TheGamingEconomy Daily Digest brings you the trending stories in gaming. In today’s edition: Forge of Empires success credited to real-world event content; Celtic signs Call of Duty World League Championship team; and Gamescom conference schedule - August 19th 2019.

A special edition of TheGamingEconomy Digest will follow today’s conferences from Microsoft, Nintendo, and Google. And we will keep you updated with all the Gamescom coverage throughout the week. 

Forge of Empires success credited to real-world event content

Stephen Walter, product head and owner, Innogames, has credited the success of Forge of Empires to tying in-game content to real-world events, thus aiding player retention. The content tie-ins are planned in advance, with Walters hinting that content relating to Egypt will be introduced in 2020. The free-to-play mobile and browser title has recently surpassed €500m (£456.2m) in lifetime revenue, and increased revenue growth for each year since its launch in 2014.

Walter also revealed that the title is maintained by a team of 35 employees. “The team shall get the most optimised working environment to strive for maximum efficiency and output,” said Walter on stage at Devcom 2019.

Celtic enters Call of Duty World League Championship

Celtic, one of the most successful football teams in Scotland, has signed a team to compete in the Call of Duty World League Championship, thus making it the first UK-based club to invest in esports outside of FIFA and PES competitions. Slots for the league are currently being sold at USD$25m (£20.6m), with players competing for a prize pool estimated to be worth USD$2m (£1.65m).

Miguel Pacheco, Celtic’s international business development manager, said: “This is a great opportunity in an esports area where we see almost no engagement from professional football clubs or traditional sports organisations. As we continue to develop and grow our Celtic FC Esports initiative, we are delighted to be able to support the team in such a high-profile esports event which has been incredibly successful in recent years."

Gamescom conference schedule - August 19th 2019

Prior to its formal start tomorrow (August 20th 2019) and following conferences from Nintendo, Microsoft, and Google, Gamescom: Opening Night Live will kick off the 10th anniversary edition of Gamescom, held in Cologne, Germany. As mentioned, TheGamingEconomy will be publishing a summary of all the key news and announcements from the day’s briefings.

Nintendo Gamescom Indies Showcase

• 3pm CEST
• 1pm BST
• 6am PT
• 9am ET

Inside Xbox Press Conference

• 6pm CEST
• 4pm BST
• 9am PT
• 12pm ET

Stadia Connect Press Conference

• 7pm CEST
• 5pm BST
• 10am PT
• 1pm ET

Gamescom: Opening Night Live

• 8pm CEST
• 6pm BST
• 11am PT
• 2pm ET