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Welcome to another GamesBeat Weekly Roundup! This time, the Flappy Bird developer releases his new game, Sony confesses that even it doesn’t understand the PlayStation 4’s success, and we dig through the sales numbers to discover who won each console war, starting with the Super Nintendo/Genesis days.
You’ll find all of that and more below. Happy reading, and enjoy your weekend!
Pieces of flair and opinion
- The DeanBeat: It’s an interconnected gaming world
- Steam shame: The games we’re all most embarrassed to have in our libraries
- The Top 8 psychedelic drug scenes in video games
- Road Not Taken: Here is a guide to every recipe in the game
- You’re next, Master Chief: Warframe characters just took the ice-bucket challenge
- Swing Copters: 5 tips to help you suck less
- Great tabletop games for video gamers: Level 7 Omega Protocol
- GamesBeat University showcases the best tips and secret tricks of successful games
- The Kinect has made me lazy — and I like it
- The top 10 engines that can help you make your game
- How five Disney Infinity superfans turned their passion into level-design gigs
- A trio of speakers adds new voices for GamesBeat 2014 on data, virtual reality, and games made in China
- Here’s who won each console war
- Hearthstone: Curse of Naxxramas guide — how to beat the Frostwyrm Quarter
- Check out three more exciting speakers coming to GamesBeat 2014
- Lessons from a game guru: Candy Crush Saga creator once survived six months without pay
- Why PS1 and PS2 discs on PS4 doesn’t sound so crazy
News
- GameStop: ‘We continue to sell over half of all PS4 and Xbox One’ games
- Activision ‘mulling a plan’ to make Call of Duty and Skylanders movies
- With PS4 and Xbox One, digital is finally a viable revenue generator for publishers
- Kingston moves from memory sticks to audio headsets as it chases hardcore gamers
- Wii U preorders benefit most from Gamescom despite Nintendo’s not putting on a press event
- Robin Williams tributes found in World of Warcraft expansion’s code
- Study finds slight link between preteen gaming and depression — but it needs more study
- Pierce Brosnan plays GoldenEye 007 with ‘Tonight Show’ host Jimmy Fallon
- Minecraft didn’t pass its PS4 certification — developer is fixing bugs now
- Buy Mega Man 9 team’s 16-bit-style platformer Gunvolt, get its 8-bit demake for free
- Even Sony doesn’t know why the PlayStation 4 is selling so well
- Hearthstone’s Curse of Naxxramas finale, the Frostwyrm Lair, is now live
- Fear of change — Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare’s multiplayer will have a no-exoskeleton mode
- Arbitrator orders Bungie to give fired music chief Marty O’Donnell his stock back (exclusive)
- Alaska Natives join game devs on Never Alone game to spotlight cultural traditions
- Xbox TV studio may yet live under Machinima’s roof at Warner Bros.
- With Xbox One’s ReddX app, you can upvote Reddit cat photos while playing Titanfall
- Developers want to work for Valve more than they want to start their own studio
- Super Meat Boy developer teases new game with bizarre trailer
- Watch Dogs is the last mature game Ubisoft will make for Wii U
- North American hobby game market hits an estimated $700M
- Play Madden NFL 15 early with EA Access — but for only 6 hours
- No, The Last of Us art director Nate Wells is not back at Naughty Dog
- Blizzard’s answer to decreasing World of Warcraft subscriptions? A price hike … in the U.K.
- John Carmack to Notch: Gimme Minecraft, and ‘I’ll make sure it runs well’ on Oculus Rift
- Xbox One August update goes live: 3D Blu-ray, new social features, and more
- Xbox boss on Uncharted: I wish we had an action-adventure game like that, but we don’t
Mobile and social
- Finland’s Star Arcade completes a management buyout with help from Gameforge founder (exclusive)
- Japan’s Gumi hires former Xbox game exec to storm North American mobile game market
- Flappy Bird creator’s Swing Copters is now available on iOS and Android
- Puzzle & Dragons developer sells its stake in Clash of Clans maker Supercell for $344M
- Star Wars: Commander gives Clone Wars-era kit to the Rebels in their fight against the Empire
- Unity CEO: Explosive growth helping indie game devs save — and make — big bucks
- Intel collaborates with Unity so that mobile games run well on Intel-based tablets
- Sqor lets sports fans mingle with athletes and talk about nothing but sports (and play games, too)
- Lay off the candy: iOS game Yoga Retreat gets 20 percent of its players doing yoga
- Pokémon developer Game Freak is also heading to mobile … with a game about horses
- PlayFab raises $2.5M to offload boring but necessary tasks for game developers
- FunPlus Group sells its game subsidiary to Chinese holding company for $960M
- Here’s why Pokémon’s upcoming iPad game doesn’t mean Nintendo is going all-in on mobile
- Social role-playing game Velvet Sundown lets you solve thong-related mysteries
Previews and interviews
Review