One of gaming’s superstar creative minds is dropping vigors for Carrousel.

BioShock and BioShock Infinite creative lead Ken Levine is writing the script for Warner Bros. Pictures’ Logan’s Run remake, according to Deadline. Levine will update the story of the 1976 sci-fi film that has the titular Logan running after aging out in a dystopian future that does not allow anyone over 30 to live.

While Levine is best known of his work in video games, he actually has a history in film. He started his career as a screenwriter and playwright. He wrote two scripts while living in Los Angeles before moving on to Irrational Games. He spoke about his time in Hollywood during a 2008 keynote at the Penny Arcade Expo.

This return to film doesn’t mean Levine is abandoning Irrational or video games. The BioShock creator will continue on as creative director at his development studio.

This is WB’s latest effort to get Logan’s Run off the ground. The studio has previously attached names like Superman Returns and X-Men director Bryan Singer and Driver director Nicolas Winding Refn to the project. Both of those attempts fell through.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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This sponsored post is produced by Dealzon.

On May 31st GameFly launched their own “Digital Summer Sale” (preempting the Steam Summer sale of course) with new deals being refreshed every 24 hours running from the 31st to June 6th. BioShock Infinite, for instance, was dropped down to $34.99. Not too shabby.

Today GameFly resurrected BioShock Infinite and all 49 games and bundles to their previous discount prices, but to add icing on the cake, they now stack with a just-launched June 2013 Gamefly coupon code – giving you another 20% off the already discounted prices.

That makes the Triple-A title BioShock Infinite only $27.99 – the lowest price we’ve seen yet. For the math fans, that’s 53% off the MSRP only 3 months after its March 26th release date, on what many considered to be the frontrunner to 2013’s Game of the Year.

Seeing BioShock at that price will probably reminder a few gamers to avoid buying on release date – especially if you’re not keen on playing rightaway. The current PC download price trend shows clearly that if a game isn’t on sale at release date, a price slash is sure to happen within a week to a month – and if you wait about 3 months you can expect to see Triple-A titles below half price. This weekend GameFly is having one such 50%+ off sales you just have to check out.

Best of the Digital Summer Sale

BioShock Infinite (PC Download) — $27.99 at GameFly after coupon. Probably one of the best thus far for 2013. At $28, this is an excellent entertainment to dollar ratio you’re getting.
 

Crysis 3 (PC Download) — $23.99 at GameFly after coupon. Lowest we’ve seen yet for Crysis 3. If you need to stress test your new Haswell system, you might as well grab Crysis 3.
 

Dead Space 3 (PC Download) — $23.99 at GameFly after coupon. While review isn’t as strong for the 3rd installment to the series, this is still a decent FPS title for horror FPS fans to pick up. Activates on Origin.

Mass Effect Trilogy (PC Download) — $15.99 at GameFly after coupon. All three Mass Effect games plus their respective DLCs at only $16. Not bad. Activates on Origin.
 

Borderlands 1 + 2 Bundle (PC Download) — $15.99 at GameFly after coupon. Amazing price if you’ve never played either version of Borderlands 2 (plus, you get Borderlands 1 GOTY edition, which comes with all the previous DLCs). Activates on Steam.

The Walking Dead Game (PC Download) — $6.79 at GameFly after coupon. If you missed out on the latest Humble Bundle deal, at $6.79 this is still a decent price for all 5 episodes of The Walking Dead. Activates on Steam.

Hitman: Absolution (PC Download) — $4.79 at GameFly after coupon. Near lowest price we’ve seen for the latest installment to Hitman. While story isn’t as strong (in our opinion) vs the previous Hitman series, this is still an excellent addition to the IP. Activates on Steam.

Fallout: New Vegas (PC Download) — $3.19 at GameFly after coupon. Next best is $10 at GamersGate. This isn’t the ultimate version but at $3, its a great price if you just want to check the title out. Activates on Steam.
 

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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This post contains spoilers for BioShock Infinite.

Developer Irrational Games’ first-person action title BioShock Infinite (available for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC) has been out for a couple of months now, but forums and message boards are still full of gamers’ unanswered questions about the surprisingly esoteric game. It doesn’t help much that you find many of the answers in easily missed audio logs scattered throughout the levels, but, hey, that’s what the Internet is for.

Here, more or less, are the answers to your lingering questions.

Why is a Beach Boys song playing in 1912?

OK, some of you are currently screaming at your computers, phones, or tablets. Two points: First, you’re right; this is a really easy question and one of the few that players can answer even without finding all the Voxophones. Second, please stop screaming. You’re on a bus, and you’re scaring people.

But I bring up the floating city’s seemingly incongruous soundtrack — which consists of old-timey versions of songs from Cyndi Lauper, Creedence Clearwater Revival, R.E.M., and others — because its genesis ties in with another topic I’ll cover later.

Columbia has a bunch of unstable ”tears” that occasionally burst open to allow a glimpse into another time and place, like a world where Episode VI of the Star Wars saga kept its original title of “Revenge of the Jedi.” Sometimes when players find one of these rip-holes, they can hear music on the other side.

Albert Fink, Columbia’s resident composer and brother of pathological industrialist Jeremiah Fink, has also heard the songs coming through the interdimensional portal conveniently located in his studio. Because “profiting from the work of others” is apparently emblazoned on the Fink family crest, Albert took the opportunity to create his masterpieces by adapting the tunes he heard into more 1910-friendly versions. So we get a barbershop quartet singing The Beach Boys’ “God Only Knows” and a rendition of Tears for Fears’ “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” that sounds straight out of Al Jolson‘s catalog.

In case you missed the pertinent Voxophones, here they are:

“Changing My Tune”

“Out of the Thin Air”

Which leads logically to:

What the hell is the Songbird?

Irrational has always been reluctant to discuss the giant mechanical bird that acts as Elizabeth’s protector. Before the developer announced Songbird’s official name, it would only refer to it as “Him.” It’s unclear whether that was to keep some mystique or whether Irrational just hadn’t properly named the thing yet. But the Songbird featured prominently in the game’s marketing, and fans couldn’t wait to figure out exactly what it was.

And then we played the game, and it was still murky.

Irrational purposefully obscures the nature of the beast, restricting our knowledge to general facts:

• It is very big and strong.
• It is mechanical with some organic characteristics.
• Its purpose is to keep Elizabeth from leaving Columbia, and it has thwarted Booker’s attempts to save her several times.
• That’s it.

And really, that’s all we need to know. But that isn’t to say that we can’t still glean some information about Songbird from those pesky Voxophones. Take this one, for example:

“A Child Needs a Protector”

Your first time through, Fink’s description of an incredible blueprint he spied through a tear may not strike you as significant, but one scene near the end puts it into a new perspective.

If you can get past the maker of that video’s almost complete refusal to look anywhere that will help me make my point, you might notice something in the background of that death scene. Do you see it? Back there in the tube?

Since this scene takes place in the first BioShock’s underwater city of Rapture, it isn’t suprising to see a Big Daddy. But watch that video again: The Big Daddy is dead, and his Little Sister is mourning him. In the foreground, Songbird is dead, and Elizabeth — the girl he protects — is mourning him. I can also get crazy obsessive and point out how Elizabeth’s blue dress resembles a Little Sister’s and how the color-coded awareness indicators in Songbird’s eyes match the ones in a Big Daddy.

It is not subtle.

But while you’re replaying things I’ve already shown you, go listen to that Voxophone again. Which plans do you think Fink had spied through the tear?

While we’re on this topic, look at Infinite’s vigors — genetic superpowers that resemble the earlier games’ plasmids. Fink stole those from tears, too, but good on him for finding a way to make them drinkable instead of requiring Booker to jab himself with a needle big enough to blind a tarsier.

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This sponsored post is produced by Dealzon.

Earlier today, Square-Enix tweeted August 27th as the release date for Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn on the PS3 and PC. Although current owners of the original FF XIV on PC can download the new version for free (and thus should disregard the next few sentences), new potential players on PC can take advantage of lower-than-usual list prices as well as a 20% off preorder deal on GMG.

The digital Standard Edition for preorder comes to $24 after coupon, while the Collector’s Edition costs $20 more. All preorders includes pre-launch access to the game servers, a Mog cap to wear around Eorzea, and a Cait Sith Doll Minion who joins your party as a pet.

Although the digital Collector’s Edition preorder omits the numerous physical bonus items associated with the DVD version, you’ll still receive the Helm of Light, a Baby Behemoth Minion, a Coeurl Mount, and even Behemoth Barding armor for your Chocobo as in-game bonuses.

Announced just two days ago, Metro: Last Light – Season Pass for PC download also has the 20% discount after coupon at Green Man Gaming. The Pass includes four DLC packs: Faction Pack, Tower Pack, Developer Pack, and Chronicles Pack. Assuming the packs will cost $5 each as they release, the final price of the Pass represents a 40% discount off what you’d otherwise pay. Accordingly, fans of the Metro franchise certain to buy the additional DLC would be wise to grab these in the Pass.

Hot deals & recent releases

Aug. 27: Final Fantasy XIV: Realm Reborn (PC Dowload) — $24 at Green Man Gaming after coupon. If you already own the original FF XIV on PC, don’t pay twice – it’s free for you to download. Otherwise, be thankful for the lower $30 list price, 20% off coupon, and preorder bonuses.

Tuesday’s release: Metro: Last Light – Season Pass (PC Download) — $12 at Green Man Gaming after coupon. Save 40% off what you’d pay if you were to buy the packs individually as they’re released.

Tuesday’s release: Resident Evil: Revelations (PC Download) — $40 at Green Man Gaming after coupon. This “slighty buggy [but] fun” transition from a successful 3DS title to the bigger screen has a 75/100 Metacritic rating so far.

Yesterday’s release: Call of Juarez: Gunslinger (PC Download) — $11.99 at GameFly after coupon. Pay respect to the Old West with a bounty hunting title getting solid reviews thus far. Next best is $15 at Amazon.

Wii U Console 8GB Basic Set — $239.99 at Target. Plus $6.55 shipping. Cheapest we’ve seen for the basic Wii U console, with other retailers still selling for the usual $300.

Freebie PC games at Amazon

16 Bit Arena (PC Download) — FREE. If you miss vintage graphics in turn-by-turn battles, your nostalgia won’t cost you a thing. List price is $10.
 

Stronghold Kingdoms + Stronghold Crusader HD (PC Download) — FREE. While Stronghold Kingdoms has been free for a while now, Stronghold Crusader HD is usually $10.

PC download deals

Guild Wars 2 Digital Edition (PC Download) — $39.99 at Green Man Gaming. Since its release last year, GW2 has had its up and downs, but the core community is still relatively strong.
 

Sleeping Dogs (PC Download) — $6.25 at GamersGate. A cheap safe bet for fans of open world action adventure. Next best is $30 at Amazon.
 

Space Battle Weekend Sale: Games and DLCs (PC Download) — up to 75% off at GamersGate. Includes a whopping 63 space-related games and content to download, including Sins of a Solar Empire, Endless Space, and classics like Master of Orion.
 

PC Physical DVD Preorders

June 4: Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Legendary Edition (PC) — $49.99 at NewEgg. Don’t let MSRP be your ‘arrow to the knee’ – save $10 after coupon instead and get the base game, 3 DLCs, and other new features.
 

Last Monday’s release: Battlefield 4 (PC DVD) — $49.99 at NewEgg after coupon. Recently announced to include the provocatively named ‘China Rising’ for free on release date.
 

Nov. 5: Call of Duty: Ghosts (PC DVD) — $49.99 at NewEgg after coupon. First real deal we’ve seen on the PC physical since the release date announcement.
 

360 and PS3 deals

Bioshock Infinite (PS3, Xbox 360) — $39.99 at GameStop. This ties the lowest price we’ve seen. If you haven’t played yet, these solid prices are giving you even less of an excuse.

