Built to Play 39b: USA USA USA - a podcast by Built to Crew

Our last episode had no news because this episode has all of the news. Join us as we talk about the fates, fortunes and foibles of the everyone from the province of Quebec to Nintendo's shareholders. 

First up,Majesco did a reverse stock split, raising their stock price back to $2.56 from between 0.50-0.60 during the last few months. Masjeco is listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange which requires a minimum of a $1 value per share, and so the company needed a maneuver that would raise the price before they became a penny stock.  

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By using a reverse stock split, Majesco essentially reduced the total number of shares available, raising the market price, but lowering the number of potential investors. Despite all the good the company has been doing with the Midnight City publishing arm, it's been losing money for quite a while. So we explain why it might be smarter to leave the stock market entirely.*

Then in Finland, we assume that Hearthstone is a full-contact competitive sport. Otherwise the recent ruling from the Finnish Assembly, which filters players into the International eSports Federation world championships, that women and men had to compete in separate tournaments would be complete nonsense and sexist. While most know Hearthstone as the Blizzard trading card game where you buy fake cards, slide them on a touchscreen or with a mouse, and take your time to contemplate your next Magic the Gathering cosplay, in Finland it must something entirely different. We're guessing it's like lacrosse but with more fire. 

Meanwhile, the province of Quebec has lowered the amount of tax credits available to video game companies.In the June 4 budget, the Liberal government decided to cut the tax credits by 20 per cent. Major studios like WB and Ubisoft are safe until 2019 because of agreements made with prior governments. We talk about how that might impact future jobs and why moving to Toronto so we can be best friends is your best move.

At the same time, Nintendo's having a crisis of its own, as its shareholders seem to fundamentally misunderstand the company's brand and structure. Thanks to an underperforming Wii U and three years without profit, Nintendo's stock has been shrinking. Which has unsurprisingly made a few shareholders angry, asking questions like: Can the 3DS be twice as big and focus on gambling? Can I have some free stuff? Why are we even talking about video games?

Lastly we revisit the world of eSports. We speculate on how to watch the Dota 2 world championships, The International. On a computer is the main consensus. We also do some speculation about the outcome of Evo.

What none of could have predicted is the series of come from behind victories that actually ensued. Louffy won the Ultra Street Fighter IV tournament, well ahead of our best bet, Diago. Justin Wong didn't win the Killer Instinct tournament like we expected, but instead beat Chris G in an amazing underdog victory to defeat the long raining champ. Mango won the Super Smash Bros Melee. tournament, which seems expected for a game about random characters punching each other with motorcycles. 

We also talk about our crippling addiction toHashteroids, Sony'sPS Now rental prices, a mysterious rich patron on Twitch,  andMighty No. 9's new crowdfunding campaign. And more on this news only Built to Play. 

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Our opening this week was the usual one: "Big Change" by Slave to the Squarewave from the Ontario Independent Music Archive. The Header image on this page is from Shoryuken.com.Check out their coverage of Evo everyone.

Built to Play was written by Daniel Rosen and edited by Arman Aghbali.

If you enjoyed this two-parter, let us know! We're experimenting with the format so it's always good to get criticism.

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_*Built to Play is not an authorised stockbroker. Do not take any financial advice given to you by fans of Ryse, or other games that replace "i" with "y." _

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