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, Steam Greenlight meets its end, Call of Duty is returning to its roots, and Grand Theft Auto IV joins the Xbox One’s backward compatibility list.
Enjoy, and have a great weekend!
Pieces of flair and opinion
- The DeanBeat: How Berlin has become more tolerant than Trump’s America
- Will Fire Emblem: Heroes lead to Nintendo’s hardcore-gaming demise? GamesBeat Decides
- 10 reasons your game studio will never get funding
- Watch this retro-style commercial for Nintendo Switch and Zelda: Breath of the Wild
- Why don’t more game publishers have Super Bowl ads? GamesBeat Decides
News
- Steam Greenlight is dead: Valve introduces Steam Direct
- Dota 2’s The International could leave the U.S. due to Trump’s travel ban
- Dungeon & Fighter in China drives Nexon above expectations
- Boston Bruins’ owners skate after NBA into esports
- Xbox One had its best January yet in the U.S., but PlayStation 4 still won the month
- Activision Blizzard more than doubled the money it earned from in-game sales in 2016
- Skylanders won’t get a new console game in 2017
- Call of Duty’s 2017 game will focus on traditional gameplay, not sci-fi
- Activision Blizzard hits record $2 billion in sales driven by Call of Duty, Overwatch, and Hearthstone
- Twitch introduces communities to discover content and reach audiences
- Grand Theft Auto IV and all its expansions hijack Xbox One’s backward compatibility list
- Ubisoft misses third quarter projections as Watch Dogs 2 underperforms
- Castlevania gets Netflix show from ‘Planetary’ scribe Warren Ellis
- PSN is down once again for many players on PlayStation 4
- World of Warcraft’s Mischief pet raises $2.5 million for Make-A-Wish
- Watch Nintendo give an overview of its Switch hardware
- Puyo Puyo Tetris drops on Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 on April 25
- Project Cars 2 is racing to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC in late 2017
- Take-Two shipped more copies of Grand Theft Auto V last year than it did in 2015 or 2014
- Overwatch’s Capture the Flag mode will expand to new maps and continue as an ongoing Arcade brawl
- Rocket League Championship Series season 3 will have a $300,000 prize pool
- Gears of War 4 gets two new maps and a Valentine’s Day event
- Nutaku launches Kimochi Red Light to crowdfund adult games
- Tenka Labs unveils Circuit Cubes to take LEGO-like building blocks into electronic age
- YouTube opens up mobile livestreaming to all creators with more than 10,000 subscribers
- Avast unveils faster game mode in its free consumer security software
- Miyamoto: Nintendo’s internal studios have ‘mastered’ the Unreal Engine
- Europe’s virtual reality sector has grown to nearly 300 companies
- World of Warcraft Tokens can now be exchanged for Battle.net currency
- League of Legends superstar Faker breaks Twitch record with his first livestream
- Innervate launches Gamesight do-it-yourself influencer marketing platform
- Adam Orth joins First Contact to dive deeper into VR games
- Hearthstone’s next expansion could have a dinosaur theme
Mobile and social
- Zynga credits focus on legacy hits Words With Friends and Zynga Poker for positive Q4 earnings
- Hitcents launches The Godfather: Family Dynasty mobile game
- Minecraft sweetens up its iOS, Android, and Windows 10 versions with candy texture pack
- Scopely’s The Walking Dead: Road to Survival launches massive World at War in-game event
- Vainglory adds five teams, including Fnatic, to its competitive scene
- Pixlplay turns a smartphone into a kids’ camera
- Pokémon Go gets Valentine’s Day event with a higher chance to attract pink pocket monsters
- FMTwo reveals a gamer smartwatch that lets you play Pong and 19 other classics
- Gree International boss says game makers should consider bundling and unbundling strategies
- Fire Emblem: Heroes is Nintendo’s best mobile game yet
- Tapjoy launches Offerwall Plus to help mobile developers monetize better
- Singular reveals which ad networks generate return-on-investment for mobile marketers
- Zynga expands board and creates litigation committee to fight shareholder lawsuits
- When it comes to iOS app spending, men flock to Clash of Clans, women prefer Candy Crush
- Following Super Bowl ad, Evony is the No. 5 most downloaded iPhone game in the U.S.
- Pokémon Go developer Niantic will now need a permit to use Milwaukee county parks in its game
- Rovio spin-out Hatch lines up 90 mobile games for social hub
- Evony, that game that puts horny ads on your Facebook sidebar, just had a Super Bowl commercial
- Mobile Strike’s $5 million Super Bowl ad has Arnold Schwarzenegger rehashing his famous one-liners
Previews, reviews, and interviews
- We Are Chicago makes you confront tough choices to survive in a poor neighborhood
- How a 62-year-old black man gave cred to the story of the We Are Chicago video game
- HyperX is now shipping its Alloy FPS gaming keyboard with Cherry MX Red or Brown switches
- Earthfall is a new four-player co-op shooter akin to Left 4 Dead