Many Mario games are some of the best pieces of digital entertainment ever created. The series seemed like an obvious choice for a new tier list-making video series … so here we are. My cohort Jeff Grubb and I rank every game in the core Mario series. What does “core” mean? It’s whatever we say […]
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Earlier today, Microsoft announced a price increase for Xbox Live Gold, the subscription service that lets Xbox users play games online. Somehow, Microsoft was surprised to find out that this was an unpopular move. So less than 24 hours later, Microsoft is backtracking. Xbox Live Gold will not see its price raised. Further, free-to-play games […]
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Today, Activision announced that it is merging Vicarious Visions with Blizzard Entertainment. Vicarious, a studio that had found a niche creating superb remake compilations like Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2, will no longer work on its projects. Instead, it will be a support studio dedicated to helping Blizzard. This […]
Read More505 Games has announced Puzzle Quest 3 today, a new installment in the franchise that combines match-3 puzzle mechanics with RPG-inspired progression and story and elements. Just last week, 505 Games acquired Puzzle Quest developer Infinity Plus Two. Puzzle Quest 3 will be the studio’s first project as an official part of 505. The game […]
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Web browser maker Opera has acquired YoYo Games, maker of the GameMaker Studio 2 game engine, for $10 million, and it has also launched its Opera Gaming division. The deal underscores Opera‘s efforts to differentiate its web browser, Opera GX, through a gaming community. Opera itself has more than 380 million people using its web […]
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THQ Nordic announced today that Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning will release for Switch on March 16. Kingdoms of Amalur first debuted in 2012. The action role-playing game had a fun open world and fast-paced combat, but it wasn’t able to sell enough copies to keep the Kurt Shilling-owned 38 Studios afloat. Amalur is expanding its […]
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Hitman works because developer IO Interactive builds the games as predictable and rigid machines. And as players, we control the key to this machine in Agent 47. IO’s job is to make sure that when players insert 47 into this mess of cogs and moving parts, that other parts of the machine awaken and present […]
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We had so much fun making a tier list of Nintendo’s consoles last week that Jeff Grubb and I are back at it again with a topic that’s a bit more silly. We’re ranking Sonic the Hedgehog’s friends. Yup, we go through all of the notable anthropomorphic characters that have showed up in the Sega […]
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I enjoyed my holiday break because it gave me time to play a lot more games than normal. And after spending about 20 hours diving into Dragon Quest VII, a JRPG notorious for its slow pace, I needed something that’s a bit more exciting. So I jumped on my Xbox Series X and started browsing […]
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505 Games and its parent company Digital Bros announced today the acquisition of Infinity Plus Two, the studio behind puzzle game hits Puzzle Quest and Gems of War. The deal gives 505 Games a studio with free-to-play experience. Infinity Plus Two’s titles have earned over $200 million in revenue. 505 was already the publisher for […]
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In a new video posted to Twitter, CD Projekt Red co-founder Marcin Iwiński apologizes for Cyberpunk 2077‘s rough launch and lays out a roadmap for the game’s future. Cyberpunk 2077 came out on December 10 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Stadia and PC. While the PC version runs well, aside from bugs, the last-gen console […]
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Ubisoft announced today it will make a new Star Wars game in collaboration with Disney’s Lucasfilm Games division. The title from Ubisoft’s Massive Entertainment — the maker of The Division open world series — will be a story-driven open-world Star Wars adventure. Massive Entertainment is in Malmö, Sweden, and it has a big team that […]
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Bethesda has teased a new Indiana Jones title from MachineGames, the studio behind the modern Wolfenstein series. A short teaser trailer, which you can see below, shows off the logos for Bethesda, MachineGames, and the newly rebranded Lucasfilm Games (as of yesterday). It also reveals some Indy iconography, such as his hat and whip. pic.twitter.com/XSaIwjgiOF […]
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We’ve known for some time that Super Mario 3D World‘s Switch port would come with a new campaign, Bowser’s Fury. Now we have an idea of that will look like, and it’s surprising. Super Mario 3D World is one of the last major Wii U exclusives to come to the Switch, releasing on February 12. […]
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My discovery of the Dragon Quest franchise was one of my few happy happenstances of 2020. For decades, I convinced myself that I just didn’t like this iconic JRPG series. Then I fell in love with Dragon Quest XI. Now, I’m on a quest of my own, playing through each game. But I’m not going […]
