GamesBeat weekly roundup: Hearthstone’s big changes, and Nintendo’s mobile debut imminent

Welcome to another GamesBeat weekly roundup! This time, Nintendo’s earnings fall a little short of expectations, someone builds a calculator inside Super Mario Maker, and Uncharted 4 gets its own PlayStation 4 bundle.

Happy reading, and have a great weekend!

Pieces of flair and opinion

• The DeanBeat: Fallout, Skyrim director Todd Howard earns lifetime achievement award
• GamesBeat Summit 2016 speaker deadline is today; event is May 3-May 4
• Watch Conan play the new Doom with Super Bowl stars
• This is the Star Wars: Battle Pod you were looking for — where to play it in the U.S.
• Forget Mario and Zelda: Why NX and My Nintendo need Smash Bros.
• NBA 2K publisher views esports as nothing but marketing
• Strap into this chair on a giant simulator arm for the wildest VR ride of your life
• Gamer builds computer inside of Super Mario Maker
• Hearthstone’s drastic changes will kill hundreds of cards — but might save its future
• Call of Duty: Black Ops III — Awakening DLC goes big on fan nostalgia
• The Witness: Here’s Jon Blow’s pissjug in the game (and the hidden credits)
• What Oculus Rift and virtual reality mean for sex, death, violence, and identity
• The Division’s closed beta hands-on: Ubisoft’s blockbuster is overhyped but playable
• Gameplay footage of cancelled The Dark Knight game and its sad history

News

• Games accounted for 32% of Windows Store downloads in Q4 2015, over 85% of in-app purchases
• HTC Vive’s user manual details elaborate setup process, including moving your couch
• Unreal Engine’s latest innovation is about building games while inside virtual reality
• YouTube Gaming’s trending list proves how different it is from Twitch
• Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End gets its own PlayStation 4 bundle
• The carnage of Bethesda’s Doom arrives on May 13
• Another Minecraft killer? 505 Games unveils sandbox adventure Portal Knights
• Logitech unveils its newest RGB mechanical keyboard for gamers
• Microsoft releases new Windows 10 preview for PCs and ninja monkey wallpapers
• Rockstar has shipped 60M copies of Grand Theft Auto V
• Take-Two beats Wall Street’s expectations for holiday quarter earnings
• Nintendo keeps fans and industry guessing about mobile games and the NX console
• Fallout 4’s developer will reveal its development process for modular level design at GDC
• DreamHack Bucharest will give away $100K to Counter-Strike: GO’s best esports players
• The Witness clears more than $5M in its first week of sales
• Hideo Kojima and Guillermo del Toro will take the stage together as DICE’s keynote speakers
• This augmented reality demo shows how you can turn rock wall climbing into a game
• ‘Warcraft’ actor credits Blizzard’s game with ‘saving’ his life
• Watch how Microsoft plans to change the Super Bowl with HoloLens and augmented reality
• Twitch and its 100M audience is ideal for an action flick’s trailer debut
• Blizzard introduces new Hearthstone modes to limit the cards you can use (and more deck slots)
• One-third of Steam users run Windows 10
• Path of Exile’s Ascendancy expansion launches March 4
• ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ is getting a Lego game in June, according to the Xbox Store (update: it’s official)
• Nintendo is ‘looking’ into virtual reality
• Zelda Wii U is still one of 6 Nintendo games scheduled for Wii U in 2016
• Nintendo: Splatoon, Mario Maker are ‘blockbusters’ for Wii U
• Nintendo’s holiday quarter earnings and revenues fall short of expectations
• Nintendo sold 5.88M 3DSes and 3.06M Wii U systems over last 9 months
• YouTube’s Fine Bros. face legal challenge after enraging Internet with ‘React’ trademark
• Ant Simulator canceled after crowdfunding money spent on liquor and strippers
• Tom Clancy’s The Division is getting an open beta, according to Xbox Italy
• Windows 10 passes 10% market share, overtakes Windows 8.1 and Windows XP
• Here’s what’s different in Fallout 4’s new Steam patch
• NBA 2K giving away $250,000 as part of an attempt to attract an esports crowd
• The Division beta has a problem with cheating — Ubisoft investigating

Mobile and social

• Super Salvo Sports football strategy mobile game debuts for Super Bowl
• Path of War is the first true ‘mobile’ strategy game
• Cartoon Network Studios launches original mobile game with famous animator
• Badgeville launches new data analytics to gamify work and improve consumer loyalty
• Glu’s wildest dreams come true as it partners with Taylor Swift on mobile game
• New site mixes Texas Hold ’em with Hearthstone to make wizard poker an esport
• Chinese mobile game revenues could double to $11.1B by 2019
• Autodesk announces 925 layoffs — 10% of its workforce — as part of restructuring plan
• Nintendo’s first mobile game Miitomo is launching in March along with My Nintendo service
• Magic: The Gathering — Puzzle Quest gets its first big update to boost player engagement
• Magic Leap’s and King’s deals pave way for big jump in 2016 game transactions
• China’s Linekong Interactive to invest $20M in North American mobile game business
• Game industry deals dropped 81% in value in 2015