Above: Blizzard's Hearthstone card game running on an iPad.
Image Credit: Blizzard Entertainment
The sun is pummeling us with UV rays, the thermometer reads “too hot,” and no one is releasing any games. It’s the heart of summer, and you should jump into this nice, cool roundup of GamesBeat news and stories to stave off boredom.
Below, you’ll read about how Blizzard’s collectible-card game Hearthstone is sliding down the iPad charts, how eight games emerged from “development hell,” and what we’re looking forward to for the rest of the year.
Now, go and partake in the fruits of our labor and have an excellent weekend.
Pieces of flair
- The DeanBeat: War games make a comeback with strong indie game and digital distribution?
- How 8 games crawled through 'development hell' — and what they found on the other side
- The best games of the first half of 2014 (GamesBeat staff picks)
- Our most-anticipated games for the second half of 2014 (GamesBeat staff picks)
- Digital distribution isn’t killing GameStop — it’s only making it stronger
Above: Gamers line up for a midnight launch at GameStop.
Image Credit: GameStop
News
- Suck at Dota 2 but wanna live like an e-sports star? Ubisoft says: ‘Just Dance’
- Bungie explains why Destiny doesn’t have PS4-to-PS3, Xbox One-to-360 cross-platform multiplayer
- Cliff Bleszinski’s Boss Key Productions hires two Call of Duty vets for its upcoming shooter
- Bethesda unveils the latest Doom game — it’s just ‘Doom’ — at Quakecon
- June 2014 NPD: PS4 still outsells Xbox One despite Microsoft’s price cut
- Microsoft’s Halo digital video and Halo TV shows aren’t dead, but original TV show effort will end
- Xbox Live is down for many Xbox One owners
- The Ocho! Dota 2′s The International will stream on ESPN3
- Microsoft to kill its original TV programming plans, shut down Xbox Entertainment Studios
- PlayStation Network is down intermittently today as gamers prepare for Destiny’s beta
- Blizzard deals up Hearthstone’s Curse of Naxxramas expansion next week
- Watch Dogs on PS4, Xbox One and Kim Kardashian on mobile buoy digital game spending
- Atari marches into the LGBT market with Pridefest mobile game
- A requiem for GaymerX
- Vivendi execs considered firing Activision Blizzard’s Bobby Kotick over buyout
- Look out, PS4: Microsoft claims that Xbox One sales more than doubled since $100 price drop
- Destiny’s beta isn’t 1080p on Xbox One- but Bungie promises it’ll get there in time for launch
- A real-world criminal dictator is suing Activision for portraying him as a criminal dictator in Call of Duty
- Saints Row developer threatened to leave Champaign — until the city gave it $200K
- Nexon, Wargaming, and Zynga’s Don Mattrick team up with London Venture Partners for new gaming fund
- Xbox One and Kinect are breaking up, but Microsoft is letting PC devs at the new camera’s SDK
- PS4: a ‘lesser’ platform for Star Citizen developer, won’t ‘dumb down’ PC version for it
- LeapFrog jumps into game consoles for kids with educational LeapTV
- Buzztime’s tablet games turn dead restaurants into party spots (exclusive)
- Loquacious former S.F. mayor Willie Brown leaves online gambling conference attendees agape
- Making smart TVs fun: Casual cloud games come to Vizio’s big screens
- With Ingress, even Google is making games for iOS
- DreamWorks and Microsoft want to make car rides more fun for kids with their game
Above: Cascade from Big Fish.
Image Credit: Big Fish Games
Mobile and social
- 5th Planet Games pulls in $3 million in its first funding round
- iOS still dominates Google Play for making money as China and Japan turn up the spending
- At 60M players, Roblox takes the plunge into Android
- Nitero unveils next-generation Wi-Fi for fast video transfers from the small screen to the big screen
- Candy Crush killer? Big Fish Games launches its Cascade match-3 game
- Guardians of the Galaxy’s ‘a-holes’ get their first game — it’s on mobile without microtransactions
- China’s Funplus launches Barn Voyage to take mobile farm games to a global stage
- Global mobile ad spending grows 48% in Q2 over Q1, with emerging markets dominating
- Israeli startup DAU-UP joins the race to help developers find mobile gamers (exclusive)
- Complex Games will take Warharmmer 40,000 game franchise to mobile devices
- Ad revenue optimization platform SponsorPay rebrands as Fyber
Previews and interviews
- How Sniper Elite III broadened its appeal by blowing up nervous systems and jeeps
- With $20M in backing, Motiga unveils Gigantic free-to-play action game (exclusive)
- Magic: The Gathering developer doesn’t consider Hearthstone a threat
GamesBeat 2014 — VentureBeat's sixth annual event on disruption in the video game market — is coming up on Sept 15-16 in San Francisco. Purchase one of the first 50 tickets and save $400! 
