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It’s the end of another week, and that means that it’s time again for a roundup of GamesBeat’s stories. This week, we looked at the history of MOBAs, Minecraft came out on the Xbox One and PlayStation 4, and we still don’t know the release date for Super Smash Bros. for Wii U.
You’ll find all of that and more below. Happy reading and enjoy your weekend!
Pieces of flair and opinion
- The DeanBeat: A microcosm of mobile games reveals the coming death of the consoles
- GamesBeat 2014’s newest speakers are execs from Twitch, iDreamSky, and Super Evil Megacorp
- GamesBeat Giveaways: We’re giving away games all week on Facebook
- GamesBeat 2014’s latest speakers include an F bomber, an ad man, and a gambler
- Indie developers: Pitch us in one Tweet, and we may write about your game (2014 edition)
- Red pandas and armor sets: Meet the artists who earn their living creating Dota 2 items
- The history of MOBAs: From mod to sensation
- How did Dark Souls II’s in-game message system affect player behavior?
- Player’s cancer diagnosis unites World of Warcraft community (update: interviews)
- 5 characters Nintendo needs to add to Mario Kart 8
- Flops, failures, and disasters: The gaming industry’s biggest misfires
News
- UK’s Sky News aims to reach U.S. TV viewers through the Xbox 360 game console
- Microsoft can’t advertise Destiny on Xbox, so it’s created this fragrance instead
- New 3DS’s Japanese packaging looks like a 1990s Trapper Keeper
- PS4 version of indie phenomenon Minecraft available now
- Unity CEO and other industry luminaries join upstart studio Turbo’s advisory board
- Game publisher Little Orbit acquires Ben 10, Earth Defense Force developer Vicious Cycle
- New Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire trailer gives us our best look yet at the 3DS remakes
- Fez dev Phil Fish releases his craziest (and best) statement ever
- Aliens: Colonial Marines lawsuit forces Sega to dish some dirt on Gearbox
- Here’s schlocky director Uwe Boll saying some predictably terrible things about gaming
- Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare multiplayer video details the shooter’s double jumps, exo suits, and ‘rocket strafing’
- The Elder Scrolls Online developer hit with post-launch job cuts
- Following Disney’s $500M acquisition of Maker Studios, YouTube network BroadbandTV is reinvesting in its game division
- Side-Kick Games unveils title for Samsung’s Gear VR goggles
- Virtual reality FIFA: Oculus Rift co-founder dreaming of bringing EA’s soccer franchise to life
- Minecraft: Xbox One Edition coming this week … possibly for $5
- This former Starbucks exec is now tasked with making gamers like EA
- Wii U’s Super Smash Bros. release date is still unknown
- Source: Ouya exploring options for both investment in or sale of company
- OnLive brings cloud games to new Philips-branded Android TVs in Europe
- EA Access getting Need for Speed: Rivals in ‘coming weeks’
- Nintendo reaffirms Star Fox, Zelda Wii U coming 2015 — Miyamoto’s ‘Project’ games also debuting next year
- Hundreds of developers plead with gamers to stop the hate
- Huge game-changing Minecraft update arrives on PC (warning: includes killer bunnies)
- Netgear draws a bead on gamers with its Nighthawk X4 Wi-Fi router
- Persona 5 is coming to PlayStation 4
- Pimp your PS4: Animated dashboard themes coming this fall
Mobile and social
- Analyst: Mobile-gaming revenues will surpass $21B in 2014 with — guess who? — Asia leading the way
- Comedy Central partners with Pocket Gems to create interactive mobile stories based on TV show
- 4 years and 50M downloads after its debut, the Infinity Blade mobile game comes to its conclusion
- Big Fish Games hires ex-PopCap finance chief as CFO
- Zynga unveils its NFL Showdown mobile game as it pushes into sports titles
- Angry Birds Stella parkours its way onto mobile devices today
- New mobile version of Zynga Poker finally debuts to a global audience
- There are now at least 25 billion-dollar mobile internet companies
- Upsight teams up with Adjust to deliver deeper mobile analytics
- Samsung’s Oculus VR-powered headset uses the Note 4 smartphone as its screen
- Nexage says app developers have grown revenue 165% on its mobile ad marketplace
- British digital marketer acquires Israeli user-acquisition platform DAU-UP for $19M
- South Korea blocks all Facebook games as part of a government crackdown
- How fantasy sports site ScoreStreak targets casual football fans
- The sleeping giant: How the West will one day embrace paying for free-to-play
- Here are the top 10 reasons Apple rejects apps
- BuzzFeed is spending part of its $50M funding round to … build casual games? Yup
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