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 GamesBeat weekly roundup! This time, a sweet, clueless mother reviews The Evil Within, an indie developer goes crazy and threatens to kill Valve’s Gabe Newell, and we start writing about the top 10 games of our Pitch Us in One Tweet series.
Enjoy, and have a great weekend!
Pieces of flair and opinion
- The DeanBeat: Be sure to make some time for the best games of the fall
- The top 10 games of Pitch Us in One Tweet 2014 (#6: Illuminascii)
- The top 10 games of Pitch Us in One Tweet 2014 (#7: Basement)
- The top 10 games of Pitch Us in One Tweet 2014 (#8: Slain)
- How Disney is making Star Wars: Commander better by letting its developers go wild
- Survive the horror of these gaming-themed haunted houses
- The top 10 games of Pitch Us in One Tweet 2014 (#9: My Friend Spooner)
- The top 10 games of Pitch Us in One Tweet 2014 (#10: Once Upon a Runner)
- Shadow of Mordor’s unique Nemesis system breathes life into open-world gameplay
- My mom reviews The Evil Within
- How 13 years changed the language and culture of Dragon Quest games
News
- Nintendo actually wanted a sexier Link costume in Bayonetta 2
- Super Smash Bros. gets its first DLC character: Mewtwo
- Wow, Smash Bros. for Wii U really is different from the 3DS version
- WildStar publisher NCSoft slashes jobs at it Western studios
- PS4’s system update 2.0 goes live next week — and it includes SharePlay
- Microsoft sees Surface revenue soar to $908M in Q1 2015, Xbox console sales grow 102%
- Duke Nukem developer 3D Realms returns to sell you $40 worth of PC nostalgia — and make new games
- Google search finally adds information about video games
- Online games expected to hit $13B in 2014, with at least $946M from League of Legends alone
- Hearthstone, Dota 2 can’t compete with League of Legends in terms of player spending
- No screenshot feature for Xbox One until 2015
- This Destiny fusion rifle is real … and it came from a 3D printer
- GameLock goes live — startup guarantees a trade-in price when you buy a game
- ESL follows up Xbox One streaming app with Halo: The Master Chief Collection tournament
- Titanfall gets 4-player co-op ‘horde’ mode in next update
- Unity founder steps down to let ex-EA CEO John Riccitiello take over — here’s why
- Microsoft releases final Kinect SDK 2.0 and starts accepting Kinect apps in the Windows Store
- Papers Please developer releases demo of new mystery game: Return of the Obra Dinn
- Xbox One adds more e-sports options with ESL’s new app
- The developer who threatened Valve CEO Gabe Newell has quit
- Keanu Reeve’s ‘John Wick’ film content will be woven into a Payday 2 online game episode
- LeapFrog debuts its LeapTV educational console for kids — with teacher-approved games
- The Stanley Parable has sold over 1 million copies
- Ubisoft: The Division ‘takes full advantage’ of PlayStation 4, Xbox One
- League of Legends tournament fills a soccer stadium in South Korea
- League of Legends still rules PC gamers’ play time (at least on Raptr)
- Indie astro-construction sim Space Engineers rockets past 1M copies sold
- Ubisoft Toronto director Jade Raymond leaves the publisher
Mobile and social
- Why Twitter launched Fabric, in 5 devastating charts
- Heyzap launches transparent mediation for mobile ad networks
- Game of Thrones: Ascent goes beyond the Wall in its first expansion
- NHL 2K skates on to iOS and Android devices
- Singular’s new Creative Optimization Wizard tool helps marketers better understand their promotions
- Mobile games to overtake console revenues in 2015 — and Apple’s revenue could double Nintendo’s
- Rovio unleashes its Flappy Bird-like mobile game Retry worldwide
- Finnish studio Small Giant Games raises $3.1 million
- Playstudios raises $20M for social casino games with free Vegas ‘comp’ rewards
- By popular demand, Zynga brings Zynga Poker Classic back from retirement
- PlayPhone partners with Saudi Arabian mobile carrier to take games to the Middle East
- MediaSpike weaves movie ads as product placements into the PicCollage photo app
- Small screens cause Blizzard to delay Hearthstone for smartphones
- $150 million social casino game project targets women
- Stock market hammers King despite new Candy Crush game
- Ranked: All 32 billion-dollar mobile internet startups (report)
- King extends its sweet franchise with Candy Crush Soda Saga on Facebook
Previews and interviews
- John Riccitiello sets out to identify the engine of growth for Unity Technologies (interview)
- Creators of Alaska Native adventure want to usher in a new era of ‘world games’
- Civilization: Beyond Earth’s space setting let designers think outside the hex (interview)
Reviews