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Welcome to another GamesBeat weekly roundup! This time, we checked out Knack 2 for the PlayStation 4, Insomniac’s makes a stand against Trump’s travel ban, Gordon Ramsay’s mobile game gets meaner.
Enjoy, and have a great weekend!
Pieces of flair and opinion
- The DeanBeat: What’s behind this week’s big investments in games
- Remember Segata Sanshiro on the Sega Saturn’s 22nd anniversary
- PC Gaming Weekly: Hearthstone’s mobile client is holding back the PC experience
- Watch part 5 of our Mario Kart 8 Deluxe quest for 200cc perfection
- Sledgehammer’s founders want to make Call of Duty: WWII memorable
- Nexon CEO Owen Mahoney wants the game industry to lose its Hollywood envy
- AR/VR Weekly: Don’t doubt virtual reality
- What should you expect from Bethesda, Ubisoft, and Activision at E3? GamesBeat Decides
- Hearthstone’s 100th Tavern Brawl embodies entertaining chaos
- Why Insomniac boss Ted Price stands against Trump’s travel ban and game censorship
- Chris Roberts on using infinite computing power to create a universe of endless possibilities
- EA’s share price went over $100 for the first time ever — here’s why
- Battlefield 1 has 19 million players and is growing faster than Battlefield 4 did
- Watch Robin Hunicke’s inspiring talk on mass-market gaming
- AR visionaries learn to cope with the limits of today’s tech
- Why Mario’s Hallmark ornaments matter beyond your Christmas tree
- The new Blade Runner film trailer has the Atari logo
- In Prey, water is life
- How Mark Cerny used fan feedback when designing Knack 2
- Mark Cerny’s Knack 2 has big gameplay improvements
- My favorite battle in Horizon Zero Dawn
- It’s time to stop doubting virtual reality
News
- Paradox is giving Cities: Skylines a sci-fi cousin set on Mars
- Blaster Master Zero surpassed 80,000 copies sold on Nintendo Switch
- Improbable draws $502 million from SoftBank and others for dream of giant online game worlds
- Twitch will broadcast a marathon of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood
- Osmo Coding Jam game combines programming with music
- Paragon’s newest hero looks like Hot Topic’s No. 1 customer
- Nintendo is bringing Super Mario Odyssey, tournaments, and more to E3
- Vivid Vision raises $2.2 million to build VR tools to treat ‘lazy eye’
- IBM Watson enables voice commands in Ubisoft’s Star Trek: Bridge Crew virtual reality game
- Overwatch fans played the Uprising cooperative event a ton
- Google bags Job Simulator studio Owlchemy Labs in VR’s latest exit
- Toyota is using Nvidia’s car supercomputer for its autonomous vehicles
- Nvidia and SAP use AI to spot brand appearances in the real world
- Nielsen: 64% of Americans age 13-and-older are gamers
- Nvidia unveils massive AI processing chip Tesla V100
- Nvidia demos Project Holodeck for sharing high-resolution images in a 3D space
- VR gets 3D product placement thanks to Vertebrae’s new SDK
- Vanquish is officially coming to PC
- Nvidia CEO: ‘AI is going to infuse all of software’
- Shape starts taking preorders for ShapeScale 3D body scanner
- Canadian game accelerator Execution Labs to shut after investing all of its capital
- Vive outsells Rift — but mobile and console VR outsell both
- EA’s CEO still has faith in BioWare after mixed Mass Effect: Andromeda reviews
- Jade Raymond’s EA Motive studio now employs more than 100 people
- EA CEO credits live game services for the company’s success
- Nintendo Switch helps drive Nvidia’s Tegra revenue up 108% to $332 million
- EA’s FIFA Soccer reaches 21 million players as fiscal year revenues hit record
- Bob Ross is now on Smite — yes, that Bob Ross
- Nvidia launches new SDKs to make VR development simpler
- Call of Duty: Black Ops III’s Zombies Chronicles won’t hit PC until June
- Sega is teasing Platinum’s masterpiece shooter Vanquish again
- Injustice 2 is getting a $600,000 championship series
- VRobot lets you wreck a big city in virtual reality
- How strong infrastructure lifts the esports industry
Mobile and social
- Tapjoy says rewarded ads improve mobile app loyalty by 4X
- Tencent poured $90 million into Pocket Gems because of two shiny jewels
- Netmarble IPO: What it says about the future of mobile gaming
- Boomers and millennials under one roof? Welcome to The Sims Mobile
- Gordon Ramsay’s mobile game gets a reboot with mean Gordanisms
- AppOnBoard raises $4 million to create engaging demos for mobile apps
- EA says Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes players log an average of 162 minutes a day in the game
- Zynga partners with USC to support diversity and inclusive game production
- Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon chips will make features like dual smartphone cameras more affordable
- Nexon’s Project D mobile RPG is in the works from South Korea’s Weredsoft