GamesBeat weekly roundup: WoW loses 1.3M subscribers, Amazon brings paid apps to China, Q1 earnings, and more

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.

Splinter Cell: Blacklist’s co-op mission feels more like a solo op (Preview)

A previewed co-op side-mission from Splinter Cell: Blacklist brought together the classic elements fans love. It just didn't feel like a two-person operation.

Splinter Cell: Blacklist sneaks in new and classic Spies vs. Mercs modes (Preview)

Splinter Cell's acclaimed multiplayer returns in not one but two different versions, and while they play the same, they feel very different.

18 ridiculous(ly expensive) video game special editions

Game developers are increasingly fond of including doodads and gizmos with the premium editions of their games. Here are some of the most ridiculously expensive special editions ever released, in roughly ascending order.

Game industry pros list their most-wanted games of 2013

What's everybody waiting for? We polled some of the most famous names in the game industry to find out about their most anticipated titles of 2013.

ROUNDTABLE’D! Game characters predict Super Bowl XLVII

Our all-knowing panel of completely unbiased game characters talk commercials, steroids, and Beyoncé's lip-syncing prowess as they predict the outcome of the big game!

Splinter Cell’s creative director has the best Minecraft story ever

Splinter Cell creative director Maxime Beland plays Minecraft, but not like you do. His is a tale of friendship, woe, self-realization, and things on fire.

How Ubisoft’s designers transformed Sam Fisher into a ‘panther’ and a leader in Splinter Cell: Blacklist (interview)

Sam Fisher is back, and Splinter Cell: Blacklist lead designer Richard Carrillo tells us why he's so different this time.

Splinter Cell: Blacklist has side missions and may ship without a main menu

A new user-interface system could let players stay in character throughout Splinter Cell and jump between every single mission and mode with ease ... including the franchise's first attempt at side missions.

Splinter Cell: Blacklist lets you play like a ghost, a gunman, or a panther (preview)

Sam Fisher returns with gadgets, guns, and upgrades that key directly into the way you play, from gunman to ghost to something in-between. If only your opposition keyed in, too.

This $170 special edition of Splinter Cell: Blacklist comes with a remote-control airplane

For $170, gamers get the new Splinter Cell, some DLC, and a remote-controlled airplane.

‘The Dark Knight Rises’ Bane signs on as Sam Fisher in Splinter Cell film

Tom Hardy will become the Third Echelon's super spy in a film adaptation from Ubisoft Motion Pictures.

GamesBeat’s gigantic E3 2012 roundup

We've corralled the entirety of our E3 2012 coverage from the showfloors, meeting rooms, conference halls, and beyond. If you missed out -- or need a refresher -- on GamesBeat's E3 coverage, take a look here!

Microsoft’s E3 2012: Analysis of 16,000+ comments shows Halo 4, South Park impressed, rest did not (graph)

We analyzed over 16,000 comments on the NeoGAF forums to see how gamers reacted to Microsoft's E3 2012 press conference.

Aisha Tyler: Ubisoft’s meme machine

Ubisoft, stop your search now. Aisha Tyler is your one true conference host, the presenter to rule them all. And these are just some of the awesome -- and way, WAY off-script -- things she said.

New Splinter Cell: Blacklist borrows from Uncharted

At Microsoft’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) press briefing in Los Angeles, Ubisoft revealed the latest in the Splinter Cell saga. Blacklist appears to bring back much of the gameplay of the previous entries in the series, but with lots of …