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Welcome to another GamesBeat weekly roundup! This time, we help you make an incredible player in NBA 2K15’s MyCareer mode, we look at the worst way ever to encourage developer Valve to make Half-Life 3, and we talk about the downside of those gigantic, crowdfunded gaming tournament prize pools.
Enjoy, and have a great weekend!
Pieces of flair and opinion
- DeanBeat: With GamerGate, enough is enough
- GamerGate is McCarthyism. Don’t let it silence you (opinion)
- The dangers of crowdfunding those gigantic e-sports prize pools
- Read+Watch+Listen: Bonus material for Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor fans
- A step-by-step guide to creating a monstrous MyCareer player in NBA 2K15
- How big of a star is PewDiePie? Watch him get mobbed by fans in Singapore
- Read+Watch+Listen: Bonus material for Destiny fans
News
- Funding from Intel values Razer above $1 billion, report says
- September 2014 NPD: PS4 outsells Xbox One despite Microsoft giving away a free game with its new console
- To demand Half-Life 3, an ad agency is crowdfunding a campaign to ‘engulf Valve employees’ lives’
- Infinite Crisis and The Lord of the Rings Online developer Turbine suffers layoffs
- Unity Technologies CTO declares the company isn’t up for sale
- Xbox One October update starts rolling out with new Snap mode, Friends functions, MKV support, and more
- Dragon Age: Inquisition producer talks about Xbox One vs. PS4 performance, framerate, and more
- World of Warcraft gets early increase in subscribers in lead up to Warlords of Draenor expansion
- No Netflix on PlayStation TV and ‘no current support plans’
- UC Santa Cruz taps Journey co-creator Robin Hunicke to teach game development
- More threats for critic Anita Sarkeesian: Anonymous email promises ‘deadliest school shooting’
- Mozilla teams up with Humble Bundle to offer Firefox and Chrome users eight plugin-free games
- Vine launches on Xbox One, available only to Xbox Live members in 34 countries
- World of Warcraft’s pre-Warlords of Draenor patch (with the new character models) hits today
- These The Evil Within codes will stop time, unlock god mode, and enable 60fps
- Xbox One outsold PlayStation 4 last month, according to analyst estimate (update)
- Destiny is not Grand Theft Auto: Analyst predicts big dip in September software sales
- Data-intelligence firm Newzoo opens Shanghai office to monitor growing Asian market
- Zen Pinball adds South Park tables this week (and, yes, you can kill Kenny)
- Driveclub’s disastrous launch: ‘We ran a beta test, and none of these issues occurred’
Mobile and social
- Mobile megahit Kim Kardashian: Hollywood has made around $50M in 4 months
- Imperus Technologies agrees to $100M deal to acquire social-game developer Diwip
- Osmo raises $12M to create a new way for kids to play — and learn — with iPads
- Samsung Galaxy Note 4 owners will get 3 free months of the OnLive game-streaming service
- Flow State Media launches Letter Up to compete with Zynga’s Words with Friends
- Google debuts new ‘Nexus Player’ Android TV set-top box & gamepad from Asus
- Zynga EVP Barry Cottle is latest exec to leave social gaming giant
- Doodle God series surpasses 150M downloads
- Google Play downloads are 60% higher than on iOS App Store, but Apple still rules on revenue
- Microsoft unveils Halo: Spartan Strike mobile game for Windows 8 tablets and smartphones
- Fresvii raises $1.8M, launches mobile game voice chat service called AppSteroid
- How Amazon is using Comixology and Audible to help sell its new Fire games
- About time: Anki Drive smartphone racing game now available on Android
- Everyplay mobile gamer survey shows 1% of users account for 29% of spending
- Seasoned developer Caryl Shaw tells why she quit making free-to-play games
- Flip Sports lets you play fantasy sports on your mobile device while you watch TV
Previews and interviews
- Relive the Battle of the Bulge with Company of Heroes 2: Ardennes Assault (hands-on preview)
- Halo: Spartan Strike tablet game has Warthogs, Kestrels — and no microtransactions (hands-on preview)
- How Ubisoft aims to dominate open-world shooters with Far Cry 4 (interview)
- Will Far Cry 4 please gamers with three epic games in one title? (preview)
- Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire put some of the series’ biggest advancements right in your pocket (preview)
- Assassin’s Creed: Rogue puts an end to Assassin’s Creed in the 18th century
- Cyan Worlds’ Rand Miller explains why it’s taking decades to bring Myst to television (interview)
Reviews and impressions