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The Largest Purse Prize in Esports
The prize pool for Dota 2’s International tournament has surpassed last year’s $24.7 million pool, remaining the largest pool prize in esports. This is the sixth year in a row that Dota 2’s community has beaten its own record. For comparison, the purse sits somewhere between the PGA Open, with $10.5 million this year, and somewhat less than the Wimbledon Open at $45 million. The International tournament runs from August 15th through August 25th. The prize pool is amassed from twenty-five percent of the proceeds from fan purchases of Battle Passes and other “level up” activities. The pool continues grow throughout the tournament up to the last day.
PC Release Boosts Monster Hunter World Past 10 Million Units Shipped
With the release of a new version on PC in early August, Monster Hunter World has now shipped more than 10 million units. The game is Capcom’s best-selling title in history. The entire franchise has now sold over 50 million units combined. While the PC debut helped Monster Hunter World cross the 10 million unit threshold, sales remain robust on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
Gamescom 2018 Underway in Cologne, Germany
Hundreds of thousands of attendees join leading gaming company exhibitors including Microsoft, Bethesda Softworks, Epic Games, Blizzard Entertainment and Electronic Arts. Graphics card supplier Nvidia is also presenting at Gamescom.
Nvidia Unveils RTX Cards with Real-time Ray Tracing
The three new RTX cards will feature built-in support for real-time ray tracing, a rendering and lighting technique for photorealistic graphics that gaming companies are starting to introduce this year. Ray tracing is the standard for applications such as visual effects in the film industry, but it is extremely computationally intensive, which has been impractical for gaming. As shown in Nvidia’s demo video, Project Sol, the RTX card combined with games that support Real-time Ray Tracing will be a noticeable improvement in bringing a realistic gaming experience. RTX chips are priced between $599 and $1,199.
