TALKESPORT

As you’ve probably heard by now, the iconic Notre Dame cathedral in Paris caught fire last night (Monday, April 15), causing the roof and spire to collapse. 

The building is over 800 years old, and has been a huge part of French culture and history. For comparison, it’s closest rival – the Eiffel tower – is only 132 years old, so you have an idea of just how important Notre Dame truly is to the people of France, and the world.

While this is an undoubtedly heartbreaking scenario, efforts to rebuild are already being put into action, and the damage could have been much worse than it ended up being as the blaze has now been fully extinguished.

The building will be restored as closely as possible to how it was before the fire, meaning that builders and architects involved with the project will be studying a number of photos and videos of the cathedral to recreate it as faithfully and as carefully as possible.

Help is coming from all over the world, and one unexpected source of information is said to be Ubisoft’s own Assassin’s Creed: Unity. 

As you may know, Unity is set in Paris, 1789, and features a truly stunning recreation of Notre Dame cathedral. It’s this incredibly carefully put together digital version of the building that could prove invaluable to its ultimate restoration.

A new report from GPS World, has now suggested that detailed 3D maps such as the one in Assassin’s Creed: Unity will play a role in the restoring of Notre Dame to its former glory.

While we might not have expected Assassin’s Creed to emerge as an unlikely hero in the rebuilding effort, it does make a lot of sense; Ubisoft tend not to mess around when it comes to recreating cities and landmarks in their games, and its version of Notre Dame may just be its finest work to date.

Unity artist Caroline Miousse, told The Verge a while back that Ubisoft’s version of Notre Dame was easily the biggest building in the game, and that she spent ‘literally years fussing over the details of the building’.

Miousse apparently obsessed over old photos to get everything just right, and even worked with texture artists to ensure that ‘each brick was as it should be’.

Danish esports association North has gone into a sponsorship with IT consultancy organization Capgemini.

The Capgemini logo will be included on North player shirts starting April 16. Furthermore, the organization will lead “a few” esports enlistment activities for Capgemini workers and its colleagues.

”We have had several talks with North and REALIZED that the two companies share the same values. We look beyond traditional partnerships and towards something that reflects our boldness and innovative approach.

Anil Agarwal, President of Capgemini Scandinavia Business Unit.

Capgemini says it will host a number of initiatives for its employees and partners designed to promote esports and recruit new talent.

Seattle, WA – April 16, 2019 –Make.TV, has joined forces with Microsoft’s interactive livestreaming service, Mixer, to bring Mixer Matchups to Microsoft Stores across the U.S.

Mixer launched in 2017 and boasts over 20 million monthly active users. Mixer was the first streaming platform with sub-second latency, dubbed Faster Than Light streaming, on Windows 10 PC, Xbox One, iOS and Android. Mixer hosts weekly esports tournaments at participating Microsoft Stores, which are broadcast live on Mixer.

The tournaments are a huge hit, with fans regularly joined by high profile NFL stars. Mixer will now use Make.TV’s Live Video Cloud to bring competing players and remote talent together into a single stream for the first time ever. Make.TV’s Live Video Cloud enables the tournament producers to effortlessly collect, curate and distribute live streams from multiple sources into a single Mixer broadcast, allowing fans to watch events unfold with more players involved than ever before.

“We’re excited to be working with Mixer to help bring new gaming experiences to players and fans alike. Microsoft’s production team can capture content from multiple locations, curating and distributing it to fans in a groundbreaking show. Bringing people together from multiple locations to enjoy shared experiences is fundamental to the future of esports broadcasting, and this can now be achieved on an unprecedented scale,” saidAndreas Jacobi, CEO and co-founder at Make.TV.

Make.TV’s Live Video Cloud opens pathways for video to be shared between content creators, producers, programmers and advertisers with scale, speed and relevance previously not possible. It makes it easy to acquire content quickly, handle remote production and deliver content across broadcast, online and social media networks.

Apple, one of the biggest and richest tech company in the world is all set to try their hands on another venture. This time it being the gaming industry. Apple will launch a new premium service known as Apple Arcade, which will feature at least 100 “new and exclusive” games. Apple Arcade is set to launch this Fall with pricing details yet to be announced. Apple arcade will work on both iOS and Mac devices and the games will be accessible offline and stored permanently on devices. Apple Arcade games will be ad-free and feature no in-app purchases.

In a recent report from Financial Times, sources claimed that Apple will be investing “Half a Billion $” into the Arcade service. Apple’s choice to spend nearly “half a billion $” into gaming may come as a surprise to many, but Apple isn’t the only major tech company interested in gaming. Google announced Stadia and Amazon announced that they are also working on new games and streaming service. With gaming industry posting a revenue more than movie and music industries combined every year, more companies are willing to spend huge amounts of money to have a presence in the market and get a slice of that revenue pie.

The gaming market will get crowded soon and to stand out Apple is trying to make exclusive games for their store. Just like Epic Games Store, Apple will be offering certain perks to developers to launch a temporary exclusive game on Apple Arcade. This will keep titles off Android store or in some cases off the console stores for a certain time period and push more people onto the platform. Apple promises to add new games to the service on a regular basis. Confirmed Apple Arcade publishers include Annapurna Interactive, Bossa Studios, Cartoon Network, Finji, Giant Squid, Klei Entertainment, Konami, LEGO, Mistwalker Corporation, SEGA, Snowman, ustwo games and dozens more.

Abel Tesfaye, a.k.a The Weeknd the famous R&B artist and Grammy award winner joins the list of celebrities investing into Esports. The Weeknd invested in Overactive Media, the parent company of Splyce organisation and Overwatch League’s Toronto Defiant and joined as a member of the ownership group.

The Weeknd is known for his Grammy award winning song Starboy and Earned It. He is a Toronto native and an avid gamer. With this latest round of investment talks, he will become the official Global brand ambassador for both the teams Toronto Defiant and Splyce. In a statement he released, he said :

As a big esports fan, I am really excited to be involved in this project. I am looking forward to collaborating with OverActive Media in unique and innovative ways.

Overactive Media will be collaborating with Weeknd to create new content both in social and personal. Although the terms of the deal were not disclosed, but it would appear that The Weeknd will also contribute towards marketing efforts and brand awareness around both Splyce and Toronto Defiant.

Abel’s standing in the music industry will provide our Toronto Defiant and Splyce brands the opportunity to reach more fans and engage new audiences,

OAM CEO and president Chris Overholt.

The release also mentions that Toronto Defiant fans will see “unique joint efforts” with The Weeknd throughout the 2019 Overwatch League seasons.

The Weeknd isn’t the only celebrity to invest in Esports. Recently rapper Drake and NBA player Meyers Leonard also made investment round in Esports teams. With the rise in popularity of Esports more and more celebs are looking to get into Esports and we may soon see more people being added to this list of ever-growing celeb names.