Welcome to Sheppard Mullin’s Weekly Web Wrap-Up, a quick list of the past week’s top news in the social media, gaming, and virtual goods and currencies industries curated by Social Media & Games Team.  Here are some of the stories that we’ve been reading:

Amazon Launches YouTube Competitor

As the streaming video war continues, Amazon has announced the launch of its own video platform, Amazon Video Direct.  Like YouTube, the platform will host video content of any kind, uploaded either by corporate partners or by individual content creators, with a variety of revenue-generating options built in.

SPACES Launches with 3 Million in Initial Funding

Led by Comcast Ventures, the independent company is already working with companies Microsoft, NBCUniversal, Big Blue Bubble and The Hettema Group, among others, to develop and produce a wide range of projects across all VR and MxR platforms and technologies.

The 10 Biggest Announcements from I/O 2016

At I/O this year, Google made some big announcements, including a much-anticipated mobile VR platform, a slew of new Google products, and improvements to Android.  Here’s your guide.

Twitch and Blizzard Team Up to Combat Harassment in Gaming

Blizzard Entertainment and Twitch are working together to develop a pilot program targeted at combating online harassment following an incident during a recent Hearthstone live stream.  Blizzard CEO: There’s no place for racism, sexism, harassment, or other discriminatory behavior, in or outside of the gaming community.’

Sony Finally Makes Move Into AI

The tech juggernaut announced it is joining the likes of Amazon, Apple and Google by diving into artificial intelligence.