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We have a multiverse of speakers coming to our metaverse event, GamesBeat Summit: Into the Metaverse. A couple of our latest speakers include Cyberpunk creator Mike Pondsmith, CEO of R. Talsorian Games; Geoff Keighley, creator of The Game Awards; Siobhan Reddy, head of Dreams creator Media Molecule; and Richard Bartle, a pioneering researcher on AI […]
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Nintendo has made some of the most iconic consoles of all time. Now it is up to us to rank them the only way gamers know how: with a tier list. GamesBeat’s Jeff Grubb and I spent over an hour debating the merits of every major Nintendo home and portable console. We then put each […]
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Former Sony Online Entertainment president Lewis “Kelly” Flock, a game industry leader who backed classic hits such as the original God of War and Twisted Metal: Black, has died. His passing was not unexpected among friends, as he had been ill, but his death sent reverberations through a game development community that has been hit […]
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The game industry grew 12% to $139.9 billion in 2020 from $120.1 billion in 2019 while many industries shrank during the pandemic, according to a report by market researcher SuperData. But for 2021, SuperData predicts that the game market will only grow 2% in 2021. The division of Nielsen said the double-digit growth of the […]
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Publisher Kalypso Media and developer Realmforge Studios announced today that Spacebase Startopia is now available in an early access state via Xbox Game Preview for both Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S. This makes Spacebase Startopia the first Series X/S game available on Microsoft’s early access program. The full title is set to release this […]
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Under CEO Fred Chesnais, Atari is a company with just 28 employees. That’s pretty small for the oldest brand in video games. But during the pandemic, Atari’s small size helped it operate with a lot fewer risks than other companies. Chesnais bought Atari out of bankruptcy in 2013, when the company’s revenues had sunk to […]
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You can’t say that 2020 was boring. For better or (often) for worse, we still had plenty to talk about when it came to the gaming industry. This year saw the releases of new consoles and giant games. It also showed us how far we have to go to make sure that the industry can […]
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I have to be honest: 2020 wasn’t as a big year for retro gaming as some of the other ones we’ve had in recent memory. The mini-console craze is dying down, the the release of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S had more people looking forward than backward. But if you love old games […]
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This was an awful year, but … at least we got some good games? I’m not sure that escaping into digital fantasy worlds is a healthy way to cope with a crumbling society, but it sure does feel good! This has been one of the strongest years in gaming that I can remember in a […]
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When World War I comes up in popular culture, the Eastern Front gets far less attention than the battlefields of the West. We hear about and read about the Somme, Verdun, or Passchendaele more than we do the Masurian Lakes or Tannenberg, the namesake for Blackmill Games’ second World War I multiplayer shooter. And that’s […]
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Many people’s memories of 2020 will reflect a horrible year. But games offered us an escape from that reality. They let us maintain social distance while still connecting remotely with our friends. And they kept us sane at a time when the pandemic and the U.S. presidential election were tearing us apart. Despite an unrelenting […]
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Tencent picked up a lot of game properties this month when it acquired Leyou Technologies, a Hong Kong-based game company, for $1.5 billion. Among the jewels are Warframe maker Digital Extremes as well as Splash Damage, King Maker, and Radiance. The deal is one more sign of the acquisition frenzy around games during the pandemic, […]
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A lot of gamers have been updating their home theater setup this year with the arrival of the new gaming consoles, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. And while I imagine many prioritized picking up a good screen, audio can be just as important to an immersive gaming experience. I’ve never had a great home […]
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With The Game Awards last week, we got a good flavor for the big games coming next year. And so it’s time to do our most anticipated games of 2021. When I asked on social media about audience picks, I got a lot of jokes about how the rerelease of a non-buggy Cyberpunk 2077 would […]
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Skins (cosmetic add-ons that customize the look of game characters) have become a staple of modern video games like Fortnite, and 85% of U.S. gamers ages 13 to 45 are aware of them. That’s one result of a survey of U.S. players by market researcher Newzoo and gaming monetization firm DMarket. Skins (and battle passes) […]
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When players discovered that Cyberpunk 2077 ran like garbage on older consoles, CD Projekt Red suggested that they ask for refunds. At first, many had a hard time doing just that. Today, Sony has clarified that it will offer a refund to anyone who bought Cyberpunk 2077 on its digital store. But Sony is going […]
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