DAI grant was officially rewarded to the geo-location app Geon Network. Built on top of iOS and Android, users will be able to visit various locations to obtain rewards.

Here are the five hottest stories from our sister-site InfluencerUpdate.biz for the last week.

Study suggests only 4% of internet users trust online influencers

A study from media agency UM shows that a vast majority of global internet users don’t really trust what influencers say online.

StreamElements honours Shroud for accomplishments on Twitch

Top Twitch streamer Michael 'Shroud' Grzesiek, is being recognised for his work and accomplishments on the platform.

Chinese streaming platform DouYu halts US IPO

Chinese live-streaming company DouYu is delaying its US IPO by at least a week, according to reports.

Instagram's guidelines on when to ban an account are changing

Instagram is making an effort to change up some of its policies when it comes to banning accounts.

Nearly half of the world's music consumption happens on YouTube, but the platform dawdles behind competitors

Subscriptions for Google's music streaming service YouTube Music are dwindling behind the likes of Spotify and Apple Music.