Wikia, Jimmy Wales’ for-profit company, passes IGN to become the largest network of gaming sites on the web

March 12, 2012 5:20 AM Ben Popper
Ben Popper

What happens when you combine the Wiki model of open, collaborative editing with just a pinch of old-school oversight? In the case of Wikia, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales for-profit company, you get the largest network of gaming sites in the …

Sneak peek at SteelSeries’ pocket-sized controller for tablet and smartphone gamers

January 13, 2012 10:00 AM James Pikover
James Pikover

One of the most persistent problems with gaming on smartphones and tablets is the lack of physical controls. This has created an opportunity for developers to create unique game experiences, but more traditional-styled games that have found commercial and critical …

Top 5 sleeper hits of 2011

December 27, 2011 4:13 PM Nick Akerman
Nick Akerman

We’ve been thoroughly spoiled in 2011. One triple-A title after another has grabbed the headlines and, ultimately, the sales. But what about those in the background, without the budget to match their ambitions? Plenty of lesser-known titles have flaunted tremendous …

So long childhood: GamePro magazine has been shut down

November 30, 2011 1:06 PM Devindra Hardawar
Devindra Hardawar

After 22 years of publication, popular gaming magazine GamePro‘s U.S. operations have been shut down by its parent company IDG, VentureBeat has learned.

Multiple sources within the magazine confirmed that GamePro employees, including executives, received phone calls first-thing this morning …

Big Fish Games first to offer an “all you can eat” gaming subscription on iPad

November 23, 2011 6:44 AM Dan Crawley
Dan Crawley

Big Fish Games has become the first publisher permitted to offer a subscription gaming service on the Apple iPad, Bloomberg reports.

Customers will be asked to pay $6.99 per month in order to access dozens of games, such as Mahjong …

Smart TV gaming startup PlayJam raises $5M round

October 25, 2011 4:36 PM Tom Cheredar
Tom Cheredar

Gaming startup PlayJam has raised a new $5 million round of funding to bring games to smart TVs and set-top boxes, the company announced Tuesday.

PlayJam is known for producing games on internet-connected TV platforms from Samsung, LG, Sony and …

DCM invests in PapayaMobile, Appia, and more with Android-focused A-Fund

October 20, 2011 8:12 AM Devindra Hardawar
Devindra Hardawar

Investment firm DCM, which launched its $100 million A-Fund for Android startups back in April, today announced its first round of investments with seven promising startups.

The A-Fund is the first dedicated entirely to Android, and it competes directly with …

Diablo 3 release date is in early 2012, more beta keys going out

September 23, 2011 9:53 AM Matthew Lynley
Matthew Lynley

Blizzard Entertainment’s next highly-anticipated online game, Diablo 3, won’t come out until early next year, the company’s chief executive Mike Morhaime said Friday.

Blizzard Entertainment is known for taking its time before releasing a game. So far, the strategy has …

Diablo 3 beta is short, sweet and a sign of great things to come (hands on)

September 21, 2011 11:31 AM Matthew Lynley
Matthew Lynley

Editor's Pick

The beta for Blizzard Entertainment’s next potential hit, Diablo 3, finally landed yesterday. We got a chance to blitz through the beta with each of the character classes and try out just about everything available, and it looks like Blizzard …

Diablo 3 beta begins today

September 20, 2011 3:21 PM Matthew Lynley
Matthew Lynley

Initial invitations to join the beta testing program for Blizzard Entertainment’s Diablo 3 game are finally making the rounds to Battle.net account holders.

The start of a beta for an online game usually indicates that the game will come out …

Hands on with Microsoft’s slick speech-powered Xbox 360, Windows Phone 7 (video)

August 18, 2011 5:28 PM Matthew Lynley
Matthew Lynley

Microsoft is rolling out a whole host of speech recognition features for its Windows Phone 7 devices and Kinect-enabled Xbox 360 consoles in a move to make the gaming experience more immersive. The new features are part of what the …

Why Nintendo should start making games for iPhone and Android

August 11, 2011 8:25 AM Sean Ludwig
Sean Ludwig

Nintendo investors are extremely unhappy with the company’s nearly 30-year old strategy of making games only for its own consoles and have started demanding the company make games for smartphones as well, according to a Bloomberg report.

Nintendo did not …

Blizzard won’t commit to Diablo 3 release date this year

August 3, 2011 2:15 PM Matthew Lynley
Matthew Lynley

Blizzard Entertainment chief executive Mike Morhaime said today the company is still not committing to a 2011 release date for Diablo 3, one of its most hotly anticipated titles.

“Diablo 3 is still on track to go into external beta …

Gaming pays off: Blizzard unveils Diablo 3 auction system featuring real currency

August 1, 2011 9:17 AM Matthew Lynley
Matthew Lynley

World of Warcraft maker Blizzard Entertainment today unveiled an auction system for selling in-game items for real-world currency in its latest multiplayer game, Diablo 3.

Players can sell the equipment they get from monsters they kill in the game — …

Meet Roku 2: a video streaming box with motion-controlled gaming (video)

July 20, 2011 8:56 AM Matthew Lynley
Matthew Lynley

Roku, a company that produces boxes that stream web content to televisions, announced today that it is unveiling a new lineup of devices that feature games and motion controllers.

The company’s flagship title at launch is Angry Birds, a game …

EA’s Secret World online game is nothing like World of Warcraft

July 8, 2011 10:42 AM Matthew Lynley
Matthew Lynley

Electronic Arts already has a game like Blizzard Entertainment’s supergiant online game, World of Warcraft, in the works — but it looks like the game publisher has one more trick up its sleeve. The company unveiled its next online role-playing …

Sony plans to redesign PlayStation Network

July 5, 2011 9:19 PM Matthew Lynley
Matthew Lynley

Sony is planning a redesign of its online gaming network, the PlayStation Network (PSN), following a hacking attack that brought the network down for nearly a month, according to reports.

The original layout for the PSN and the PlayStation store …

Nook Color first to offer Angry Birds with location-based extras

June 28, 2011 12:01 PM Sean Ludwig
Sean Ludwig

Barnes & Noble said Tuesday its Nook Color e-reader and tablet would be the first device to offer a real-world tie-in to the insanely popular Angry Birds game.

The original Angry Birds title hit 140 million downloads in April, and …

China gets World of Warcraft’s Cataclysm expansion next month

June 22, 2011 10:34 AM Matthew Lynley
Matthew Lynley

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, the latest expansion pack for Activision-Blizzard’s online role-playing game, will finally be released in China on July 12.

Video game launches have become like premieres of Hollywood blockbusters, both in the dollars consumer spend and the …

Outfit7 signs with WME to develop film, TV and book brands

June 21, 2011 6:08 PM Meghan Kelly
Meghan Kelly

After almost a year since the birth of Talking Tom in July 2010, the Outfit7 Talking Friends are ready to graduate from their smart phones and head for bigger screens. The company has signed with Ari Emanuel, co-chief executive of …