GamesBeat weekly roundup: Hearthstone’s big changes, and Nintendo’s mobile debut imminent

Welcome to another GamesBeat weekly roundup! This time, Nintendo’s earnings fall a little short of expectations, someone builds a calculator inside Super Mario Maker, and Uncharted 4 gets its own PlayStation 4 bundle.

Happy reading, and have a great weekend!

Pieces of flair and opinion

• The DeanBeat: Fallout, Skyrim director Todd Howard earns lifetime achievement award

• GamesBeat Summit 2016 speaker deadline is today; event is May 3-May 4

• Watch Conan play the new Doom with Super Bowl stars

• This is the Star Wars: Battle Pod you were looking for — where to play it in the U.S.

• Forget Mario and Zelda: Why NX and My Nintendo need Smash Bros.

• NBA 2K publisher views esports as nothing but marketing

• Strap into this chair on a giant simulator arm for the wildest VR ride of your life

• Gamer builds computer inside of Super Mario Maker

• Hearthstone’s drastic changes will kill hundreds of cards — but might save its future

• Call of Duty: Black Ops III — Awakening DLC goes big on fan nostalgia

• The Witness: Here’s Jon Blow’s pissjug in the game (and the hidden credits)

• What Oculus Rift and virtual reality mean for sex, death, violence, and identity

• The Division’s closed beta hands-on: Ubisoft’s blockbuster is overhyped but playable

• Gameplay footage of cancelled The Dark Knight game and its sad history

Above: Drool.

Image Credit: Sony

News

• Games accounted for 32% of Windows Store downloads in Q4 2015, over 85% of in-app purchases

• HTC Vive’s user manual details elaborate setup process, including moving your couch

• Unreal Engine’s latest innovation is about building games while inside virtual reality

• YouTube Gaming’s trending list proves how different it is from Twitch

• Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End gets its own PlayStation 4 bundle

• The carnage of Bethesda’s Doom arrives on May 13

• Another Minecraft killer? 505 Games unveils sandbox adventure Portal Knights

• Logitech unveils its newest RGB mechanical keyboard for gamers

• Microsoft releases new Windows 10 preview for PCs and ninja monkey wallpapers

• Rockstar has shipped 60M copies of Grand Theft Auto V

• Take-Two beats Wall Street’s expectations for holiday quarter earnings

• Nintendo keeps fans and industry guessing about mobile games and the NX console

• Fallout 4’s developer will reveal its development process for modular level design at GDC

• DreamHack Bucharest will give away $100K to Counter-Strike: GO’s best esports players

• The Witness clears more than $5M in its first week of sales

• Hideo Kojima and Guillermo del Toro will take the stage together as DICE’s keynote speakers

• This augmented reality demo shows how you can turn rock wall climbing into a game

• ‘Warcraft’ actor credits Blizzard’s game with ‘saving’ his life

• Watch how Microsoft plans to change the Super Bowl with HoloLens and augmented reality

• Twitch and its 100M audience is ideal for an action flick’s trailer debut

• Blizzard introduces new Hearthstone modes to limit the cards you can use (and more deck slots)

• One-third of Steam users run Windows 10

• Path of Exile’s Ascendancy expansion launches March 4

• ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ is getting a Lego game in June, according to the Xbox Store (update: it’s official)

• Nintendo is ‘looking’ into virtual reality

• Zelda Wii U is still one of 6 Nintendo games scheduled for Wii U in 2016

• Nintendo: Splatoon, Mario Maker are ‘blockbusters’ for Wii U

• Nintendo’s holiday quarter earnings and revenues fall short of expectations

• Nintendo sold 5.88M 3DSes and 3.06M Wii U systems over last 9 months

• YouTube’s Fine Bros. face legal challenge after enraging Internet with ‘React’ trademark

• Ant Simulator canceled after crowdfunding money spent on liquor and strippers

• Tom Clancy’s The Division is getting an open beta, according to Xbox Italy

• Windows 10 passes 10% market share, overtakes Windows 8.1 and Windows XP

• Here’s what’s different in Fallout 4’s new Steam patch

• NBA 2K giving away $250,000 as part of an attempt to attract an esports crowd

• The Division beta has a problem with cheating — Ubisoft investigating

Above: Path of War hopes to challenge Clash of Clans.

Image Credit: Nexon M

Mobile and social

• Super Salvo Sports football strategy mobile game debuts for Super Bowl

• Path of War is the first true ‘mobile’ strategy game

• Cartoon Network Studios launches original mobile game with famous animator

• Badgeville launches new data analytics to gamify work and improve consumer loyalty

• Glu’s wildest dreams come true as it partners with Taylor Swift on mobile game

• New site mixes Texas Hold ’em with Hearthstone to make wizard poker an esport

• Chinese mobile game revenues could double to $11.1B by 2019

• Autodesk announces 925 layoffs — 10% of its workforce — as part of restructuring plan

• Nintendo’s first mobile game Miitomo is launching in March along with My Nintendo service

• Magic: The Gathering — Puzzle Quest gets its first big update to boost player engagement

• Magic Leap’s and King’s deals pave way for big jump in 2016 game transactions

• China’s Linekong Interactive to invest $20M in North American mobile game business

• Game industry deals dropped 81% in value in 2015