TheGamingEconomy’s Daily Digest brings you the trending stories in gaming. In today’s news: Nintendo and Tencent announce joint press event; conversational developer Doppio secures €1m (£897,000) in seed funding; and Football Manager 2019 sells more than two million copies.

Nintendo and Tencent announce joint press event

Nintendo and Tencent have announced a joint press event on August 2nd in Shanghai, with the main topic of discussion reportedly being the launch of the Switch console in China. The move comes after days of increased activity around the upcoming launch, with Tencent having opened various Switch-focused social media accounts. Tencent secured approval for distributing the Switch in China back in April of this year.

The potential business ramifications of the move could be huge given that China is perhaps the largest gaming market in the world, despite a host of restrictions, most notably a ban on gaming consoles from 2000-2015 and limitations on new titles through 2018-2019.

Conversational developer Doppio secures €1m (£897,000) in seed funding

Doppio Games, a Portugal-based developer of voice-controlled games has secured €1m (£897,000) in seed funding from a variety of investors including the Amazon Alexa Fund, Google Assistant Investment Program, and David Helgason (Unity). While the use of smart speaker devices and voice assistants has increased rapidly, conversational gaming has been less prominent compared to other formats tied to emerging technologies, such as AR gaming.

In a statement accompanying the announcement, Jeferson Valadares, CEO of Doppio Games said, “This investment is a vote of confidence in the huge potential of conversational gaming. There are already millions of voice-enabled devices out there, but few games have taken advantage of the unique opportunities created by voice technology.”

Football Manager 2019 sells more than two million copies

Football Manager 2019 has sold more than two million copies since its launch in 2018, the first iteration in the annual series to do so, according to Miles Jacobson OBE, studio director of Sports Interactive.

While this figure pales in number compared to certain mobile-only titles, it suggests there is still a highly lucrative market for complex, specialised and premium games. The success of FM19 may also be due to its availability across several platforms, with the ‘traditional’ PC/Mac version supported by a mobile title and Football Manager Touch, available on Switch.