It’s the final GamesBeat roundup of the month! And it’s been an eventful June, even if you don’t account for that little tradeshow in Los Angeles.
This week, we got a new Android set-top box that plays games (even if we really don’t want these gadgets), examine how the feature sets compare for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One now that they’ve been out for more than half a year, and dish out favorable reviews to a pair of smaller games.
Pieces of flair and opinions
The DeanBeat: What the industry’s top leaders have to say about the video game business
Gaming on the road: Keeping kids entertained on long car trips
GamesBeat community: Write about Nintendo and you could win an AR eShop card
After taking on cyberbullying, one developer zeroes in on another tough subject: eating disorders
12 games that re-create the drudgery of real life
Don’t like the idea of virtual reality? Doesn’t matter — your kids will
Hands on with the troubled PlayStation Now beta
Minecraft could be huge in Japan thanks to Wii U
To infinity and beyond: VR games embrace space travel and innovation at E3 2014
A characters’ history of Street Fighter IV: Ultra edition
From pixels to polygons: Ultra Street Fighter IV edition
News
Above: Xbox One versus PlayStation 4.
Dota 2 tournament now pays out more than the PGA’s biggest purse
Preorder analysis suggests Destiny could be the biggest game of the year with 10M to 15M copies sold
Xbox One vs. PS4: What Microsoft’s console still does better than Sony’s
PS4 vs. Xbox One: What Sony’s console still does better than Microsoft’s box
Minecraft sales near 54 million copies as Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions outsell the PC original
Amazon’s Fire TV vs. Google’s Android TV: The microconsole war no one asked for
Xbox One may still eventually have ‘Family Sharing’ of digital games
Destiny beta: PlayStation Plus members will only get access if they preorder
Here’s why Oculus VR thinks Zenimax’s lawsuit is ‘silly’
Oculus VR now owns the company that designed the Xbox 360 controller
You are now free to move about the ‘holodeck’: Metaio gives virtual reality legs
Nintendo chief Satoru Iwata is recovering from successful bile-duct surgery
Gamer globe: The top 100 countries by 2014 game revenue
Xbox boss thinks gamers who waited for a Kinect-less Xbox One will buy a Kinect
Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition gets Trials Fusion skins as marketing continues seeping into games
New CEO takes helm of firm that keeps games like The Elder Scrolls Online running
Mobile and social
Above: Grand Cru’s big game, Supernauts, is more than two years in the making.
App marketing cost inflation keeps getting worse
Android TV already finds game support from developers like Glu and Handy Games
Kabam launches China’s Wartune in North America on iOS and Google Play
Chinese mobile game publisher reassigns nine executives after bribery allegations
Preload is the new/old mobile user acquisition? Candy Crush Saga getting preinstalled
Grand Cru finally launches social world-builder Supernauts — bills it as ‘most ambitious iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch game of all time’
Google Play Games nabs 100M users over last 6 months — and gets new features like Quests
Google is bringing mobile games to television with Android TV
Helpshift raises $10M to help mobile game companies (and others) deal with the customer-service hordes
Google Play growing, growing, growing: Downloads up 1.5x, revenue up 2.5
Puzzle & Dragons out for Kindle Fire — but don’t expect it on the new Fire Phone
Civilization Revolution 2 hits iOS on July 2 — it’s no longer a console series
Previews and interviews
Above: Eve Valkyrie could be the first virtual-reality hit.
How Eve: Valkyrie went from ‘sideshow’ to the star of CCP Games’s lineup
Trust and tequila: An oral history of Tales from the Borderlands and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel
Perfect World preps a trio of games for the Xbox One launch in its homeland: China (interview)
Reviews
Above: Shovel Knight digs into the classics — and joins them.
Shovel Knight digs into the classics — and joins their ranks (review)
Valiant Hearts: The Great War reframes history’s brutal moments in cartoon violence (review)