Welcome to another GamesBeat weekly roundup! This time, we check out the new Xbox One S Bluetooth controller, reports shed new details on Nintendo’s NX console, and we get ready for our conference in Los Angeles next week, GamesBeat 2016.
Happy reading, and have a great weekend! Maybe we’ll see you in L.A.!
Pieces of flair and opinion
- The DeanBeat: The Platform Awakens
- You can connect the Xbox One S controller to a PlayStation 4 (but that’s it)
- Wevr CEO Neville Spiteri to explore the real opportunities in VR at GamesBeat 2016
- GamesBeat 2016 will cast a resurrection spell on your old franchises
- GamesBeat 2016: Riot North America on community, uLoL and making League of Legends last forever
- Announcing the winners of the GamesBeat 2016 developer contest
- Pokémon Go: What I’ve learned from spending more than $50 on in-game purchases
- My custom Xbox One S controller is a future national champion
- Here’s our agenda for GamesBeat 2016: The Platform Awakens — with 93 speakers
- How Overwatch’s new hero, Ana, can kick people from games
- Why the Super Nintendo would turn yellow and other SNES trivia
- Why Sonic Mania matters more than the next ‘real’ Sonic game
- Exploring the brave new world of game influencers at GamesBeat 2016
- GamesBeat 2016 explores how to make games accessible, the Blizzard way
- Syrian children hold Pokémon Go photos to say ‘come save me’
- GamesBeat 2016 panel delves into balancing monetization and retention
News
- Sony has shipped 43.5 million PlayStation 4s to retailers
- Sony’s PlayStation division accounted for 78% of its Q1 2016 profits
- The first 7 cards revealed for Hearthstone’s One Night in Karazhan adventure
- Hearthstone’s next adventure is One Night in Karazhan
- AMD reveals specs for Radeon RX 470 and RX 460 that will launch in early August
- Dungeons & Dragons gets a new virtual tabletop — Roll20
- Minecraft: Windows 10 Edition will get Oculus Rift VR support in the ‘next few weeks’
- Heroes of the Storm’s newest character is the angel Auriel from Diablo
- Doom gets its first batch of downloadable content: Unto the Evil
- Twitter will brodcast Eleague’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament
- Epic Game’s Paragon gets a free new hero, The Fey
- Kirby games invade the Wii U and 3DS digital stores
- Jaunt partners with ESL to create VR documentaries for esports
- August 2016 PlayStation Plus free games: Rebel Galaxy, Tricky Towers, and more
- Lady Layton takes her professor dad’s spotlight in the next entry in the puzzle series
- Geek culture site Imgur says 91% of its users are gamers
- Nintendo can’t count on Pokémon Go to pull itself out of the red
- The Xbox One S Bluetooth controller doesn’t work with Steam Link, yet
- Tim Cook thinks they’re called PokéMan
- Tim Cook is surprisingly confident about the promise of augmented reality
- Blizzard: Overwatch patch makes Ana ‘feel better to play’ and tweaks McCree’s damage
- Nintendo NX reports claim it’s a portable console with a TV dock
- Microsoft confirms 1TB and 500GB Xbox One S bundles for August 23, starting at $300
- Former Sony exec Adam Boyes joins indie dev Iron Galaxy as CEO
- AMD unveils new flash-based memory to dramatically boost graphics performance
- AMD fires back at Nvidia with workstation graphics chip for pro designers
- Nvidia claims its new chip is the ‘world’s fastest GPU’ for game and VR design
- Marvel Ultimate Alliance games hit consoles and PC next week
- Warner Bros. unveils Fantastic Beasts, Sonic, and E.T. add-ons for Lego Dimensions
- WWE turns TV into Suplex City while Pokémon Go skips costly ads
Mobile and social
- Deckstorm launches as DeNA’s latest stab at the $1.2 billion card game market
- Just Sing is Ubisoft’s newest music game, and it uses your phone as a mic
- Vainglory prepares its mobile MOBA esports season for Seattle and Cologne
- Osmo Monster lets kids interact with cartoon characters on iPad
- Pokémon Go re-energizes the global mobile gaming market
- How to find rare Pokémon while Go’s buggy ‘Nearby’ feature is broken
- Original Yo-Kai Watch headed to smartphones later this year
- Google Play’s new Family Library lets up to 6 people share purchases across Android, iOS, and the web
- Clash Royale’s tournament update earns an extra $1.5 million in two weeks
- Zynga refashions Words With Friends for the classroom
- Mobile game publisher Scopely raises $55 million to drive global expansion
- Pokémon Go is at 75 million downloads as it sets more records
- Pokémon Go developer’s first game, Ingress, surges in Japan
- Final Fantasy: Brave Exvius summons 5 million players in the West
- Vungle has grown video ad revenue by 400 percent in China since 2015
- Why it’s hard to go from building games on console to mobile
Reviews, previews, and interviews
- Xbox One S controller is another sleek and smart upgrade from Microsoft
- Microsoft exclusive ReCore strives to be light but meaningful
- Hearthstone’s D&D, Magic vet Mike Donais dishes designing Blizzard’s market-leading giant
- How the Sequel game character bot platform will drive believable conversations with players
- Ghost Recon: Wildlands makes you live with your tactical screwups