Welcome to another GamesBeat weekly roundup! This time, we reviewed the Xenoblade Chronicles port to the 3DS, we took a good look at the new free-to-play shooter Dirty Bomb, and Halo is going free-to-play … in Russia.
You’ll find all of that and more below. Have a great weekend!
Pieces of flair and opinion
- The DeanBeat: Even for a second-generation game designer, being an indie is a survival journey
- Check out the agenda for the first-ever GamesBeat Summit
- We tour Square Enix’s awesome HQ since you probably never will
- GamesBeat Summit explores the bold ideas of gaming (May 5-May 6)
- Why Halo is going free-to-play on PC in Russia
- How Nintendo can capitalize on in-app advertising without annoying players
- The worst ideas you never saw in EverQuest — like the muffin zone
- Girls get kiddie tablets, boys get game consoles — researchers say tech gender bias starts with parents
- Show you care and save Konami’s franchises (or at least have a laugh with this parody)
- A 10-year-old designs Gunman Taco Truck with help from legendary gaming parents
News
- Hearthstone’s Blackrock Mountain expansion gets April 2 release date
- Purdue scientists say that a virtual nose may keep motion sickness at bay (update)
- Grand Theft Auto V graphics downgrade: Rockstar is ‘investigating a fix’
- GameStop misses earnings — will reduce game store count by 3%
- No, Facebook did not say the Oculus Rift will arrive this year
- More than 20 universities sign on to the Open Source Virtual Reality Academia program
- Crowfall finishes Kickstarter campaign well ahead of goal — but it will still take your money
- Halo Online’s first trailer — the Russia-only PC game is Halo 3 tech with more maps
- Oculus chief scientist says we’re all going to care about virtual reality
- Xbox One is costing gamers $250M a year, according to environmental group
- Toejam & Earl: Back in the Groove passes funding goal on Kickstarter
- Evolve’s digital sales haven’t benefited from all of that downloadable content
- 10 years on, Half-Life 2 gets a major graphics update on Steam
- Smite’s first year sees it inching closer to MOBA elite League of Legends, Dota 2
- Microsoft on Minecon and Minecraft: ‘We want to listen, learn, and be inspired’
- Game of Thrones’ Arya and Sansa Stark on Gamergate: Don’t feed the trolls
- Andreessen Horowitz invests $20M in startup Improbable to build massive simulated game worlds
- New Evolve patch weakens its strongest monster
- Sweden’s Stugan game accelerator takes shape
- PS4 system update 2.50 arrives this week; adds capability to suspend and resume games
- Dota 2 makes $18M per month for Valve — but League of Legends makes that much every 5 days
- New texture pack makes Minecraft obnoxiously colorful
- Bloodborne fans on PC start a petition — but Sony has already said it won’t port it
- From Software working to fix Bloodborne’s long load times
- Change your Twitch password — streaming site warns of possible hack (update)
- Nintendo CEO: Zelda Netflix story was ‘not based on correct information’
- Batman: Arkham Knight suffers a (tiny) delay
- Going digital with Xenoblade Chronicles 3D? Then you’d better get a new memory card
Mobile and social
- Brave Frontier publisher Gumi of Japan announces layoffs just three months after IPO
- Supercell dreamed up that $9 million Clash of Clans Super Bowl ad in a hot tub
- Playstudios recruits Shaquille O’Neal to pump up its social casino games
- Fast & Furious: Legacy brings all seven films to one mobile game
- This iPad racing gadget is crazier than the Mario Kart Wii Wheel
- Memorado raises $3.3M to become a brain-training game leader
- In Tree Story mobile game, you nurture virtual seedlings and plant trees in the real world
- Compass Point: West is Next Games’s debut, mixes strategy, card-collecting, and cowboys
- Scopely teams up with Kung Fu Factory to make a series of mobile games
- UCool’s Super Bowl ad game Heroes Charge is ‘cut-and-dried’ case of copyright infringement
- Facebook has paid out $8B to developers
- Clash of Clans developer Supercell’s revenues tripled in 2014
- How to land one of the biggest fish in gaming: The story of Nintendo’s new mobile partner, DeNA
- Square Enix taps DeNA for its free-to-play expertise for Final Fantasy: Record Keeper
- How one studio is finding repeated success with Flappy Bird-style games
- Game Marketing Awards to honor game ads that get you laughing — and buying
Previews and interviews
- Dirty Bomb turns war into an e-sport (hands-on video)
- How Splash Damage crafted Dirty Bomb into a modern online shooter for Western hardcore fans
- Splash Damage puts your trigger-finger to the test in frenetic shooter Dirty Bomb (hands-on preview)
- At Facebook’s F8, Messenger Platform excites developers who see the boost it may give their apps
- Firewatch turns a boring wilderness job into a compelling adventure
- A face-to-face demo of Facebook’s Teleportation virtual reality app
- Controlling this game with my mind almost drove me crazy
- The new Unreal Tournament is a shooter — and a teaching tool
Reviews
- In Pillars of Eternity, you choose, and the world responds (review in progress)
- Xenoblade Chronicles 3D: One of the best Wii role-playing games is better on a portable console
- Game of Thrones: Episode 3 starts slow but finishes bloody strong
- Bloodborne is a fantastically demented test of player skill and patience (review in progress)
- Dying Light’s Hard mode and developer support make a good game even better (review)