If you follow VentureBeat but don’t regularly check our GamesBeat site, here’s a list of the best video game stories we ran over the last seven days that you may have missed.
This week, Microsoft dropped the price on the Kinect motion-sensing controller, we asked an artificial intelligence about its opinions on gaming news, and Zynga set aside a pile of stock for its employees.
You’ll also find previews for Harold, NBA Baller Beats, and Wild Blood.
News
- The DeanBeat: OnLive’s fall from grace shows the wrong way to fall apart
- Mixing politics & consoles: Xbox Live launches ‘Election 2012 Hub’ channel
- Kixeye steals a general manager from Zynga, rescuing him from the ‘dark side’
- Creators of Shoot Many Robots and Jack Lumber team up for new project
- Ubisoft wants Assassin’s Creed fans to stop virtual murdering long enough to vote
- Lumosity raises an additional $31.5M to study and improve cognitive abilities through games
- Microsoft’s Kinect motion controller gets a $40 price drop
- Social gaming startup Playdemic receives $3 million in funding from IBM founder’s family
- Goko pulls down online game portal after high-publicity launch
- Zynga sets aside a huge pile of low-priced stock for employees
Mobile news
- Obama and Romney duke it out in new iOS game from Infinity Blade developer
- Forget Facebook. Kabam is launching its next big game on iOS and Android
- Developers of Carcassonne for iOS release latest complicated card game adaptation: Lost Cities
- Rocklive pivots from iOS, Mike Tyson, and its garage to social games
- Fusing Silicon Valley and toys, Nukotoys finally launches its playing-card apps
- Discovery Bay Games nabs $15M from Logitech, Trilogy to improve iOS gaming with accessories
OnLive
- OnLive owed $30M to $40M to its creditors before insolvency (updated)
- Cloud-gaming service OnLive reveals details behind its asset sale and new investor
- Confirmed: OnLive’s assets sold to another company
- Breaking: OnLive confirms it will not be closing down, sells assets [update #4]
Developer layoffs
Features
- How spoilers, bugs, and online play influence our buying decisions
- EBay gamifies the auction, with a little help from UC Santa Cruz students
Previews
- Gameloft’s Wild Blood is a brutal, Unreal-powered take on Arthurian legend (preview)
- Harold aspires to be the first game with the ‘quality’ of a Disney movie (preview)
- NBA Baller Beats reveals insecurities you never knew you had (hands-on preview)
Interviews
- Journey developer Robin Hunicke claims a more balanced postmortem than was reported
- MechWarrior Online publisher talks about the resurrection of the brand and the future of free-to-play (interview)
- Games get serious in education and corporate training
Pieces of Flare
- Pokéfans! Enjoy these stunning Pokémon watercolors
- Check out the monstrosities we made using Evil Controllers new create-a-joystick tool (gallery)
- An artificial intelligence program’s ‘opinions’ on gaming news
- Rare Pikachus: A look back at every Pokémon Center-exclusive handheld console
- Puzzler: Guess the games by their logo font (part 1)