Buy 2 Pre-Owned Video Games, Get a 3rd FREE — at Best Buy. You’ve got over 5,000 pre-owned games available, and savings will appear in cart after you’ve added your choices.
 

GameFly Used Games Sale (Xbox 360, PS3) — If you don’t mind pre-owned video games, there are several solid discounts this week, including:

• Assassin’s Creed 3 (PS3) — $19.99 (cheapest new $30)
• Lollipop Chainsaw (360, PS3) — $14.99 (cheapest new $22)
• Transformers: Fall of Cybertron (360) — $14.99 (cheapest new $55)

Hardware

Memorial Day deal on HP Envy dv7t-7300 Quad Edition — $749.99 at HP after coupon. Quick Specs: Quad Core i7-3630QM, 8GB RAM, GeForce GT 650M 2GB, Blu-ray drive, and 9 cell Lithium Ion Battery. List is $1,000. For the same processor, HDD, RAM, video card, 1080p resolution, but with a smaller screen, the HP Envy dv6t-7300 Quad Edition laptop is $849.99 after coupon (no Blu-ray in this 15.6-inch). Both are fully gaming capable in terms of config and setup.

Alienware M18x r2 1080p Gaming Laptop — $1,575 at eBay. Quick Specs: Core i7-3610QM, 500GB + 32GB SSD, 16GB RAM, and 2GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675M. List is $2,349.

Alienware M17x r4 Gaming Laptop — $1,612 at Dell Home after coupon. Quick Specs: Core i7-3630QM, 8GB RAM, and 2GB GeForce GTX 660M. List is $1,749.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Two years into his crusade, everyone still thinks the Batman’s just a myth. Nobody’s gotten a good look at him. Only crime lord Black Mask takes him seriously … seriously enough to put a $50 million bounty on his head. And eight top assassins have come to collect it on Christmas Eve.

Batman: Arkham Origins (due Oct. 25 on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii U, and PC) takes the familiar beat-’em-up/stealth gameplay from the Arkham series and backs it up to an earlier time in the Dark Knight’s career. “We wanted to bring Batman back to a place where he was scary, where people who saw Batman wished they hadn’t,” says senior producer Ben Mattes of Warner Bros. Montreal (the studio replacing original developer Rocksteady). “There’s a certain familiarity that Batman has later on in his career. He becomes part of the establishment. That’s not the Batman story we wanted to tell.”

That’s not the Batman you get in Origins, either. Bruce Wayne’s in a very different place here, his anger still raw and on the surface. As Batman, he’s bestial, unshaven, and snarling at his victims. That’s the main thing keeping a creeping sense of over-familiarity at bay.

And this time, the Dark Knight patrols the entire city, not a walled-off prison, though the demo limited me to a fairly small area and didn’t let me access the map overview. Gotham City’s covered in snow and decked out for the holidays, a scene creative director Eric Holmes describes as, “a party hat on top of a corpse.” The streets look oddly deserted, though you won’t find any shortage of violent criminals hanging out on rooftops. Holmes put the absence of civilian life down to a combination of the holidays and bad weather. Put another way, the franchise is rapidly running out of excuses for keeping Gotham uninhabited.

In terms of combat, Warner Bros. Montreal mainly hit the “repeat” button, though a few new enemies mix things up a bit. The hulking Armored Lieutenant echoes past franchise heavies, this time requiring you to rip their armor off before administering a few rapid, multipunch combos. They’re big, slow, and not much to worry about if you pay attention.

Then you get the new Martial Artists, and going up against trained fighters throws a much better curveball at you. They block and counter just like Batman does, forcing me to engage in a nice, fist-to-face chess match. They also came at me with karate attacks that required repeated blocking — the standard “incoming attack” warning icons get big and angry just before a Martial Artist launches a multihit combo. Squaring off against a few of them pressed me in ways the series hasn’t in a while, forcing me to change up my tactics whenever I saw one on approach. Good stuff.

Less good? Some familiar hiccups return from Arkham City. Booting thugs off a rooftop results in some magical physics to keep them from plummeting to their death. Using the glide boost — a handy way to go from grapple line to flight — can still launch you off into unexpected directions.

Outside of bad guys, I counted exactly two new additions to the series, and they both come with caveats.

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If you follow VentureBeat but don’t regularly check our GamesBeat site, here’s a list of the best video game stories we ran over the last seven days that you may have missed.

This week, Google held its annual I/O conference in San Francisco, revealing plans for cross-platform Google Play support, Electronic Arts decides to kill its online pass initiative that forced used game players to pay for multiplayer access, and GamesBeat gets an early look at Naughty Dogs’ upcoming project The Last of Us.

You’ll also find a review for Metro Last light and previews for Scribblenauts Unmasked and The Bureau: XCOM Declassified.

News

• The DeanBeat: Maxthon offers an alternative browser that won’t crash while running multiple games
• DICE L.A. is ’100% focused on Battlefield 4′
• Crytek’s Warface invades Japan under Nexon’s management
• Twisted Metal creator collaborating on new vehicular combat game Autoduel
• EA kills its controversial Online Pass program
• Microsoft phasing out Points system — Xbox market getting real-currency payments
• PlayStation 4 getting Gaijin Entertainment’s military MMO War Thunder
• Trion Worlds’ Rift MMO goes free-to-play in June
• Pokémon X and Y trailer reveals improved visuals and battle animation
• Ace Attorney 5 is coming to the U.S. — but only as a digital download
• Puzzle & Dragons is making $3.75M a day

Google I/O

• 10 Android apps that already use Google Play game services
• ‘Leveling up’ on Google Play Services means enhancing quality and utilizing social networks
• Google Play game services can shut down a pirated Android game
• Why Google Play game services works on iOS
• Google Play game services is a Xbox Live-like mobile network — and offers cross-platform gaming
• Google to launch ‘Google Play Games’ platform services for game developers

Nintendo Direct

• Nintendo brings E3 to the people … well, people who go to Best Buy
• Nintendo dates Platinum Games’ The Wonderful 101
• Nintendo releasing retail version of New Super Luigi U in August
• Mario & Sonic head to Sochi for the Olympics
• New Sonic game is exclusive to Nintendo hardware
• Nintendo of America started localizing Animal Crossing: New Leaf in 2010

Earnings and funding

• April 2013 NPD: Injustice tops software chart as console industry continues to shrink
• Hidden Path finds an angel to finance the final development of Defense Grid 2 (exclusive)
• Ubisoft sales up; plans 5 major games this year including something new
• ‘Video Games: The Movie’ is a feature-length documentary looking for $60K on Kickstarter
• With $1B on the line, Take-Two planning ‘innovative’ marketing for Grand Theft Auto V
• BioShock Infinite sells 3.7 million copies since March launch
• BioShock Infinite and more push Take-Two revenues up 48 percent in fiscal 2013
• Eternal Darkness successor crowdfunding campaign now on Kickstarter
• Cloud-gaming company Ubitus raises $15M to expand its streaming technology
• Japan’s Square Enix loses $134M for fiscal year

New content

• Call of Duty’s Uprising maps storm PlayStation 3 and PC
• Electronic Arts adding amusement parks to SimCity in $10 expansion

Tech

• Razer launching Atrox fighting-game arcade stick this month
• Plantronics blesses e-sports, becomes official sponsor of League of Legends tournament
• Nvidia prices Shield handheld gaming device at $349

Mobile news

• Frostbite Go: EA wants console-grade graphics on your mobile devices
• Tapjoy teams with Kakao Games to provide in-game advertising
• Spair launches testing for its mobile cloud-gaming service

Interviews

• The many paths of survival in The Last of Us (video interview)
• Warframe is the online co-op space ninja game you’ve been waiting for (interview)
• Why The Bureau: XCOM Declassified will be worth the wait (interview)
• Game Horizon’s Will Wright Q&A on the future of games (part two)
• Game Horizon’s Q&A with Will Wright on the future of games

Previews

• Sony reveals more tense moments in The Last of Us (preview)
• The dark, silly, and bizarre influences behind PS3′s Puppeteer (exclusive)
• Scribblenauts Unmasked contains the entire DC Universe (preview)
• The Bureau: XCOM Declassified tactical shooter game will play a lot like Mass Effect (hands-on preview)

Reviews

• Metro: Last Light refuses to let you go (review)

Strange happenings

• Ubisoft suspends development on 1666 game it acquired from THQ
• Gran Turismo 6 officially headed to PlayStation 3 (not PS4) this year

Pieces of flair

• Similarities between Injustice: Gods Among Us and the Justice League cartoon
• Mad Genius builds prototype similiar to Sony’s break-apart DualShock 3 controller idea (video)
• How Imagineers build engaging stories into Disney theme parks
• Warren Spector wants game designers to work on non-combat A.I.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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BioShock Infinite is this year’s Skyrim: Flawed in just about all design but completely forgivable due to its overwhelming atmosphere.

BioShock Infinite is exactly what Spec Ops: The Line would’ve been if its game elements worked. Instagram filters and the chained shooting galleries of a bland shooter that relies mostly on a storyline with an immense twist.

BioShock Infinite is like the Twilight series minus the scruples: Its third act becomes as convoluted and incredible as Bella becoming impregnated by a vampire baby who wants to eat her from the womb.

BioShock Infinite is what Proteus would’ve been if the developer had forced in traditional gameplay elements: Simply being present in its universe is more consequential than any other, lesser element of the game.

BioShock Infinite is Far Cry 3 with opposite priorities: a gorgeous shooter with unnecessary ultra-violence that we accept because of the overall product’s excellence.

There are bound to be a few more succinct comparisons to be made in a snappy one-liner. If you have one, feel free to leave a comment!

This was originally posted on gg3.be.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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We already knew that BioShock Infinite is a critical success, but now we know that it is a financial success as well.

Publisher Take-Two Interactive revealed today that its subsidiary, 2K Games, sold 3.7 million copies of BioShock Infinite for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. The title only debuted in March and should see continued sales as developer Irrational Games introduces new downloadable content.

“BioShock Infinite was the top-selling console title in March,” reads Take-Two’s quarterly financial report. “[The game also] enjoyed significantly higher first-month sell-through than any other BioShock release.”

In addition to the sales, Take-Two revealed that many customers are also purchasing BioShock Infinite Season Passes, which gives players access to all three of the title’s planned expansions.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Take-Two Interactive Software reported revenue of $1.222 billion for fiscal 2013. That’s a 48 percent increase compared to 2012.

The publisher also reported a non-GAAP (generally accepted accounting practices) net income of $33.1 million, or 36 cents per diluted share. That’s up sharply from a net loss of $59.4 million in 2012.

For its fourth quarter, which ended March 31, Take-Two generated $303.1 million in revenue. That was also up big from $148.2 million in the same period from the prior year.

“The largest contributors to net revenue in fiscal fourth quarter 2013 were the release of BioShock Infinite and catalog sales led by Grand Theft Auto IV, Red Dead Redemption, and Sid Meier’s Civilization V,” reads Take-Two’s financial report. The company also noted continuing sales of NBA 2K13 and Borderlands 2 boosted revenue along with the release of Major League Baseball 2K13.

Those aforementioned catalog sales accounted for a quarter of the company’s revenue from January through March. The company also saw a 192 percent boost in digital sales year-over-year. Borderlands 2, BioShock Infinite, the Grand Theft Auto franchise, and NBA 2K13 pushed digital sales to 27 percent of Take-Two’s total revenue.

“Take-Two delivered strong revenue growth and solid non-GAAP earnings for fiscal year 2013, driven by robust demand for our groundbreaking new releases, iconic catalog titles, and expanding portfolio of digitally delivered offerings,” Take-Two chief executive Strauss Zelnick said in a statement. “With BioShock Infinite, Borderlands 2, NBA 2K13 and XCOM: Enemy Unknown, our 2K label released four of the past year’s most critically acclaimed titles. Our commitment to delight consumers with the highest-quality interactive entertainment experiences enabled Take-Two to have an outstanding year, despite a challenging environment for many in our industry.”

