We’re getting close to Christmas, but our busy week of news proves that the gaming industry isn’t taking a holiday just yet. We had massive coverage of all the new announcements and trailers from the VGX video-game award show, we reported on YouTube’s new crackdown on game-related videos, and much more.
You can check out our whole week of coverage below.
News
- The DeanBeat: With Valve’s Steam Machines and Oculus VR’s funding, gaming innovation is getting interesting
- ARM acquires maker of game graphics and lighting technology Geomerics
- Oculus VR raises $75M from web browser inventor Marc Andreessen’s VC firm to launch virtual reality goggles
- Portalarium launches crowdfunded fantasy game Shroud of the Avatar
- The Walking Dead: Season Two is about to start — here’s a trailer that proves it
- GTA Online introduces Deathmatch and Race Creators update
- Trendy Entertainment reveals a browser game that runs in 3D using Unreal without plugins
- ChronoBlade developer nWay raises $5 million in Series A funding round
- YouTube ignores content-creator concerns in statement regarding mass copyright flagging
- Updated: Leisure Suit Larry creator Al Lowe retires from Replay Games (exclusive)
- Prime World strategy-game developer Nival raises $6M in latest funding round
- The war begins in spring: Bethesda reveals launch date for The Elder Scrolls Online
- YouTube suddenly begins flagging hundreds of game-related videos for copyright violations
- Riot turns League of Legends data over to the community with new API
- Nintendo releases 3DS update that adds the Miiverse social network
- Twitch community raises $90,000 for Typhoon Haiyan victims
- Human Rights Campaign names Electronic Arts one of the ‘Best Places to Work 2014′
- Fez developer: Thank you for stealing (and buying) Fez
- Today’s Battlefield 4 PC patch kills game-breaking bugs and other problems; no word on upcoming console fixes
- You can’t escape the NSA — even on World of Warcraft and Xbox Live
Next gen
- For next gen, PlayStation 4 blockbuster game sales win in November, but Xbox 360 prevails overall
- November 2013 NPD: Xbox One, PS4 push game industry to $2.74B month
- Xbox One and PlayStation 4 help increase digital gaming market by 25%
- Peggle 2 doesn’t have local multiplayer — but it’s coming
- PlayStation 4 helps Twitch add more than 100,000 new broadcasters
- The GamesBeat staff — and you — pick which games should sit this new console generation out
Above: The Ultra Fever in Peggle 2 is more exciting than ever.
Image Credit: PopCap
Reviews
- Angry Birds Go! is a decent-enough kart racer with some annoying drivers (review)
- Doki-Doki Universe makes space exploration boring and slightly awkward (review)
- Xbox One’s Peggle 2 is still the gaming equivalent of popping bubble wrap (review)
Previews
Interviews
- After 20 years, Doom co-creator John Romero looks back on the impact of a seminal (and Satanic) game (interview)
- The director of Ubisoft’s The Division reveals what next-generation development is like (interview)
- Will Cut the Rope 2 be another mobile blockbuster? Zeptolab’s Misha Lyalin hopes so (interview)
Above: Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas heads to mobile devices.
Mobile and social
- Star Fantasy Leagues moves beyond daily to season-long fantasy sports games
- Kabam launches Blastron mobile game as a browser-based Facebook game
- Puzzle & Dragons spending limit for minors not coming to territories outside of Japan
- Japan now spends more on apps than USA — and Google Play revenue has caught up to iOS
- Google Play holds its first annual Players’ Choice Awards for best apps and games
- Pixelberry’s High School Story educates teens about cyberbullying with a special episode
- Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas arrives on iPhone, iPad
- N3twork launches a new mobile social network based on your interests, not your friends
- Kiip powers rewards in ZeptoLab’s Cut the Rope mobile games
- Disney takes its Club Penguin virtual world to the iPad
- Blue Goji launches its cardio exercise Goji Play games that will keep you on a treadmill
- Glu Mobile’s Deer Hunter 2014: 40M downloads, 9.8B animals killed
- Google launches new tools for Android game developers
- Monetization meets analytics as PlayHaven merges with Kontagent
- iOS board game Small World 2 expands to Android and Steam with cross-platform play
- Cool 3D graphics come to mobile as DeNA publishes Crytek’s The Collectables
- Xyo opens its ad program for its contextual mobile app search engine
- Will Rovio recapture its glory as Angry Birds Go! debuts on a global stage?
- TinyCo cuts deal with Twentieth Century Fox to take Family Guy into mobile games
- PaeDae gets a pay day as it collects $11.6M to expand beyond mobile game rewards
- HitFox Group grows six-fold in 2013 and starts three new mobile ad and big data startups
- Mobile publisher Storm8 kicks off third-party business by bringing Tower of Saviors to the West
- Whoa! Infinity Blade III developer promotes new Keanu Reeves film with in-game challenge
- New iOS game Circus Life reveals what really goes on inside the big top (exclusive)
- Russian developer Playtox launches HTML5 mobile game World of Shadows in U.S.
- SRI think tank and university turn software verification into gameplay
- Facebook names its top games of 2013
Above: No Man’s Sky from Hello Games.
Image Credit: Hello Games/VGX
VGX coverage
- Watch every trailer from Spike’s VGX award show right here
- Xbox One and PS4 allow devs to fulfill ‘original vision’ with Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition
- Updated: Respawn’s new Ogre class Titan can rip others to shreds in Titanfall
- CD Projekt Red reveals more from its beautiful The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
- Techland shows day-and-night zombie killing (with a sledgehammer) in Dying Light
- Check out the amazing, prodecurally generated space-exploration game No Man’s Sky (video)
- Telltale confirms it will make episodic series based on Game of Thrones
- New look at Tom Clancy’s The Division from Ubisoft
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Tim Schafer shows off Broken Age with voice-overs by Jack Black and Elijah Wood
- Halo creator Bungie debuts new Destiny trailer
- Here’s another South Park: The Stick of Truth trailer
- VGX names Grand Theft Auto V as Game of the Year
- Remedy unveils iOS naval-battle game Agents of Steel
- Alan Wake developer reveals more about its Xbox One title Quantum Break
- Nintendo of America president shows off ‘Cranky Kong’ in Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze
- Telltale Games partners with Gearbox for new Borderlands game
Pieces of flair