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Welcome to another GamesBeat weekly roundup! This time, Nintendo showed off lots of games in a new Nintendo Direct, we reviewed the new mobile Final Fantasy, and a guest writer looked at the positive influence of LGBT characters in video games.
Enjoy, and have a happy weekend!
Pieces of flair and opinion
The DeanBeat: Why games still need all of the technology that Moore’s Law can deliver
Someone is re-creating San Francisco in Cities: Skylines
Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft Blackrock Mountain guide — how to beat Blackrock Depths
At $25M a month, DeNA ‘lowballing’ its expectations with Nintendo partnership
The positive influence of LGBT video game characters
This guy just completed Bloodborne in less than 37 minutes
The next multibillion dollar tech trend from Asia: E-sports
Above: Behold the six Amiibos of the GameStop apocalypse.
Image Credit: Nintendo
News
GameStop.com went down because you’re all mad for Amiibos
OnLive will shut down its cloud gaming services and sell assets to Sony
Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences offers scholarships to help students make games
PlayStation Network is down for some on PlayStation 4 (update)
Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft’s Blackrock Mountain is out now
RuneScape developer Jagex gets a new chief executive officer
Microsoft stops producing Kinect for Windows v2 sensor, will focus on Kinect for Xbox One and Windows apps
Quantum Break delayed to 2016 to ease Xbox One’s crowded holiday
Move over, silicon. Gallium nitride chips are taking over
Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin framerate issues on Xbox One result in ‘sluggish combat’
Nintendo Direct trailer roundup: Mario Kart, Fire Emblem, Animal Crossing, and Mewtwo in Smash
Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer lets you decorate interiors without the chores — and with Amiibo cards
Atlus-made Fire Emblem and Shin Megami Tensei mashup is coming to North America, still in development
Japanese hit franchise ‘Attack on Titan’ gets its first game release in the West
This new ‘wooly’ Yoshi Amiibo is so soft and cute
DS and Nintendo 64 games coming to Wii U Virtual Console
Mario Maker comes out in September
Nintendo details Mewtwo and next update for Super Smash Bros.
Club Nintendo servers struggle as the final Elite Status gifts go live
Playism aims to make indie games as popular in Japan as they are in the West
Otoy aims to enable developers to create cool VR imagery
New Twitch mobile update adds a neverending video player
MotorStorm dune buggies race to Driveclub as free DLC
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare owners on Xbox One are once again having issues downloading content
Dying Light’s physics will get wacky for 24 hours on April Fools’ Day
Google Maps meets Pac-Man: Munch up power pellets in your neighborhood
Bandai Namco opens up Pac-Man and other classic arcade IPs to Japanese developers
Ubisoft unveils Assassin’s Creed: Chronicles downloadable trilogy
Kamcord reaches 40M videos shared as it continues expanding into Asia
Raptr launches Plays.tv gameplay video sharing and raises $14M
Game over: Fan’s Super Mario 64 HD for browsers taken down after legal threat from Nintendo
League of Legends, Dota 2 will lead PC gaming’s fastest-growing sector to $500M this year in North America
Japanese indie event BitSummit partners with Indie Megabooth
The Witcher 3 producer says he’d rather play it on a PC at minimum settings than on Xbox One
Sony’s old CD-ROM-based gaming magazine returns as a bi-weekly video show
Mortal Kombat X gets an ESL Pro League; preseason starts April 19
Germany’s Bigpoint partners with Tencent to take Drakensang Online to China
‘Star Wars: Rebels’ gets its own digital pinball table
Sony’s Spotify-powered music-streaming service lands on PlayStation today, no paid subscription required
Microsoft announces Halo 5 coming Oct. 27 in live-action TV commercial
Denial eSports wins the Call of Duty Championships
Mobile and social
Pollen lets game developers access their cash from app store sales
Mobile MOBA Vainglory gets a spectator mode, its first step toward e-sports play
South Korean mobile giant Nexon will acquire Boolean Games, makers of the Dark Avenger series
DomiNations assaults Clash of Clans with a Civilization-like mobile strategy game
Gondola helps game developers set dynamic prices for virtual goods
Star Wars: Commander will have a big presence at the Celebration event for the sci-fi franchise
Mnectar teams up with Branch Metrics to make mobile gaming ads better
App Annie launches internal research team, hires top IDC analyst
Angry Birds in the park? Aireal’s augmented-reality tech for businesses could make it ‘real’
Clash of Clans maker Supercell tests a new game: Smash Land
SuperAwesome partners with Bee7 for a kid-safe, legal mobile games ad network
GSN’s acquisition of Idle Gaming shows the state of social casino games
Tapstream unifies deep links and deferred deep links, connecting mobile web and mobile apps
App downloads are slightly down from January — but user acquisition is way up from last year
Immersion wants to add rumble to your mobile games without killing your battery
DeNA reinforces its brand success with Marvel Mighty Heroes for mobile
The future of mobile game-player acquisition: Play before you download
WWE 2K is coming to mobile, but who cares — Hogan called me ‘brother’!
How to know if your mobile game is on its way to $1M in revenues
Derby Games offers real-money gambling app for horse racing fans on iOS (updated)
Bica Studios secures VC funding in a major boost to Portugal’s growing game industry
Goodgame Studios quietly becomes one of Germany’s biggest game companies
Above: Axiom Verge has a strong Metroid vibe to it.
Image Credit: Thomas Happ Games LLC
Previews and interviews
Axiom Verge’s fantastically dark world encourages obsessive exploration
How Facebook aims to keep game developers on its platforms (interview)
Reviews
MLB 15: The Show is technically good but is beginning to bore me
Final Fantasy: Record Keeper is a mediocre grind that’s easy on your wallet