GamesBeat weekly roundup: An ex-prisoner reviews a prison game and PlayStation 4 price cut

Welcome to another GamesBeat weekly roundup! This time, Ubisoft announced a new Far Cry, we looked at Super Smash Bros. 4 a year after its launch, and we get ready for GamesBeat 2015.

Enjoy, and have a great weekend!

Pieces of flair and opinion

• The DeanBeat: How technology is advancing the cause of women in video games

• Panel to explore the super-geek gaming future

• Fantasy sports industry looks to continue feeding the beast in the face of mounting criticism

• Jason Kay to highlight China’s importance in mobile investments at GamesBeat 2015

• Here’s one of our mystery speakers for GamesBeat 2015

• 10 songs from the last 5 years that need to be in Rock Band

• Introducing Stephen Kleckner, our new games-gadgets writer

• GamesBeat 2015 addresses how to play the branding game right

• GamesBeat 2015 has a big focus on diversity and gaming’s women leaders

• 5 Rock Band songs I’ve learned to love

• GamesBeat 2015 has a big focus on diversity and gaming’s women leaders

• 3 game genres that are surprisingly awesome in virtual reality

• Meet the 27 all-star moderators for GamesBeat 2015

• Here’s why Super Smash Bros. 4 is thriving a year after its debut

• OK, now we’re really confused about the story of Halo 5: Guardians

Above: Star Wars: Battlefront’s setting and world make for a great experience.

Image Credit: Electronic Arts

News

• Shovel Knight’s Xbox One retail release is now canceled

• How to unlock Cortana in the new Xbox One experience preview

• Star Wars: Battlefront’s beta is live now on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One

• 5th Cell to crowdfund for original game on Kickstarter-alternative Fig

• New Disney Infinity playset features Marvel and 4-player action

• Esports reports shows the consumer habits of 15M competitive gaming viewers

• Xbox co-creator wants a home in the Smithsonian for physicist Richard Feynman’s van

• Esports get another mainstream boost as the BBC announces League of Legends coverage

• Sony cuts price of PlayStation 4 to $350

• Sony acquires Softkinetic gesture-recognition company

• Fire TV is great if you’re deep into Amazon Prime — and don’t have a separate sound system

• Astroneer looks like ‘The Martian’ mixed with Minecraft and Kerbal Space Program

• Halo 5: Guardians goes gold as 343 Industries prepares for launch

• Immortals esports team raises money from an elite investment consortium

• The original Earthworm Jim team ‘would be up’ for a sequel

• Halo 5: Guardians will have a new Forge editor for user-created maps

• Microsoft unveils wearable holograms in HoloLens, taking applications for devkit today

• Nielsen predicts the top-selling games of holiday 2015

• Ubisoft acquires the studio that made The Crew racing game

• Stewart Kosoy passes away after a long career making and financing games

• Sony advertises Destiny: The Taken King by pushing it into your PlayStation 4 library

• Hearthstone overtakes Dota 2 in Twitch’s most-watched games of September

• Minecraft gets Mario 64-like flying powerup

• Ubisoft announces new, prehistoric Far Cry: Primal survival game with February release date

• Dice Summit focuses on the art of engaging players in 2016

• VTech’s InnoTV is a video game console with training wheels

• Konami adds an insurance microtransaction to Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

• The esports craze will generate $1.8B a year by 2020

• Destiny is getting a new in-game currency you can buy with real-world money

• Nintendo off of list of 100 top brands for first time

• Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5 lands just short of the U.K. top 10 despite a troubled launch

From VentureBeat

Gaming is in its golden age, and big and small players alike are maneuvering like kings and queens in A Game of Thrones. Register now for our GamesBeat 2015 event, Oct. 12-Oct.13, where we’ll explore strategies in the new world of gaming.

Mobile and social

• Shakira’s new Love Rocks game with Rovio will have … no birds

• Mino Games raises $2.2M and launches Mino Monsters 2

• Kabam’s Chris Petrovic to discuss how to integrate brands and games

• Ninja Metrics uses analytics to boost Springboard’s retail and ecommerce revenues

• Localytics introduces ‘Predictions’ to counter the biggest problem for mobile publishers today: Churn

• Capcom says Ghost Trick is coming back to Apple’s App Store once it’s fixed

• An insider’s take on monetizing free-to-play games

Above: Zeratul, Protoss leader in StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void.

Image Credit: Blizzard

Previews and interviews

• SteamWorld Heist started with an office argument about X-COM working in 2D

• This is what the planet Sullust looks like in Star Wars: Battlefront

• Blizzard hopes Legacy of the Void ending will satisfy StarCraft II fans

Reviews and impressions

• Chibi-Robo Zip Lash is fun in small doses

• Hands-on with the new Xbox One experience — see what’s different

• Spirit Hunter is a magical mobile mix of role-playing and collectible card games

• Drive Any Track turns your music collection into a hypnotic, addictive futuristic racer

• Minecraft Story Mode asks its young audience to care about narrative

• Chesh reinvents chess every time you play

• Star Wars: Battlefront is fun because it is ‘Star Wars’

• Fire TV is great if you’re deep into Amazon Prime — and don’t have a separate sound system

• Hands-on with Microsoft’s Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book

• An ex-California state prisoner reviews Prison Architect

• Prison Architect is not for the faint of heart

• The Dreamcast’s latest release (you read that right), The Ghost Blade won’t satisfy hardcore shoot-’em-up fans

• Rock Band 4: Same as it ever was

• Mattel and Google teamed up to make VR kid friendly, and they got pretty darn close