GamesBeat weekly news roundup
You may not have noticed, but we’re now publishing a lot of game stories exclusively on the GamesBeat section of our site these days. These are stories that we feel are less geared to the general readership but will especially appeal to gamers and readers involved in the game industry. If you’ve missed any of those stories, our weekly roundup will point them out for you. And please visit the GamesBeat section to catch up … Continue Reading
GamesBeat aspires to become bible of the games industry: acquires Bitmob
I’m delighted to confirm that VentureBeat has acquired Bitmob, the respected gaming news site known for its passionate community of users. Bitmob will be integrated with our GamesBeat channel.
The best part of the deal: Bitmob co-founder Dan “Shoe” Hsu, an industry veteran with significant street cred with gamers, will become the Editor-in-Chief of GamesBeat. He’ll join Dean Takahashi, our lead games writer, who has done an incredible job getting GamesBeat off the ground over … Continue Reading
The DeanBeat: Building a better GamesBeat
For almost four years, we’ve been building out GamesBeat as VentureBeat’s game channel. We have held three annual GamesBeat conferences where the movers and shakers of the industry talk about the latest trends in games. Now we’re expanding to build an even better GamesBeat.
You’ll see a number of changes now and in the near future: New writers, new areas of coverage, more in-depth features, even deeper events coverage and a new scoring system for … Continue Reading
VentureBeat is hiring game writers
We’ve steadily built GamesBeat into a respected and well-read section of VentureBeat over the past few years and are now going to add to that. We’re looking for talented writers who are passionate about the business and innovations in games, and we’re also looking for game reviewers and videographers. We’re looking for both external freelancers and a staff writer.
Our games coverage ranges from stories on game startups and fundings to stories about the innovations … Continue Reading
Review: Catwoman steals the show in Batman: Arkham City
Editor’s note: This review contains minor spoilers.
For a game that was officially announced shortly after the release of its award-winning predecessor, Batman: Arkham City has turned out to be a phenomenal accomplishment for all involved. Game developer Rocksteady Studios has unequivocally delivered the greatest Batman game of all-time, and arguably the greatest comic book-inspired game as well, a notch they’ve had on their belt once before.But honestly that’s not nearly as prestigious an achievement … Continue Reading
Mobile game discovery isn’t ready for primetime
Even high-quality games are still getting lost amid the thousands of apps on the various mobile app stores.
Getting your app discovered is still a lot harder to do on a mobile platform than it is on a social game platform such as Facebook. That’s not news to us, since VentureBeat has held two DiscoveryBeat conferences and identified dozens of ways to get apps noticed. But bright minds continue to focus on this problem, which … Continue Reading
The rise of tablet gaming
Tablet gaming could be a huge market, disrupting traditional game hardware markets.
With more than 25 million units sold, the iPad has become much larger than a number of other historic game platforms (the Sega Dreamcast sold about 8 million units). As such, it’s helping Apple to swing developers back into its fold, according to a recent survey by Flurry. Android tablets are expected to catch on at some point as well.
“I think this … Continue Reading
Reflections on GamesBeat 2011 and the road ahead in mobile games
Our well-attended GamesBeat 2011 conference took place this week, and here’s what you missed.
As I noted in a preview story on mobile games, the conference was all about the wide-open battle for control of the emerging mobile gaming market. The highlights below follow the chronological appearance of the speakers. It’s a long story, but it will tell you what the conference was like in case you missed it.
Fireside chat with Brian Farrell
Brian … Continue Reading
Japanese monster social network Kaiju’s got game at GamesBeat 2011
This year’s winner of VentureBeat’s “Who’s Got Game” startup competition is Kaiju Empire, a social games maker that creates games built around outlandish Godzilla-style monsters.
This company makes games that bring comically outlandish Japanese-style monsters back to video games. It will launch Kaijuland later this year, a social game that lets players create a ridiculous monster and wreck a city. The game will be available for mobile devices, the web and home consoles. Kaiju Empire … Continue Reading
Here are GamesBeat’s 2011 startup standouts
VentureBeat’s GamesBeat conference features a competition for gaming companies that have some kind of innovative or disruptive technology. This year, the competition features a lot of cool hardware and social games.
The winner gets an iPad 2 from Trinet and is enrolled in the August round of Yatizen’s game accelerator class. That is similar to incubators like Y Combinator, which offer companies advice and a little bit of funding to get them rolling.
