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It’s Friday, and that means it’s time for another GamesBeat weekly roundup! Nintendo announced a new Fire Emblem, we found out which 2014 games sold the best, and a couple of classics celebrated their tenth anniversaries.
Happy reading, and have a good weekend!
Pieces of flair and opinion
- The DeanBeat: The next-generation console war has taken shape
- Grand Theft Auto V in 4K shows why the PC version’s delay to March is worth the wait
- Planning to get the New 3DS XL? Don’t buy Nintendo’s power adapter
- Minecraft dominates Guinness Book of Records’ Gamer Edition
- This guy’s combined a PS4 and an Xbox One in a single supergaming laptop
- Watch one of the best Hearthstone players lose to a lowly starter deck
- The PlayStation Now subscription games you need to play
- Stern Pinball thrives on nostalgia for pinball and new demand from ‘barcades’ (video)
- Take our visual tour of CES (photo gallery)
- 10 years later, Resident Evil 4 still influences the industry
- Why you should play The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap on its 10th birthday
News
- H1Z1 now best-selling game on Steam, criticized for ‘pay-to-win’ mechanics
- Disney claims Infinity 2.0 beat out Skylanders in toy-game hybrid sales
- Nintendo: Mario Kart 8 sells 1.7M copies, Smash Bros. Wii U sells 1.3M
- Sony: PS4 was the top-selling console of 2014 worldwide
- 10 best-selling retail games of 2014: Call of Duty, Madden, and Destiny lead the way
- December 2014 NPD: Xbox One outsells PS4 again
- Microsoft says Xbox One saw record-breaking holiday in 2015
- This War of Mine developer partners with charity that helps children in war zones
- PS4 owners watch 2.6-times more porn than those on Xbox One
- Indie studio Eforb wants to connect developers, marketers with new publishing platform
- Developer poll shows more are working on PS4 than Xbox One
- Unity nabs former EA exec for its chief financial officer (exclusive)
- Xbox One prepares closed beta for its first MMO: Neverwinter
- Minecraft teams up with ‘The Simpsons’ for another one of its lucrative skin packs
- PS4 and Xbox One lead digital games to $1.2B December
- Oculus Rift gets more virtual reality porn with Red Light Center
- Twitch to offer free music library to broadcasters
- DayZ producer on Early Access frustrations: There needs to be a ‘f***ing loading bar’
- White House uses PSN, Sony Pictures cyberattacks to resurrect ‘dangerous’ CISPA-like security measures
- GameStop: Majora’s Mask-themed New 3DS XLs are about to sell out in stores
- PSN down for maintenance (update)
- Nintendo Direct trailer roundup: New Fire Emblem, Xenoblade, Zelda, and more
- Dailymotion launches live-streaming gaming platform to compete with Twitch
- Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D-themed New Nintendo 3DS XL doesn’t come with the game
- Nintendo confirms New Nintendo 3DS coming in February
- Nintendo bringing downloadable Wii games to Wii U
- Nintendo announces new Fire Emblem for 3DS
- Market responds well to GameStop’s $3B holiday
- Nintendo launches New 3DS in February, according to leak
- Vulcun offers fantasy e-sports tournament for spectators with at $250K prize
- Ndreams wants to be a virtual reality player, releases Samsung Gear VR demo for its Gunner shooter
- JumpJetRex introduces DIY difficulty so you can suck less at platformers
- Naughty Dog on the pressures of Uncharted 4: ‘It’s a fight making these games’
- Forza Motorsport 6 makes its Xbox One debut — with a Ford GT on the cover
- Telltale Games president Kevin Bruner steps up to CEO
- Twitch has a way to get you to the Super Bowl: Beat NFL pros at Madden 15
- Virtuix shows off final Omni Treadmill to take virtual reality beyond the chair
- Skechers Game Kicks let you play a Simon-like game on your sneakers
- Call of Duty Online launches public open beta in China after years of development
- Speedrunners raise over $1.5 million to help prevent cancer
- Why AMD is staying out of the Internet of Things chip market (updated)
Mobile and social
- Nexon to make mobile game based on the LEGO franchise
- Kalypso opens a dedicated mobile division in Germany
- Mobile marketing automation: 1.5% penetration now, could triple in 2015
- Why Madden NFL Mobile is the last football game EA will ever need to release on mobile
- More premium mobile success: Goat Simulator sells 2.5M copies on all platforms
- It takes enough gamers to fill a country to raise SimCity BuildIt
- Words On Tour sends Zynga’s mobile Scrabble-like take around the world
- Train your preschooler’s brain, a new app claims
- PlaySpace secures around $1M in latest funding round
- Complex Games ships Warhammer 40K game on iOS
- Mnectar raises $1M and integrates with other marketing platforms to reach more app publishers
- Cashplay takes e-sports to mobile with real-money cash tournaments
- Israel’s TabTale acquires Serbian studio as kids-game studio targets older audiences
- TabTale’s Linebound: Life on the Line gets 1M downloads in first 72 hours
- Adaptiv.io and Apsalar partner to gather intelligence for mobile marketers
- App Annie: $55M mo’ money … and massive new app usage intelligence product
- Kabam acquires two mobile game studios as it gathers more top talent
- Minecraft: Pocket Edition hits 30 million downloads
- 8 mobile game marketing trends for 2015
- Plarium launches new version of smash-hit Stormfall on mobile
- Mobile game maker Animoca Brands goes public in Australia (updated)
Reviews and impressions
- New Nintendo 3DS XL impressions: Face-tracking fixes the handheld’s biggest problem
- Elite: Dangerous — space travel is boring … but it’s addictive as hell (review)
Previews and interviews
- Players will create parts of EverQuest Next
- Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare expansion lets you enter the little the door to John Malkovich’s head
- How fan feedback made Divinity: Original Sin a better game (interview)
- Oculus cofounder describes CES demo — and what comes next for virtual reality (interview)