Looking forward, the company is expecting net revenues of $1.75 to $1.85 billion in fiscal 2014. It also expects earnings per diluted share to jump to $2.05 to $2.30. That huge increase is likely due to most of the development costs for games like BioShock Infinite and Grand Theft Auto V are in the past, and GTA V will hit on Sept. 17.

That open-world game alone could contribute around $600 million in revenue to Take-Two’s bottom line.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Noted game developer Warren Spector has a long list of things that game designers can do to improve storytelling in video games. But one of those the force behind Deus Ex and Epic Mickey wants is to improve the quality of non-combat artificial intelligence characters.

These computer-controlled characters are just too dumb, especially in comparison to the more refined and flexible combat A.I. characters that try to kill you as the player. Once the non-combat characters are fixed, game designers will be able to make big leaps toward better stories in games, and that could lead to a wider audience — and a less bored community of hardcore gamers.

Spector spoke at an interactive storytelling conference at the Computer History Museum. The event was sponsored by the Center for Games and Playable Media at the University of California at Santa Cruz. The aim is to guide the next generation of video game creators. Spector’s annoyance with non-combat AI is a pet peeve.

“Can we please start working on non-combat A.I.?” he said in his keynote speech. “We spend all of our cycles in each new hardware generation to create graphics people expect. But how do we make characters act better?”

If you’re a male character and you walk into the women’s bathroom, the characters around you should be smart enough to react to that. If you spill a drink, and it splashes on another character, that character should react, Spector said. More difficult still are tasks like creating A.I. characters who act like spurned lovers or would-be lovers. (The AI experts are working on this).

Creating better stories in games might seem like a solved problem, given the success of titles like Heavy Rain, The Walking Dead, and BioShock Infinite. These have been huge commercial successes.

“If that was enough, I would not be here wasting your time,” he said.

But these are still the exceptions. Spector spent most of his time talking about what game designers can learn from other media such as movies, TV shows, comic books, and tabletop role-playing games — and how they should avoid the pitfalls of those media and truly exploit what is unique and different about video games.

Borrowing from other media has its dangers. He said that cinematic games remove the control of the story from the player and place it in the hands of the game designer. Sometimes it works, like in Heavy Rain, but often it bores the player and fails to exploit one of the advantages of video games: the notion that every player can create or experience their own version of the story.

“When you [as gamer designer] take control of the story, you remove control from the player,” he said.

He noted that David Cage’s Heavy Rain had enough story in it for the equivalent of five movies. Games tend to have six or more hours of game play, requiring a lot more story material than two-hour movies.

Games depart from movies in offering players choices. They can branch in different directions and deliver consequences for the choices. Players can learn a lot about themselves that way.

“Games offer the chance for players to find themselves,” Spector said. “Why would we deny them that? I tell designers is your job is to get yourselves off the stage so players can get on it.”

Spector recently stirred a controversy when he said that there was no need for Bethesda to create another first-person shooter game based on Wolfenstein. He didn’t repeat that notion, and in fact he clarified those remarks later.

But he said, “I am saying there is more we can do. Janet Murray observes that games include more building blocks of storytelling than any single medium has ever offered us. How can we not use it?”

Those building blocks include words, images, sound, space, skill, thought, and choice.

Here’s some of Spector’s other suggestions for improving storytelling:

• Characters have to be better. He had high praise for Elizabeth, your constant companion in BioShock Infinite, but he says mainstream media still views a lot of game characters as flat.
• Create worlds, not sets. Spector said, “Games are about telling a story through the exploration of space.”
• Create the equivalent of a virtual dungeon master. Much like in Dungeons & Dragons games, where you had a smart human game master, stories should be changed on the fly and adapt to the player’s level of success. To make a game feel real, the game has to change in response to a player’s choices and progress.
• Tell deeper stories. “Stories should be more than just what happens on the surface,” he said. There should be a subtext, or something below the surface. “Don’t waste my time as a player,” he said. “In Deus Ex, it is about what do you want the world to be like.”
• Games can transport players to other worlds. You can immerse the player in those worlds, respond to the player choices, and repeat the actions in different ways in real time.
• Ask questions. Game developers can raise questions for gamers to answer. Spector said, “The question is how much authorship do you share with players? How much creativity do you set aside to let the players express theirs?” Game designers don’t, however, have to answer questions in the same ways that movies or TV shows do with their story plots.
• Make games about more than skill. Older players won’t be the best at mastering game controls. If you reduce the skill required to play a game, you can reach more people.
• Game stories can vary from the roller-coaster game (where you feel like you are on rails, restricted from moving off a linear path) to sandboxes, (like Civilization), where you can do anything you want. A hybrid of the two can work, where the game designer defines the end points to Act I, II, III, etc., and then lets the player figure out how to get to those end points so they can progress to the next part of the story.

To inspire game designers, Spector said, “We are living through the birth of a new form of storytelling,” quoting Jonathan Gottschall, a literary scholar.

“Video games have been around for 40 years, but you have a chance to drive it and change it as a medium,” Spector said. “That chance comes along once or twice a century.”

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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This sponsored post is produced by Dealzon.

Here’s the thing about post-apocalyptic shooter games: most people just can’t get enough of them. Need to make a FPS title but can’t think of a compelling setting? What about…Asia as a nuclear wasteland after fallout from a North Korean saber-rattling mishap? You travel from country to country, battling different post-apocalyptic Asian tribes composed of mutant ninjas and five-handed kung fu masters. Bam.

Wait a sec…maybe we should trademark that IP…

Until Fallout: Asia is released, next week’s Metro: Last Light might just hold you over, especially if you’re a fan of Metro 2033 or novels by Dmitry Glukhovsky (which the games are based on).

You can get the Steam activated version of Metro: Last Light for only $37.50. The current preorder deal includes the bonus Ranger Mode DLC plus The Gospel According to Artyom, a digital comic from Dmitry Glukhovsky and Dark Horse Comics.

Other hot deals this week include Skyrim and Dishonored for only $15 each during GamersGate’s Bethesda Weekend sale. You already know about Skyrim and Dishonored, so we won’t spin additional details here.

Hot deals

May 14: Metro: Last Light (PC Download) — $37.50 at Green Man Gaming after coupon. All other legitimate retailers have it at full price. Steam activated.
 

GamersGate Sale: Bethesda Weekend Fifteen excellent Bethesda titles are on sale at GamersGate, with previous triple-A titles such as Skyrim and Dishonored down to $15. All titles are Steam activated.

• Dishonored — $14.99
• Doom 3: BFG Edition — $14.99
• Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim — $14.95
• Brink Complete Pack — $12.49
• Fallout: New Vegas Ultimate Edition — $9.95

June 4: Remember Me (PC Download) — $37.50 at Green Man Gaming after coupon. Considering its impending release, coverage of Remember Me (previously ‘Adrift’) is fairly light so far, but the amnesiac ‘memory hunter’ premise seems interesting.
 

The Humble “Double Fine” Bundle — Pay What You Want. Minimum is $1. Paying $7.94 or more gets you Brutal Legend. Bundle includes Costume Quest, Psychonauts, and Stacking.
 

Upcoming PC games

May 24: Resident Evil: Revelations (PC Download) — $37.50 at Green Man Gaming after coupon. Originally released on 3DS, this survival horror port is finally coming to other platforms.
 

May 30: Grid 2 (PC Download) — $33.75 at Green Man Gaming after coupon. Next best is $45 at GameFly. If you liked Race Driver: Grid or any of Codemasters racing games, you’ll enjoy Grid 2.
 

June 14: Dark (PC Download) — $25.50 at Green Man Gaming after coupon. Next best is $34 at GameFly. This upcoming stealth action vampire-centric RPG is now at the lowest price we’ve seen. Details are sparse beyond the few released trailers.
 

June 21: MotoGP 13 (PC Download) — $22.50 at Green Man Gaming after coupon. Next best is $27 at Amazon. If you follow the sport, this title might be worth checking out. Developed by Italian dev Milestone.
 

PC download deals

BioShock Infinite (PC Download) — $40 at Green Man Gaming after coupon. A new low price for the excellent third installment to the BioShock series. Essentially a must-own for most gamers.
 

Sniper Ghost Warrior 2 (PC Download) — $18 at Green Man Gaming after coupon. The first game was “okay”, but if you enjoy tactical shooters, this is the best deal we’ve seen for the game.
 

Alpha Protocol and Binary Domain Bundle (PC Download) — $6.39 at GameFly after coupon. Both decent (read: not great) shooters, but they’re bundled together at a great price.
 

Xbox 360 and PS3

Aliens: Colonial Marines (Pre-owned: Xbox 360) — $9.99 at GameFly. While reception for Colonial Marines wasn’t all that impressive, at $10 you’re not giving up too much to give the game a try.  

NCAA Football 13 (PS3, Xbox 360) — $19.99 at Amazon. It’s NCAA Football 12, but with a few new additions that earn it a 76/100 Metacritic score. “Heisman mode” seems a bit silly but could appeal to diehard fans.
 

Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Storm Generations (Pre-owned: Xbox 360) — $12.99 at GameFly. A new low on this year-old well-received entry in the Naruto Ultimate Ninja line that features a new battle system for faster fights.
 

Gaming hardware

Nintendo 3DS XL is $179.99 and the regular Nintendo 3DS is $149.99 at Best Buy. Both are $20 off their usual prices.
 

AMD Never Settle Reloaded Sale: Radeon HD 7850 & 7870 Video Cards + 3 Free Games — at TigerDirect. Never Settle Reloaded returns again! Buy a GPU and get Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon, Bioshock Infinite, and Tomb Raider for free. If you bought each game separately at their best online prices, you’d pay $90.
 

Lenovo IdeaPad Y500 1080p Gaming Laptop — $849 at Lenovo after coupon. Specs: Core i7-3630QM, 1TB HDD + 16GB SSD, and GeForce GT 750M 2GB. List is $1,349.
 

HP Envy dv6t-7300 Quad Edition Core i7-3630QM — $624.99 at HP after coupon. $9.99 shipping. List is $800. Cheapest we’ve seen the base configured HP dv6t Quad Edition laptop in months. Last week you’d pay $650 + $10 shipping. Add discrete graphics for $75 more and you’ve got yourself a gaming rig.
 

Lenovo IdeaCentre K430 Gaming Laptop — $999 at Lenovo after coupon. Specs: Core i7-3770, 16GB RAM, and GeForce GT 630 2GB. List is $1,269.
 

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

---

This sponsored post is produced by Dealzon.

Last week’s release of Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon brings back plenty of 80′s action-flick nostalgia and was well received by critics and gamers alike. Happily there’s a Gamefly coupon which takes 20% off the game, making the PC digital version only $11.99.

Fans of Valve Software will also want to check out some additional deals from Gamefly this week, with classic Valve titles on sale at up to 80% off (after coupon). They’re all Steam activated titles, so you can add to your steam library of 1,450 games (which you’ll totally start playing through this summer).

Note: We update our GamesBeat weekly deal post every Tuesday with the latest deals. For last week’s deals, check below the “Last Thursday” headline.

Tuesday New Deals

Last Wednesday’s release: Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon (PC Download) — $11.99 at GameFly after coupon. You’ll need a UPlay account to play but thats the DRM price we pay these days.
 

May 14: Metro: Last Light (PC Download) — $37.50 at Green Man Gaming after coupon. Everywhere else is basically full price. Steam activated.
 

