This week, Zynga shuts down its Baltimore studio while consolidating three others, THQ will sell off Homeworld, Darksiders, and Red Faction in its last auction, and the Android-based Ouya console will ship March 28.
You’ll also find reviews of Star Wars Pinball and Tomb Raider, as well as previews for Lego City: Undercover, Warface, Time and Eternity, and Throw Trucks with Your Mind.
News
- The DeanBeat: The Nintendo Wii U’s troubles start with a dearth of developers
- Co-creator of Counter-Strike will launch his Tactical Intervention shooter on March 28
- Sony’s 4K movie service coming to PS4, but 100GB downloads remind us why 4K is a waste
- It takes 600 people for Ubisoft to make a triple-A game on PlayStation 4
- CCP holding special Eve Online/Dust 514 event at PAX East for players to make in-game ‘history’
- German publisher Daedalic taps into the international power of adventure games
- Call of Duty: Black Ops II Revolution map pack now available on PlayStation 3 and PC (not Wii U)
- This week in the Nintendo Download: Castlevania, Runner 2, and Retro City Rampage
- Portal developer Kim Swift’s next game is exclusive to Ouya
- Ouya confirms March 28 console shipping and hires ex-Journey developer Kellee Santiago
- Scopely announces marquee game developers as mobile-platform partners
- CCP: ‘No reason we need to stop at just Eve and Dust’ as MMO passes 500K subscribers
- Official key art for Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag
- OnLive offers a free download with every cloud purchase of The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings
- With 23,000 expected attendees, GDC will drill down into everything from PS4 to free-to-play
- GDC attendee survey chronicles the explosion of indie gaming and fall of Nintendo
- The Carrot to-do list for iPhone is your new master
- Don’t play this 800-player (!) online version of Bomberman if you have work to do
- ‘The Thunder King’ trailer celebrates the imminent arrival of World of Warcraft’s latest patch
- EA’s top digital executive Kristian Segerstrale leaves
- Social-game developer Playdemic appoints ‘Fighting Fantasy’ author as new chairman
- Will Wright talks about the new SimCity
- Deadpool game rated M for jokes during violence and inflating a blow-up doll
- GameHouse bets it all on its social casino games
- Online gambling now legal in New Jersey
- Skullgirls reaches crowdfunding goal faster than any other game in Indiegogo’s history
- THQ to sell off Homeworld, Red Faction, Darksiders in last auction
- The War Z is back on Steam more than two months after Valve pulled it
- EA chief technology officer on PS4: ‘We no longer have to constrain our games’
- EA says it missed Sony’s event to maintain ‘balance’ with Microsoft — but Battlefield 4 is ‘stunning’ on PS4
- Toki Tori 2 dev explains why you won’t find any text in its puzzle-platforming sequel
- Anodyne and Surgeon Simulator among latest batch of Steam Greenlight games (updated)
- EA enables gamers to use a single identity across game platforms (exclusive)
- Goofy EA numbers that show how deeply players are engaged in games
- Blizzard debuts its StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm launch trailer on Twitch
- Wii Mini is heading to markets outside of Canada
- Uncharted 3′s multiplayer goes free-to-play
- Ex-FBI profiler: ‘We don’t see video games as the cause of violence’
- New developer Win releases Slots Craze social game backed by online-gambling company
- Online gaming giant Nexon invests in ex-Call of Duty creative strategist’s Robotoki game startup
- Sony appoints new firm to plan PlayStation media strategy
- Lombardi still with Valve — LinkedIn update made in error (updated)
- Zynga shuts Baltimore studio and consolidates three other locations
- Harris Poll: 58 percent of adults believe in a correlation between video games and violence
- Wooga: Inside the social games wonderland of Jens Begemann (video)
Mobile News
- Red Hot Labs raises $1.5M for mobile games and a platform to make them spread
- Disney Mobile launches Toy Story: Smash It! game on app stores
- Samsung offers 100% of revenue to indie developers that use its app store
- Firefox OS needs games: Mozilla is confident it can entice developers by eliminating fragmentation
- Exent launches Android game subscription service for TVs (exclusive)
Reviews
- Star Wars Pinball: That wizard is not just a crazy old man (review)
- Tomb Raider hurts so good (review)
Previews
- With 7.5M users in Russia, Crytek’s free-to-play shooter Warface is coming to the U.S. (preview)
- Lego City: Undercover is less violent than Grand Theft Auto but still just as fun (preview)
- Throw Trucks with Your Mind is the best Star Wars game ever (preview)
- Forget saving the world: In Time and Eternity, you have to save your marriage (preview)
Interviews
- Think tank Gun Media brings experts together to make games (exclusive interview)
- Bungie leader Pete Parsons discusses how studio is shaping gaming’s Destiny (interview)
- The peculiar origin of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance’s heavy-metal sound (interview)
Pieces of Flair
- Silent Hill: Revelation vs. Silent Hill 3: A visual comparison (gallery)
- Required Listening: Fire Emblem, Crysis 3, and interview with Tomb Raider composer Jason Graves
