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, Bethesda finally announces The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim expansions for the PlayStation 3, Disney shuts down Epic Mickey developer Junction Point Studios, and Rock Star pushes the Grand Theft Auto V release date to Sept. 17.

You’ll also find reviews for Antichamber, Omerta: City of Gangsters, Fire Emblem: Awakening, and Skulls of the Shogun as well as previews for Tearaway, Splinter Cell: Blacklist, Injustice: Gods Among Us, and Serious Sam Double D XXL.

News:

• The DeanBeat: Does it make sense for game developers to publish on the doomed BlackBerry?
• Former chief game designer Brian Reynolds: On Zynga, games, and the future
• Bethesda announces dates for PlayStation 3 Skyrim expansions
• Ubisoft creative director discusses hooking fans again with Splinter Cell: Blacklist (video)
• Sony invites the world to see the future of PlayStation on Feb. 20
• Drone pilots stationed in Afghanistan talk video games in a Reddit AMA
• Splinter Cell’s creative director has the best Minecraft story ever
• Chartboost invites international developers to experience Silicon Valley
• This week in the Nintendo Download: Fire Emblem, Puddle, and The Cave
• Brain-training service Lumosity hits 35M users and is now adding 100K users a day
• Grand Theft Auto V release date delayed to Sept. 17
• Nintendo president: No price cut for Wii U
• EA’s top executives paint the game industry’s grim picture — and how new consoles will change it
• EA’s CEO makes a passionate response on game violence controversy question
• Dishonorable discharge? EA removing Medal of Honor from release rotation
• Electronic Arts delays Insomniac’s Fuse beyond April
• Origin has 39 million users (and 4 other surprising numbers about EA)
• U.S. senator: ‘I think video games [are] a bigger problem than guns’ — and other out-of-touch old dudes
• EA narrowly beats expectations for holiday game sales
• Anti-censorship group: Massachusetts removing games from rest stops is ‘constitutionally problematic’
• Splinter Cell: Blacklist has side missions and may ship without a main menu
• Black Ops II’s in-game live-streaming feature adds support for Twitch
• FanDuel raises $11M for daily fantasy sports contests
• Nintendo reports a thin third-fiscal-quarter profit and sells 3M Wii U consoles in first season
• Zynga’s chief game designer, Brian Reynolds, resigns
• Sony harnesses the power of the Internet to promote Planetside 2
• Aksys Games to release HD version of Muramasa: The Demon Blade for PlayStation Vita
• EA DICE is porting Frostbite engine to Mac (Update)
• League of Legends Season 3: Taking the ‘e’ out of e-sports
• Disney closes Epic Mickey developer Junction Point Studios (updated with comments from Warren Spector)
• Crytek picks up some former Darksiders developers for a new Austin-based studio
• Experience earned in Gears of War: Judgment demo carries over to final game
• DICE Summit to open with J.J. Abrams and Gabe Newell

Mobile News:

• Open-source social-mobile games platform OpenKit goes into closed-beta test
• Temple Run 2 hits 50 million downloads in 2 weeks
• Memorabilia company Steiner Sports partners with SportsPicker to gamify its marketing
• PlayPhone signs up more developers for its mobile social gaming network
• Layoffs at Disney-owned studios could signal increased focus on mobile and social
• Mobile game monetization startup PlayHaven’s new COO: ‘There is life after Google’
• Google Play revenue growing 10X faster than Apple’s iOS app store
• Google Play and Apple app store sales increasingly dominated by Japan, Korea, and China
• Epic Games finally releases Epic Citadel on Android

Interviews:

• How Ubisoft’s designers transformed Sam Fisher into a ‘panther’ and a leader in Splinter Cell: Blacklist (interview)
• The Final Fantasy franchise’s future hinges on Lightning Returns (interview)
• Why developer teamPixel is making a bid for the Homeworld series (interview)
• Gearbox CEO: ‘Invoking the legacy’ for Aliens: Colonial Marines
• From the ashes of THQ: Left 4 Dead developer ‘super excited’ to work with 2K Games (exclusive interview)
• Life after Epic: Getting to know Cliff Bleszinski (exclusive interview, part three: his opinions on shooters)
• Former KingsIsle VP and creative director Todd Coleman on what’s next for him (exclusive interview)

Previews:

• Tearaway is a digital love letter to physical paper (hands-on preview)
• Splinter Cell: Blacklist lets you play like a ghost, a gunman, or a panther (preview)
• Injustice: Gods Among Us is not a reskinned Mortal Kombat (hands-on preview)
• Serious Sam Double D XXL’s multiplayer is like insane sour cream on crazy-ass nachos (hands-on preview)

Reviews:

• Calling all game developers: You need to play and learn from Antichamber (review)
• Omerta: City of Gangsters brings an authentic yet rough mobster experience (review)
• Fire Emblem: Awakening is one of the deepest and best 3DS games (review)
• Skulls of the Shogun is a balanced turn-based tactics game with clever writing (review)

Community Spotlight:

• Cubicle culture and the potential of indie games to tell stories differently
• Developer responsibility: What’s missing from video game violence
• Should Wii U owners demand more GamePad-friendly ports?
• The extremes people go to when hunting down Achievement points

Pieces of Flair:

• Required listening: Ni no Kuni, Anarchy Reigns, and an interview with Aliens: Colonial Marines composer Kevin Riepl
• Evoland shows how action-adventure games have matured, without the boring history lesson
• Dude blasts through Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 in about 4 minutes
• Surgeon Simulator 2013 shows the frightening real-world discrepancy between knowledge and experience
• This is what a 2,800-strong space battle in Eve Online looks like (gallery)

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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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Maxime Béland, creative director for Ubisoft’s Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Blacklist video game, is packing a lot into the next big installment in the Sam Fisher covert operative title. He’s bringing back Fisher’s cool black operations suit, his curved blade, and new technologies like an assassination drone.

The Splinter Cell series is a long-running one, and making fans happy isn’t easy. While the last game, Splinter Cell: Conviction, focused on Fisher as a “panther,” or killing from the shadows, this new game allows for different play styles, which includes the “ghost” method of operating in complete stealth or engaging in an all-out assault. Fisher also moves up into a leadership role in the new Fourth Echelon covert operations agency. Béland describes Fisher as “moving from lone wolf to leader of the pack.”

Béland said that the team wanted to make Fisher more fluid and agile, like he is always one step ahead of his enemies, with head butts and take-downs. Fisher will have all sorts of high-tech gear and plenty of help from his companions who are always flying above him in a mobile command post as he executes missions on the ground.

Splinter Cell: Blacklist will debut on Aug. 20 on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.

Our video interview with Béland is below.

Maxime Béland talks about the fluid Sam Fisher in Splinter Cell Blacklist from VentureBeat on Vimeo.

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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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