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Welcome to another GamesBeat weekly roundup! This time, the PlayStation 4 outsells the Xbox One (again), someone puts Flappy Bird on an e-cigarette, and we review anticipated games like Dark Souls 3 and Bravely Second: End Layer.
Happy reading, and have a great weekend!
Pieces of flair and opinion
- The DeanBeat: The narrative of the underdog in the gaming industry
- Bravely Second: End Layer tips and tricks to grind out success
- GamesBeat Summit will examine what investors seek from game startups
- Watch Flappy Bird played on an e-cigarette
- How to get in the Overwatch, Battleborn, Doom, and Gears of War 4 open betas
- Naughty America tries to get VR porn just right
- Twitch’s Kathy Astromoff will share developer success strategies at GamesBeat Summit 2016
- The timeline of Grand Theft Auto director Leslie Benzies vs. Rockstar Games
- What we want from Titanfall 2
News
- March 2016 NPD: Ubisoft, Nintendo shake up sales chart with The Division, Zelda
- PlayStation 4 outsells Xbox One in March
- Magic Leap acquires Israeli security firm NorthBit
- Outlyer Technologies’ Advrtas brings ads to virtual reality
- Final Fantasy IX is now available on Steam
- Microsoft to open Minecraft education edition for all schools in June, free on the early access program
- Loook studio will make mixed reality apps for Microsoft HoloLens
- Kangaroo Pro is a $199 Windows 10 PC with a little less portability, a lot more ports
- Naked Labs’ home fitness scanner captures your entire body in 3D
- Blizzard is fending off a potential Lizard Squad cyberattack that’s affecting Battle.net
- Stardew Valley is one of the best-selling PC games of the year as it surpasses 1M copies sold
- Star Wars: Battlefront’s next expansion adds Cloud City and Lando
- Microsoft on causing Oculus Rift delays: ‘This is false’
- Consortium: The Tower reaches Fig funding goal in 6 days
- Quantum Break developer Remedy promises fixes for Windows 10 version
- Virtual reality justifies those ludicrous 17-inch ‘portable desktops’
- Grand Theft Auto studio says former director’s lawsuit is ‘without merit’ and ‘downright bizarre’
- GTA: Online ‘has generated at least $500M in revenue’
- Destiny fans want better matchmaking, so they’re making it themselves
- Grand Theft Auto producer’s camp fires back at Take-Two countersuit: It’s ‘sparse’
- Ubisoft’s The Division spent more on ads than any other game in March
- Azubu’s new esports viewer offers higher resolution than Twitch
- The Division’s free Incursion update is now available
- Call of Duty World League champions look back on a year of Black Ops III esports
- Counter-Strike: Global Offensive takes out another esports viewership record
- Gartner: Global PC shipments fell 9.6% in Q1 2016, the first quarter below 65 million units since 2007
- Koi is China’s first PlayStation 4 game for the West, and it debuts April 19
- Gaming legend John Carmack: A strong team can take any crazy vision and turn it into reality
- Violent 2D beat-’em-up hopes to get made via Square Enix’s Collective platform
- CastAR shows how it will turn your tabletop into an animated gaming world
- Codemasters snares Sony’s Evolution Studios and speeds into racing games’ fast lane
- Titanfall 2 brings mech fights to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC
- Gears of War 4’s new trailer is the franchise’s latest marketing home run
- Deluxe VR offers creative services for virtual reality productions
Mobile and social
- Apple App Store and Google Play downloads grew 8.2% in Q1 thanks to games
- War Dragons launches on Android with new ad from Beavis and Butt-head animator
- Supercell’s Clash Royale on pace for $1B year after $110M debut last month
- Facebook wants to make social VR indistinguishable from real life
- Facebook demos taking selfies in VR
- Minecraft: Pocket Edition gets Mojang’s Realms online multiplayer service
- Japan’s Gree creates a $12M virtual reality investment fund
- Lucid VR raises $2.1M for 180-degree virtual reality camera
- This flying saucer is Facebook’s virtual reality 360-degree camera
- Zuckerberg: Future VR and AR gadgets will look like ordinary glasses
- Like father, like son: A second-generation game developer launches Plight mobile game
- Appnext grows by recommending the right experiences for people in the app-store jungle
Previews, reviews, and interviews
- Dark Souls 3 is the zenith of the Souls brand of ruthless action
- This Monster Hunter Generations newb is as clumsy as he is stupid
- Star Ocean reminds us that Final Fantasy and Persona aren’t the last big-budget JRPGs
- Bravely Second: End Layer shows Square Enix still has its old-school juice
- Hover Junkers is virtual reality’s best multiplayer game
- How Remedy’s Sam Lake stepped up the ambition and creativity of Quantum Break