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If you follow VentureBeat but don’t regularly check our GamesBeat site, here’s a list of the best video game stories we ran over the last seven days that you may have missed.
This week, Valve claims the Linux operating system is more viable than Windows 8, Disney buys Star Wars studio Lucasfilm as well as LucasArts, and hurricane Sandy delays Take-Two Interactive’s earning call.
You’ll also find reviews for Halo 4, Pid, Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation, Assassin’s Creed III, WWE 13, and Medal of Honor: Warfighter.
News:
- Halo 4, Xbox, and American Express partnership: kill Covenant nasties to earn cold, hard cash
- The DeanBeat: Halo 4 is the romance of Master Chief and Cortana, disguised as a combat game
- Startup accelerator Tandem Capital rolls its new capital into mobile technology and games
- Twitch embeds livestreaming in Sony Online Entertainment’s Planetside 2
- Flurry’s knowledge is power as it raises a whopping $25M for mobile app analytics
- Wii U’s browser is better equipped for HTML5 than Internet Explorer 10 on PC
- Now streaming for Windows 8: 1,000 games from Agawi’s GameZen
- Preorder Crysis 3 and return to the beginning with a free download of Crysis
- Here come the brands: Wizard of Oz game launches on Facebook
- Mystery narrative and new features headline CityVille 2′s launch
- Minecraft-like first-person shooter heads to Steam in December
- Israel’s Plarium debuts graphically rich hardcore Stormfall game on Facebook (exclusive)
- Mountain Dew-branded Halo 4 game makes a weird sort of sense
- Valve prepping next batch of Greenlight-approved games in November
- Disney’s recent history suggests it might not be ‘business as usual’ at LucasArts for long
- Grand Theft Auto V delay blows a $600 million hole in Take-Two’s outlook for 2013
- Imbibe a Nos Energy Drink to unlock Assassin’s Creed III multiplayer character
- Disney buys LucasArts alongside Lucasfilm (updated)
- Gaming’s ‘Nite to Unite’ raises over $800,000 for children’s charities and scholarships
- Publisher Valve says Linux is more viable for games than Windows 8
- Browser-based steampunk: City of Steam enters closed beta in November
- Hawken publisher Meteor Entertainment raises $18M as big launch draws near
- Developers are mostly thrilled with the chance to make money with Windows 8 games
Mobile news:
- Boom! EA brings its Madden football franchise to iOS & Facebook
- Developer support builds for Ngmoco’s mobile social gaming network
- Amazon Game Studios launches its first mobile game: Air Patriots
- Joining the insane social sports-betting crowd, Bunker Mode debuts its High Limit Sports app (exclusive)
- Wooga expands into mobile with its Bubble Island arcade shooter game
- Leap Motion hires former Apple director to lead its marketing team
- Gameloft doesn’t hesitate to support Windows Phone 8 with 12 optimized games
- Activision preps two more Skylanders mobile games for this year
- Developers wary about investing in Windows Phone 8 games
Earnings:
- Sony’s game division revenues fall nearly 16 percent in Q2 2012
- Hurricane Sandy forces publisher Take-Two Interactive to postpone earnings report
Reviews:
- Halo 4 is the next chapter, not the next evolution (review)
- Pid turns childlike magic into planet-sized punishment (review)
- Medal of Honor: Warfighter’s bearded badasses can’t defeat mediocrity (review)
- Assassin’s Creed III: The revolution will be gripping but glitchy (review)
- Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation can’t match the quality of its console brethren (review)
- WWE ’13 gives fans plenty of nostalgic Attitude (review)
Previews:
Interviews:
- 343 Industries’ Josh Holmes on Halo 4′s love story, weaponry, and new enemies (interview)
- Better graphics and physics gave designers more freedom for Halo 4 (interview)
- Treyarch’s Mark Lamia promises that Call of Duty: Black Ops II will push gaming’s boundaries (exclusive interview)
- How to find the secret website in Shadowgate’s Kickstarter video and more (interview)
- David Vonderhaar’s expert advice on how to get ahead in Call of Duty: Black Ops II multiplayer (exclusive interview)
Pieces of flair: