Orange County’s strong contingent of video game publishers and related companies were well-represented at this year’s E3 conference in downtown Los Angeles, a departure from the past few years.
Irvine-based startup Frostkeep Studios held private meetings at the Los Angeles Convention Center with media and other industry insiders as it prepped for the launch of “Rend,” a team-based, fantasy survival, role-playing game.
“We’re really trying to drum up all the interest we can,” co-founder Jeremy Wood told the Business Journal during a game demo. “We don’t have a name we can leverage. We have to earn all of our coverage.”
Intellivision Entertainment used the country’s largest video game trade show to talk up the revival of its flagship console, which gained prominence in the early 1980s.
Even Blizzard Entertainment Inc., OC’s largest software maker by revenue and employment, made a rare appearance, holding a panel discussion at the E3 Coliseum at L.A. Live on “World of Warcraft” storytelling through various media.
U.K.-based Outright Games, which recently opened an operation in Long Beach, attended its first E3 to highlight games in the pipeline featuring well-known licensed brands, such as Adventure Time and Ben 10, and to attract partners.
“Part of being here is to find more developers,” Chairman Nick Button Brown said. “It’s not just looking for one-off deals. We do want the right kind of developer that gets the vision and gets the idea of producing these real good experiences for licensed games.”
E3 drew more than 69,000 attendees over three days ending on June 13, and more than 220 exhibitors from around the world showcased over 3,200 products, including 70-plus debuts.
Rocket Cued Up
Huntington Beach-based Rocket Lab’s first commercial orbital launch is back on track.
The company, whose goal is to revolutionize access to space with small satellites through frequent launches, delayed the first one from late April. The 14-day window opened on June 23 for the It’s Business Time mission, which will carry payloads, or small satellites, for data gatherers Spire Global, GeoOptics Inc., IRVINE01 and NABEO.
“We are still on track for a launch attempt,” spokeswoman Morgan Bailey told the Business Journal.
IRVINE01 is an educational payload from the Irvine CubeSat STEM Program, which is made up of a consortium of high schools in Irvine.
The site at Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand is the only private orbital launch pad in the world.
Rocket Lab is among a small contingent of OC companies to reach unicorn status with a valuation surpassing $1 billion. It raised $75 million in a series D round last year led by San Francisco-based Data Collective and has raised $148 million overall, other backers including Khosla Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, K1W1 Ltd., Promos Ventures and Lockheed Martin.
Qualcomm Suits
Several law firms across the country have filed class-action lawsuits against Qualcomm Inc. (Nasdaq: QCOM), alleging the San Diego-based chipmaker issued a series of material or false misrepresentations that artificially pumped up its share price during Broadcom Inc.’s hostile courtship, while secretly trying to kill the deal through back channels.
The plaintiffs, which blame Qualcomm’s board for failing to notify investors and the public that it had asked the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. to investigate the proposed $117 billion bid over national security concerns, allege federal security law violations.
They’re seeking damages on behalf of Qualcomm shareholders who purchased common stock from Jan. 31 to March 12, the day President Donald Trump killed the deal in a presidential order citing national security concerns related to 5G development.
The Trump administration said it worried that if Broadcom (Nasdaq: AVGO) acquired Qualcomm, it would invoke deep 5G research and development cuts. If that happened, it contended, the U.S. would lose the lead to China in the race for 5G supremacy, and in doing so compromise national security.
The unsolicited bid was championed by Broadcom Chief Technical Officer Henry Samueli, who personally nominated at least one director in a slate of nominees intended to replace Qualcomm’s board in a proxy battle that never materialized.
