Welcome to another GamesBeat weekly roundup! This time, Disney is toying with making digital versions of its theme parks for virtual reality, the PlayStation 4 finally has a launch date in China, and Grand Theft Auto Online gets the long-awaited Heists.
Happy reading, and have a great weekend!
Pieces of flair and opinion
- The DeanBeat: Shinra inches forward on its plan to revolutionize online games
- Watching live streams of people coding is now officially a thing
- Uncharted 4’s delay will hurt the PlayStation 4’s holiday battle against the Xbox One and Halo 5
- Disney is considering re-creating its theme parks for virtual reality
- Disney Imagineers made a holodeck because prototyping theme parks with photons is cheap
- Play Snake with the water jets on these giant public fountains
- Turkey is right: Minecraft can be extremely violent
- Netflix finally comes to … the Nintendo Entertainment System
- Chrono Trigger’s 20th birthday has this must-play role-playing game looking timeless
- The artisan insanity of the 2015 Independent Games Festival Pavilion (gallery)
- How Journey game studio attracts and hires the best talent
- See the sights of GDC 2015 right here (gallery)
- Imaginative, handmade controllers power these unique games (gallery)
Above: GTA Online will give your team of robbers plenty of opportunities to make a name for yourselves
Image Credit: Rockstar Games
News
- Destiny wins best game at London’s Bafta games awards, while indies also triumph
- February 2015 NPD: PS4 tops Xbox One, and Nintendo scores with 3DS and Zelda
- Danganronpa writer isn’t interested in creating bite-sized mobile experiences
- Titanfall 2 is coming to PlayStation 4, Respawn boss confirms
- Rockstar’s story: The making of Grand Theft Auto is getting a 90-minute scripted drama from the BBC
- BlizzCon 2015 will celebrate all things Warcraft, StarCraft, and more in November
- Metropolis-building game Cities: Skylines surpasses 250,000 copies sold
- Homefront: The Revolution delayed to 2016
- World of Warcraft helps the digital games market generate almost $1 billion a month
- Evolve is making PlayStation 4, PC players wait an extra month for new, free maps
- Battlefield: Hardline’s 10-hour EA Access trial is now live on Xbox One
- PS4 system update 2.50 includes the ability to suspend and resume games
- Hover X is the crazy desk that turns your lap — and anywhere you sit — into a PC gaming space
- Mark Jacobs’ Camelot Unchained crowdfunded game hits alpha testing
- Microsoft updates Xbox app for Windows 10 with remote Xbox One control, game-clip viewing, and more
- Sega and Pokémon maker Game Freak team up for Tembo the Badass Elephant — and not for Nintendo
- NASA teams up with smartglasses maker on augmented reality goggles for space missions
- Massachusetts congresswoman urges FBI to take Gamergate seriously
- Turkey’s ‘family’ ministry wants to ban Minecraft — just like it did with 4Chan
- Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End delayed — release date now ‘spring 2016′
- PlayStation 4 and Vita come to China on March 20 after months of delay
- Grand Theft Auto: Online down intermittently as Heists add-on goes live (update)
- Grand Theft Auto V’s online heists are now live: Here’s some of the new vehicles and items
- Xbox Live down for many on Xbox 360 (update)
- Sci-fi game makers aim to bring back the 3D space combat of Descent
- BioWare cofounder Greg Zeschuk returns to games to get kids off the couch
- Animal Jam teams with Free the Children to encourage global citizenship in kids
- PlayStation 4’s 2.50 update will add options for disabled gamers
- Xbox One March update starts rolling out with screenshot feature, suggested friends, spam reporting, and more
- Indie designer Zoe Quinn to developers: You can code comedy, too
- Prey developer Human Head joins Amazon Game Studios’ growing list of partners
- League of Legends developer Riot has considered a Counter-Strike-style competitive mode
- GDC hits a record 26,000 attendees for virtual reality, game culture talks, and parties
- Black developers explain how free game engines, incentives will bring more black people into games
- Torture scenes helped earn Batman: Arkham Knight its mature rating
Mobile and social
- This mobile soccer game lets you trash-talk stars like Jerome Boateng, Alejandro Bedoya, and Philippe Senderos
- Rovio releases the familiar-looking Angry Birds: Stella Pop
- Top 5 trends that power mobile game marketing
- Former Apple App Store team member takes his shot at a March Madness app (exclusive)
- Osmo Masterpiece could turn every kid into an iPad artist
- E-sports news app TheScore spreads to iOS (update)
- NativeX names new CEO and launches multi-offer mobile video ads (exclusive)
- Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi sees mobile gaming akin to TV episodes — and a place for old-school charm, too
- China’s mobile game market is getting hotter — but winter may be coming
- Bring in the (mobile) clones
Above: In pursuits, damage can come from firearms or vehicles.
Image Credit: Electronic Arts/Visceral Games
Previews and interviews
- Bombshell is 3D Realms’ fresh start
- Unraveling the mysteries of No Man’s Sky’s 18 quintillion planets
- Tobii eye-tracking adds a new layer to game control (impressions)
- Escape (or confront) your fears in this game about social anxiety
- Battlefield: Hardline multiplayer puts you inside a TV crime show (hands-on preview)
- Battlefield: Hardline has intense e-sports-style multiplayer (video)
- Has the game industry turned the corner on women and diversity? (interview)
Reviews
- Hotline Miami 2 upset my neighbors more than Grand Theft Auto ever did
- Atelier Shallie: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea is a fine showcase for the long-running franchise
- Ori and the Blind Forest makes momma Metroid super-proud
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