Welcome to another collection of content from GamesBeat. This week, PlayStation boss Jack Tretton announces his plan to step down, Uncharted series writer Amy Hennig leaves Naughty Dog, and we get our first look at Batman on the Xbox One and PlayStation 4. We also have plenty of other news, previews, reviews, and other stories to keep you busy all weekend long.
You’ll find all of that and more below. Happy reading!
Pieces of flair
- The DeanBeat: Sony’s executive change makes you wonder how much the old guard is necessary
- 2014 should be the Year of the Mana Tree
- Social networking will win the console wars
- Gold Rush: The race for crowdfunding dollars and the squeeze on smaller game developers
- Project Spark developers share users’ steampunk, apocalyptic, and pixel-art creations
- 5 Hit Points: Trying to stump Calculords’ Seanbaby with math problems and ’80s-based trivia
- Check out some exclusive images from the upcoming Castlevania: Lords of Shadow art book
Game news
- The Last of Us is coming to Hollywood — and its creative director is writing the script
- Shaquille O’Neal hopes to reclaim his gaming legacy with Shaq-Fu: A Legend Reborn
- PlayStation U.S. boss Jack Tretton is stepping down
- The next Call of Duty: Ghosts map pack is coming April 3 — with a giant Kraken
- Disney Interactive lays off 700 employees, or 26 percent of game division
- Ouya store coming to the Mad Catz microconsole as part of a new ‘Everywhere’ initiative
- Watch Dogs finally gets release date for PS4, Xbox One, other platforms (just not Wii U)
- Twitch will stream gaming’s biggest trade show for the next three years
- Titanfall will have at least 3 downloadable map packs — and a $25 season pass
- Titanfall arcade: Respawn and EA slap mechs into classic games to hype upcoming sci-fi shooter
- NASA puts its asteroid-moving mission into a video game
- OnLive is reborn with IGN founder as chief and two new cloud-based gaming services
- Amy Hennig, creative director on the Uncharted series, has left Naughty Dog (report)
- Xbox One March update starts rolling out tonight — here’s what’s new
- Chief executive Gabe Newell says ‘Star Wars’ director J.J. Abrams is like ‘someone who works at Valve’
- Valve boss Gabe Newell on Bitcoin, Mario, and restaurants
- Titanfall incoming: EA fires up its marketing machine for the upcoming sci-fi shooter
- Batman: Arkham Knight brings Bruce Wayne to the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One
- PlayStation 4 sales top 6M units in less than four months
- Nintendo CEO outlines plan to move into health-related entertainment
- AMD unveils Radeon graphics chip that can display images at resolutions beyond HD
- Metal Gear Solid publisher gets a new president in the Americas
- Battlefield 4 developer addresses fan concerns about the shooter’s ‘netcode issues’
- Video games push crowdfunding site Kickstarter past the $1B mark
- Outside the box: Ouya’s game platform heading to other devices
- Rise of the Triad reboot artists acquire original Duke Nukem developer 3D Realms
- Twitch Plays Pokémon continues with second-gen game — will keep going as long as people care
Mobile and social
- Iddiction introduces Xplode so your app doesn’t get lost in the app stores
- Pop quiz, Android hotshots: QuizUp launches to make you feel smart (or stupid)
- Fuse Powered launches AdRally tool to help mobile publishers deal with too many ad networks (exclusive)
- The Walking Dead’s next iOS game will shuffle out of Finnish startup Next Games
- Fiksu will help measure the horribly depressing costs of acquiring mobile app users and gamers
- Mobile publisher finds its gamers are older, make more than $50K, and play while watching TV
- GamesAnalytics rebrands as DeltaDNA to improve player engagement
- Free-to-play pioneers raise $2M for new mobile studio in Barcelona
- Zynga spares its YoVille social game from the ax
- Twitch broadcasting goes mobile: Livestreaming site introduces solution for tablets and smartphones
- Former Google Play marketer gathers veterans for a new mobile game startup
- Growing an HTML5 game engine
- Nancy Drew mystery game gets gussied up for tablet debut
- Zynga tries to retake mobile gaming with FarmVille 2: Country Escape
- Zynga launches a major overhaul to its flagship poker game
- With three new games, Zynga is fighting to matter in mobile
- Zynga gives Words With Friends a mobile makeover
- How location-based mobile games help kids learn their geography
Previews and interviews
- The Last Tinker: City of Colors is an artistic platformer with a handmade feel (preview)
- Will Project Spark be Microsoft’s Minecraft?
- Don Mattrick shows his poker hand for turning Zynga around in mobile (interview)
Reviews