Welcome to another GamesBeat weekly roundup! This time, Overwatch conquers the world of porn, Ratchet & Clank becomes a sales success, and Star Wars: Battlefront 2 gets a release window.
Enjoy, and have a great weekend!
Pieces of flair and opinion
- The DeanBeat: Just how far is Disney retreating in the game business?
- Marvel’s Peter Phillips reveals the secret for making superheroes work in games
- Introducing our first speakers and theme for GamesBeat 2016: The Platform Awakens
- Tips and tricks for surviving Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End
- Doom looks hella awesome running on Vulkan graphics
- Is Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End better than Uncharted 2: Among Thieves?
- EA CEO Andrew Wilson sees the game industry growing stronger next year
- Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End — greatness, from small beginnings
- Playful’s Paul Bettner: VR is just getting its start, like Disney in the 1920s
- N3twork’s Neil Young takes a second stab at mobile gaming greatness
- Vlambeer’s Rami Ismail shows why speaking out on behalf of indies pays off
- Why Unity’s John Riccitiello loves mobile ads and fears VR’s gap of disappointment
- ‘Overwatch’ Pornhub searches jumped 817% during the shooter’s open beta
- Tales from behind the esports desk: a first-time Hearthstone caster
News
- Nvidia CEO says a holistic effort beyond graphics chips will make it dominant in PC gaming
- April 2016 NPD: Dark Souls III, Ratchet & Clank lead as gaming industry drops 15%
- Nintendo’s Star Fox and Bravely Second rank among April’s best-selling console games
- Overwatch’s open beta attracted a whopping 9.7 million players, a Blizzard record
- Nvidia zooms by earnings targets thanks to graphics chip demand from cars and games
- Star Trek Online is boldy going to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One
- Ubisoft CEO still opposes hostile Vivendi takeover
- Ubisoft beats sales estimates thanks to The Division and Far Cry: Primal
- Ubisoft plans to launch a new blockbuster game property before March 2017
- Ubisoft’s The Division has 9.5M registered player accounts
- Your Overwatch Widowmaker sniping skills are crap compared to this player’s
- Consortium: The Tower’s Fig campaign ends with most backers choosing equity investing
- Topps will create The Walking Dead digital and physical trading cards
- Doom casts its hellish glare on Quantum Break, Overwatch in April’s top gaming TV ads
- MZ appoints ex-Salesforce exec to run its real-time cloud platform
- Oculus and Samsung have 1M Gear VR users
- Star Wars: The Old Republic’s Mandalore’s Revenge episode armors up for June 3 launch
- Star Wars: The Old Republic’s Mandalore’s Revenge episode armors up for June 3 launch
- Sid Meier’s Civilization VI debuts this fall with a new take on cities
- Unity launches a series of women in gaming talks
- Revlo raises $1.1 million to let livestreamers engage and monetize their fans
- Star Wars: Battlefront 2 coming in 2017 — Visceral’s action game follows in 2018
- EA: 55M PlayStation 4 and Xbox Ones sold through 2015; 25M more should sell in 2016
- Battlefield 1 beats Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare in social video battle
- Disney Infinity canceled: The entertainment company pulls out of console-game publishing
- Star Wars: Battlefront has shipped over 14 million copies
- Star Wars: Battlefront’s ongoing success helps EA earnings beat Wall Street’s expectations
- Lionsgate’s Pilgrim Media Group teams up with ESL to create esports TV shows
- Star developer Cliff Bleszinski invests in crowdfunding game site Fig
- Mass Effect: Andromeda prepares for a big pre-E3 showing
- The Witcher III’s last expansion — and Geralt’s final story — gets a May 31 release date
- Pokémon Sun and Moon’s November 18 release date and starters revealed
- Microsoft celebrates 4 years of Minecraft on Xbox with free content
- Ghostbusters gets virtual reality experience to promote the blockbuster’s July release
- Mario smashes blocks in Minecraft: Wii U Edition in free May 17 update
- Capcom’s net sales increased 20% thanks to Monster Hunter
Mobile and social
- Wicked Fun takes on Puzzle & Dragons with Force of Elements mobile game
- Ubisoft’s Hungry Shark World topped 10M downloads on mobile in 6 days
- Mortal Kombat X for mobile celebrates its first anniversary with new content
- Orcs Must Die: Unchained developer on making adjustments to keep players happy
- Perfect World is putting Xbox One multiplayer battler Gigantic on Windows beyond Microsoft’s app store
- PopCap shoots for a mobile comeback with action-packed Bejeweled Stars
- Japanese mobile hit Puzzle & Dragons reaches 10M downloads in North America
Previews, reviews, and interviews
- The Climb’s frustrating controls pulls down one of the best Oculus Rift exclusives
- Star Wars: The Old Republic’s lead designer: Players want to do more in less time
- Stellaris impressions: Paradox finds the sweet spot between 4X and grand strategy
- Papo & Yo creator’s Time Machine VR adventure throws you back with the dinosaurs