GamesBeat weekly roundup: NES Classic Edition becomes a hot item, and Conan hates Final Fantasy

Welcome to another GamesBeat weekly roundup! This time, we check out Pokémon Sun and Moon, Star Wars gets a new mobile game, and Battlefield 1 sells well.

Enjoy, and have a great weekend!

Pieces of flair and opinion

• The DeanBeat: Montreal talks capture the pulse of game developers
• Watch the making of a Nintendo Switch replica
• 5 tips before you start your Pokémon Sun and Moon adventure
• You’re probably going to have a bad time with Hearthstone’s Heroic Tavern Brawl
• Is NES Classic Edition worth the price? Will we get an SNES Classic? GamesBeat Decides
• Final Fantasy fans freak out over Conan O’Brien’s latest Clueless Gamer bit
• This Watch Dogs 2 mission resembles the Sony Pictures hack
• Watch Dogs 2 lets you drive a talking car similar to Knight Rider’s K.I.T.T.

Above: Zara Ghufran, a fictional character who fights for Lawrence of Arabia in Battlefield 1, is based on real female rebels.

Image Credit: EA

News

• October 2016 NPD: Battlefield, Mafia, and Gears dominate the sales chart
• Star Wars: Battlefront’s Rogue One expansion debuts next month
• Former id Software exec Steve Nix starts ForwardXP VR studio
• MekaMon will turn your living room into a robot battleground
• Hothead’s Kill Shot series hits 65 million downloads
• Backward compatible Xbox 360 games now come in Xbox One cases
• Nintendo has begun promoting Battlefy’s Splatoon esports tournaments
• EA’s new rule for Twitch and YouTube streamers: You must disclose sponsorships
• Persona 5 delayed to April 4, 2017
• Nvidia: Porting PS4, Xbox One, and PC games to Nintendo Switch is simple
• Nintendo is creating real-life Zelda escape rooms across the U.S.
• Nutaku will invest $10 million in game developers who put sex scenes in NSFW games
• NES Classic Edition’s limited supply is attracting scalpers and their bots
• NES Classic Edition will be available for a few minutes each day through November 18 on Walmart’s website
• Ubisoft will remove a woman character’s exposed genitalia from Watch Dogs 2
• The Elder Scrolls Online gives you a free taste of Tamriel on PS4, PC, and Mac this week
• After 13 years of subscriptions, EVE Online’s latest update embraces free-to-play gamers
• Dishonored 2 has weak U.K. debut
• PlayStation 4 Pro teardown shows off the system’s 4K guts
• Wargaming brings Sega’s Total War: Arena under its new Alliance free-to-play banner
• Minecraft’s Exploration Update is live with spitting llamas and more
• Pokémon Sun and Moon somehow make Dugtrio more ridiculous
• Watch Dogs 2 takes dig at vanity of infamous pharmaceutical CEO
• PlayStation VR’s best-sellers include Batman and Job Simulator

Above: Sure looks like a MOBA.

Image Credit: Netmarble

Mobile and social

• Tenjin introduces self-service mobile marketing platform for mobile apps and games
• Meta game ads are the most effective in getting new mobile app installs
• Star Wars: Force Arena for mobile sure looks like a MOBA
• GSN’s Sparcade lets you play Centipede (and Two Dots soon) for real money
• Warner Bros. debuts Fantastic Beasts hidden-object game targeted at females
• Rovio continues reinvention with ‘ToonsTV for Samsung’ app featuring Angry Birds characters
• How Supercell kills its darlings to focus on potential hits
• Super Mario Run sprints to iPhone and iPad on December 15 for $10
• CrowdStar launches Design Home in pursuit of female mobile gamers
• New German mobile game studio Sviper raises seed round

Reviews, previews, and interviews

• Razer Kraken Pro V2 is a lightweight all-day gaming headset
• What it’s like to use a keyboard and mouse on PS4 or Xbox One with the Keymander
• Pokémon Sun and Moon make a good first impression with their formula-shaking tweaks
• How the composers of Mafia III’s music made their memorable tunes
• The Sandbox Evolution delivers pixelated user-generated worlds on Steam
• Ex-Sony exec Adam Boyes tells devs what to learn from the Gold Rush
• HyperX’s Alloy FPS keyboard puts a full-size layout and Cherry switches in a compact chassis