Here are … Continue Reading
Google Ventures partner: Venture capitalists are bad at picking games
Investors haven’t been very good at figuring out which gaming companies will be successful, said Google Ventures partner Joe Kraus.
That’s not limited to social gaming companies like Zynga or Kabam but also hardcore game makers like Trion Worlds, he said.
“Half the deals for fund makers were under-subscribed in A and B rounds,” said Kraus (pictured right) in a panel at GamesBeat 2011 Tuesday. “The data suggests that we’re actually really bad at picking … Continue Reading
EA founder: we are in a dark age of video games (but Zynga is an exception)
Software licensing has hurt innovation in the video game industry — with social game maker Zynga being the exception to that rule — thanks to large game companies like Nintendo, said Electronic Arts founder and social gaming company Digital Chocolate founder Trip Hawkins.
“I think we actually had our golden age when game development was using floppy disks and it was an open free platform when we could all make games like we wanted to … Continue Reading
Welcome to MobileBeat 2011!
One of VentureBeat’s biggest conferences kicks off today in San Francisco, Calif. — MobileBeat 2011. We’re convening the brightest minds from across all sectors of the industry to explore who will win what we’re calling “the 4G Nirvana.”
4G mobile networks have been talked about for some time, but this year they’re finally becoming readily available in the US. Verizon launched its LTE 4G network last December, AT&T is planning to get its LTE network … Continue Reading
80 of gaming’s brightest minds share their secrets next week
We have 80 (updated) of the gaming industry’s best and brightest lined up for our third annual GamesBeat 2011 conference. We’re grateful that so many leaders of the game industry have stepped forward to talk at our event on July 12-13 at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco.
Each year, GamesBeat follows a big trend. In 2009, we focused on how All The World’s a Game, with the explosion of games onto a global stage. … Continue Reading
GamesBeat 2011: Meet the moderators
We’ve collected some of the finest journalists covering the game industry to moderate the 28 different sessions at GamesBeat 2011, which takes place July 12-13 at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco. Our full agenda is here. Please meet the cast of characters.
Yukari Iwatani Kane of the Wall Street Journal. Yukari is a staff writer in the San Francisco office of the Journal. She has been writing about technology for nearly 15 years … Continue Reading
17 reasons to attend GamesBeat 2011
We’ve been writing a lot of posts about our speakers at GamesBeat 2011. But here’s a summary of why we think this will be the must-attend game conference for you.
We’re gathering the industry’s top CEOs, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, investors, journalists, marketers, developers and other key executives for a two-day gathering at the elegant Palace Hotel in San Francisco, from July 12 to July 13. The event is co-located with our MobileBeat conference this year … Continue Reading
Zynga paid $53.3M to buy Words With Friends mobile game maker Newtoy
Tucked away in Zynga‘s initial public offering filing are the amounts that the company paid to buy a bunch of game studios in the past year or so. The biggest deal was a $53.3 million purchase of Newtoy, the maker of the popular Words With Friends mobile game, back in November, 2010.
At the time, Zynga didn’t disclose the amount of the acquisition, but the filing has the data: Zynga paid $44.3 million in cash … Continue Reading
And we’re signing up even more great GamesBeat speakers
Today we’re revealing the eleventh group of speakers for our third annual GamesBeat 2011 conference. Our newest batch of speakers illustrates the wide variety of speakers and topics we’re getting for our event on July 12-13 at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco. We’ve got 66 speakers signed up and more are coming soon (see agenda).
Our new speakers include Brian Selzer, president of Ogmento; Suli Ali, CEO of mobile game maker TinyCo; … Continue Reading
Gigya launches gamification suite to make web sites more fun (exclusive)
Gigya has made its mark by making web sites more social. Now it’s going to gamify them too. The company is announcing today that it will offer a Game Mechanics software as a service so that companies can make their sites more social and game-like as they seek to engage users who are otherwise bored with static web sites.
The company will compete with a lot of other gamification startups, from Bunchball to Big Door … Continue Reading
Meet the 8 finalists of our ‘Who’s Got Game?’ contest for best game startup
Drumroll please. Our panel of all-star judges has picked the finalists for the Who’s Got Game? contest for the best game startup. The judges sifted through 39 entries and came up with eight finalists. This year’s contest will be held during the GamesBeat 2011 conference in San Francisco at the Palace Hotel on July 12-13,
The finalists will compete on stage in front of a who’s who crowd of game industry executives, CEOs, entrepreneurs, investors, … Continue Reading
