Nazara Technologies Acquires 47.7% Stake in PokerBaazi Parent Company
Indian gaming and sports media company Nazara Technologies has acquired a 47.7% stake in Moonshine Technology, the parent company of PokerBaazi, for INR 832 crores. An additional INR 150 crores will be injected via convertible preference shares. PokerBaazi, India’s largest online poker platform with 340,000 monthly active users, drives 85% of Moonshine’s revenue. Nazara’s CEO, Nitish Mittersain, highlighted the move as pivotal in strengthening Nazara’s leadership in gaming. PokerBaazi CEO Navkiran Singh emphasized the partnership’s potential to further develop India’s gaming sector and expand globally.
OpenAI’s President Highlights Dota in Unveiling o1’s Advanced Capabilities
OpenAI’s newest artificial intelligence model, known as o1, has demonstrated a substantial improvement in performance, particularly in mastering the intricacies of complex strategy games like Dota. Greg Brockman, the President and Co-Founder of OpenAI, , which are honed through reinforcement learning. This process enables the AI to “think step by step,” leading to more refined decision-making.
“One way to think about this is that our models do System I thinking, while chains of thought unlock System II thinking. People have discovered a while ago that prompting the model to ‘think step by step’ boosts performance. But training the model to do this, end to end with trial and error, is far more reliable and — as we’ve seen with games like Go or Dota — can generate extremely impressive results,” he said.
Annapurna Interactive Staff Resigns Amid Failed Spin-Off Talks
The entire staff of Annapurna Interactive, including president Nathan Gary and key executives, resigned after , following founder Megan Ellison’s decision to withdraw from the talks. The 25-member team confirmed their collective resignation in a statement, calling it one of their hardest decisions. Hector Sanchez, the newly appointed president, stated that the company will hire new staff and honor existing contracts. Ellison emphasized that Annapurna remains committed to supporting its game developers and expanding its presence in the interactive space across multiple media platforms.
AESF Partners with Shinhan University to Boost Esports Education
The Asian Electronic Sports Federation (AESF) has with South Korea’s Shinhan University to enhance esports education and opportunities. Under the agreement, Shinhan students will compete in AESF-organized events and gain industry experience through voluntary work and placements. The collaboration also includes joint research on key industry issues, and Shinhan has introduced an esports management major focused on practical training.
