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Hello, and welcome to another GamesBeat weekly roundup! This time, Blizzard is nerfing some of Hearthstone’s strongest card, we pick our favorite Mario spinoffs, and Knack 2 is surprisingly good!
Enjoy, and have a great weekend!
Pieces of flair and opinion
- The DeanBeat: Our Cuphead runneth over
- PC Gaming Weekly: Wet Hot Battlegrounds Summer
- GTA Online’s ‘Battle Royale’ mode reveals why PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds works
- Why triple-A devs are going indie (and why indies aren’t going triple-A)
- No, Hearthstone doesn’t think its players are idiots
- Watch this 100-year-old man try out VR for the first time
- Eye-tracking is virtual reality’s next frontier
- AR/VR Weekly: an experiment worth watching
- Do we have to get good? GamesBeat Decides
- GTA Online has already solved PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds’ AFK farmer problem
- What are the top 5 Mario spinoffs? GamesBeat Decides
- Exore: The Rising’s factional world reminds me of my favorite D&D setting
- Settlers of Catan is ready for virtual reality
- Why Stardock wanted to show up early to the Vulkan graphics API party
- GameMaker Studio creators look back at 17 years of development
- Why the Canadian government is OK with picking winners and losers among game startups
- How GameStop used FooVR’s tech to put animated characters in Destiny 2
News
- PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds hits 1 million concurrent Steam players
- Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms D&D clicker game launches on Steam Early Access
- Taunt raises $1.75 million for esports fan competition platform
- Blizzard is turning the old ‘Tonight Show’ studio into an esports arena
- L.A. Noire is coming to Switch, PS4, Xbox One, and HTC Vive
- Facebook becomes exclusive livestream partner for Paladins Premier League
- Eleague spruces up its Counter-Strike tournament with high-tech analysis and VR
- Google and Song Exploder deconstruct songs in virtual reality
- Destiny 2 ‘is temporarily at capacity’ and everyone is mad about it
- Minecraft Marketplace creators have made $1 million in 2 months
- Hearthstone is nerfing Druid … and some of its oldest powerhouse cards
- Ubisoft’s new Saguenay studio is now its third dev shop in Quebec
- PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds has sold 10 million copies in 6 months
- Sweden’s game revenue hit $1.54 billion in 2016
- 5 games with memorable falling to celebrate fall
- American McGee tests the waters for third Alice game
- Rocket League Grand Finals gives a peek at one of esports growing scenes
Mobile and social
- Tenor lets developers put GIFs into augmented reality apps and games
- Maple Media has done 8 deals in 8 months to make mobile games more money
- Angry Birds maker Rovio announces plans for IPO to raise $36 million
- Royal Blood: How Gamevil is betting big on a mobile MMO
Previews, reviews, and interviews
- Magic: The Gathering — Arena is Wizards of the Coast’s answer to Hearthstone
- Songbringer is one designer’s procedurally generated ode to classic RPGs
- Destiny 2 review-in-progress: all the markings of a brilliant sequel
- Life is Strange: Before the Storm impressions — a riveting teen duo replaces magic in this prequel
- Watch Knack 2’s glorious destruction rock
- Uurnog Uurnlimited pairs its Super Mario Bros. 2 style with dynamically generated tunes
- Turtle Beach Stealth 700 headset can turn on your Xbox One
- Knack 2 review — it rocks
- The Elder Scrolls Legends and card master Pete Hines face the dragon
- The Good Life sees Deadly Premonition creator herding cats and raising bucks
- GamesBeat Boss interview: China’s Leyou moves from chicken meat to triple-A game publishing
- Game Boss interview: Why the Philadelphia 76ers dove into esports with Team Dignitas