Become a member of GB MAX to gain exclusive access to the industry and to the most influential global B2B leadership community in the business of gaming, entertainment, and tech. Join now and also get a VIP ticket to GamesBeat Next (Nov 2-3, SF).
Welcome to another weekly roundup of GamesBeat’s news, previews, reviews, and more! This time, Twitch makes unpopular policies regarding music, BioShock gets a port for iOS devices, and we finally get confirmation on that last-gen Assassin’s Creed game.
You’ll find all of that and more below. Happy reading, and enjoy your weekend!
Pieces of flair and opinions
- The DeanBeat: Will China rule the world of gaming?
- This beast of an arcade stick clamps straight on to your 3DS XL
- Hey, Smash Bros. fans: This 2DS works with a GameCube controller
- Top Twitch broadcasters are considering livestreaming alternatives — here’s where they may end up
- The train to zombietown: An epic road trip to create undead games that teach disaster preparedness
- 16 great educational apps to get kids ready to go back to school — handpicked by the experts
- Women are more loyal than men … when it comes to video games
- This fish is playing Pokémon Red and livestreaming on Twitch
- Here are the classic Square Enix role-playing games you can play on mobile right now
- Struggle Street: The day-to-day challenges of a game developer in the West Bank
- Everything you need to know about the Oculus Rift
- Hearthstone: Curse of Naxxramas guide — how to beat the Military Quarter
- Even without Evolve, Take-Two still has a lot of holiday releases coming
- What games can teach everyone about user acquisition
- We compare John Cena’s WWE 2K15 model to generations past
- The madness of ChinaJoy Expo: Organizer breaks down gaming’s growing mega-conference
- 10 years later: GamesBeat’s most memorable games of 2004
- If Mirror’s Edge’s Faith had a dating site profile
- The best tricks that Hearthstone’s game designers used to make Blizzard’s latest megahit
News
- Classic gaming brand Sierra teases return at Gamescom
- The Last of Us movie will cut a lot of content from the game
- Mass Effect director Casey Hudson quits BioWare
- Peter Molyneux’s Kickstarted god game Godus launches on iOS for free
- Twitch CEO: ‘We have absolutely no intention’ of running copyright audio scans on Twitch livestreams
- More ‘midcore’: Nexon signs publishing deal with German startup developer Envision
- Amid turmoil, Crytek plans to publish Ryse for PC with Deep Silver
- Microsoft introduces $40 TV tuner for Xbox One in Europe
- World of Warcraft prepares for its 10th anniversary with plenty of nostalgia
- Twitch will start deleting archived video you were watching on YouTube anyway
- Star Citizen crowdfunding reaches $49M. Developer says: Gimme more
- Square Enix makes a profit during three months it barely released anything in
- Buyer’s remorse: Codemasters refunding unhappy Steam customers over Colin McRae Rally confusion
- Curse of Naxxramas’s third part is live — take on Hearthstone’s Military Quarter now
- Hearthstone and Diablo III push Activision Blizzard to bigger digital revenues
- World of Warcraft loses 800k subscribers — down to 6.8 million total, its lowest since 2006
- Evolving delay: Take-Two chief explains why one of fall’s most anticipated games is now a 2015 release
- Evolve delayed: It’s now coming in February
- GameStop confirms simplified ‘more money’ trade-in policy
- PS4 version of Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes tripled the game’s sales on Xbox One last quarter
- Microsoft and Xbox One face steep obstacles to win the console war in China
- GameStop is improving its customer service to keep you away from Amazon, Walmart
- Assassin’s Creed: Rogue trailer leaks, may be coming Nov. 11 (update)
- Capcom remaking first Resident Evil game (again): Scheduled for early 2015 release
- Israeli developer tries a game about love and peace during an armed conflict
- Felicia Day’s Geek & Sundry acquired by Legendary Entertainment for a new digital video network
- Nintendo’s online progress takes a step back with Hyrule Warriors
- Praise Helix: Twitch played and finally beat every generation of Pokémon
- Nintendo’s former indie champion reveals why he was forced off Twitter
- A little video gaming is good for children, says Oxford University study
- With The World II, Chinese game maker thinks players are ready for an MMO on a smartphone
Mobile and social
- Zynga CEO explains his vision for long-term gaming leadership
- Zynga misses Wall Street expectations, but it invests in NFL and Tiger Woods games for the ‘long term’
- EA’s big mobile games are losing ground to Kim Kardashian, Hearthstone, and King’s Bubble Witch
- Sony abandons its PlayStation Mobile Android initiative
- Oomba manages real-world game tournaments with a smartphone (exclusive)
- Mobile developer Kiwi closes $15M funding round
- Driving mobile consolidation, Tapjoy acquires 5Rocks analytics and marketing automation firm
- Eutechnyx bets that Chinese gamers are hungry for free-to-play racing games
- Kabam teams with State of Decay studio to create Pokémon-esque mobile game
- Mobile mover: After leaving Kabam, Andrew Sheppard is now the chief operating officer at Gree
- China’s mobile game market to grow a scorching 93% to $2.9B in 2014 (exclusive)
- The original BioShock is diving to iOS devices
Previews and interviews
- Golem Arcana: The hybrid tabletop/video game that’s going to make a lot of money (but off just a few of you)
- Wasteland 2 teaches players valuable lessons about survival gaming — by repeatedly killing them
- iDreamSky’s Monte Singman wants to take Western hits to China (interview)
- How Tencent sees the worldwide opportunity in gaming investments (interview)
Reviews
- Road Not Taken is a brilliant game that will destroy you (review)
- Sacred 3 turns a beloved Diablo-like into a competent but bland hack-‘n’-slasher (review)
- Metrico is the puzzle-platformer that the Vita needed a year ago (review)
- Amazon’s Fire Phone — even with ‘dynamic perspective’ — is pretty junky for gaming