Gamefly Sale: Valve Classic PC Titles — Up to 80% off at GameFly after coupon. Some top picks from this sale:

• Left 4 Dead 1 & 2 – $3.99 each
• The Orange Box – $3.99
• Counter-Strike: Source – $3.99

Last Thursday

Love them or hate them, Origin is having a “six days of action games” sale, with recently released titles discounted as much as 50% off. To add some much-needed irony to the mix, some of the titles in the sale are actually activated on Steam. So if you like to save money but don’t want to deal with having Origin as a DRM platform, you’re in luck.

Patient gamers will be happy to know that last month’s release of Tomb Raider for PC download is now only $20 at Green Man Gaming, and happily the title activates on Steam. (Update: we’ve previously listed this for $25 at Origin’s sale, but GMG’s new price decisively steamrolls the Origin deal). For a game rated as “???” by Conan O’Brien, this is an excellent deal.

For more Steam-activated deals, you’ll find a few other Square Enix titles such as Hitman Absolution and Sleeping Dogs (though both have hit lower prices in the past). If you don’t mind Origin or already have it installed anyway due to Battlefield, big EA titles like Crysis 3, Dead Space 3, and Assassin’s Creed 3 are all on sale (yep – all the ‘3’s).

Origin Action Sale

Origin Sale: Six Days of Action Games — up to 50% off at Origin. Tons of action/shooter PC and console games on sale. PC games tend to be 50% off while console prices are about 33% off. Sale ends Monday at 10am Pacific. Our top picks below:

• Assassin’s Creed 3 (PC Download) — $24.99
• Tomb Raider (PC Download) — $24.99 (activates on Steam).
• The Walking Dead Game – All Episodes (PC Download) — $10
• Dead Space 3 (PC Download) — $29.99
• Full list of games activating on Steam from this sale can be found here.

360, PS3, and Wii U deals

Grid 2 (Xbox 360, PS3) — $49.99 at NewEgg. List is $60. Sequel to the well-reviewed motorsport sim Grid, which was characterized by IGN as “automobile erotica”…hmm. Releases May 28th.
 
Bioshock Infinite (Xbox 360, PS3) — $49.99 at Best Buy. Next best is $58 at Overstock.com. Best discount yet about a month after its release. Lowest price we’ve seen on the console versions by $2.
 
Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 (Xbox 360) — $39.99 at NewEgg. Fans of Naruto? You’ll be buying the game regardless of the reviews (which weren’t half bad, by the way).
 

Resident Evil: Revelations (Xbox 360, PS3) — $37.99 at NewEgg. The hit 2012 3DS game is getting its own console release. Release date is May 21st. Elsewhere $50.
 

Playstation All Stars Battle Royale (PS3) — $29.99 at Amazon, which ties lowest ever. Fight as everyone from Sly Cooper to PaRappa the Rapper. Next best is $40 at Best Buy.
 

Assassin’s Creed 3 (Wii U, Xbox 360, PS3) — $29.99 at GameStop. This is the lowest price we’ve seen on the PS3 and Wii U versions of the popular sandbox-style action-adventure game. Next best is $53 at Overstock.com.

Hardware

Alienware M14x r2 Laptop — $969.99 at Groupon. Yep, Groupon does more than sell spa packages now. Specs: Core i5-3210M, 8GB RAM, and GeForce GT 650M. List is $1,260.

Lenovo IdeaPad Y400 59371958 Laptop — $719 at Lenovo after coupon. Specs: Core i5-3230M and the new Kepler-based GeForce GT 750M 2GB. For $700, you’ll have a portable machine that runs most modern games without a problem.

Logitech G9X Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Edition Gaming Mouse — $37.99 at Amazon. It’s a Logitech mouse with CoD printed on it – now it’s $20 more than usual. We’re half joking, of course. (It’s actually cheaper than the unadorned G9X.)

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Earnings season is that special time when video game publishers reveal if they are actually making money. Starting today and continuing through next week, Activision, Electronic Arts, and Take-Two will all report their results for the last fiscal quarter.

We checked in with a few analysts to see what they are expecting from these three major publishers. Will first-person shooter BioShock Infinite push Take-Two Interactive over its expectations? Is the Call of Duty military first-person franchise still powering Activision’s growth? Will the Star Wars video game license have an immediate impact on EA’s outlook?

Let’s take a look.

Electronic Arts

Let’s start with Electronic Arts, which reports its earnings today after Wall Street’s closing bell.

The Madden publisher is still looking for a permanent chief executive officer since John Riccitiello stepped down from that position in late March. That hasn’t stopped EA from making big moves under the direction of executive chairman Larry Probst.

Under Probst, EA cut 1,000 jobs. It severely downsized its EA Mobile operations in Montreal. It also cut staff at Army of Two: The Devil’s Cartel developer Visceral Montreal. The publisher secured the rights to the Star Wars franchise. Oh, and it also won the title of Worst Company in America from the Consumerist blog for the second year in a row.

EA also had a spate of game announcements that include two new Plants vs. Zombies titles, The Sims 4, and rumors that Respawn (former Call of Duty team) will show its shooter at Microsoft’s Xbox event later this month.

That’s a lot to fit into a single financial report.

“EA has already preannounced results ‘at or below the lower end’ of [expectations],” Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia wrote in a note to investors. “For EA, the key will be fiscal-year 2014 guidance, which is likely to be conservative given the company doesn’t have a permanent chief executive officer and new chief financial officer Blake Jorgensen appears to have a mindset of under-promise and over deliver.”

With the huge news that EA has secured the Star Wars license, however, investors may want to see a forward-looking guidance that factors in that gigantic property. That’s unlikely to happen.

“Star Wars won’t impact earnings next year,” Wedbush analyst Michael Pacther told GamesBeat. “It’s going to take a while to make a game.”

As for The Sims 4 and PopCap’s new games, those will factor into the guidance, but EA will have had them in the works for a long while.

EA seems like a company trying to reboot in order to offer a fresh start to whoever takes over as CEO. For that reason, expect an underwhelming guidance that will give the new chief executive the chance to overdeliver, just as Bhatia suggests.

Activision and Take-Two

Conflict and hardship makes for a good story, which is why EA is the big story. The other two publishers, Activision and Take-Two, are in much sturdier positions.

Activision still has Call of Duty generating huge numbers, although we’re curious to see if Black Ops II kept up with previous entries in the series.

Take-Two had critical and commercial success BioShock Infinite to push it through its last quarter.

“We believe Activision and Take-Two will likely exceed March quarter expectations,” Bhatia wrote.

Take-Two is flipping over to its fiscal 2014, so we will get a look at some annual guidance. In the past, the publisher expected Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto V to bring in around $600 million before delaying it to September. Expect the publisher to roll out some major expectations for the next year.

Activision just announced a new Infinity Ward Call of Duty game that will anchor its holiday lineup. The publisher will also get help from a new Skylanders game that has its own line of physical, interactive toys, which retailers struggle to keep on the shelves.

Activision is also publishing the next game from Halo developer Bungie. The first-person shooter, titled Destiny, isn’t due out during calendar year 2013, which coincides with Activision’s fiscal year, so don’t expect that game to factor into any guidance.

Finally, any guidance through the spring quarter will likely tail downward for all three publishers. The release slate from April through July is devoid of many major releases. That’s due to the typical swing of the release schedule, but many developers are probably busy producing products for the upcoming next-gen consoles.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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We’re coming close to the one year anniversary of my first article that made the front page of Bitmob. It was about my bromance with Garrus Vakarian in the Mass Effect trilogy. At the time, I was excited to share my favorite moments from Mass Effect 3. The article was the deciding factor in my wanting to begin a career in games journalism, but it’s also my most cherished article because it came from the heart of an innocent gamer. I hadn’t then been exposed to the greater gaming community.

A lot has happened since last April. I’m sure I don’t need to recap all the events for you; this isn’t that kind of retrospective. I’m more concerned about the video game community itself.

A year ago, I was pretty naive about our community. I thought it was filled with a bunch of passionate gamers who liked discussing their favorite hobby over the Internet. Bitmob itself was a great place — maybe too great. It truly was a shelter from the legions of trolls that infest the Internet. Eventually, the more I invested in Twitter, the uglier the conversations became, the more websites I visited, and the more bickering that went on.

Why would anyone want to be a part of this industry? I’ve asked myself this question a lot recently. Everywhere I turn, I see arguments about violence, sexism, and bigotry. I wish I could go back to last April, when I decided to write about video games. I would tell my former self to just enjoy the hobby and not try for a career in it.

I always feel awkward when someone asks me what I want to do for a living. Whenever I reply, “I want to write about video games,” I feel an awkward chill run down my spine. Recently, I realized that chill isn’t because most people view video games as childish but because I’m ashamed to associate with our community. Video games are no longer a children’s toy, but gamers sure as hell still act like children.

Last year, Electronic Arts was voted the most evil company in America, and it looks like it will be receiving that title once again. Really? How about the companies that skyrocket prices on pharmaceuticals or create a monopoly off blood diamonds? There is a laundry list of companies out there that treat humans and the environment like garbage, yet a software publisher is voted the most evil company in America because a bunch of gamers didn’t like the ending of Mass Effect 3. No wonder I’m ashamed to associate with this crowd. It’s pathetic; it’s disgusting.

I know I’m coming off as pessimistic, but this is coming from anger. I’m angry that women are treated terribly from all angles in this community. I’m tired of seeing the trolls get more attention than those who are actually trying to add value to conversations. However, every once and awhile something great happens — something that revitalizes my love for video games. Two recent dates come to mind: February 20 and March 26, or the reveal of the PlayStation 4 and the release of BioShock Infinite, respectively.

On the day of the PS4 reveal, Twitter was vibrant and optimistic. Everyone was sharing their favorite PlayStation memories, and there were great discussions about predictions and what Sony needed to reveal. From the early hours of the morning to late at night, after the two-hour presentation, it was a great day to be a gamer — not because a new console was announced but because everyone put down their weapons for a day and shook hands in excitement.

On March 26, an amazing video game came out: BioShock Infinite. The Internet was abuzz once again. Everyone was enjoying common experiences in Columbia. A week later, great conversations are still being had — another example of trolls and white knights alike dropping their issues and sharing something together.

These significant events show how great our community can be. Sadly, it seems it can only sustain such greatness for a single day.

A lot has happened since last April. I’ve made great friends and played some fantastic games, but that feels overshadowed by a colossal community filled with pettiness. As long as the web is the main method of discourse for this industry, it will never get better.

I wish I had some answers, but I don’t. Remember, my first article was written only a year ago. I have no influence in this industry, but maybe one day I will, and I’ll have some answers then. Until that day comes, I think we should all ask ourselves one simple question: why would anyone want to be a part of this industry?

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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If you’ve experienced the first-person shooter Bioshock Infinite, then you probably know that while you play as Booker DeWitt, its actual main character is Elizabeth, your perpetual companion and emotional anchor.

Since the beginning, BioShock creator Ken Levine has stressed that his goal was to make Elizabeth feel like anything but a video game character. And while half of that effort is good writing and voice acting, the other half is good technology: Elizabeth had to look and act real — otherwise, the Bioshock Infinite experience would fall apart.

And pulling that off, as you might expect, takes a lot of work.

“It’s actually amazing how dedicated these game developers are about making their characters as believable as possible,” Anna Zevelyov, the development director at 3D scanner maker Artec, told me.

A similar amount of effort was put into Bioshock Infinite’s technically impressive television commercial, and 3D scanning technology was a part of its production. Using Artec’s EVA scanner, Irrational Games scanned Russian cosplayer Anna Moleva, capturing, processing, and animating her facial expressions.

The result is what you see in this video:

As amazing as all of this is, 3D scanning has been around for decades — so none of this is new. But what is notable is just how cheap 3D scanners are getting.

“Scanners that would have cost $150,000 five years ago are much more affordable today. It’s still not supercheap, but it’s 90 percent cheaper than it used to be,” Zevelyov said.

For game developers — many of whom are cash-strapped and under increasing pressure to perform under strict budgets — this is significant. Expect to see lots applications of 3D scanning as time goes on.

