Join the Leaders Making Gaming’s Next Big Deals. GamesBeat NEXT brings 500+ executives, CEOs, founders, and investors to San Francisco, November 2–3, to shape the future of gaming, entertainment, and AI. Connect with industry leaders, forge strategic partnerships, and close deals that move business forward. Be in the room. Get your ticket.
Welcome to another GamesBeat weekly roundup. It was a sad week for the industry with the passing of Nintendo president Satoru Iwata. We spent much of the past several days examining his legacy.
Elsewhere, PlayStation 4 beat Xbox One in June, and Fallout Shelter makes a lot of money on mobile.
Have a great weekend, everyone!
Pieces of flair
- The DeanBeat: Fallout Shelter is a rare free-to-play hardcore mobile gaming hit
- This Hearthstone deck stops your opponent from taking their turn
- Watch chat completely mess with us as we play Choice Chamber
- 15 ways to please your game lovers with rewarded video
- 6 ultra-rare coin-op games to look out for at California Extreme arcade expo
- 5 things Nintendo’s Satoru Iwata taught us about the game industry
- Comparing MOBAs: League of Legends vs. Dota 2 vs. Smite vs. Heroes of the Storm
- Why real-money game developers need to understand their 3 types of players
- Watch our video tribute to Nintendo president Satoru Iwata
- The triumphs of Nintendo’s Satoru Iwata: from programmer to president
- Luminaries from Sony, Microsoft, and more remember and honor Nintendo’s Iwata
- The entire video game industry is going to miss Nintendo’s CEO
- Watch us beat Kirby’s Dream Land while remembering Nintendo’s Iwata
News
- More hints that AMD is building Nintendo NX’s processor
- June 2015 NPD: PlayStation 4 beats Xbox One as Batman tops the software chart
- PlayStation 4 topped hardware sales in the U.S. last month, according to NPD data
- Digital game revenues reaches $1.02B in June; Call of Duty tops earnings chart
- World of Warcraft will let players change factions for PVP
- PC fix still months away for Batman: Arkham Knight, according to leaked email
- Who wants to be a (pretend) porn tycoon? This game wants your funding
- Shenmue III at $4.9M pledged as Kickstarter campaign nears close, 3rd highest ever for a game
- Gearbox wants to make a new Duke Nukem game … with a little help
- Smite announces $1M World Championships for PC and Xbox One
- Some DayZ servers are down due to a cyberattack
- EA partners with Comcast to bring cloud games to your TV
- Little Heroes Technologies launches crowdfunding campaign for Herokins wearables for kids
- Game deals fall 89% in first half as mega transactions fail to materialize
- Konami removes Hideo Kojima’s name from Metal Gear Solid V box
- Pro Counter-Strike player admits drug use at recent tournament: ‘We were all on Adderall’
- Holy Stoneskin Gargoyle! Someone already has 20K wins in Hearthstone
- The Witcher 3 has 101 more unique communities than Wyoming — and 7 other staggering stats
- Development superstar Jade Raymond joins Electronic Arts to work on Star Wars
- Batgirl DLC delayed for Batman: Arkham Knight’s troubled PC port
- Shigeru Miyamoto comments on Nintendo president Iwata’s death
- Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has died
Mobile and social
- Angry Birds 2 gets July 30 release date
- Publisher NetEase looks West even as it expertly rides China’s rising tide
- Scopely grabs a game leader from Kixeye
- Zynga launches Mountain Goat Mountain, its latest game in its climb into mobile
- Fallout Shelter earned $5.1M in its first 2 weeks
- Ad-tech firm Ad2Games adds Sheila Kagan as chief operating officer
- GrowMobile help studios retain their users with engagement features
- Dave & Buster’s takes its best restaurant arcade games to mobile devices
- After six years, Rovio finally announces Angry Birds 2
- China will make up 1/5th of the global mobile gaming market this year
- Kongregate wants to help web game makers bring their work to mobile
- Germany’s Glispa launches its gNative native advertising platform
- China helps iOS maintain commanding revenue lead over surging Google Play
- Gameloft beefs up its mobile MOBA to be more like a PC game
- Mediarex Sports & Entertainment raises $4.9M to make a sport out of poker
Previews, reviews, and interviews
- Choice Chamber has Twitch viewers help — or torture — a streamer
- Rory McIlroy PGA Tour is challenging fun for golf fans and a total bore for everyone else
- Skullgirls is (almost) the best fighting game for beginners
- Will you make the right choices to survive Until Dawn?
- Traverser’s dystopian, Tim Burton-like world values oxygen greater than oil