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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