For a good look just how much work went into creating Elizabeth, watch the video below.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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The questions we posed this time around were, “Which entry in the series did you prefer: BioShock Infinite or the original BioShock? Why?“

In case you missed them, we asked earlier on Twitter and Facebook. You answered:

@gamesbeat Infinite. And for why I liked it- One word: Elizabeth. — Christopher Jessee (@Halofan2916) April 26, 2013

@gamesbeat Tough question. Enjoyed the combat more in BS, but preferred the interaction with Elizabeth in BSI to the solo wandering of BS — Jackson Hadley (@JacksonHadley) April 26, 2013

@gamesbeat original. Felt more personal, suspenseful, and overall more compelling. Infinite was great but lost its way IMO.  — A1ch3mist (@LonoB) April 26, 2013

@gamesbeat Definitely missed the cerebral element that Big Daddy’s brought to Bio1. They were a great unpredictable element in engagements. — Nick Todd (@Tenaciousck) April 26, 2013

@gamesbeat Infinite, the story was more personal, especially when a month before I found out I’m going to be a dad. Tough stuff. Loved it. — Jonathan Cortez (@NahtanojZetroc) April 26, 2013

As always, we appreciate your participation. If you’d still like to weigh in, please feel free to comment below. If you have any suggestions for future Tweetbook Q&A sessions, feel free to drop me a line at jayh (at) venturebeat.com.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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This sponsored post is produced by Dealzon.

Even though it was only announced yesterday, the November 5 release of Call of Duty: Ghosts is already available for preorder at numerous retailers. At the time of writing, three retailers are offering bonuses with the game. The most enticing deal on the PC download comes from GameFly in the form of a $7 digital download credit that’s yours as soon as Ghosts releases.

If you’re more of a console gamer (or just don’t want to wait half a year for a $7 credit), Best Buy’s got an alternative deal that applies to the PC physical and console editions. You’ll be out around a hundred bucks because they make you purchase an additional game, but you get instant gratification in the form of a $15 gift card that doesn’t just apply to downloads. If you’re already tempted to buy an additional title and are resigned to the fact you’ll probably buy something else from Best Buy soon – because let’s face it, those marked up HDMI cables have a draw on you – this deal isn’t half bad.

Call of Duty: Ghosts preorder comparison

Just over a month after its critically acclaimed release, BioShock Infinite finally gets a discount on the console versions that beats the best current PC download deal. Best Buy is offering $15 off Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of the game, bringing them to $44.99. This makes the lowest price we’ve seen for the console game by $3, and it saves you $12 off the current next best deal out there.

If you want to live dangerously on both sides of the law, Green Man Gaming’s offering a dual pack of downloads that’ll let you commit or solve crimes, depending on which angel on your shoulder has your ear at the time. They’ve bundled both Max Payne 3 and LA Noire for $16.

This combo price ties the lowest summed price we’ve seen the games sell for separately, but you’ll also get the Max Payne 3 Rockstar Pass DLC. The lowest we’ve seen the Rockstar Pass go for in the past is $7, so effectively you’re getting the full games at lowest ever prices plus a free DLC. Both games received stellar reviews, so if you haven’t played one or the other, this is a great time to buy.

Hot deals & recent releases

Nov. 5: Call of Duty: Ghosts + $7 Digital Credit (PC Download) — $59.99 at GameFly. Currently the only preorder bonus deal available for the PC download version.
 

Bioshock Infinite (Xbox 360, PS3) — $44.99 at Best Buy. First time the console versions have a solid sale that makes them cheaper than the PC download version. Who’s the gaming master race now?
 

Max Payne 3 and LA Noire Pack (PC Download) — $16 at Green Man Gaming after coupon. A great bundle with two excellent, well-reviewed games plus their additional content.
 

Dragon Age Complete Pack (PC Download) — $9.99 at GamersGate. Includes the Dragon Age: Origins Ultimate Edition and Dragon Age 2. Separately $40.
 

PC download pack & bundle deals

Batman Arkham Complete Collection (PC Download) — $27 at GamersGate. Includes Batman Arkham City Game of the Year Edition, Batman: Arkham Asylum Game of the Year Edition, plus two LEGO Batman games.
 

Codemasters Racing Pack (PC Download) — $21.75 at Green Man Gaming after coupon. Pack includes DiRT 3, Dirt Showdown, FUEL, and GRID – a decent set of racing games whose titles make grammarians involuntarily cringe. Separately these would normally cost $80.

Sonic the Hedgehog Bundle (PC Download) — $21.56 at Green Man Gaming after coupon. This bundle includes a whopping ten Sonic game downloads.

Omerta: City of Gangsters and Port Royale 3: Pirates & Merchants Bundle (PC Download) — $19.99 at GameFly. A weird combo for sure, but the odd pairing doesn’t diminish the bargain.
 

Tomb Raider Collection (PC Download) — $12 at Green Man Gaming after coupon. If you want to grab everything before the most recent Tomb Raider title, this is easily the cheapest way. Nine titles.
 

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning Collection Bundle (PC Download) — $8.99 at GamersGate. This is the base game plus two DLC packs. Normally $30.
 

Tropico 4 Collectors Bundle (PC Download) — $8 at Green Man Gaming after coupon. You’ll get a great city-building sim game plus 7 DLC packs for less than two DLC packs normally cost.
 

Patrician: Complete Pack (PC Download) — $7 at Green Man Gaming after coupon. The pack contains Patrician IV Gold Edition and Patrician III. If historical trading sim games are your thing, grab this pack.

Neverwinter Nights 2: Complete (PC Download) — $5.99 at GamersGate. Excellent PC RPG for an even better price. This bundle comes with all 3 released expansions.
 

Dungeons & Dragons Anthology: The Master Collection (PC Download) — $5.99 at GamersGate. If you love the D&D RPG system, you’ll want to check out this collection, which includes classics like Baldur’s Gate and Planescape: Torment.
 

Kane and Lynch Pack (PC Download) — $5.60 at Green Man Gaming after coupon. Contains Dead Men and Dog Days. If you’ve never played this third person shooter, it’s certainly worth considering for under $6.

Gothic Complete Collection (PC Download) — $5 at Green Man Gaming after coupon. Includes all three parts of the saga. Next best is $25 at GamersGate.
 

Just Cause Pack (PC Download) — $5 at Green Man Gaming after coupon. Contains Just Cause and Just Cause 2. If you bought each game separately, they’d add up to $19.
 

360, PS3, and PS Vita deals

May 14: Metro: Last Light Limited Edition (Xbox 360, PS3) — $49.99 at NewEgg. Comes with “Ranger Mode” – an exclusive weapon and 100 military-grade bullets. List is $60.
 

June 14: The Last of Us (PS3) — $49.99 at NewEgg. Still a hot, eagerly anticipated title, and Newegg is clearly capitalizing on the hype.
 

June 25: Muramasa: Rebirth (PS Vita) — $29.99 at NewEgg. Hand-drawn graphics, ninjas, and evil spirits. You really can’t ask for more from this Wii port.
 

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (PS3) — $39.99 at NewEgg after coupon. A new style of action-oriented gameplay for the Metal Gear series. Next best is $46 at JR.com.
 

Gears of War: Judgment (Xbox 360) — $34.99 at NewEgg. Yep. You can rip off gods’ heads with your bare hands, but you can’t open locked treasure chests.
 

Sleeping Dogs (PS3, Xbox 360) — $19.99 at Groupon. Good price for the console versions of this open-world game which hardly ever goes on sale.
 

Hardware

Alienware M17x r4 1080p Gaming Laptop — $1,874 at Dell Home after coupon. Specs: Core i7-3630QM, 2GB Radeon HD 7970M, and 8GB RAM. List is $2,149. Deal expires today.
 

Alienware Aurora Gaming Desktop — $1,719 at Dell Home after coupon. Specs: Quad Core i7-3820 Overclocked 4.1GHz, DUAL GeForce GTX 660, and 16GB RAM. List is $1,924. Deal expires today.
 

Alienware X51 Gaming Desktop — $689 at Dell Home after coupon. Specs: Core i5-3330, 8GB RAM, and GeForce GT 640. List is $799. Deal expires today.
 

Lenovo IdeaPad Y500 1080p Gaming Laptop — $879 at Lenovo after coupon. Specs: Core i7-3630QM, 12GB RAM, GeForce GT 750M 2GB, and 1TB HDD + 16GB SSD.
 

Lenovo IdeaPad Y400 Gaming Laptop — $749 at Lenovo after coupon. Specs: Core i7-3630QM, GeForce GT 750M 2GB, and 8GB RAM. List is $1,249.
 

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Ever since BioShock Infinite came out, we’ve seen articles sort of criticizing its level of violence and how that clashes with its story. Alongside this, we’re seeing an increasing amount of observations about the “ludonarrative dissonance” that exists when you try to mix a deep storyline with a shooter. The ultimate question about that is: What do you do about it?

I went over this a bit in a previous post examining games like the most recent Tomb Raider as well as the Uncharted series. Why does a guy as likeable as Nathan Drake kill hundreds of people over the course of a game? How does Lara Croft so quickly go from scared young woman to practically being a machine of genocide? I reasoned, and still reason, that for those games’ storylines to make sense in context with their gameplay, they probably shouldn’t have been designed as shooters.

BioShock Infinite probably suffers from the same problem as do many shooters and other action games. Infinite is a really good shooter in my opinion. It’s well-designed, beautiful, and ultimately fun with a story that stands above most of what you see in this industry. That narrative also suffers from what Splinter Cell and Far Cry 2 designer Clint Hocking calls ludonarrative dissonance, the disconnect between the tone of a serious story and the act of killing hundreds of people.

Like I said in my earlier post, all the killing is really only required for a game to be fun if what you’re making is a shooter or other action game, and those genres weren’t really made for deep storylines. Most of the games that popularized the first-person shooter genre – Doom, Quake, or Halo – were about shooting up demons or aliens without regard for deep, character-driven stories — very similar to Super Mario games, really.

Meanwhile, some people have started bringing up terms like “next-generation game design” — the assertion being that as graphics get more realistic, the act of killing all those people will look more and more silly, and customers will eventually cry out for better ways of designing games around the dissonance. But the emergence of new hardware won’t all of a sudden cause the appearance of games that do a better job of dealing with violence while telling respectable tales. There’s a chance — even if a slim one — that market forces could do the job.

But no one is going to make a shooter where you don’t kill hundreds of enemies because that defeats what shooters were designed for. What probably needs to happen is for other genres to become popular. Usually that happens toward the beginning of a console generation.

Shooters and role-playing games are popular now because the Xbox 360’s first killer apps were games like Call of Duty, Gears of War, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and Mass Effect. Games like those defined what sold on current generation consoles early on. It happens every generation, really. Grand Theft Auto III in the first year of the PlayStation 2’s lifespan inspired a whole generation of open-world games.

There’s a good possibility that in the next couple years as the PlayStation 4 and next Xbox start out their lives, one or more games of a different genre will make it big and inspire a new trend. Big publishers like Ubisoft and Electronic Arts have already admitted that new IPs tend to do better earlier in a console generation. At this point, there’s no telling what that will be.

Many have suggested that adventure games are probably a better choice for the kinds of stories that Tomb Raider, Uncharted, and BioShock Infinite try to tell. The problem, of course, is that adventure games don’t sell five-plus million copies in today’s market. In my last post about this, I used The Walking Dead as an example because it’s probably the most famous adventure game right now. It’s probably a poor choice from a gameplay perspective since it doesn’t focus a whole lot on puzzles. Others have said that, essentially, we need a new game that repeats the effect Myst had the industry back in the ’90s.

Really, though, there’s no telling what that unique next-generation hit will be until sometime next year. Hopefully, it’ll be the kind of game that allows for deeper storytelling without forcing the player to kill hundreds of people in order for the gameplay to be compelling.

