Join independent journalists and industry decision-makers at GamesBeat NEXT, returning to San Francisco November 2–3. The event brings together 500 executives, founders, investors and tech leaders shaping the $200 billion interactive economy for candid discussions on gaming, entertainment, technology and AI, plus executive networking and opportunities to build partnerships and close major deals.
Welcome to another GamesBeat roundup! This time, we played the retro and excellent Sonic Mania, Dota 2 and Call of Duty crowned esports champions, and role-playing game sales are seeing a big surge.
Enjoy, and have a great weekend!
Pieces of flair and opinion
- The DeanBeat: 3 Pakistani brothers ensure mobile game chat isn’t lost in translation
- PC Gaming Weekly: the magic of the $398 million survival game market
- AR/VR Weekly: CCP Games has found one solution to the VR drought
- PewDiePie happily made Nazi jokes until he saw real Nazis
- Will games ever take on white supremacy? GamesBeat Decides
- The PlayerUnknown’s Battleground meta can’t handle vaulting
- The best moments from our PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds Family Dinner night
- Hellblade’s bizarre ending will make you question what’s real
- Capcom’s Mega Man Legacy Collections should have embraced these bizarre gems
- Indie devs are looking for love and money at comic cons
News
- Wargaming will stream 1,000 hours of World of Tanks gameplay on Facebook Live
- Call of Duty had 3 games in the top 20 in July, but Tom Clancy is 2017’s biggest franchise
- Rollin’ in gil: RPG sales are up 50% from 2016
- Nintendo Switch outsold PlayStation 4 and Xbox One last month
- July 2017 NPD: Splatoon 2 paints a pretty picture for Nintendo
- PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is gobbling up Overwatch’s audience
- Twitch is making it easier to find the best Hearthstone and Overwatch streams
- Shenmue III is the latest Kickstarter game to get a publisher
- DMarket launches ICO, plans blockchain marketplace for in-game items
- Kabam vet leads Deca Games’ charge into live operations for old games
- Quake Champions hits Early Access for $30 on August 22
- Nielsen dives into esports market research
- The First Tree explores family bonds and beautiful forests on its September 14 PC launch
- Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice’s scariest moments
- Crackdown 3 delay means Microsoft has just one big new game this holiday
- Sony teams up with Streamline Studios to support games development in China
- Elgato Gaming adds Xsplit support to its Stream Deck command center
- Cedar Point’s next thrill ride debuts in Planet Coaster
- PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds updates are going to slow down
- Tespa and Blizzard serve up $1 million for college esports scholarships
- Total War: Warhammer II brings in the slippery Skaven as 4th race
- Empyre: Lords of the Sea Gates sets sail on its Neo-Victorian water world on October 4
- Gambitious rebrands as Good Shepherd to invest in the indie game revival
- King of the Kill keeps the H1Z1 in its divorce with Just Survive
- Intel makes diversity gains, but real progress is hard
- CCP unveils non-VR version of Eve: Valkyrie
- Bungie and Nvidia release Destiny 2 beta trailer running at 4K and 60 frames per second
- Beyond KDA: Mobalytics launches open beta for League of Legends analysis
- GTA creator shows off new cloud gaming engine with a VR sci-fi demo
- Intel confirms Ice Lake Core CPUs with ’10nm+ process’ to followup its 8th-gen chips
- Songbringer sings an indie sci-fi RPG tune on Xbox and PC on September 1
- Blizzard brings back Battle.net branding
- Optic Gaming wins the top prize in $1.5 million Call of Duty World League final
- Call of Duty World League finalists shoot for $1.5 million
- Team Liquid wins Dota 2 Championships, takes home $10.8 million
Mobile and social
- Game Insight offers something new for Guns of Boom fans: Watching in AR
- Immersv raises $10.5 million for VR ads and mobile 360-degree video
- GameCredits takes on Apple and Google with its blockchain-based app store
- Pocket Gems’ Episode brings back Clueless as an interactive mobile game
- The Angry Birds Movie profits help Rovio double revenue as IPO rumors grow
- Facebook and Supercell partner on Clash of Clans AR experience
- Critical Ops hits 25 million downloads as mobile shooter preps for esports and Asia
Previews, reviews, and interviews
- Blue Reflection doesn’t reflect well on the JRPG scene
- Vava’s Moov 14 gaming earbuds pound your noggin with thumping bass
- Total War: Warhammer II hands-on: The Skaven rats are dangerous vermin
- Total War: Warhammer II’s rat race is pretty fierce
- Uncharted: The Lost Legacy review — for good and bad, it’s not Nathan Drake
- Nightmarchers explores the lore of Hawaii in a postapocalyptic hellscape
- The Void CEO: Star Wars can make VR accessible
- Matterfall review — a hectic and challenging take on side-scroller shooting
- Peter Molyneux’s long trail back to PC games
- Sonic Mania review — Sonic’s best game in over two decades