Inclusive Esports Arena Helps Young Gamers Grow Connections, Learn Tech Skills

Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer:
2K, owned by Take Two Interactive and publisher of Bioshock, Xcom, and popular sports games, says its help desk was hacked and sent customers links to malware  —  American video game publisher 2K has confirmed that its help desk platform was hacked and used to target customers …

Cade Metz / New York Times:
Uber has agreed to pay New Jersey $100M in back taxes after the state said that the company had misclassified its drivers as independent contractors  —  New Jersey demanded back taxes from the ride-hailing company, claiming it misclassified drivers as independent contractors.

Kate Clark / The Information:
SBF quietly invested $500M+ in Paradigm, Altimeter, and other VCs, including, sources say a $200M commitment to Sequoia, and $300M to K5 per PitchBook  —  FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was not only a tireless fundraiser from venture capital firms including Paradigm and Sequoia Capital …

Brian Feldman / Bloomberg:
Gamers, who have embraced pay-to-play models and paid digital goods, have largely succeeded in rejecting the video game industry’s efforts to incorporate NFTs  —  Nick Kaman’s video game development studio, Aggro Crab, has tied its image closely to making fun of cryptocurrency.

Cecilia D’Anastasio / Bloomberg:
The hype around esports is fading, as teams and organizations shrink due to a weak sponsorship and ad market, falling VC investment, and the crypto meltdown  —  The once-thriving esports industry has fallen on hard times as funding sources dwindle and signs abound that athletic competition via video games …