Mobile Technology Science / News

Unity Technologies is bringing in some of the talent that worked on Ratchet & Clank and Sunset Overdrive to help beef up the optimization and performance of the Unity game-development engine. The company announced today that it has hired Mike Acton and Anreas Fredriksson, who both previously worked for Insomniac Games studio. Acton and Fredriksson will […]

Nintendo Switch is getting Doom this week, and that has a lot of people curious about how the technical wonder runs on the hybrid home/handheld console. The answer to that has two sides. In docked mode on a TV, Doom is rough. But if you take the same shooter and play it in handheld mode, […]

Grand Theft Auto V came out in 2013, and it is still selling millions of copies. Take-Two revealed today as part of its financials for the second quarter that total sales for the open-world game are now at over 85 million. Grand Theft Auto V originally released for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, but the […]

IO Interactive is launching the GOTY Edition of its 2016 Hitman action adventure today, and the independent studio is using this as an opportunity to update fans on the state of franchise. IO left Square Enix this past summer after the publisher announced plans to sell the studio. Now out on its own, IO wants […]

Call of Duty: WWII may return to the “boots on the ground” origin of Activision’s military shooter franchise, but the latest entry in the series has also borrowed a handful of elements from the publisher’s other major shooters: Destiny and Overwatch. I finished the WWII single-player campaign over the weekend, and it was nothing special. […]

Hearthstone is mostly a multiplayer game. But its next expansion, Kobolds & Catacombs, will introduce a compelling new solo experience when it launches next December for PC and mobile. Dungeon Runs will be a free mode. It has players picking a class, starting with a weak-ish premade deck, and fighting random computer-controlled bosses. If you […]

Overwatch had a busy BlizzCon. Not only is the hit team-based shooter receiving a new hero, the healer Moira, but we’re also getting Blizzard World, a new map that’s like Disneyland meets Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo. Jeff Kaplan, Overwatch’s game director, made both announcements during BlizzCon’s opening ceremonies on November 3. That same day, we […]

Gamers have many ways to keep score. This column is about how I like to look at the game companies during the busy fall season. This past week saw the launches of blockbuster games including Call of Duty: WWII, Assassin’s Creed Origins, Super Mario Odyssey, and Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus. We also saw earnings […]

When you hit Prestige, or the top level in Call of Duty multiplayer, it’s usually a solitary affair. But in Call of Duty: WWII, you can share your achievement for all of your friends to see. I went to a review event for the game, which debuts on November 3, and I was able to […]

Activision is starting to make a dent in the industry’s war on used games, and its biggest weapon in that fight is the always-online live-service shooter Destiny 2. The publisher revealed today that digital accounted for more than 50 percent of the copies of Destiny 2 sold through to console customers. That’s a huge jump […]

Nazi Zombies is the co-op game mode for Call of Duty: WWII. It is the first zombies mode made by Slegehammer Games, which made the WWII game and previously created Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. So naturally, Sledgehammer tried to put its own more serious, story-based twist on the zombies franchise. The prologue starts out with […]

Mercy’s reign of terror might be coming to an end. Blizzard has pushed a new update to Overwatch’s PTR (public test realm) server, which it uses to try out upcoming changes to its hit team-based shooter. It includes a damage increase for Ana, the healer/sniper, and a nerf to Mercy, the only character who has […]

Sony Interactive Entertainment showed off a brutal scene from The Last of Us: Part II at Paris Games Week on Monday, and the cruelty in that clip generated a loud response from fans and others who were watching the publisher’s live show. On this week’s GamesBeat Decides podcast, hosts Jeffrey Grubb and Mike Minotti discuss […]

One of PC gaming’s biggest hits is finally making the leap to consoles when PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (read my early access review) goes live on Xbox One on December 12 for $30. The unfinished battle royal shooter will launch as part of the Xbox Games Preview program, which is similar to the Early Access portal that PUBG […]

Sega revealed today as part of its yearly financial report that the Sonic the Hedgehog series has lifetime game sales of approximately 360 million. This includes physical and digital. When Sega shared this number last year, the franchise’s sales were at approximately 350 million. Sonic Mania, the retro 2D platformer, came out for the PlayStation […]

If the Xbox One X turns out to be a popular holiday purchase this fall, you might credit a lady bug. The console costs $499, and it delivers 4K HDR visuals for games such as the racing title Forza Motorsport 7. Microsoft’s team created an interactive demo with a set of lady bugs that show […]

I like collecting Amiibo more than actually using them. Unlike Skylanders, Nintendo’s toys-to-life line isn’t built around a specific series. The figures work differently with a bunch of games. Sometimes, tapping an Amiibo to your controller will unlock in-game items. This is the case for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Certain Amiibo can […]

EXCLUSIVE: REDMOND, Washington — Microsoft’s Inclusive Technologies Lab is full of insightful ideas about how to enable as many people as possible to enjoy video games. One of them is a game controller that is really, really heavy. It is meant to give game designers an idea of what it’s like for a person without strong […]

Psyonix’s car-soccer game Rocket League is already a megahit with 36 million registered players across its digital and retail versions, but now the studio is working with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment to bring its retail version to even more people around the world. WB and Psyonix have not said which regions will get this new […]

This is a special moment because it is time for a bonus episode of the GamesBeat Decides podcast and it is also, officially Mario time. In this show, hosts Jeffrey Grubb and Mike Minotti discuss Super Mario Odyssey. Mike has put in a lot of time with it, and he gave it a 100 out […]