GamesBeat weekly roundup: Nintendo’s NX gets a date, and PlayStation revenues slip

Welcome to another GamesBeat weekly roundup!

We had a lot of news out of Nintendo, but we were also busy playing Hearthstone’s new expansion, Whispers of the Old Gods. We also looked at a virtual reality roller coaster. So, you know, it was a good week.

Enjoy, and have a great weekend!

Pieces of flair and opinion

• The DeanBeat: How to make VR survive long enough to become a boom
• Will Samsung’s virtual reality rollercoaster make you sick?
• You can finally own your own Wind Waker baton from The Legend of Zelda
• Everything you want to know about GamesBeat Summit 2016
• Hearthstone: Whispers of the Old Gods first impressions — we love Standard
• Rocket League Hoops is exciting as hell
• Watch 8 minutes of Pokémon Go’s augmented reality gameplay in action
• This insane Super Mario Maker player conquers one of the toughest stages yet
• GamesBeat Summit will explore how developers can manage crunch
• Super Mario RPG was originally a lot more like Final Fantasy
• Unity’s David Helgason on the open-versus-closed Windows debate
• How esports can learn from its traditional sports teams and broadcasters

News

• Sony returns to profit, but slipping PlayStation hardware revenues beg for the rumored Neo
• Tera players can now dress like Hello Kitty fanatics
• SpaceVR raises $1.25M to send VR camera satellite into orbit
• Samsung goes beyond hardware to invest in VR software
• The Division earned $109M from digital game sales in March
• 1 in 10 Western consumers are considering buying a VR product in the next 6 months
• Unity Q1 report: 220,000 games, 4.2B installs on 1.7B devices
• Brightlocker is a ‘crowd publisher’ that wants to turn your ideas into real games
• Mass Effect attraction hits California’s Great America amusement park this summer
• Vreal can teleport you into a VR game so you can be a spectator
• Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End stolen in the U.K. — Sony warns to beware spoilers
• Nintendo will have only one playable game at E3 2016: Zelda for Wii U (not even the NX version)
• Without Zelda, Wii U’s 2016 looks bleak — and Nintendo’s outlook suggests it’ll stay that way
• Nintendo by the numbers: 58.5M 3DS handhelds and 12.8M Wii U consoles sold to date
• Nintendo earnings plunge 60 percent in fiscal year as it preps new hardware
• Nintendo delays Zelda Wii U to 2017 and confirms NX version
• Nintendo NX confirmed for March 2017 release
• Minecraft fan site Lifeboat hacked: 7M accounts exposed
• Vive manufacturer HTC creates $100M fund for virtual reality startups
• Fallout 4 finally gets full modding support (and horse armor!) on PC
• Hearthstone servers down for some as new Whispers of the Old Gods expansion goes live
• Hearthstone’s Whispers of the Old Gods expansion is live
• Blizzard explains why it shut down a fan-made, classic World of Warcraft server
• Linden Lab wants users to create social experiences in virtual reality world
• AMD’s Radeon Pro Duo graphics card is ready for virtual reality
• Watch Logitech turn 160 keyboards into a giant screen
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid’s author turns his kid-entertainment know-how into StoryArc Media
• Assassin’s Creed producer gets his 1666 game back from Ubisoft
• Doom creators John Romero and Adrian Carmack to make shooter Blackroom
• Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End newest trailer gets the adventurer’s blood pumping
• ESL says it still wants to work with YouPorn’s esports team

Mobile and social

• Addictive mobile game Color Switch tops 75M downloads in three months
• With patience, I defeated Supercell’s monetization strategy in Clash Royale
• Google Play now labels Android apps and games containing ads
• Atari founder Nolan Bushnell teams up with Spil Games to make mobile games
• Rovio to distribute a billion Angry Birds augmented reality ‘BirdCodes’ in huge marketing campaign
• Angry Birds Action! pinball-inspired mobile game is just a piece of Rovio’s giant transmedia strategy
• Marvel Puzzle Quest is getting in on the Civil War (the superhero one, not the U.S. one)
• Samsung predicts mobile gaming performance will surpass PS4 by 2020
• Minecraft enters virtual reality on Samsung’s Gear VR headset
• Rocket Lolly throws switch on Rocky Horror Show mobile game Kickstarter
• Nintendo is bringing Animal Crossing and Fire Emblem to mobile
• Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes mobile game gets guilds and raids in new update
• Kamcord raises $10M and wants to livestream your Tinder sessions
• Berlin’s TreasureHunt debuts zany Boomie Blast arcade mobile game
• Supercell stakes a beachhead in the mobile gaming clash in Iran