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.
This week, a Valve engineer built a hybrid rocket engine under the backdrop of acquisition rumors, Activision revealed a ton of Call of Duty: Black Ops II details, and GamesBeat kicks off our Pitch us in one Tweet indie game series.
You’ll also find a review for Hell Yeah and our new “Threeview” series, which starts with Borderlands 2. Threeview is a feature with reviews from the perspectives of a critic, an analyst, and an academic.
News
- The DeanBeat: After raising $8.6M on Kickstarter, Ouya keeps the ball rolling
- Kingdoms of Amalur developer’s assets to be sold off at auction
- Minecraft creator refuses Windows 8 certification, tells Microsoft to “stop trying to ruin the PC”
- Nintendo to unleash fresh New Super Mario Bros. 2 levels
- Analyst — World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria performance ‘disappointing’
- Valve engineer builds a sweet hybrid rocket engine (video)
- Day 1 Digital proves Sony cares about digital distribution (analysis)
- Nintendo realizes it still has a Virtual Console in this week’s download report
- Ubisoft: Free-to-play will affect all of our games
- Spend over $100 on PSN in October and get $20 back
- Will Asian online game publishers Nexon and NCSoft buy blockbuster publisher Valve?
- PlayStation Network’s Spelunker HD getting brutal new downloadable stages
- Zombies game within Call of Duty: Black Ops II will be a big, bloody, burning massacre — on a bus
- Xbox Music pricing leaks online, mimics Spotify model
- Getting a Wii U on November 18? Here are the 23 games you can choose from
- Cable TV giants might be plotting cloud gaming service to take on Xbox, PlayStation
- German agency calls Steam license agreement ‘coercive’
- Bethesda turns to 2D animation to explain Dishonored’s backstory (updated)
- Gambitious launches crowdfunding platform for video games only
- Laid-off Sony PR employee: ‘You have to wonder what the hell’ Sony was thinking
- When you search for ‘casino’ games on iOS, here’s what pops up (Hint: it’s not a Zynga game)
- Game media veteran John Davison joins Red Robot Labs
Mobile news
- Pixowl raises $1.2 million to create story and character-driven mobile games
- iOS app-download rate dropped in August; likely due to iPhone 5 anticipation
- Justin Bieber winning joust with Joustin’ Beaver game creator
- Koolbit shows social mobile casino startups can still get traction in a crowd
- Kabam to make social and mobile games based on The Hobbit film
- Apple’s iOS 6 App Store search will be tough for game discovery
Pitch us in one tweet
- The top 10 games of ‘Pitch us in one Tweet’ (#7: NEO Scavenger)
- The top 10 games of “Pitch us in one Tweet” (#8: TwinSpin)
- The top 10 games of “Pitch us in one Tweet” (#9: Sir Gentleman Backyard Rumble)
- The top 10 games of ‘Pitch us in one Tweet’ (#10: Oh Snap!)
Interviews
- Why Guardians of Middle-earth (wisely) chooses not to compete with PC games like League of Legends (interview)
- Sony explains why you’re getting a smaller, but not cheaper, PlayStation 3 (interview)
- The Facebook Gaming Platform: expanding everywhere
Reviews
- What’s in the box?! Street Fighter 25th Anniversary Collector’s Set (review)
- Threeview: A critic, an analyst, and an academic review Borderlands 2
- Hell Yeah: Wrath of the Dead Rabbit is an homage to bad ‘90s platformers (review)
- What’s in the box?! World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria Collector’s Edition (review)
Previews
- 90 seconds of combat in Call of Duty: Black Ops II multiplayer (hands-on video)
- 10 cool revelations about Call of Duty: Black Ops II multiplayer
- Call of Duty: Black Ops II multiplayer revelations are all about killing, keeping score, and bragging (hands-on details)
- Destroy all humans in XCOM: Enemy Unknown’s multiplayer (hands-on preview)
- XCOM: Enemy Unknown’s hits and misses (hands-on preview)
Pieces of flair
- Calculator figures out real-world value of Mario coins
- The best of Skyrim mods #2: Floating fortresses, treehouses, and Hobbit holes
- Mass Effect 2′s epic characters get their own iconic posters (gallery)
- Need a statue of Wonder Woman lassoing Batman? The Injustice Collector’s Edition has that
- Check out this amazing augmented-reality Angry Birds game