Tuesday News: Amazon buys Twitch, Superman sells for $3.2 million, hilarious author satire, and a chocolate bathroom
Publishing NewsAmazon / Author Promotion / Comic books / eBay / Satire / Superman / Twitch / video games9 Comments
Why it makes sense for Amazon to buy Twitch – Twitch, the company that live streams video games, has been acquired by Amazon for a whopping $970 million. The sale will give Amazon new opportunities to capture the gaming customer, to sell more gaming-related products, and, according to this Verge article, a chance to create something new in regard to video game live streaming and more gaming clout for Fire TV.
Amazon is clearly very keen to get into gaming. It created its in-house gaming studio back in 2012 and has made a few lightweight Facebook and mobile games since then. It signaled it was getting more serious with the acquisition of Killer Instinct developer Double Helix Games and hiring of Kim Swift, the designer behind the classic Portal game. The company’s new Fire TV offered a selection of games created by Amazon’s in-house team and even has a Amazon joystick you can buy separately, hinting at aspirations to compete with consoles like the Xbox and PlayStation. The company already sells everything under the sun, so it only makes sense for them to add games to the books, films, and TV shows they offer, but getting the love and respect of that community is tough. Twitch has gamer support in spades. According to a source familiar with the deal, Amazon is the biggest digital distributor of games after Valve’s Steam store, and it believes Twitch could help it to capture even more of that market. –The Verge
Superman’s Action Comics No. 1 sells for record $3.2 million on eBay – With a portion of the proceeds set to go to the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation, a copy of the very first Superman comic sold for $3,207,852 on eBay, the highest price ever for one comic book. Apparently the issue is in “pristine” condition, but I have to say that what impresses me most is the idea that you can pay $3M for anything on eBay.
“This was a record auction for eBay as it was the most expensive comic book ever sold on our marketplace,” Gene Cook, general manager of emerging verticals for eBay Marketplaces, said in a statement. “The sale of Action Comics No. 1 is a prime example of how eBay plays a role in popular culture by connecting shoppers to must-have merchandise, including rare and valuable collectibles. This was an extraordinary opportunity to bring a comic — one that has captured the attention of passionate collectors and casual fans alike.” –CNET
Writers You Want to Punch in the Face(book) – A hilarious satire of authors on Facebook with the fictional Todd-Manly Krauss. Check it out, then read the recent New York Times article on the April post, which discusses the question of whether self-promotion, online narcissism, and that fine old tradition of humble bragging are contagious.
You could unfollow Todd Manly-Krauss, and perhaps you really should. It would be better for your mental health and your blood pressure. But somewhere along the way (and this is what kills you) his posts have convinced you that he’s areally important writer. That this is someone you want and need to be friends with, because he’s a powerful taste-maker, one of the great minds of our generation. You know it isn’t true—his work is good but not your favorite—and yet it’s like he’s brainwashed you. –Ploughshares Literary Magazine
9.4-Million Calorie Bathroom Set Made Out Of Chocolate – Chocolate bathroom fixtures. I’m not sure whether to be awed or grossed out. Or both.
Because who hasn’t dreamed of dropping off some of their own fudge bars in a melting chocolate crapper, UK chocolatiers Choccywoccydoodah and Bathrooms.com teamed up to make a toilet, bidet, sink and bathtub entirely out of Belgian chocolate. All the fixtures together contain about 9.4-million calories and cost $133,000. For reference, that’s $133,000 outside of my chocolate bathroom budget. –Geekologie
I saw that Superman comic listing and it mentioned that the equally pristine copy that Nicholas Cage had sold went for over 2 million so I figured this one would top that.
“Because who hasn’t dreamed of dropping off some of their own fudge bars in a melting chocolate crapper”
Grossed out. Definitely definitely grossed out.
I’m with you on wondering at the 1%ers shopping at places like eBay. Obviously this goes for very specific collectibles but I had never considered eBay as competition for say, Sotheby’s. I had the same reaction when I came across a $450,000 chronometer watch at Amazon which, of course, engendered hilarious comments. Can’t find the link now but I did put it on my xmas list that year. I didn’t get the watch.
What a waste of good chocolate.
Speaking of chocolate….
I loved seeing this, it made me remember our discussion about my dislike of the word “caramel” or was it “butterscotch”? in an otherwise pretty good and fun book (“The Lucky Charm”).
http://www.buzzfeed.com/hnigatu/if-white-characters-were-described-like-people-of-color-in-l#3658sme
@Lada: The 1%er women made a killing selling their designer goods at the end of each season in the late 90s/early 00s. I think this trend inspired Net-a-Porter and its dot com boom knock-offs.
@Jayne: This one was supposedly even better than the Cage copy, with near white pages — basically, as close as one can get to what it looked like on the newsstand. Even so, you have to wonder at individuals having that type of income to drop on a comic. Naturally, the sale has started another round of “buy comics for investments” stories in the news and you have to shake you head.
Regarding valuable one-of-a-kind items on Ebay, I can’t help thinking of that episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer where Willow successfully brought Buffy back from the dead, thanks to the Urn of Osiris that Anya found on Ebay.
@Elinor Aspen: The irony was that when Buffy shut down the next year, a number of props were auctioned off on Ebay — including the Urn of Osiris. Yes, I bid on it because I just couldn’t resist, but it quickly went way too high for me.