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, Rockstar delayed Red Dead Redemption 2, and we went hands-on with Middle-earth: Shadow of War.
Have a great weekend, everyone!
Pieces of flair and opinion
- The DeanBeat: Prey is a game where the developers decided to torture gamers
- PC Gaming Weekly: How modding may play into Take-Two’s strong earnings
- Ranking the best of ParadoxCon
- 2017 Unreal E3 Awards: Epic and GamesBeat call for entries
- How Unity convinced investors it’s worth $2.6 billion
- Why Far Cry 5’s Mountain West extremism enables Ubisoft to criticize America
- PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds tips from a grand champion (I won once)
- AR/VR Weekly: Can Transformers spark China’s AR/VR interest?
- Overwatch had one of the best first years ever
- How 1APP wants to disrupt the app stores with infinite distribution
- Why alternative app stores and emerging markets are good for developers
- What should you expect from Sony PlayStation at E3? GamesBeat Decides
- Overwatch’s first anniversary event has great content with no real theme
- Overwatch: Ranking its first year of seasonal events
- Why LawBreakers is heading to PC and PS4 instead of Xbox One or Switch
- Meet Rowan Kaiser, GamesBeat’s PC Gaming guest post editor
- Meet Stephanie Chan, GamesBeat’s new general assignment reporter
- How mixed reality could transform game shows of the future
- Fig CEO Justin Bailey offers the cure for ‘sequelitis’
News
- Nintendo Switch and Pokémon bolster GameStop’s first quarter
- Stugan brings in 15 teams for its 2017 game accelerator class
- Epic Games dishes out another $275,000 in Unreal Engine 4 grants
- Superdata: PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds made $34 million in April
- SuperData: Digital gaming hit $7.7 billion in April
- Worldpay demos system for making payments inside virtual reality worlds
- Microsoft relaunches Beam as Mixer, and it has a new feature to compete with Twitch
- Zenway acquires Heroes of the Storm esports team DeadlyKittens
- Netflix uses its real NES app to reveal ‘Castlevania’ trailer
- SteamWorld Dig 2 wants you to help write the game’s text
- Xbox Game Pass launches for Gold members, hits June 1 for everyone else
- Rising Star and Bitmap Bureau team up again for an indie game: Ninja Shodown
- Double Fine to release Broken Age as a physical PS4 game on June 9
- Card game Gwent enters open beta phase — it’s essentially launching
- Apple’s App Store is creating twice as many million-dollar publishers as Google Play
- Game engine maker Unity raises $400 million in private equity from Silver Lake
- Grand Theft Auto Online cushions the blow of Red Dead’s delay
- Civ VI was a large contributor to Take-Two’s net revenue growth
- Take-Two teases mystery game in 2018 from one of ‘2K’s biggest franchises’
- Supercell acquires 62% of London’s Space Ape Games for $55.8 million
- Transformers roll out into VR in China
- Grand Theft Auto V’s sales now soar past 80 million
- Overwatch’s anniversary event is now live
- GameMaker Studio 2 gets an education edition
- Rockstar pushes Red Dead Redemption 2 to spring 2018
- PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds bug: Your gun isn’t aiming where you think it is
- Overwatch’s esports is getting a minor league
- Rainbow Six Siege documentary reveals the tactical shooter’s esports scene
- Far Cry 5 will be set in Montana
- LawBreakers is coming to PlayStation 4 as well as PC for $30 this year
- Rovio’s Angry Birds movie sequel is coming September 20, 2019, marking 10 years since game first launched
- Elgato’s Stream Deck is powerful enough to replace expensive broadcasting tools
- MindMaze offers VR treatment for stroke victims in the U.S.
- Dawn of Titans heads to China as Zynga partners with NetEase
Mobile and social
- AppsFlyer helps mobile advertisers beat back ad fraud via machine learning
- Magikarp Jump gives Pokémon’s fishy weakling his own mobile game
- Seriously takes the Angry Birds path with Best Fiends animated cartoon
- Jam City’s Cookie Jam hits 100 million downloads as Cookie Jam Blast debuts
- Top Gear mobile game dev Motorious Entertainment raises $894,000
- Final Fantasy: Brave Exvius is ‘on the right path’ in mobile gaming
- Embrace.io raises $2.5 million to tell developers how their apps perform
- Guardian Kingdoms aims more for Age of Empires or StarCraft than Clash of Clans
- Clash of Clans’ Builder Base update is its biggest new content dump of 2017
- Hasbro and Backflip settle with Peak on My Little Pony copycat suit
- Study shows live mobile sports apps are lagging behind real-time sports TV broadcasts
- The future of mobile game monetization
Reviews, previews, and interviews
- The dread, the separatism, and the coming collapse of America that inspired Far Cry 5
- Far Cry 5 focuses on a terrifyingly realistic armed cult
- MXGP3 and MotoGP 17 raise the bar on realistic racing simulations
- Call of Duty shows off more of its new take on World War II
- How TT Games is leveling up the open world of Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2
- Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2 is massive open world with chaotic fighting
- How Hidden Path designed real-time strategy game Brass Tactics for VR
- Ready At Dawn leader hopes multiplayer VR game Echo Arena will be an esport
- Lone Echo’s VR multiplayer Echo Arena is like playing Ultimate Frisbee in zero gravity
- Real-time strategy game Brass Tactics places you in the middle of a VR battlefield
- How Shadow of War will test your skill in breaking fortresses
- Shadow of War: Hands-on assault of an Orc fortress in Mordor