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Welcome to another GamesBeat weekly roundup! This time, Ubisoft announced a new Far Cry, we looked at Super Smash Bros. 4 a year after its launch, and we get ready for GamesBeat 2015.
Enjoy, and have a great weekend!
Pieces of flair and opinion
- The DeanBeat: How technology is advancing the cause of women in video games
- Panel to explore the super-geek gaming future
- Fantasy sports industry looks to continue feeding the beast in the face of mounting criticism
- Jason Kay to highlight China’s importance in mobile investments at GamesBeat 2015
- Here’s one of our mystery speakers for GamesBeat 2015
- 10 songs from the last 5 years that need to be in Rock Band
- Introducing Stephen Kleckner, our new games-gadgets writer
- GamesBeat 2015 addresses how to play the branding game right
- GamesBeat 2015 has a big focus on diversity and gaming’s women leaders
- 5 Rock Band songs I’ve learned to love
- GamesBeat 2015 has a big focus on diversity and gaming’s women leaders
- 3 game genres that are surprisingly awesome in virtual reality
- Meet the 27 all-star moderators for GamesBeat 2015
- Here’s why Super Smash Bros. 4 is thriving a year after its debut
- OK, now we’re really confused about the story of Halo 5: Guardians
News
- Shovel Knight’s Xbox One retail release is now canceled
- How to unlock Cortana in the new Xbox One experience preview
- Star Wars: Battlefront’s beta is live now on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One
- 5th Cell to crowdfund for original game on Kickstarter-alternative Fig
- New Disney Infinity playset features Marvel and 4-player action
- Esports reports shows the consumer habits of 15M competitive gaming viewers
- Xbox co-creator wants a home in the Smithsonian for physicist Richard Feynman’s van
- Esports get another mainstream boost as the BBC announces League of Legends coverage
- Sony cuts price of PlayStation 4 to $350
- Sony acquires Softkinetic gesture-recognition company
- Fire TV is great if you’re deep into Amazon Prime — and don’t have a separate sound system
- Astroneer looks like ‘The Martian’ mixed with Minecraft and Kerbal Space Program
- Halo 5: Guardians goes gold as 343 Industries prepares for launch
- Immortals esports team raises money from an elite investment consortium
- The original Earthworm Jim team ‘would be up’ for a sequel
- Halo 5: Guardians will have a new Forge editor for user-created maps
- Microsoft unveils wearable holograms in HoloLens, taking applications for devkit today
- Nielsen predicts the top-selling games of holiday 2015
- Ubisoft acquires the studio that made The Crew racing game
- Stewart Kosoy passes away after a long career making and financing games
- Sony advertises Destiny: The Taken King by pushing it into your PlayStation 4 library
- Hearthstone overtakes Dota 2 in Twitch’s most-watched games of September
- Minecraft gets Mario 64-like flying powerup
- Ubisoft announces new, prehistoric Far Cry: Primal survival game with February release date
- Dice Summit focuses on the art of engaging players in 2016
- VTech’s InnoTV is a video game console with training wheels
- Konami adds an insurance microtransaction to Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
- The esports craze will generate $1.8B a year by 2020
- Destiny is getting a new in-game currency you can buy with real-world money
- Nintendo off of list of 100 top brands for first time
- Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5 lands just short of the U.K. top 10 despite a troubled launch
Mobile and social
- Shakira’s new Love Rocks game with Rovio will have … no birds
- Mino Games raises $2.2M and launches Mino Monsters 2
- Kabam’s Chris Petrovic to discuss how to integrate brands and games
- Ninja Metrics uses analytics to boost Springboard’s retail and ecommerce revenues
- Localytics introduces ‘Predictions’ to counter the biggest problem for mobile publishers today: Churn
- Capcom says Ghost Trick is coming back to Apple’s App Store once it’s fixed
- An insider’s take on monetizing free-to-play games
Previews and interviews
- SteamWorld Heist started with an office argument about X-COM working in 2D
- This is what the planet Sullust looks like in Star Wars: Battlefront
- Blizzard hopes Legacy of the Void ending will satisfy StarCraft II fans
Reviews and impressions
- Chibi-Robo Zip Lash is fun in small doses
- Hands-on with the new Xbox One experience — see what’s different
- Spirit Hunter is a magical mobile mix of role-playing and collectible card games
- Drive Any Track turns your music collection into a hypnotic, addictive futuristic racer
- Minecraft Story Mode asks its young audience to care about narrative
- Chesh reinvents chess every time you play
- Star Wars: Battlefront is fun because it is ‘Star Wars’
- Fire TV is great if you’re deep into Amazon Prime — and don’t have a separate sound system
- Hands-on with Microsoft’s Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book
- An ex-California state prisoner reviews Prison Architect
- Prison Architect is not for the faint of heart
- The Dreamcast’s latest release (you read that right), The Ghost Blade won’t satisfy hardcore shoot-’em-up fans
- Rock Band 4: Same as it ever was
- Mattel and Google teamed up to make VR kid friendly, and they got pretty darn close