Join independent journalists and industry decision-makers at GamesBeat NEXT, returning to San Francisco November 2–3. The event brings together 500 executives, founders, investors and tech leaders shaping the $200 billion interactive economy for candid discussions on gaming, entertainment, technology and AI, plus executive networking and opportunities to build partnerships and close major deals.
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