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.
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You’ll also find reviews for Tekken Tag 2, Tokyo Jungle, Avengers Initiative, Joe Danger 2, Fractured Soul, and LittleBigPlanet Vita.
News:
- Obama runs presidential campaign ads in EA’s online games
- The DeanBeat: A stellar week for gamers
- Activision is finally swinging for the fences in mobile games (interview)
- Shocker! A video game trailer’s popularity foretells sales
- Startup Seeds makes a game out of microlending
- Take it to Vegas: 80M Madden 13 online games match NFL’s Week 1 results (infographic)
- Zynga confirms it hired real-money gambling chief
- Magic fingers: SoftKinetic is at the core of Intel’s ‘perceptual computing’ technology (video demo)
- Nvidia launches two new Kepler-based graphics chips
- 4 things gamers will appreciate in the new Wreck-It Ralph trailer
- Satirical new puzzle game brings out the fun in arguing about politics (exclusive)
- Report confirms that social casino games have hit the jackpot with $1.6B in revenue
- Clay Jam is a Michael Bay-infused explosion of color and crafts (with exclusive screens)
- Two game developers arrested in Greece under suspicion of espionage
- Half-Life remake among first batch of games cleared in Steam’s Greenlight approval program
- With Kinect-like gestures, SoftKinetic leads the way to Intel’s perceptual computing
- Coming to consoles: Dig deep and build high in the exploration game Terraria
- Everything you need to know about Planetary Annihilation, before it completes funding (Exclusive)
- Intel reinvents the PC for the age of ‘perceptual computing’
- Harvard’s ‘wise men’ tell Silicon Valley: Our country is losing its competitiveness
- Agawi to use Microsoft’s Windows Azure to bring cloud-gaming services to Windows 8
- Executive turnover continues: Zynga loses its chief marketing officer Jeff Karp
- Zynga cloud guru Allan Leinwand departs for ServiceNow
- Blast your way through Unova with the new Mythical Pokémon Genesect
- Valve launches beta for Steam’s Big Picture Mode: Now you never have to leave the couch
- Zynga launches first batch of partner games, adds nine more third-party studios
Wii U:
- Nintendo’s touchscreen TV service for the Wii U plays catch-up (hands-on video)
- Catch Mario, Bayonetta, and Sonic in these Wii U game videos
- Here are the Wii U games you’ll be playing at launch (or close to it)
- Nintendo targets the living room with Nintendo TVii
- Nintendo’s Wii U console lands in stores Nov. 18 in two flavors, base price of $300
- Nintendo announces Wii U price and launch details in Japan
Mobile news:
- BitGym brings motion gaming to mobile devices
- The iPod’s A5X vs. the iPhone 5′s A6: Does it matter for games?
- Natural Motion shows off cute Clumsy Ninja app on the iPhone 5
- iPhone 5 allows ‘ghost racing’ against another player’s best time in Real Racing 3
- In a twist, Zynga to import two mobile games from its Japan division
- From bikes to games to video games to…tablets? Toys ‘R’ Us bets on Tabeo
Interviews:
- Clumsy Ninja’s 10-year journey to make it to Apple’s iPhone 5 launch stage (video interview)
- Firefall dev discusses major gameplay changes and its Kickstarter-inspired monetization strategy (interview)
Previews:
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- Guns of Icarus Online developers want to make ‘the most co-op game’ imaginable (hands-on preview)
- Contagion aims to save the zombie game genre from itself (hands-on preview)
Reviews:
- Tokyo Jungle is a comically rewarding journey through the vicious circle of life (review)
- Even with robots, dinosaurs, and tons of action, Joe Danger 2 repeats the same stunts (review)
- Touch controls make LittleBigPlanet Vita the series’s definitive entry (review)
- Fractured Soul is a clever, challenging platformer that requires all your brainpower (review)
- Tekken Tag Tournament 2 delivers entertaining yet uninspired beat downs (review)
- Avengers Initiative delivers thrilling bite-sized superhero combat but not much else (review)
Pieces of flare: