These April showers are starting to get me down. If the weather has the same effect on you (and you don’t live in paradise), then why not cheer yourself up with a week’s worth of our gaming coverage?
We’ve reviewed the newest massively multiplayer online game, The Elder Scrolls Online, Amazon introduces its new console, and Blizzard’s addictive digital card game is coming to tablets (it’s already there in some countries). You’ll find all of that and more below.
Virtual reality
- The DeanBeat: Virtual-reality startups like Survios are moving into Oculus Rift’s slipstream
- Virtual reality has another ‘wow’ moment as Jaunt introduces 360-degree cinematic videos
- Oculus founder responds to death threats in the wake of Facebook buyout (updated)
- Documentary filmmaker explores the new visual language of virtual reality
News
- Maxthon promises you can play awesome console-like games on its browser — and with no downloads (exclusive)
- After 162,784 cups of coffee, fantasy role-playing game The Elder Scrolls Online finally launches
- Coming soon: Minecraft will finally let you change your name
- Microsoft says its Xbox game studio ‘continues to grow’ despite today’s layoffs
- Uncharted mastermind Amy Hennig is directing a Star Wars project for Electronic Arts
- Digital Storm launches four new Nvidia-based custom gaming laptops
- Twitch’s speakeasies: Livestreaming site begins rolling out invite-only group chat rooms
- No auction house? No problem — Diablo III: Reaper of Souls sales surpass 2.7 million in first week
- Amazon’s Fire TV launch games are not that original, but it has an army of them
- Who’s afraid of Fire? Not Ouya — don’t expect it to rush out a new console to combat Amazon
- Whoopee — yet another boring Android game box for the living room
- Portal and Far Cry 2 designers just the latest big brains to join Amazon Game Studios
- E-sports viewers doubled to over 70 million in 2013 — and they tend to be young men, married, and have steady jobs
- The year of the deal? Game industry already has more than $5B in mergers and acquisitions in 2014
- Amazon joins the living room gaming brawl with its $99 Fire TV and a sci-fi shooter
- Microsoft makes the Xbox One TV experience better — even as its new boss talks of focusing on games
- Pretend to leave the world (and April Fool’s Day) behind with Kerbal Space Program’s NASA mission
- PlayStation’s ‘Nixon goes to China’ moment? Sony’s new division focuses on huge Asian nation
- Titanfall accounts for nearly half of Twitch members’ Xbox One streaming debut
- Six Ouya exclusives show the console’s silly and serious side
- Machinima names new CEO in wake of funding for fanboy and fangirl video-entertainment network
- Japan’s gaming industry generated $10.8B in 2013 — half of that was from smartphones
- Warface already has 25 million players before it even hits free-to-play-crazy China and Japan
- A blocky Nathan Drake: Minecraft on PS3 gets Uncharted, Killzone, and Heavy Rain skins
- Well, duh: EA finds only 1 out of 100 customers bought actual discs on digital-game service Origin
- As Microsoft chases Sony, Phil Spencer will take over as new Xbox chief
Mobile and social
- TabTale takes its popular kids apps to Windows 8 (exclusive)
- Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft rushes up the iPad charts like a pack of Murlocs
- Hoping to ignite a mobile messaging wildfire, Tango snares Zynga’s Words with Friends
- Big Fish Games sees zany Fairway Solitaire Blast as another potential ‘evergreen’ mobile game
- HitFox expands its reach into mobile monetization in deals with Datamonk and Apploop
- Mobile industry ‘is in denial’ about underage gamers
- Candy Crush Saga publisher pegs IPO riches for hiring-spree bender
- Microsoft officially reveals Cortana, its Siri & Google Now competitor
- Under Hasbro, Backflip Studios is cranking out some ambitious mobile games
- The mobile web is still losing out to native apps, by more than 6 to 1
- PopCap Games veteran spins PlayFab out of Uber Entertainment
- Halo game creator raises $5M for Industrial Toys game startup
- Finnish game studio Small Giant appoints new CEO
- Blizzard’s Hearthstone card game out on iPad now … in just a handful of countries
Previews and interviews
- Choose your side: Balancing the Autobot versus Decepticon war in Transformers Universe
- Why Mario Kart 8 is the best way to get your kid into gaming — and into the Wii U
- Hands-on with Amazon’s Fire TV — and its funky game controller
- Playing god was never so easy with Godus (hands-on preview)
- Microsoft’s new Xbox boss will put gamers first (interview)
- Oddworld’s Lorne Lanning bets that fans will love a 3D re-creation of Abe’s Oddysee (interview)
- Transformers Universe is the free-to-play game with e-sports potential that your 10 year old can play
- Dhruva CEO explains how India’s game industry is coming of age (interview)
Reviews
Pieces of flair
- How Sony and Microsoft can conquer television with original new shows
- You think you’ve seen everything? How about a video game toothbrush
- 5 indie games I want to play more of in 2014
- The best, weirdest, and most comforting theories about BioShock Infinite’s Burial at Sea ending
- Goat Simulator: How to beat all 27 quests and find all 27 collectibles
- These are the best toilet seats for gamers
- Meet the best Call of Duty team in the world
- Why Valve’s Free to Play documentary wasn’t one big promotion — but got me playing Dota 2 anyway