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 weekly roundup! This time, Nintendo discontinues the NES Classic Edition, someone is making a mechanical version of Pong, and Overwatch gets a new cooperative mode.
Enjoy, and have a great weekend!
Pieces of flair and opinion
- The DeanBeat: Silicon Valley, sci-fi, and games are coming together
- GamesBeat Summit to delve into China’s role in the global game ecosystem
- Is Minecraft going free-to-play? GamesBeat Decides
- GamesBeat embraces our first love: PC gaming
- Sci-fi writer Rob Reid and UCSF brain researcher Adam Gazzaley to speak at GamesBeat Summit
- Dallas emergency siren hacking is like a scene out of Watch Dogs 2
- Kickstarter for mechanical Atari Pong game table enters its final days
News
- Starfighter Inc. and its spaceship-vs.-spaceship combat reaches its Kickstarter goal
- Titanfall 2 is getting a new mech and new maps before the end of June
- March 2017 NPD: Nintendo Switch sales surpass 906,000 in the U.S.
- How Epic built a player base of nearly 1 million Paragon players
- Nintendo is discontinuing the hard-to-find NES Classic Edition
- Alice Cooper is your boss in a weird 3DS game about flinging birds in a pet shop
- Cities: Skylines’ new expansion glides as softly as a cloud with monorails and blimps
- VR First is creating 50 labs for virtual reality education at universities
- Visbit moves into open beta and reveals new virtual reality live streaming service
- Nintendo Direct trailer roundup: Arms, Splatoon 2, Fire Emblem, and more
- Arms releases for Nintendo Switch on June 16
- Splatoon 2 launches July 21 with cooperative horde mode
- Minecraft: Nintendo Switch Edition launches on eShop on May 11
- Nintendo introduces yellow Switch Joy-Cons and a battery pack
- Cloud, Bayonetta, Corrin, and more Links are getting new Amiibos
- ‘Rick and Morty’ VR game launches 4/20 so you have something to do while getting high
- Xbox One and Windows 10 get return policy test for digital games and apps
- PlayStation Vue is getting a dedicated esports channel
- TheWaveVR releases social VR music beta and raises $4 million
- MindMaze reveals Mask to capture your facial expression in virtual reality
- Yakuza will reimagine its first chapter on August 29
- Gamers believe more people will watch digital entertainment than traditional sports by 2022
- Star Wars: Battlefront II trailer leaks and teases Kylo Ren, single-player, and more
- Old Time Hockey is like EA NHL’s beer-league cousin
- AMD releases 6-core Ryzen 5 desktop processors for gamers
- Overwatch’s Uprising event is official and live now
- Nyko’s PlayStation VR Charge Block will keep you ready to move
- Deformers arena combat game debuts on the PC and consoles on April 21
- Esports arena is coming to the Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas
- Bayonetta brings its stylish action to PC via Steam
- Uncharted: The Lost Legacy is releasing on August 22 for $40
- Grand Theft Auto Online’s new mode channels Splatoon, of all things
- Planet Coaster’s free Spring Update adds go-karts, dueling coasters, and more
- Strife developer S2 Games channels Clash Royale with Brawl of Ages
- VR analytics startup Virtualitics raises $4.4 million
- Battlegrounds surges past 1 million copies sold on Steam in a mere 16 days
- Overwatch: Insurrection trailer leaks in French with new skins, co-op mode
- Fnatic raises $7 million from Boston Celtics owners to beef up esports ambitions
- The Franz Kafka Videogame’s inspiration comes from literature
- The Elder Scrolls Online wants to lure you to Tamriel with a week of free play
- Nintendo Direct will return April 12 with Splatoon 2 and Arms
- AltspaceVR founder wants to make virtual reality as accessible as the web
Mobile
- Mobile game revenue grew 53% to $11.9 billion in Q1 2017
- Bidalgo uses AI to automate ad buying for app marketers
- Morpholio introduces Ava app to transform interior design
- Temple Gates takes Race for the Galaxy card game into mobile
- Shipyard Games raises $2.9 million from Clash Royale maker Supercell
Previews, reviews, and interviews
- Prey’s lead designer created a game where enemies are everywhere
- Prey hands-on shows some suspenseful surprises
- Overwatch: Uprising gameplay — watch us succeed and fail together
- Frostpunk is a steam-powered city-management game from This War Of Mine studio
- Watch us play Yooka-Laylee: a pretty, messy successor to Banjo-Kazooie
- OptiTrack adds realism to shooting games in VR
- Sixense’s Siege VR takes advantage of VR motion controllers