Join the Leaders Making Gaming’s Next Big Deals. GamesBeat NEXT brings 500+ executives, CEOs, founders, and investors to San Francisco, November 2–3, to shape the future of gaming, entertainment, and AI. Connect with industry leaders, forge strategic partnerships, and close deals that move business forward. Be in the room. Get your ticket.
Welcome to another GamesBeat weekly roundup! This time, the Xbox One once again outsells the PlayStation 4, a mobile-game player who spent $2 million on one app is now leading a boycott against the title, and … well, just a ton of virtual reality news.
Enjoy, and have a great weekend!
Pieces of flair and opinion
- The DeanBeat: This player spent $2 million in a mobile game. Then he led a boycott.
- Batman: Arkham VR devs knew that suiting up was the key to becoming the Dark Knight
- If you’re an idiot in PlayStation VR, you’re an idiot in real life
- How PlayStation VR could ignite the mainstream virtual reality market
- A step-by-step guide to creating a monstrous MyCareer player in NBA 2K17
News
- World of Warcraft director Tom Chilton steps down to lead a new Blizzard project
- Xbox One outsold PlayStation 4 again in September
- Pathbreaker Ventures raises $12 million to invest in emerging tech like VR and robotics
- Yo-Kai Watch movie comes to U.S. theaters … for just one day
- Hearthstone event at Blizzcon on November 4 could reveal the next expansion
- Buzz Aldrin stars in VR messages that will keep Mars astronauts from being lonely
- Battleborn gets a new campaign and multiplayer mode
- African Gaming League aims to jumpstart esports in Nigeria
- Civilization’s Grammy-winning composer Christopher Tin breaks down new theme song
- Only 6% of Americans will own a VR headset in 2016
- PlayStation VR will let you play 360-degree videos (and yes, that means porn) soon
- Newzoo: Esports has caught up with MLB and NHL with a key segment — male millennials
- Ubisoft classic Beyond Good & Evil is free on PC
- Nolan Bushnell’s Modal VR launches next-generation virtual reality platform for enterprises
- Overwatch unveils Halloween event as it passes 20 million players
- Harvard Business Review ranks Nvidia boss Jen-Hsun Huang as a top 10 best-performing CEO
- System Shock, Magic: The Gathering vets open new studio and make a puzzle game
- Equity crowdfunding comes into its own as Wasteland 3 raises $2.75 million
- Sony: PlayStation VR’s tracking problems come from sun and shiny surfaces
- Stanford and Microsoft: Games like Pokémon Go help you live longer
- How the creators of the Invasion and Asteroids are pioneering 360-degree VR films
- Why game design guru Jesse Schell is diving into VR and AR
- Here are the top 25 most-popular games on YouTube by country
- Faceit helping to bring esports events to the Las Vegas Strip
- Rock Band VR takes music games in a new direction
Mobile and social
- Tentacles: Enter the Mind extends to iOS after developer reclaims rights from Microsoft
- Why Candy Crush Saga guru is so sweet on mobile VR games
- AppsFlyer drops knowledge to prepare mobile developers for the holiday download rush
- King launches live multiplayer card mobile game Shuffle Cats
- Spil Games to make mobile and web game based on Valerian sci-fi film
- FIFA Mobile gets makeover to appeal to a global smartphone audience
- Finland’s Koukoi Games raises over $1 million for a Hollywood-based mobile game
- Presence Capital investor predicts the 2017 market for AR/VR
- Coin-In uses social game rewards to get people into physical casinos
Reviews and interviews
- PlayStation VR is serviceable virtual reality with refined design and finicky tracking
- Watch Rez Infinite’s Area X — how VR finally got me into the classic trip
- Watch us play Rigs, the PlayStation VR mech shooter
- Watch us play Atlas Reactor, Trion’s original take on competitive strategy games
- Watch us play Overwatch: Jukenstein’s Revenge, a horde of Halloween horrors
- PlayStation VR game roundup: Batman, tanks, funky cubes, and more
- The Unspoken is like a dark Harry Potter spell duel in VR