Become a member of GB MAX to gain exclusive access to the industry and to the most influential global B2B leadership community in the business of gaming, entertainment, and tech. Join now and also get a VIP ticket to GamesBeat Next (Nov 2-3, SF).
Welcome to another GamesBeat weekly roundup! This time, Bethesda announced Fallout 4, Naughty Dog showed us an Uncharted collection for PlayStation 4, and Heroes of the Storm officially launched.
Enjoy, and have a great weekend!
Pieces of flair and opinion
- The DeanBeat: Will we see creativity or imaginative exhaustion at E3?
- The process for getting a refund on Steam takes about 60 seconds — just watch
- Our GIFs show Fallout 4’s pinched-butt graphics, friendly dog, and dynamic Boston
- Fallout 4’s graphics look cheap and plasticy, but that’s OK
- Fallout 4: Everyone on Twitter really wants to play as the dog
- The history of Kirby gets an animated GIF tribute
- Check out the Hearthstone TV ad that will air during NBA, NHL finals this week
- The Bard’s Tale IV Kickstarter launches with a 24 hour deal for early supporters
- How to pick the right hero in Heroes of the Storm, Dota 2, and League of Legends
- Here’s how much it would cost to build Zelda’s castle, Resident Evil’s mansion, and more out of Lego blocks
News
- Super Smash Bros. DLC character Lucas available on June 14
- DayZ is starting to lose the survival sim war
- Here’s what dual-wielding will look like in Minecraft
- Corsair’s BullDog and LapDog provide a foundation for DIY Steam Machines
- Hearthstone has a new way to monetize: more heroes
- Otoy offers free cloud-based rendering for VR artists with OctaneRender Cloud
- Here’re the inaugural winners in the World Video Game Hall of Fame — and how it tallied the votes
- Valve’s Steam Machines are coming in October
- The PlayStation 4 Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection is real
- Havok FX is a low-cost, lightweight graphical effects tech aimed at PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC
- The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt isn’t working on Xbox One for many right now (update)
- Gears of War developers Black Tusk Studios change studio name to The Coalition
- After 15 years, Remedy Entertainment CEO resigns to join Wargaming
- Fallout 4 is real — watch the trailer here
- Activision swings back at toy-game rivals with Skylanders vehicles
- U.S. games industry forecast to grow 30 percent to $19.6B by 2019
- Oculus’s ex-Pixar talent wants to make you cry — and show you VR is about more than realism
- YouTube signs game news personality Geoff Keighley to host live E3 coverage
- GameStop expects ThinkGeek to help generate nearly $200M this year by selling you nerdy toys
- Mega Man is back … on TV, with a new 26-episode animated series
- Even Superman couldn’t save Infinite Crisis
- Valve: You can now ‘request a refund for nearly any purchase on Steam’
- Final Fantasy Type-0 HD comes to PC via Steam
- Harvest Moon is heading to Wii U, PC, and mobile this winter (update)
- Nexon sets off the Dirty Bomb open beta today
- GameFly acquires cloud-gaming company to establish itself as the ‘Netflix of games’
- Prima publisher buys BradyGames and merges the strategy-guide giants
- Turn your Bitcoin (and other cryptocurrencies) into games with Coinplay.io’s first bundle
- Activision’s Bobby Kotick, EA’s Andrew Wilson make Adweek’s top 100 leaders in media
- Former X-Play hosts Adam Sessler and Morgan Webb will reunite at Bethesda’s E3 press conference
- BioShock franchise sees lifetime sales of 25M copies — with 11M from Infinite alone
- It looks like Valve is preparing to roll out Source 2 support for Dota 2
- Mind your neckbeard and get DriveClub downloadable content with this Norelco shaver
- Splatoon update brings the NES Zapper and a new map to the shooter later today
- Minecraft competitor Lego Worlds debuts on the Steam digital store — and you can play it today
- Nvidia’s multi-resolution shading technology helps both VR developers and players
- Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz uses games to make himself seem more genuine
Mobile and social
- SoftBank investment values Clash of Clans maker Supercell at astonishing $5.5B
- Oculus Mobile VR Jam seeds virtual reality’s future with $1M for indie devs
- Wunderverse is an iPad app that enables you to make your own adventure games
- Subway Surfers studio preps Blades of Brim to enter ultracompetitive endless runner battle
- Hitman: Sniper lets you assassinate for high scores in a mobile sniper sandbox
- Nexon’s DomiNations hits 7.2M downloads in 60 days
- SuperData posts new digital game sales dashboard — with some free info, too
- CastleStorm is heading to China as Zen Studios partners with NetEase
- Magic Leap unveils its development platform to create mind-boggling augmented-reality apps
- We finally get a Dragon Quest — even if it’s a Dynasty Warriors spin-off
- Live Gamer rebrands as global payments firm Emergent Payments
- After a decade, Kim Kardashian maker Glu Mobile shoots for $1B revenues in five years
- Kamcord launches Android app that can record any game
- Hipster Whale uses part of its Crossy Road millions to fund Halfbrick vets’ studio
- SoftBank boosts its stake in Clash of Clans developer Supercell to 73 percent
- 2K announces XCOM 2 for November — and only for PC (at this time)
- Bravely Second: End Layer coming to U.S. in 2016
- Roblox user-generated world moves from blocky terrain to smooth 3D
- Driveclub server upgrades ‘prepare for PlayStation Plus edition’
Previews and interviews
- Disney closes in for the kill with Star Wars: Rise Against the Empire play set for Infinity 3.0
- Star Wars characters are the epic finale for Disney Infinity 3.0
- Disney’s Playmation is like Disney Infinity without the graphics — and it’s just as pricey
- Next Star Wars mobile game is our first look at a post-‘Return of the Jedi’ galaxy
- One company’s quest to bring esports gambling to the U.S.
- Nexon CEO’s progress report on westward migration — and the dirty secret on game quality
- Lego Dimensions brings do-it-yourself toys and your imagination — and a giant army of characters — into a game
- Warner’s Lego Dimensions team worked 8 years on latest toy-game hybrid (interview)
- Heroes of the Storm designer: ‘I’d change every single hero in the game’
Reviews