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Welcome to another GamesBeat weekly roundup! This time, we checked out Final Fantasy XII’s remaster, Star Wars: Battlefront II announced when its beta test will start, and RPG maker InXile got a big investment.
Enjoy, and have a great weekend!
Pieces of flair and opinion
- The DeanBeat: Game industry’s leaders share more wisdom
- PC Gaming Weekly: Overwatch steps into the esports spotlight
- Conan and Kate Upton got to play Cuphead — maybe we’re next
- AR/VR Weekly: Surviving the desert
- Is Switch getting more third-party support? GamesBeat Decides
- From murderbots to Groza drops: PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds plays of the week
- Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age tips for new and returning players
- This Steam Controller analysis may make you rethink Valve’s PC gamepad
News
- Games software/hardware revenue to top $150 billion in 2017
- Facebook’s rumored $200 standalone VR headset is not a Rift replacement
- AMD’s Threadripper CPUs undercut Intel chips by up to $1,000
- Shadow.LoL provides analytics and visualization for League of Legends esports teams
- Peter Molyneux’s The Trail: Frontier Challenge is coming to Steam (update)
- Games for Change’s 14th festival showcases social impact with diverse finalists
- Africade will showcase video games from all over Africa starting July 29
- What Remains of Edith Finch launches July 19 on Xbox One
- InXile gets $4.5 million investment from Gumi for an open-world survival RPG VR game
- Overwatch League’s first 7 teams include New England Patriots, New York Mets owners
- Logitech acquires Astro Gaming to form an audio-headset behemoth
- Google Play’s Indie Games Festival now taking submissions until August 6
- Ex-Activision veterans raise $7 million for Velan Studios game startup
- Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD is ‘retiring’ from Steam
- Smithsonian highlights indie game makers with museum arcade
- PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds gets official streams on Facebook Live
- Star Wars: Battlefront II multiplayer open beta begins October 6
- WWE 2K18 tags Nintendo back in with a Switch release (Updated)
Mobile and social
- Mobile game revenue finally surpasses PC and consoles
- Sensor Tower: Pokémon Go’s Japanese players outspend the U.S. nearly 4-to-1
- LiquidSky lets you play your PC games on Android devices
- Jam City launches Snoopy Pop mobile game and donates money to Canine Companions charity
- Fiksu: iOS marketing costs fell 7% in May but Android rose 28%
Previews, reviews, and interviews
- Splatoon 2’s campaign features unfurling bridges and rail grinding
- Figment is a surreal puzzler that brings dreamscapes alive with music
- MXGP3 captures the weight and speed of motocross racing
- Nex Machina blasts your eyeballs with its Robotron-like hordes
- Splatoon 2 gameplay: Watch us fight a samurai octopus on a unicycle
- War of the Chosen promises a deeper, better XCOM 2
- Empyre: Lords of the Sea Gates turns New York into a Neo-Victorian Waterworld
- Why Kabam cofounder Kevin Chou is diving into esports with Overwatch League’s Seoul franchise
- Splatoon 2 gameplay: Watch us fight a monster. Or a toaster oven. Or a monster toaster oven
- Splatoon 2’s single-player campaign inks my heart
- Ultima creator Richard Garriott looks back on nearly four decades making video games
- Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age review — a more convenient classic