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, Disney shuttered its LucasArts game studio, OMGPOP (Draw Something) chief executive Dan Porter leaves Zynga, and Trion Worlds launched massively multiplayer shooter Defiance.
You’ll also find previews for Lego Marvel Super Heroes, Thief, and Heavy Gear Assault as well as the March edition of Required Listening with an interview with BioShock Infinite composer Garry Schyman.
News
- Ghostlight’s worldwide Steam releases could help Japanese role-playing games
- The DeanBeat: Mobile monetization is the ‘biggest Achilles’ heel’ issue in the game industry
-
Xbox games director doesn’t get why fans don’t like always-on consoles
- Salaries are up for game developers but women don’t make as much as men
- Zynga CEO volunteers to reduce his salary to $1
- Why wait for Google Glass? Epiphany Eyewear is here now (exclusive)
- Transistor takes the high road to revenge
- Zynga appoints venture capitalist John Doerr to its board
- Sen. Feinstein: Congress may ‘have to proceed’ with violent video game regulation
- Treyarch erupts with new Uprising content for Call of Duty: Black Ops II
- BlizzCon 2013 tickets go on sale April 24 and April 27
- Live out your biker fantasies in the Ride to Hell trilogy this summer
- Second annual Unlock conference targets a small but elite game crowd
- Id Software’s fate reportedly uncertain with Rage 2 cancellation and Doom 4 delays
- Monaco begins stealing hearts on April 24
- LucasArts’ mixed legacy: A breeding ground for great games and designers that relied too much on Star Wars
- First free SimCity add-on content is an ad for Nissan Leaf
- Disney shutters publisher LucasArts
- Trion Worlds launches massively multiplayer shooter Defiance with a lot on the line
- Torment crowdfunding total surpasses Double Fine Adventure
- Rovio doubles its revenue in 2012 on strong game and consumer-product sales
- Utherverse launches latest take on a 3D Internet with WebWorlds.com
- Zynga’s first real-money games launch in the U.K. tomorrow
- CityVille lead steps in to reinvigorate sluggish Zynga acquisition OMGPOP
- Reloaded Games takes freemium APB back to pay-for-play with APB: Vendetta
- OMGPOP chief exec Dan Porter’s job goes pop
- Hackers breach The War Z personal-info databases; publisher shuts down servers
- Microsoft hammers away at April 5 Minecraft update
- Rockstar holds to traditions for Grand Theft Auto V box art
- Wikipad quick hands-on impressions: Functional but crappy
- Divekick’s developers want to bring bizarre two-button controller to market
- GDC drew more than 23,000 attendees to hear diverse perspectives on games
- Electronic Arts board agrees to $1M salary for executive chairman Larry Probst
- Torment: Tides of Numenera developer reveals first in-game screenshot
Mobile News
- Why it’s easier to get games discovered on Google Play than the App Store (exclusive)
- How GungHo Online Entertainment created Puzzle & Dragons, the surprise billion-dollar mobile game
- Huh? EA builds an app for sharing music and photos (exclusive)
- Tom Hall’s game development quest, from Doom to Diner Dash (exclusive)
Previews
- Lego Marvel Super Heroes might be the best Iron Man game ever made (preview)
- Thief takes major cues from Dishonored, the game inspired by Thief (preview)
- Heavy Gear Assault turns mech pilots into e-sports stars (preview)
Interviews
- NCAA Football 14: My fluffy two-minute interview with cover star Denard Robinson of Michigan
- DeNA’s first-person shooter The Drowning nears launch on the iPad (interview)
-
Ted Price on how Insomniac Games’ Fuse isn’t going to be a bomb (interview)
- Unity’s David Helgason on why next-gen consoles are embracing indies (interview)
- Victor Kislyi storms into mobile with World of Tanks: Blitz (interview)
- Kate Edwards takes over the IGDA in a time of turmoil for games (interview)
- Jade Raymond’s growing empire at Ubisoft (interview)
Pieces of Flair
- Decorate your walls with these artistic console schematics (gallery)
- 13 awesome maps from classic video games (gallery)
- BioShock Infinite SPOILER: You’ve heard Songbird before (video)
- Required listening: SimCity, Tomb Raider, and BioShock Infinite composer Garry Schyman
- The microconsole battle royale: GameStick vs. Ouya (gallery)
- Modern games re-imagined as Atari 2600 cartridges (gallery)
- If Uncharted’s Nathan Drake had a dating site profile