Rakuten will reportedly launch a mobile games platform

 Rakuten, the Japanese e-commerce giant, is preparing to enter the mobile games space soon, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal. Read More

You could become a pilot in the Drone Racing League if you’re good at this racing simulator

 Today the Drone Racing League, a league that has a deal with ESPN to broadcast races this season, launched a drone racing simulator game. And perhaps even more interesting, the league will be teaming up with Bud Light to host Drone Racing League tryouts on the simulator, with the winner receiving a $75,000 contract to compete in the 2017 season. The simulator itself is pretty basic –… Read More

HTC’s Vive VR headset gets unplugged via $220 wireless add-on

 HTC’s PC-powered VR rig is set to get one of the plusses of cheaper mobile virtual reality systems early next year, after the company announced a wireless add-on that will let users untether the headset from the gaming PC required to power it. Read More

Telegram names first winners of its ‘fast and useful’ bot competition

 Messaging app Telegram has named the first wave of bots to win prizes via a $1 million BotPrize competition it announced back in April. Read More

Getting an NES Classic Edition today may be tough

 The elections may have divided America, but there’s one thing we can all agree on: we all want to buy Nintendo’s new NES Classic Edition. Well, today’s the day: the re-lease of the Nintendo Entertainment System, which ships with 30 pre-installed games for $59.99, is hitting both retailers and online stores starting today, Friday. November 11th in the U.S. Unfortunately… Read More

Nintendowned: Amazon sells out of the NES Classic Edition in (null) seconds

 We knew the NES Classic Edition, with its retro aesthetic and solid game selection, would be hard to get at first, but this is some next level, Tickle Me Elmo-style demand. Amazon, which made its supply of the console available at 2PM Pacific today, sold out in what appeared to be less than a minute. Read More

Google and Blizzard team up on a StarCraft made just for AIs

 AIs have more or less mastered chess, Go and a number of other highly cerebral games — how will they do on something like StarCraft II, which combines high-level strategy with the need for quick reaction times and tactical thinking? Probably great, honestly. And this collaboration between Google’s DeepMind and Blizzard will ensure it. Read More

Facebook Messenger is testing “Instant Games” like this one from King

 Facebook Messenger is preparing to launch a new “Instant Games” platform that will let people  play lightweight games against friends. Candy Crush maker King.com is already testing one of these Instant Games called “Shuffle Cats Mini” in New Zealand, TechCrunch has discovered. And other studios including Big Viking also appear to be prepping for the Instant Games… Read More

New Pokémon just appeared in Pokémon GO’s code

 Within days of Pokémon GO’s launch, the fans made it clear: They wanted more Pokémon in the game. Maybe they’d already caught everything around them. Maybe their favorite just wasn’t in there yet. Either way, they wanted more. Good news! Newly added code for another batch of Pokémon has just been discovered within the game’s files. Oh, and it looks like Ditto… Read More

Review: The NES Classic Edition and all 30 games on it

 Nintendo is courting nostalgia for the holidays this year, like pretty much every year — but the NES Classic Edition, a palm-size recreation of the original console with 30 games built-in, rates highly on the nostalgia scale even for a company whose heart is stuck in the 1980s. It’s already a highly coveted item for millions of 30-something gamers, and make no mistake: This is a… Read More

Twitch’s new video ads can’t be blocked

 Twitch, the Amazon-owned video streaming platform which is today used by over 2 million broadcasters, announced today its plans to begin selling video ads in its partners’ live streams which can’t be blocked by third-party ad blockers. These ads will roll out this week, and will be delivered through Twitch’s new SureStream video technology platform, which also offers… Read More

Discord chief executive on distribution and the importance of the PC in gaming

 The global video game industry is exploding in popularity. Companies such as ESPN, Activision Blizzard and Electronic Arts have formed their own e-sports divisions in recent months, and the gaming market exceeds $90 billion, up 9 percent in the last year. It is bigger than the movie industry and predicted to expand with new emerging platforms like VR. Greylock investment partner Josh Elman… Read More

Pokémon GO introduces daily bonuses to keep players coming back

 Now that the insane, oh-my-god-it’s-everywhere hype cycle has tapered off a bit for Pokémon GO, Niantic gets to crack the classic startup conundrum: How the heck do they keep people coming back? The company is about to take its first swing at the problem by way of daily bonuses. The more regularly you play, the more you’re rewarded. Read More

To IP or not to IP, that is the question

 The rise and fall of Pokémon GO begs us to ask many questions regarding how to launch a game to position it for success. One specific question it raises is whether branded intellectual property is something game makers should consider prior to launch. Branded IP is one of the most time-tested ways to launch games that go on to become immensely popular. Read More

Learn to code startup pi-top pulls in $4.3M to fund a global edtech push

 London-based computing and learn-to-code startup pi-top has closed a £3.5million ($4.3M) Series A round of funding, led by Hambro Perks and with Committed Capital also participating. Read More

How Yo inspired the Jonas Brothers to create apps

 Remember that silly app, Yo, where you could ping someone with just a tap? Well, Kevin Jonas does. At the Fast Company Innovation Festival in New York, the Jonas brothers talked about why they are creating apps. After seeing the Yo app raise over $1 million in funding, Kevin said it made launching startups look easy. “If they could do that, look what I can do,” said Kevin, about… Read More

Sony shares a list of 39 titles that will be optimized for the PS4 Pro at launch

 Next Thursday is PS4 Pro day. Announced two months ago at an event in New York, the souped up version of Sony’s console has been designed with 4K and high dynamic range gaming in mind, featuring amped up specs, including an eight-core x86-64 AMD Jaguar CPU, a GPU offering double the power of the earlier PS7 and a 1TB hard drive. Until now, however, Sony hasn’t offered up a list… Read More

Axonify raises $27M to gamify employee training without wasting your time

 Think back to the last time you had to do a corporate training. More likely than not it was a frustrating experience that you simply tried to survive rather than learn from. (If you feel otherwise, I’m genuinely worried about you). With $27 million in fresh funding led by JMI Equity and BDC Capital, Axonify, wants to hack your brain to help everyone get away with doing less while taking… Read More

Google’s Daydream View VR headset arrives in stores November 10

 Google has announced exactly when you’ll be able to get your hands on Daydream View, the new headset it created for Daydream-ready Android phones, including the Pixel and Pixel XL. The View headset will arrive in the Google Store online, and at retailers in the US, Canada, the UK, Germany and Australia on November 10 for $79 US. Pricing in the other countries varies, but is mostly in… Read More

Facebook officially announces Gameroom, its PC Steam competitor

 After losing mobile gaming to iOS and Android, Facebook is making a big push into playing on PC with today’s developer launch of its Gameroom Windows desktop gaming platform. After months of name changes, beta tests and dev solicitation, Facebook opened up the beta build for all developers and officially named it Gameroom. The app is openly available for users to download on Windows 7… Read More

Pokémon Go gets a big revenue boost from its special Halloween event

 Pokémon Go had its first special in-game event this Halloween, and the results are promising for people hoping Niantic will run more in the future: Revenue was up 2.3 times from the week before, according to app analytics firm SensorTower, and daily revenue on October 29, in the middle of the event, was at its highest overall level since September 10, according to analytics provider App… Read More