GamesBeat weekly roundup: YouTube gaming launches, Nintendo opens to Hollywood, and Rovio cuts jobs

Welcome to another GamesBeat weekly roundup! You can tell that the holiday season is getting close, because we published a ton of game reviews this week, including Mega Man Legacy Collection, Until Dawn, and Disney Infinity 3.0. We also covered the launch of Hearthstone’s second expansion, The Grand Tournament.

Happy reading, and have a great weekend!

Pieces of flair and opinion

• The DeanBeat: As consoles age, PC gaming’s resurgence becomes more obvious

• This nearly impossible Super Mario Maker stage is my white whale

• Heroes of the Storm’s most versatile character is Kharazim, Diablo 3’s Monk

• Metal Gear Solid’s most memorable moments

• How to stay alive a few extra seconds in the Call of Duty: Black Ops III beta

• 10 tips for surviving the night in Until Dawn

• Help! I can’t stop dancing to this Super Mario Maker beat

• ESL and Counter-Strike show that esports is more than just League of Legends and Dota 2

• 5 tips for new Mega Man players buying the Legacy Collection

• Ranking Mega Man 1 through 6

• Watch us open 50 Hearthstone: The Grand Tournament cards

Above: Rainbow Mika in Street Fighter V.

Image Credit: Capcom

News

• Double Fine’s disembodied head game isn’t using crowdfunding — Adult Swim is the publisher

• ‘The Hunger Games’ studio Lionsgate is making a Borderlands movie

• Valve’s and HTC’s Vive virtual reality system gets consumer rollout delay

• Call of Duty publisher Activision Blizzard joins the S&P 500

• Twitch’s partner contracts will keep most livestreamers from also using YouTube Gaming

• GameStop’s stock price jumps after reporting a strong Q2

• Microsoft releases new Windows 10 preview for PCs with improved context menus, easier feedback sharing

• Far Cry 2 director Clint Hocking left Amazon to rejoin Ubisoft

• Street Fighter V’s newest character is Rainbow Mika, an obscure callback to Alpha 3

• Divinity: Original Sin II Kickstarter already funded

• Alienware refreshes its X51 desktop and laptops in time for PAX Prime

• AMD touts Radeon R9 Nano as smallest and most power-efficient 4K graphics card

• Logitech unveils two headphones for audiophile gamers

• FBI arrests former Game of War developer for threatening to distribute trade secrets

• Street Fighter V beta tries again on August 28

• Heroes of the Storm’s Infernal Shrines Battleground is now live

• You can now play the classic game Snake directly in Bing

• NPD: Half of U.S. homes with Internet now own a connected TV device

• Divinity: Original Sin II Kickstarter goes live

• Tekken Card Tournament is getting physical cards that work in the mobile game

• Tommy Palm’s Resolution Games raises $6M for virtual reality fishing — and more

• Mobile developer Dynamic Pixels makes leap to PC gaming

• YouTube Gaming launches on iOS, Android, and Web tomorrow to take on Twitch

• Microsoft gives away Tomb Raider to Xbox Live Gold subscribers to promote the sequel

• Gambling company offers 99-to-1 odds on Hearthstone joining Winter Olympics 2030

• Nintendo the ‘entertainment company’ open to working with Hollywood

• Sony is giving away Madden NFL 16 for free as PlayStation and Xbox battle over bundles

• The Grand Tournament expansion in Hearthstone is live

• Star Fox Zero gets November 20 release date

• Gears of War designer Cliff Bleszinski teases announcement for his next game

Above: Angry Birds 2.

Image Credit: Rovio Entertainment

Mobile and social

• Mirrativ is DeNA’s mobile livestreaming app — and it has potential beyond gaming

• The Walking Dead gets a free-to-play mobile game from Scopely

• Mobile ad costs rise as marketers pay more to target the right audiences

• As mobile gaming stagnates, people are spending less time (and more money) playing games

• Amazon Underground offers new business model for apps and games based on pay per usage

• Noble Transmission uses motion-sensing RealSense camera to change how you view comics

• Dhruva Interactive opens new studio near the Himalayas in northern India

• Magic: the Gathering is getting a Puzzle Quest for mobile

• The plot thickens in the Machine Zone vs. Kabam lawsuit

• Sensel unveils its Morph pressure-sensitive pad for touch devices

• 31 narrative-driven game projects secure $3.9M in European Union funding

• Rovio cutting up to 260 jobs — Angry Birds studio admits ‘doing too many things’

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Previews and interviews

• Hearthstone’s designers on The Grand Tournament and the future danger of too many cards

• Flying Mollusk’s Nevermind horror game measures how scared you get

• Choice Provisions shows off Laserlife music rhythm game played with gestures on Intel RealSense camera

Above: Destroy The Mouse, you must.

Reviews and impressions

• Use the Force, Mickey: Disney Infinity 3.0 is bigger, better, and now has lightsabers

• Lara Croft Go simplifies the classic action franchise in the best way

• Hands-on: YouTube Gaming is a quick, good-looking, and feature-packed Twitch competitor

• N++ is this year’s most addictive co-op experience

• Extreme Exorcism is a NEStalgic take on ghost hunting — with shotguns

• Madden 16 impressions: better looking, better feeling — with an overpowered deep-passing game

• In Sony’s Until Dawn interactive horror game, the player becomes part of the narrative

• Mega Man Legacy Collection contains great games in an OK package

• Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls spins a great yarn with sometimes-awkward action

• Gears of War: Ultimate Edition shows how little the series has aged

• Until Dawn is like a scary and riveting interactive horror movie