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! The Game Developers Conference has kept up plenty busy, as you can see below. Elsewhere, Metal Gear Solid V has a release date, and PlayStation 4 sales pass 20 million.
Happy reading, and have a great weekend!
GDC 2015
- The DeanBeat: The game industry’s struggle with light and darkness
- Women claim their place in the game industry
- Sony’s latest VR prototype proves we’re just waiting on the games
- Blockbuster game publishers describe harassment policies in the modern era of hate
- Independent Games Festival host denounces Internet hate and Gamergate, gets standing ovation
- Intel aims to double the number of women in gaming
- Zoe Quinn and other female game developers speak out against harassment
- Raptr allies with Intel to make mainstream PC gaming a better experience
- Valve’s and HTC’s Vive is the most believable virtual reality experience yet
- Epic Games’ new ‘A Boy and His Kite’ tech demo points to blue skies for the game industry
- Weta Digital partners with Oculus and Epic Games for a new VR experience
- Oculus’ John Carmack endorses Otoy’s VR light field rendering tech
- Oculus technology guru John Carmack explains why he’s spending all his time on mobile VR
- Microsoft to launch new tools that enable cross-platform play across Windows, Xbox, and mobile devices
- Nintendo welcomes change and is open to experimentation for its digital future
- Ubisoft and new HMD developers join Open-Source Virtual Reality group
- The MindLeap virtual reality game system runs on your brainwaves — no controllers needed
- Watch Mozilla preview WebGL 2, the first major update to plugin-free 3D graphics in the browser
- Nvidia shows hands-on demo of Shield set-top box (video)
- Nvidia CEO explains why the Shield set-top box fits in your living room (interview)
- Nvidia’s set-top box aims to do for gaming what Netflix did for movies
- Nvidia announces its $200, 1,080p Shield Android TV Console — launches in May
- Sony has a new Project Morpheus virtual reality prototype — consumer product launches in 2016
- League of Legends developer on fighting with fun, depth, and complexity
- AMD teams up with Oculus on LiquidVR technologies for virtual reality
- Crossy Road earns $3M in revenue from Unity’s video ads
- Unity Technologies ships its next-generation multiplatform game engine
- Mobile game visuals will get better with upcoming successor to OpenGL graphics standard
Pieces of flair
- GamesBeat giveaway: Two awesome gaming headsets
- Watch Portal come to life thanks to Microsoft’s Kinect
News
- First recipients of Epic’s Unreal Dev Grants deserve every penny
- Man dies after 19-hour World of Warcraft session
- Harmonix announces Rock Band 4 for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, coming this year
- Logitech tapped players to design its newest gaming mouse
- Phil Harrison out at Microsoft, report claims
- Elite: Dangerous warps to the Xbox One — but not the PlayStation 4
- Two-thirds of consumers say they’d like to shop using Oculus
- EA closes SimCity and The Sims developer Maxis Emeryville
- Microsoft partnering with Motiga to publish Gigantic for Xbox One and Windows 10
- Nvidia announces the Titan X graphics processor, the most powerful GPU available
- Wolfenstein: The Old Blood is a standalone $20 prequel to The New Order
- Valve announces Source 2, Steam Link, and Steam Lighthouse VR technology
- Sony’s PlayStation sales top 20.2 million worldwide
- Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is coming Sept. 1
- ARM launches Enlighten 3 global illumination tool for games
- Google X exec Mary Lou Jepsen leaves to pursue new ‘moonshots’ with Oculus
- Game developers favor Steam and PC over other platforms
- Unreal Engine 4 goes free — but Epic Games still gets its 5% cut of your royalties
- Shinra Technologies gets a new developer to use its cloud-gaming inventions
- Ex-SSI Gold Box devs go ‘back to the future’ with tools to transfer characters across role-playing games (updated)
- World of Warcraft’s new real money-for-gold effort brings more free-to-play to Blizzard’s cash cow
- PC gaming expected to be worth $35 billion in 2018
- Trine 3 announced, check out the gorgeous first trailer
- U.K. retailer Game acquires events and e-sports specialist Multiplay for $30.8M
- Akili is testing its cognitive games as a treatment for autism, ADHD
Mobile and social
- Vainglory is no longer just on Apple devices — mobile arena battler preps for Android beta
- Facebook beefs up its recommendations for mobile games
- DeNA releases first-person shooter Protocol Zero for Samsung Gear VR
- Games dominate App Annie’s annual list of top-grossing app publishers
- Amazon comes to Mobile World Congress looking for more gaming love from developers
- Carmack: Consumer Gear VR will hit before the end of the year with full Samsung media blitz
- DeNA partners with Fyber for mobile-ad monetization
- InMobi’s Appographic Targeting takes personalized marketing to a new level
- Monument Valley takes the top honors at mobile game awards
- Corona Labs mobile game-development platform goes free
- DoubleDown Casino launches St. Patrick’s Day slots game
- 500 iOS games per day: Flooded mobile market is tricky for indie devs
- Warner Bros. gets serious about mobile with 5 new games, including Game of Thrones
- Mobile publisher Storm8 hits a billion downloads for its casual games
- Mobile developer Wooga’s latest hidden-object game Agent Alice finds success
- Paris Hilton chases Kim Kardashian into celebrity mobile gaming
- Google updates Play Services API with new location features for Android apps
- Google unveils a slew of new features for Android game developers
- RockYou raises $23M in funding based on its business of running older games
- Tapjoy unveils ‘complete marketing automation and monetization platform’ for freemium mobile apps
- SpriteBuilder game developer tools introduce three tiers of subscriptions
- Yvolver launches its VIP rewards service for mobile game developers
Previews and interviews
- Asteroids: Outpost isn’t a traditional Asteroids game, and I can live with that … I think
- Magic: Origins sees the card battling series go free-to-play
- Afro Samurai’s latest game is a simpler, more elegant affair
- Zynga’s Dawn of Titans features thousands of soldiers fighting on an iPad screen
- Armikrog’s claymation style is screwing with my head
- Couch multiplayer or online multiplayer? Super Dungeon Bros. combines both — and across platforms
- Stardock’s new Ashes of the Singularity turns you into a hive mind, commanding thousands of ships at once
- Build and unleash your mechs in a new real-time strategy game
- Ubisoft’s therapeutic video game Dig Rush treats ‘lazy eye’
- Supersonic sees big growth for ‘rewarded video ads’ in mobile games (interview)
Reviews