Welcome to another weekly roundup of GamesBeat’s stories. This time, we look at Sonic’s worst games, we talk about how important a game’s length really is, and we look at Minecraft’s next update.
Happy reading, and have a great weekend!
Pieces of flair and opinion
The DeanBeat: It’s time for the U.S. to wake up and support game startups
Someone remade Call of Duty: Zombies in Trials Fusion
Five bugs and jokes in The Sims that went on to become features — and two that did not
A game’s length is one of its least important measures
Master the trapper class in Evolve with our step-by-step guide
The original indie dev: How one man made 22 games in 22 years, mostly from his basement
What Sega should learn from Sonic’s worst games
This U.K. mom drives her kids to school in a Need for Speed police cruiser
Above: Exploding Kittens.
Image Credit: Elan Lee
News
World’s largest Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament heading to Germany this summer
Silicon Valley insiders’ favorite board game ‘Settlers of Catan’ to be turned into a movie
Warner Bros. invests $24M more into game video site Machinima
Here’s what’s new in Minecraft 1.8.2
A card game called Exploding Kittens just made Kickstarter history
Bitcoin can get you illegal drugs — but a game developer is using it to redefine digital ownership
Brianna Wu’s Giant Spacekat pulls out of PAX East, blames GamerGate death threats
World of Tanks is coming to Xbox One — with cross-platform play with Xbox 360 tankers
Epic’s CEO touts a $5M fund to give grants to Unreal Engine developers
Why the Shadow of Mordor developer is finally letting you fight Sauron
Sega Networks acquires Marvel Puzzle Quest’s Demiurge Studios, invests in 2 Western developers
Xbox One is finally getting screenshots in next update
PS4 will outsell the Xbox One by 40% over the next 4 years, analyst bets
Koei Tecmo taking baby steps into the PlayStation 4, Xbox One age
Xbox Live down for many on Xbox One and Xbox 360
Look out, HoloLens — Sony’s dorky augmented-reality glasses go on sale in March for $840
Hurry: Wii U GameCube Controller Adapter is in stock at GameStop
League of Legends, Dota 2 could push e-sports to make at least $465M in 2017
Playtech buys GameMaker creator YoYo Games for $16.4 million
Sony still says The Last Guardian is in development
Nvidia’s Grid cloud gaming service will soon have 40 games
Wargaming launches closed beta for World of Tanks Generals digital card game
Nintendo’s New 3DS XL is selling out and difficult to find
Shadowrun: Hong Kong studio finds Kickstarter is a viable business model
The Order: 1886 is approximately 6 hours long, according to leaked video
Day 1 players of F2P games are much more likely to still be there a year later
Game streaming startup PolyStream completes its seed funding
Sony’s trademark for The Last Guardian has expired again
League of Legends continues its dominance as most-played PC game
Mobile and social
Swrve aims to put an end to annoying push-notification spam on your phone
Mobile gaming in public markets: Let’s take stock
Puzzle game Line: Disney Tsum Tsum hits 40 million worldwide downloads
Math Blaster is back — and it’s on Facebook
Rovio taps Chinese developer to create regional Angry Birds games
Upsight unveils real-time analytics and marketing platform for mobile and online marketers
How one mobile developer says it has an ‘ethical monetization’ plan for its kids game
App maker Biba and playground manufacturer PlayPower combine mobile games with real-world kid fun
Spil Games gets new mobile-savvy CEO to oversee social-gaming transition from Facebook
Angry Birds developer launches its latest third-party publishing game Jolly Jam
Mobile-marketing company Leadbolt introduces ‘non-intrusive’ video ads for mobile
Taking your social game to mobile is easy — taking your players with you is tougher
Amazon releases its exclusive Saber’s Edge puzzle-RPG on Fire tablets
China’s Tencent moves into Europe with investment in mobile and online game publisher Miniclip (exclusive)
Firefly Games raises $8M to bring top Asian mobile games to the West
Proletariat readies Thursday launch of mobile game World Zombination
Nonprofit brings back Zoombinis educational game and launches Kickstarter
Former Z2 Live execs form Mobile Game Partners consulting firm
FreshPlanet follows up its mobile song-trivia hit SongPop with a sequel
App Annie: Guns and advertising dollars led the mobile gaming charge in January
Above: What I think of when someone mentions Asteroids.
Image Credit: Atari
Previews and interviews
Following The Sims and Second Life, Rod Humble’s third act takes on religion … in a strategy game
BrightLocker makes a game out of making games
Atari producer Peter Banks on Asteroids’ new direction
Explore the mysteries of Saturn’s moon with Oculus Rift game Pollen
Atari producer Peter Banks on Asteroids’ new direction
Splash: Underwater Sanctuary will use Carmen Sandiego tactics to teach you about fish
Reviews
Kirby and the Rainbow Curse is a finely molded touchscreen adventure
The Order: 1886 is the best game from 10 years ago
Hori’s PlayStation 4 Full HD Monitor is worth more than the $15 I paid for it
Total War: Attila will bring out the barbarian in you
Redux: Dark Matters evokes shoot-em-up nostalgia but offers nothing new
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