Originally Posted on MultiPlatform

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Earlier this week, we learned that Nintendo is skipping its annual press conference at the Electronic Entertainment Expo gaming show in Los Angeles this June. Today, BioShock Infinite publisher 2K Games revealed it is skipping the media event entirely.

On its forums, 2K said it won’t have a booth on the E3 show floor but that it is still hard at work preparing its new games for release. The company also plugged its YouTube and Twitch channels for gamers looking to keep up on news from the company.

Here is the full 2K statement from company spokesperson Ronnie Singh:

At 2K, we’re excited for the new opportunities coming with the next generation of hardware, and are hard at work preparing our announced titles for release. While 2K will not have a booth on the show floor at this year’s E3 conference, we will have a lot of great news coming your way this spring. Our slate of titles coming this year include highly anticipated games like Sid Meier’s Civilization V: Brave New World, XCOM: Enemy Unknown for iOS,  more content for Borderlands 2, as well as WWE 2K14 and NBA 2K14. Stay tuned for our live gameplay and event broadcasts to see the latest gameplay from our upcoming titles. Subscribe to our Twitch channel at twitch.tv/2K and on YouTube at youtube.com/2Kgames.

It’s highly unusual for a major publisher like this to skip E3. The conference is one of the biggest media events of the year for publishers. This development could speak to the E3′s waning importance and the rise in direct-to-consumer tools that sites like YouTube and Twitch provide.

We’ve reached out to 2K to ask it to elaborate on its strategy.

The money that 2K saves from skipping E3 could go toward producing more video and livestreaming content that could go viral and will draw media attention separately.

Nintendo found success with its Nintendo Direct streaming video shows that are essentially mini-E3 press events that often reveal big announcements about upcoming games. It’s possible that smaller companies could try to emulate that.

2K Games’ parent publisher, Take-Two Interactive, still plans to hold business meetings at E3.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Bioshock Infinite’s upcoming downloadable content is still a mystery to everyone. However, while we don’t know anything about what it might include or what effect it will have on the story, we can try to predict what it might be.

Be warned that this post does contain spoilers.

Mystery Of Rapture explained?

I noted in my blog post “Understanding Bioshock Infinite’s Ending Part II Q&A” that I thought most of the existing Rapture theories were a bit outlandish and crazy. I still stand by that statement. There is no doubt that Rapture — the setting of the first BioShock — is relevant to the story of Infinite, but I don’t think it is as involved as people are making it out to be.

With DLC on the way, the true secret and relevance of Rapture could be explained. Maybe there is some hidden conspiracy here that I’ve missed, and everyone is right. If there is, then it might be explored in the upcoming content.

There are so many theories surrounding the cities of Rapture and Columbia that I can’t possibly go through them all and explain which ones I think are most likely to be true. The bottom line is that the Infinite’s future DLC may confirm or deny what people have been saying. We just have to wait and see!

Another universe?

Having already covered the “main universe” and ended the game on a very specific note, Bioshock Infinite can’t really continue to explore the original plot while picking up exactly where Infinite’s story stopped. So what might happen? What could it even do? Well, there are infinite possibilities, right? Infinite worlds and universes equals infinite DLC possibilities.

The extra content could easily focus on an alternate universe with Booker and Elizabeth. It could let you play as Booker when he lead the revolution in Columbia. It could let you be Booker in another world, where he made a different choice and something new happened. Or the DLC could very well take us on a journey with Booker through an alternate universe.

If it is released in this form, then the content will be either really story-focused — giving us a different perspective or more insight into the game’s plot — or it will be irrelevant and concentrate on its own individual story.

Just one note: As long as Elizabeth is in it, this is cool with me.

The view of a different man (or woman)

Downloadable content often puts you in the shoes of another character, so this is a strong possibility. Infinite could let you play as some other person — and maybe completely exclude Booker and/or Elizabeth. Or, hell, we might even get to play as Elizabeth herself.

We could play as Slate, Comstock, or someone entirely new from Rapture. Who said the DLC even had to be set in Columbia? It might turn out that the add-on is more of a tribute to Rapture by letting us return there for a third (technically fourth) time.

My main issue with this proposition about it following a different character is that these types of stories are often very weak and not very good. While I’m not saying Irrational won’t do a top job with whatever content it releases, even great developers can screw up. Even though the game is awesome, the DLC isn’t guaranteed to be as impressive.

But it better be good

I’m not a big fan of DLC — not because I don’t like spending extra money (I love the idea of exploring a game further) but because most add-on content sucks.

I absolutely adore Bioshock Infinite. If the DLC is bad, I will be very upset and unhappy. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but it should at least equal Alan Wake’s DLC in terms of quality. In fact, take a good look at the original Alan Wake game and what an outstanding job it did with its single-player add-ons. They were incredibly well made, and single-player expansions usually tend to suffer because they’re so much harder to develop than a standard multiplayer mode.

But it can be done. And you better do it right, Irrational. Got it? Good. Now hurry up and give us some new details. We’re dying over here!

Thanks for reading and be sure to check out my blog (michaelthekyle.blogspot.co.uk) for way more content. Also follow me on Twitter @mookyst. 

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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March was a deep month for the gaming industry. Publisher Take-Two Interactive’s BioShock Infinite led the pack of new games with big sales, but more than a dozen titles sold in excess of 100,000 physical copies.

Take-Two sold 878,000 physical copies of BioShock Infinite on consoles alone, according to industry research firm Cowen & Company. As impressive at that is, Cowen credits a deep release schedule for pushing industry-wide software sales up 2 percent compared to its frightening estimates that software would contract by 21 percent.

“Bioshock Infinite delivered a few 100,000 units of upside, as did Gears of War: Judgment and God of War: Ascension,” Cowen analyst Doug Creutz said in a note to investors. “The majority of the beat versus our estimates, however, came from non-triple A new releases. Fourteen new release titles sold at least 100,000 units during the month, a benchmark last equaled in November 2011 and last beaten in October 2009.”

So this is the first time since November 2011 that 14 games have all cleared 100,000 units in sales. That means every game on yesterday’s top 10 best-selling games of March sold at least that much. We also know that Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates To Infinity, which didn’t make the top 10, sold 145,000 if you include both retail and eShop sales.

The biggest winners for the month, on the publishing side, were Activision and Take-Two.

“Including retail PC sales, Activision Blizzard was up 105 percent year-over-year,” said Creutz. “That’s well above our estimate of up 54 percent. [That's] due to surprisingly strong sales of The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct, which we had not even bothered to model.”

“Take-Two was up 154 percent year-over-year,” said Creutz. “That’s well above our up 88 percent estimate on upside from Bioshock.”

Electronic Arts, meanwhile, was down 53 percent year-over-year. That’s mostly because the company sold the bulk of its SimCity games online and released Mass Effect 3 in 2012, causing a tough comparison.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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MASSIVE SPOILER WARNING: Do not, under any circumstances, read on if you have not played and finished BioShock Infinite. Everything about the game is spoiled below and discussed in-depth. You have been warned!

Here’s another view of the artistry of BioShock Infinite.

OK, so I noticed a lot of people are confused about the ending of BioShock Infinite. Admittedly, the last 25 minutes throw a lot at you at once, and you don’t really have enough time to process it or make much sense of it all.

I also want to point out that this explanation is also an actual explanation of the ending. I have seen many people explain the entire plot in detail — which I will also be doing — but they all seem to brush over exactly what the ending means and how Irrational leaves things off. If you watched past the credits, you should know what the true ending. But if you didn’t, you will no doubt still be a bit confused. Basically, what I’m trying to say is: Don’t worry; everything is explained here — not just the plot but the actual end and its context, too, so if you want closure, then I guess just read this.

I’m still unsure of a couple of things, but these aren’t massive plot points that really matter, and either I just missed something or they are actual minor plot holes that weren’t explained in the game properly.

So, let us begin. At the beginning.

The basics

Booker Dewitt, the player’s character, has been entrusted with the job of going to Columbia to rescue a girl, Elizabeth, and bring her back to New York. Apparently, this deed will rid Booker of all his (gambling?) debts.

After blasting off into Columbia, Booker goes about trying to get to Elizabeth, who’s locked away in a tower. Before he can reach her, he receives a telegram telling him NOT to pick number 77. He ignores it, not understanding what it means. He then sees a sign showing off a somewhat devilish hand with the letters “AD” printed on the back of it. These letters (AD) match the letters imprinted on the back of Booker’s, hand.

The prophet Comstock, the ruler of Columbia, predicted that a “false shepherd” would come to Columbia to try and steal their lamb (Elizabeth) from them. This false shepherd can be identified by the AD mark on the back of his hand. This false shepherd is Booker.

After going to watch the Columbia raffle on his way to the tower, Booker is told to choose a raffle ball, which he does. It is number 77, and he wins the raffle. His prize is getting to throw his ball at a couple of tied up Columbians — one white, one black. After going to throw the ball, Booker’s hand is stopped by a police officer, who reveals him as the false shepherd. Now Booker must fight through hundreds of people just to get to Elizabeth — and hundreds more to try and escape Columbia.

After he finds her, things become pretty straight forward; escape this city in the sky.

Ripping time and space

It isn’t until near the end that the plot heats up again. Before we go into this though, we need to take a look at Elizabeth’s “tearing” power.

Oh, off topic but it is also important to remember she has one of her little fingers missing.

Elizabeth received this tearing power after the Lutece’s twins experimented on her (she did not naturally have this power). The twins had previously made machinery that could open tears. After these experiments, Elizabeth could do so without any help.

Tears are basically otherworldly things. Other dimensions. A open tear can bring in something from another world — or you can enter an entirely new world. However, and I stress this, new universes or items can’t be created from scratch. They have to already exist for them to be brought into either the current world or accessed in their entirety.

With Elizabeth’s power out the way, let’s move on.

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If you follow VentureBeat but don’t regularly check our GamesBeat site, here’s a list of the best video game stories we ran over the last seven days that you may have missed.

This week, Clash of Clans developer Supercell is now valued at $770 million and raised $130 million in February, Bethesda wraps up major Skyrim updates, and Disney fully embraces transmedia integration in Disney Infinity.

You’ll also find reviews for ShootMania, Cut the Rope: Time Travel, and a Threeview for BioShock Infinite, as well as our early impressions for Defiance.

