If you’re interested in supporting Black voices in the gaming industry, look no further than these three titles that are either out now or currently in development. Here POCIT has made a list of three Black developers who’ve created their own video games. Shawn Alexander Shawn is the game designer, animator, visual artist, writer, and founder of Nuchallenger, an independent games and culture studio. Before creating his game – Treachery in Beatdown City – Shawn worked for almost five years at Rockstar games, where he worked on GTA IV Complete,
Lame, TikTok’s second most-followed creator with 130 million followers, has partnered with Hugo Boss to star in a campaign surrounding its re-brand. Lame will also co-design a capsule collection with the fashion label as part of a multi-year pact. BOSS’ Rebrand The iconic brand has drafted supermodels, social media sensations, and world-class athletes for a celebrity campaign designed to usher in a new era for core brand BOSS after nearly 50 years. Lame will appear in the campaign alongside Hailey Bieber, Kendall Jenner, model Joan Smalls, South Korean actor Lee Min-ho, rapper Future, boxer Anthony Joshua, tennis pro Matteo
Virtual cycling platform Zwift has revealed its plans for the second year of its Black Celebration Series with its approach this year being three-pronged. It will focus on Internal education programs, social impact initiatives and celebratory rides all throughout 2022. Last year Zwift first introduced its 12-month series of events that’s intended to celebrate the achievements of Black athletes with group rides led by featured athletes. At the launch Zwift said: “We are creating an inclusive environment that empowers and uplifts the community as a whole.” Zwift is running a
The British Consulate-General in New York has announced the participants in the upcoming UK Black Tech Founders Mission taking place next month in New York City. Twelve unique technology firms, set up by Black entrepreneurs in the UK, will participate in the delegation. The UK founders will also meet with their US counterparts to discuss the differences between scaling a business on each side of the Atlantic and the lived Black entrepreneur experience in the UK & the US. The UK’s flag carrier, British Airways, has partnered with the British Consulate-General in New York to
The cohort includes 35 US creators who will get funding, training, and other resources through the program. The fund provides one year of support, including seed funding for channels, development programs, workshops, and networking opportunities. “Black creators have played an important role in shaping the culture on YouTube. From fashion and comedy to politics, learning, and wellness, Black creators have propelled our platform forward,” the company said in the announcement. A total of 26 African YouTube creators, including 10 Nigerian creators, were also picked. They were chosen to join a
Four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka was knocked out of the Australian Open in the third round Friday, losing in three sets to unseeded American Amanda Anisimova. Naomi, who returned to major tennis at the Australian Open after a short break in 2021 to address her mental health, competed against 20-year-old Anisimova. But immediately after the match, Osaka told reporters that her first step when she got back to the dressing room and checked her phone would be to get rid of several social media apps. Asked about her feelings towards her losses
Instagram has switched things up and has introduced a new way for creators to make money, kicking off a test of subscriptions for the social platform in the US. Announcing the news on Wednesday, Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder of Facebook and chairman/CEO of its parent company Meta, said: “This will help creators earn more by offering benefits to their most engaged followers like access to exclusive Lives and Stories. “I’m excited to keep building tools for creators to make a living doing creative work and to put these tools in more creators’
Rapper Nas has joined US private equity firm Andreessen Horowitz and Alphabet Inc.’s Google in an investment round for Africa-focused mobile gaming platform – Carry1st. Carry1st, a South African publisher of social games and interactive content across Africa, has raised $20 million Series A from the investors. The startup, launched by Cordel Robbin-Coker, Lucy Hoffman and Tinotenda Mundangepfupfu in 2018, also received investments from Avenir and the founders of Chipper Cash, Sky Mavis and Yield Guild Games, took part. It wants to use this additional capital to scale interactive content across Africa, build the workforce and acquire new users. The
Youtube is going back to its core roots. The video-streaming giant has announced that it will return to the real reason it was created in the first place — to serve as a home to creatives with a focus on user-generated content. While the platform has spent the past six or more years building a hub for original programming with the likes of Patricia Bright hosting their own ‘Youtube Original’ shows – this news reveals that they will scale back and put the funds back into programs that were built with
Speaking during his keynote speech at the Urban League of Hampton Roads’annual Martin Luther King, Jr. awards program on Monday singer-songwriter Pharrell Williams issued a call-to-action for businesses to pledge a more firm commitment to Black entrepreneurs. Although Williams applauded the “smart” companies that have already taken a stand and implanted different ways they can help founders of color, he didn’t hesitate to explain what more needs to be done. He said: “There’s much more work to be done to achieve anything that resembles equality, business — thank God businesses
