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 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