News

• The DeanBeat: Defiance is inescapable transmedia that you’ll want to escape
• The Evil Within is the new survival-horror title from Resident Evil creator Mikami
• Nintendo finally releases the Circle Pad Pro for the 3DS XL in North America
• Angry Birds maker Rovio hires new exec to lead game development
• OnLive improves game-streaming performance with new optimization options
• Microsoft determined to make Xbox 360 more popular in Japan
• TimeGate loses appeal: Court orders Section 8 developer to pay $7.3M in damages
• Valued at $770M, Clash of Clans game studio Supercell raises $130M
• How Digital Chocolate teamed with Betable to launch a real-money gambling game in the U.K.
• Ex-Call of Duty team at Respawn Entertainment files for new trademark
• 2K Games is removing evidence of the XCOM shooter from the Internet
• Bethesda says farewell to more major Skyrim updates
• EA pulls the plug on 3 Facebook games

Mobile news

• Chinese ‘app store’ lets you install pirated iPhone apps — without jailbreaking
• PopCap releases Bookworm Heroes for iOS
• Hold on, mobile gaming monetization ain’t as easy as it looks
• Former Unity execs reveal cyberpunk tactics game for tablets
• With $11.3M to back it, Music Mastermind’s Zya app will turn consumers into music creators
• Papaya’s AppFlood helps developers monetize games in lucrative Chinese market
• Pocket Gems evolves from a successful developer into a mobile game publisher

Tech news

• Benchmark reveals Ouya’s aging Tegra 3 can’t keep up with newest Android phones

NPDs and future plans

• March 2013 NPD: Industry slumps another 10 percent as BioShock Infinite tops the charts
• Xbox division up big for Microsoft in Q3; Xbox Live has 46M members
• Japan’s Capcom slashes forecast and cancels games
• U.S. digital game revenues were stable in March, Superdata says

Exciting announcements

• Bethesda revealing Shinji Mikami’s horror game tomorrow: Here are the clues
• Breaking down what’s old and new in the 3DS’s upcoming lineup
• 3DS Nintendo Direct trailer roundup: Earthbound, new Link to the Past, and more
• Here’s a quick look at Yoshi’s Island for the 3DS
• Nintendo is making a new Zelda set in the A Link to the Past universe for 3DS
• The Legend of Zelda: Oracle games heading to 3DS eShop
• EarthBound coming to the Wii U Virtual Console this year
• Winged Pikmin take to the sky in the Wii U release this August
• Mario Party coming to Nintendo 3DS this winter
• Nintendo explains how it made Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D easier
• Mario & Luigi: Dream Team due out August 11

Interviews

• ‘Terminator’ actor Michael Biehn talks voicing Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon’s hero
• Signia Venture Partners’ Rick Thompson delivers the über-investor’s take on mobile gaming investments (interview)

Reviews

• Cut the Rope: Time Travel is a charmingly addictive puzzler with a few new tricks (review)
• Defiance is not your normal massively multiplayer online game (first impressions)
• Threeview: BioShock Infinite reviewed by a critic, an analyst, and an academic
• ShootMania Storm excels at shooter simplicity and customization (review)

Previews

• Disney Infinity takes shape as a huge investment in transmedia (hands-on preview)

Pieces of flair

• The uncanny similarities between the original BioShock and Infinite (gallery)
• Read+Watch+Listen: Bonus material for BioShock Infinite fans
• 10 better-than-Hollywood video game cosplayers
• Camp Minecraft: How educators use the block-building game to inspire kids to code
• Racing with friends: PS4′s DriveClub vs. PC’s Auto Club Revolution

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Gamers spent $992.5 million dollars on consoles, peripherals, and new physical video games in March — a number that’s 10 percent less than a year ago mostly due to slowing console sales.

Financial tracking firm The NPD Group just released its report for the video game industry for March 2013. That $992.5 million is down 10 percent from $1.1 billion last year. As always, it’s important to note that these figures don’t include digital sales on Steam, Xbox Live Marketplace, or any other digital-distribution platform.

Hardware sales took the biggest hit. Gamers only spent $221.6 million on new consoles. That’s down 32 percent from $324.7 million in 2012. A saturated market and news about next-gen systems from Microsoft and Sony are both impacting sales.

We’ll take a look closer look at hardware in a second, but first, let’s look at the software chart:

Software

Here is a list of the best-selling games in March 2013:

1. BioShock Infinite (360, PS3, PC)
2. Tomb Raider (2013) (360, PS3)
3. Gears of War: Judgment (360)
4. God of War: Ascension (PS3)
5. Call of Duty: Black Ops II (360, PS3, Wii U, PC)
6. Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon (3DS): 365,000 units (415,000 with eShop)
7. MLB 13: The Show (PS3, Vita)
8. NBA 2K13 (360, PS3, Wii, Wii U, PSP, PC)
9. The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct (360, PS3, Wii U)
10. Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 (360, PS3)

xx. Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates To Infinity (3DS) – (145,000 retail + eShop)
xx. Fire Emblem (3DS) – (64,000 retail + eShop)

If you include home consoles, portable consoles, and PC, physical-game sales were actually up 2 percent from $592.2 million in 2012 to $602.4 million.

Those numbers were up despite approximately 20 percent fewer new games compared to March 2012.

“March 2013 launches generated close to 70 percent more dollar sales per SKU than last year,” NPD analyst Liam Callahan said in a statement. “The performance of new launches was a major driver of the overall software growth for this month, with games launching in March 2013 selling over 40 percent more units than new launches in March 2012. There were positive trends for new launches that were seen across consoles, portables, and PC.”

In February, Sega’s big stinker, Aliens: Colonial Marines, cracked the top 10 list. In March, it’s Activision’s awful The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct making it all the way to No. 9. That’s not bad for a title that only scored a 55 out of 100 in its GamesBeat review.

As usual, this is an Xbox 360-dominated chart, with a few PlayStation 3 and Nintendo 3DS games sprinkled in here and there. No Wii U or Vita exclusive made the top 10, as once again those systems didn’t really have any significant releases throughout the month.

The 3DS did have a very strong month, though.

“With solid performances of new games like Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity, and Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, 3DS software sales increased over 50 percent from last March,” said Callahan.

Finally, both BioShock Infinite and Tomb Raider set new opening-month records for their respective franchises. Clearly, the positive reviews, marketing push, and anticipation was enough to pushy BioShock Infinite over the top. Meanwhile, Tomb Raider has competely a successful comeback. Now it’s up to publisher Square Enix to capitalize on that.

Hardware

The Xbox 360 sold 261,000 units last month. That’s down 29 percent from 371,000 in March 2012. This makes the Xbox 360 the best-selling home console for the 27th consecutive month.

As usual, Nintendo and Sony didn’t share any numbers telling us how their hardware performed. But estimates have put Nintendo’s new console, the Wii U, at sub-100,000 sales for the last two months. The release of Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate could help improve those numbers slightly, but that franchise isn’t a system seller like it is in Japan.

In total, gamers spent $402 million on Microsoft hardware, software, and accessories. That’s more than 40 percent of the total consumer spend in March. That’s going to leave Sony and Nintendo in a race for a distant second place.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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This article contains spoilers for BioShock Infinite.

The recently released BioShock Infinite reveals many possible realities through the tears that Elizabeth opens. We also learn that Columbia is only one of many worlds. Others lie beyond countless lighthouse doors.

It’s kind of beautiful, but these worlds and the people who inhabit them are parallels to each other. Some are good; some are bad. A million versions of Booker DeWitt exist in a million dimensions.

When you compare the cloud city Columbia to the underwater society of Rapture, you start to see all sorts of similarities. GamesBeat spotted a bunch and collected them in the gallery below. Did we miss any? Irrational Games developed both titles, so many different connections are possible.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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The 3DS is having a great year. Between hardcore strategy role-playing games and the return of beloved franchises, Nintendo has been cookin’ up a diverse library for its 3D-enabled handheld.

During yesterday’s Nintendo Direct video announcement, it revealed a ton of information on upcoming 3DS games for the spring and summer — and just a few hours later, it was ready to show some of them off during a press event in San Francisco. While we played everything there, we’ve narrowed down the list to the four games you should pay attention to, breaking down just how similar or different they are from other entries in their respective series.

As an extra bonus, we wrangled up a few Nintendo representatives to tell us some little known facts behind each game.

Harness the power of the ‘stache

Title: Mario & Luigi: Dream Team
Release date: August 11

Synopsis

The newest role-playing adventure for the world’s most famous plumbers (which is different from that other Mario RPG series) has the Mario brothers running back and forth between dreams and reality to save Princess Peach. It’s like Inception except with less music by Edith Piaf and more vaguely Italian-sounding dialogue.

What’s old or new about it?

Besides earning experience points and levels, Dream Team is totally different from earlier games in the series. Mario crosses into the dream world whenever Luigi volunteers to sleep on magical pillows. This is where he teams up with the magnanimous Dreamy Luigi (they’re Luigi’s dreams, after all), a much more powerful version of his brother. Dreamy Luigi can merge with sparkling auras called Luiginary Works, where he becomes a giant, disembodied face that can help Mario around the 2D platforming levels.

The first Luiginary Work uses Luigi’s thick mustache as a stretchy tree branch — you pull his real mustache with the stylus on the bottom screen and let go once Mario is on it — that propels Mario to greater heights. Luigi’s second power brings objects in the background to the foreground with a powerful sneeze; you trigger it by rubbing his nose with the stylus.

Did you know?

“The game’s writing in English is handled by Nate Bihldorff, from the Nintendo of America localization team,” said a Nintendo representative. “Nate has been the lead writer for every game in the series to date.”

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This article contains spoilers for BioShock Infinite.

You spent years waiting for developers to hurry up and release a big game. You buy it, take it home, and play through it in a couple of days. It’s awesome.

But now what?

Read+Watch+Listen is about other material you might want to check out if you’re just not ready to move on. We’ll suggest media that share something in common with a particular game and tell you why it might be of interest. In this installment, we’re going to build on your experience with developer Irrational Games’ first-person shooter BioShock Infinite, which came out a few weeks ago for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC.

‘Master of the World’

If you couldn’t get enough of: Bible-quoting, early-20th-century madmen in flying fortresses.

Director William Witney’s 1961 film, based on two books by Jules Verne (author of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea), stars Vincent Price as Captain Robur of the airship Albatross. His goal: to bring about world peace by threatening to rain fiery death upon everyone if they don’t start getting along.

People who miss Infinite’s airborne city of Columbia will appreciate the Victorian-era aesthetics and the Albatross itself, a hulking beast festooned with propellors and held aloft via “lines of magnetic force,” a scientific explanation as oblique and throwaway as the “quantum levitation” that suspends Rosalind Lutece’s city among the clouds.

The Life Aquatic Studio Sessions

If you couldn’t get enough of: Columbia’s old-timey covers of modern songs.

Watching director Wes Anderson’s (Moonrise Kingdom) The Life Aquatic is an all-around strange experience. You’re not sure if it’s a comedy or a drama or an action movie, and then you see Brazilian musician Seu Jorge playing a song. You don’t think anything of it at first, but it slowly dawns on you that something is odd about the music. It sounds so familiar, but … no way.

See, Jorge’s five contributions to the soundtrack consist entirely of acoustic covers of David Bowie songs in Portuguese. And yes, that is as incredible as it sounds.

Studio Sessions is an entire album of Jorge imbuing 14 Bowie pieces with his haunting wistfulness. BioShock fans who miss that “Oh, holy crap” moment of hearing a barbershop quartet singing The Beach Boys or a calliope jauntily piping out Cindy Lauper’s “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” will find a lot to like here.

‘Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead’

If you couldn’t get enough of: Booker DeWitt’s existential nightmare.

This award-winning play by Tom Stoppard tells the story of two hapless men trying to make sense of the universe and their place in it. At the beginning of the story, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are en route to Elsinore Castle with no real knowledge of who they are or what they’re supposed to be doing. What they don’t realize is that they are minor characters in Hamlet and are fated to die unceremoniously offstage.

When they don’t find themselves acting out their parts in Shakespeare’s tragedy, the two heroes discuss their plight, attempt to figure out if they have any say in events at all, and confront grim harbingers of their inevitable doom. Compare this to BioShock Infinite hero Booker DeWitt’s trip through his own backstory, The Sea of Doors at the end of the game, and Elizabeth’s insistence that his resistance to predestined events will always prove pointless.

“Nobody tells me where to go,” Booker says at one point, not realizing that nobody has to tell him: He was always going to go there anyway.

Similarly, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are creations of a playwright, bound to act as he has decided they should act and left to wallow in their own limbo and uncertainty while the real story goes on just fine without them. They even find a coin that comes up heads an unsettling number of times, an experience that Infinite players will no doubt recognize.

If you don’t get to the theatre too often, the film adaptation is available on Netflix Instant Streaming.

‘Fringe’

If you couldn’t get enough of: Cross-dimensional shenanigans

BioShock Infinite shares several themes with J.J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman, and Roberto Orci’s sci-fi series, including alternate dimensions, time travel, and overblown versions of the occasionally turbulent relationships between parents and children. It just finished its 100-episode run in January, and the first four seasons are available on Netflix Instant.

Fringe is not nearly as confusing as Infinite is at times, but if you want to get your dose of weird pseudoscience and things like an alternate universe in which both the Green Lantern and Green Arrow are red, you’ll find a lot to appreciate. Besides, you can only watch director James Wong’s unsung multiverse classic The One so many times.

