Join the Leaders Making Gaming’s Next Big Deals. GamesBeat NEXT brings 500+ executives, CEOs, founders, and investors to San Francisco, November 2–3, to shape the future of gaming, entertainment, and AI. Connect with industry leaders, forge strategic partnerships, and close deals that move business forward. Be in the room. Get your ticket.
Welcome to another GamesBeat weekly roundup! This time, we talk about Netflix’s potential Zelda show, Sonic Boom bombs, and we take some trips to video game hell.
Happy reading, and have a great weekend!
Pieces of flair and opinion
- The DeanBeat: Tips on how to do your own PR for game-related stories
- Why Spelunky, Meat Boy, and other indie stars are photo-bombing each other’s games
- Read+Watch+Listen: Bonus material for Grim Fandango fans
- Fifty Shades of Sony: PlayStation 4 owners dig BDSM more than Xbox One folk
- How sci-fi game maker Chris Roberts crowdfunded $72.3M from 750,913 supporters
- I’ve seen the future of the enterprise, and it is Oculus
- 8 surprising trips to video game hell
- The rumored Legend of Zelda show on Netflix makes sense for today’s Nintendo
- Shadow of Mordor’s Nemesis system draws from Burnout, football, and an architecture book
- Candid moments of the ‘who’s who’ at gaming’s red carpet event
- Brianna Wu speaks up about death threats and personal cost of opposing #GamerGate
- Grim Fandango’s composer on the invention and remastering of his classic score
News
- Veteran developer Peter Molyneux is done talking to the press
- January 2015 NPD: PlayStation 4 outsells Xbox One as Dying Light tops software chart
- Microsoft breaks January sales records with Xbox One, though PS4 takes the month
- Your art could end up on a future Pokémon card
- PlayStation Network is down for maintenance
- Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry 4, and Watch Dogs push Ubisoft to record 3Q — nearly $1B
- Heroes of the Storm could make $10M a month, claims an analyst
- The hat economy: Digital goods revenue grows as Valve expands tools for developers and community
- Your thirst for DLC, GTA Online, and Warcraft brought the digital gaming market to $1.1B in January
- Former Second Life boss Rod Humble launches Cults & Daggers on Steam
- Warner Bros. and Otoy preview the Batcave using holographic video
- Sonic sales hit a low with Sonic Boom on Wii U and 3DS
- Nvidia is growing in gaming, cars, data centers, and the cloud — but not mobile Tegra chips
- Nvidia’s earnings beat Wall Street’s expectations as visual computing spreads
- Gamers slam Evolve in Steam user reviews for its day-one DLC
- H1Z1, EverQuest publisher Daybreak cuts jobs as it transitions to new owners
- War Thunder is latest game to suffer a cyberattack
- Minecraft is by far YouTube’s most popular game
- Nvidia teases big gaming announcement at Game Developers Conference
- ‘Star Wars: Rebels’ gets its own Minecraft skin pack
- Arcade classic Asteroids returns as an open-world, multiplayer survival game for PC
- Awesome Games Done Quick sees incredible growth as charitable speedrunners outpace cancer
- Open-Source Virtual Reality platform now has support from 38 members
- Bethesda hosts its first E3 press conference this year
- Anki Overdrive will overhaul the robot battle-car racing game with customizable tracks
- Win $15,000 playing Evolve and take on Chappie, the robot movie star
- R.B.I. Baseball 15 is happening as Major League Baseball offers an alternative to PlayStation’s The Show
- Resident Evil HD Remaster is Capcom’s fastest-selling digital game
- Evolve’s 3GB day-one patch addresses balancing, bugs, matchmaking, and load times
Mobile and social
- Reliability is the X-factor in the era of mobile
- How a ‘stock market for people’ is funding a shot at the next billion-user mobile app
- Zynga chief Don Mattrick says company intends to learn from lessons of 2014
- Candy Crush Saga publisher acquires its first U.S. game studio
- King is sweet: Candy Crush Saga giant beats earnings estimates
- Missing analyst targets, Zynga reports break-even Q4 and slight loss for 2014
- Zynga closes Beijing studio that brought FarmVille to China
- Zynga’s NaturalMotion unveils Dawn of Titans action-strategy mobile game
- Zynga starts testing Empires & Allies as a modern military combat game on mobile
- It’s FarmVille vs. Candy Crush Saga as Zynga takes on King with ‘match 3′ mobile game
- Martial arts legend Bruce Lee will be Temple Run 2’s next playable character
- ZeptoLab’s new midcore IP King of Thieves launches today on iOS
- Forget Liam Neeson and Kate Upton — even the ‘worst’ Super Bowl game ad worked
- The 8 mobile app analytics tools the most successful developers use
- Playsimo online game portal hits Mexico, inviting international companies to enter the $1.2B market
- Com2us reports record growth as it moves into the U.S. mobile game sector
- Fates Forever mobile game maker Hammer & Chisel raises funding from Benchmark and Tencent
- Glispa’s monthly ad impressions grow 90% to 84B in the BRIC countries
- No Man’s Sky studio is releasing its first Android game
Previews and interviews
- How Ready At Dawn finally delivered on its vision for The Order: 1886
- Comedian Pete Holmes takes a gentler approach to hosting the DICE Awards
- New Telltale CEO Kevin Bruner will craft more storytelling games with Minecraft and other secret projects (interview)
Reviews
- Evolve’s brilliant combat and MOBA-like design delight, but its thrills die too soon
- Midnight Star: A sci-fi mobile shooter that is light years ahead of its competition
- Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate mauls your enjoyment with its gigantic flaws (update)
- Grow Home is an adorable, and tedious, ascent
- The Escapists is the most fun you’ll ever have in prison