Vintage Ad Browser

If you couldn’t get enough of: Infinite’s turn-of-the-century-inspired art design.

During your time with BioShock Infinite, did you ever realize that you weren’t actually playing it? I probably spent a half hour wandering around the fairgrounds at the beginning of the game looking at every poster and sign and studying them like I expected a quiz once I turned off my 360.

If that sounds familiar, prepare to lose hours of your life clicking around Vintage Ad Browser, a massive repository of over 100,000 advertisements, some of which date back to the 1840s.

Maybe you looked at some of Infinite’s more bombastic fliers and thought, “Well, that seems to be a bit much.” I’m here to tell you that it was not. At all.

This was among the less confusing blurbs I turned up looking around the site, but the editors probably wouldn’t want me to post any of the ads I found for Gold Dust Washing Powder. Those things were just scandalous.

Image credits: Wikipedia, Fringetelevision.com, Vintage Ad Browser

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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We’ve heard nothing but near-universal love for BioShock Infinite, so we didn’t expect the game to be very polarizing. But one of our Threeview reviewers wasn’t as crazy about the recently released shooter (PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3) as we expected her to be (albeit this is her looking at the game through an academic lens as we requested, not as a gamer). At the same time, one of our other reviewers liked it a lot more than we thought. It just goes to show how little we actually know about our guest writers and their crazy opinions.

Read on to see what our own critic, an industry analyst, and a smart-as-heck academic (and former games journalist) think of what many people are already calling 2013′s Game of the Year.

Warning: Spoilers ahead.

BioShock Infinite: The critic’s review

• By Jeff Grubb, GamesBeat news reporter

BioShock Infinite is a great game.

The combat is fun. The pacing is excellent. The world is fleshed out and filled with interesting things to discover. While portions of the story’s ending disappointed me, I don’t feel cheated because it was such an enjoyable ride.

Infinite’s biggest issue is that the stiff nonplayer characters really dampen the impact of the social themes. Irrational worked so hard building this world filled with terrible racial imagery, but it’s difficult to feel the effects of that when I can’t relate to the mechanical mannequins that populate Columbia.

It’s actually a minor complaint, but it’s very noticeable in a product that is otherwise so exquisitely put together.

Read the full GamesBeat review.

Final critic’s score: 89/100

BioShock Infinite: The analyst’s review

• By Michael Pachter, managing director, Wedbush Securities
• Twitter: @michaelpachter

There really isn’t anything I can say about BioShock Infinite that does the game justice. Game of the year? Definitely. Most interesting game I’ve seen? Yes. Captivating till the end? I’m not quite finished (that pesky job keeps getting in the way), but from what I’ve played so far, it just seems to keep getting better.

Publisher Take-Two has a practice of letting its developers create art, and the company’s management gets out of the way. This is a risky strategy if the developers are unproven, but Take-Two has assembled some of the best development teams on the planet, and the guys at Irrational might be the best in the organization. Ken Levine and team has been working on BioShock Infinite since late 2007, and their work shows in this highly polished, compelling game.

I’m not a game reviewer, so my opinion about quality should be disregarded. However, with an average Metacritic rating of 95 from a total of 62 critics, this game appears to be a can’t-miss proposition. That said, I think that the interesting storyline will generate significant buzz all year-long, and I expect BioShock Infinite to sell 5 million copies quickly — and a likely additional 3 million copies for the remainder of the year. I expect the game to have solid sales for the next few years, as sadly, we’re not likely to see another game from Irrational for a while. Classics such as this one tend to have robust catalog sales.

With five-and-a-half years of development, BioShock Infinite was an expensive game to make; my estimate is that the team earned around $10 million per year, so the game cost an estimated $55 million to make. The typical marketing budget for a game is 15 percent of estimated sales, so it is likely that Take-Two spent another $45 million or so promoting the game. At that level of spending, BioShock Infinite is likely to be very profitable, with front-loading of expenses and back-loading of profits, given that Take-Two shipped the game in the last week of the company’s fiscal 2013 fourth quarter. I think that BioShock Infinite proves that good things are worth waiting for, and I cannot say enough about how much I am enjoying the game.

Final analyst’s score: 100/100

BioShock Infinite: The academic’s review

• By Jane Pinckard, associate director of the Center for Games and Playable Media, UC Santa Cruz
• Former producer, 1UP Show
• Twitter: @miyukijane

“They’re all dead … you killed those people. You’re a monster!”

“What did you think was going to happen?”

The complex layering of themes in BioShock Infinite invites analysis within diverse frameworks: as dystopian post-colonial narrative; the use of violence as a rhetorical device; as a classical tragedy illustrating that “character is destiny”; an investigation of historical determinism; but primarily it is a bleak existential fable that illustrates Sartre’s concept of bad faith.

The antihero Booker, witness to (and, we infer, participant in) the massacre at Wounded Knee, may blast his way through the many human targets in the game, but he is ultimately trapped by being in bad faith: alienated from his own self and unable to take responsibility for his actions. In Sartre’s foundational existential play No Exit, a character realizes near the end that “[h]ell is other people.” In this case, hell is Booker himself and by extension, the player too is forced into bad faith.

Bad faith happens when one renounces the authentic self; it indicates both a failure to take on the burden of free will and a need to define one’s self through the eyes of others. In No Exit, the three characters continually look to each other for confirmation of who they are, to no avail — that is the hell they are trapped in. Booker is presumptively on a path to redemption, but from the first apparently meaningful choice given the player (when Booker is offered baptism upon arriving in Columbia), it’s clear that this is no choice at all. The player, in order to advance through the game, must accept the baptism — or stop playing.

In this way the narrative is profoundly un-interactive, even anti-interactive, in a way that feels inauthentic within the fiction of the game. In the above example, presumably Booker could have punched out the old preacher or simply shouldered him aside and run past him. But the game does not make these actions available. Under these circumstances it is logical that the player gives up responsibility for any choice at all. Through a clever semantic twist involving interdimensional travel, the game attempts to justify the lack of meaningful choice by suggesting that because Booker has already done every act in this particular universe, he must do each act to maintain consistency. All such meaningful actions are predetermined. It’s an interesting philosophical quandary but noninteractivity evokes despair rather than redemption, nihilism rather than creation. One could argue that illustrating bad faith is a central theme of the game, but does the point need to be made over and over during 18 hours of gameplay?

“What did you think was going to happen?” Booker asks Elizabeth when she protests the trail of dead he has left behind after a combat encounter. What indeed? This is a first-person shooter, and we are bound to its rules. There is no choice but to shoot our way through.

Final academic’s score: 70/100

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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It turns out that four is not a magic number as both Gears of War: Judgment and God of War: Ascension struggle to perform in March.

Microsoft and Sony both had major exclusives for their home consoles last month in Gears of War: Judgment and God of War: Ascension, but both underperformed compared to their predecessors, according to analysis from investment firm Cowen & Company. BioShock Infinite, meanwhile, sold an estimated 665,000 copies on consoles in the 10 days following its release in March, and Tomb Raider sold approximately 696,000 units on consoles in its 33 days on the market. Both of these games, though, are multiplatform titles.

“We had expected sales trends to improve in March due to a strong core lineup,” reads Cowen’s note to investors. “However, while some titles appear to have done well, including Square Enix’s Tomb Raider and Take-Two’s BioShock Infinite, two historically strong franchises appear to have significantly underperformed.”

Cowen estimates that Gears of War: Judgment, the fourth release in the franchise, sold 425,000 units on consoles. That’s down from over 2 million in the first month for Gears of War 3 in September 2011. God of War: Ascension, the fourth major release for a Sony home console, only moved 360,000 units on consoles, Cowen predicts. That’s also down from around 1.1 million for God of War 3 in March 2010.

All of these numbers only include console sales. It does not represent any revenues through the popular PC sales service Steam.

Despite the success of Tomb Raider and BioShock Infinite, Cowen expects total game-industry revenue to drop double digits compared to March 2012. The firm doesn’t expect to see growth until August with the early release of Madden and later with Battlefield 4 and Grand Theft Auto V.

Industry sales tracking firm The NPD Group will release its report for the month of March this Thursday after the markets close. We will have full coverage on that with analysis at that time.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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If you follow VentureBeat but don’t regularly check our GamesBeat site, here’s a list of the best video game stories we ran over the last seven days that you may have missed.

This week, Electronic Arts is named the worst company in America yet again, Microsoft executive Adam Orth is no longer employed after disastrous new Xbox tweets, and a Saints Row movie might be in the works.

You’ll also find previews for Civilization V’s Brave New World expansion, Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, and Leisure Suit Larry: Reloaded.

News

• The DeanBeat: BioShock Infinite is art trapped in a violent video game
• 21 year-old CEO aims to be the ‘next Disney,’ starting with an iPhone game
• Check out Ray Liotta, Joey Pants, and more in Black Ops II’s Mob of the Dead
• Adam Orth, Microsoft game exec who insulted fans on Twitter, has left the company (updated)
• Rayman Legends gets 30 extra levels thanks to delay
• League of Legends is crushing World of Warcraft in China’s Internet cafes (exclusive)
• Bethesda finally unleashes its Skyrim 1.9 update on consoles
• Microsoft: Sorry if Orth offended you — no comment on next Xbox

EA Troubles

• EA is Consumerist’s Worst Company in America … again
• SimCity Mac due in June; EA restores ‘Cheetah’ speed
• EA Mobile Montreal layoffs: Publisher confirms it cut jobs

Mobile

• Zynga targets core gamers with Battlestone action-RPG for mobile
• Mobile dominates new game sector investments in Q1
• Gamification startup Badgeville names new CEO
• Rightware delivers benchmark tool to identify the fastest smartphones and tablets
• Sony adds native support for DualShock 3 on Xperia Android devices
• Green Throttle taps BioWare vets to build Android game for the living room
• Zynga Mobile amps up its third-party publishing with biggest game yet
• Kabam’s new $50M fund helps Japanese mobile games head West
• Elite Beat Agents developer reveals tower-offense game for mobile
• Virgin Gaming to provide Xbox Tournaments app with cash prizes (exclusive)

Multimedia 

• Rockstar publishes every Grand Theft Auto radio station on Spotify
• Saints Row film possible under Deep Silver
• Irrational releases beautiful alternative BioShock Infinite covers for printing
• Education game invokes Civilization and others to teach math
• Street Fighter live-action series needs crowdfunding to start filming

Tech

• Nvidia’s Project Shield on schedule for Q2 release (video)
• Durango (Xbox 720) rumor roundup: Always-on, Xbox Mini, and more
• Nvidia shows off stunning graphics with Kepler Mobile chip
• Nvidia investing in ‘once in a lifetime opportunities’ in mobile
• Microsoft’s next Xbox could take over your TV just like Google TV
• Oculus Rift dev kit: Good virtual reality involves science and easy assembly
• PlayStation Vita update: Sony adds folders and more

Previews

• Civ V’s Brave New World expansion lets you conquer the world with trade or culture wars (preview)
• Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon is ’80s stupid awesome (preview)
• Leisure Suit Larry: Reloaded has innuendo without explicit sex (exclusive preview)

Interviews

• Killer is Dead creator Suda51 contemplates sequels, multiplayer, and cosplay (interview)
• Facebooker-turned-game dev Tam stays calm in the mobile storm (interview)
• Sega: Dealing with the console transition, mobile boom, and Sonic (interview)

Pieces of flair

• 35 gaming companies targeted in 4-year-long attack
• What’s going on with GamesBeat: Community update #1
• Dark Souls II screenshots leak online and first in-game trailer (gallery)
• BioShock Infinite’s extreme violence is completely valid
• From Civ and XCOM to cute monsters: How Firaxis went casual with Haunted Hollow

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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