GamesBeat weekly roundup: THQ bankrupt, Machinima downsizes, and Shaq is back | VentureBeat | News | by Jasmine Maleficent Rea

▤ Summary

If you follow VentureBeat but don’t regularly check our GamesBeat site, here’s a list of the best video game stories we ran over the last seven days that you may have missed. This week, THQ files for bankruptcy, gaming video giant Machinima lays off 10 percent of its staff, and we crown The Walking Dead as our 2012 Game of the Year. You’ll also find reviews for Black Knight Sword, Mass Effect 3: Omega, and Middle Manager of Justice. News: The DeanBeat: The Newtown shooting will turn up the heat on video game violence — but will it make us think? DayZ lead designer considered leaving the project This week in the Nintendo Download: Mario, Wario, and Alex Trebek Turn your friends into Pokémon in the next Mystery Dungeon game on 3DS Writer McComb isn’t worried about the lack of the Planescape license for the new Torment game Valve gives Plantronics the rights to officially brand headsets with Aperture Laboratories and Mann Co. logos Visualizing a tough year for the retail core game industry Rabbit pulls reimagined video chat out of its hat THQ’s bankruptcy filing reveals new games THQ files for bankruptcy, assets sold to investor Clearlake for $60M Valve pulls The War Z from Steam over fan backlash, offers refunds Nintendo’s TVii available tomorrow, but it won’t be fully functional MeritShare finds a way to gamify employee recognition (exclusive) Green Throttle Games launches developer program as part of play to take over living room gaming Assassin’s Creed III glitches and issues addressed in massive patch (full details) Dartmouth professor names Zynga’s Mark Pincus one of the worst CEOs of 2012 Get ready for great games on a thin laptop as AMD preps new mobile graphics chips Rise of the Hutt Cartel expansion coming to Star Wars: The Old Republic Nvidia’s next Tegra 4 processor may come with 72 graphics cores Minecraft documentary free for Xbox Live Gold subscribers this weekend Online gaming firm Aeria Games merges with Japan’s Gamepot The spirit of BattleBots lives on in a new robot-building game Arktos Entertainment acquires majority stake in game studio Hammerpoint Interactive (exclusive) Why Google predicts Microsoft’s next game console will beat Sony’s Developer id Software releases Rage add-on next week Game videos giant Machinima lays off 10 percent of staff NRA blames video games for mass murders Mobile News: Kabam scores big with highest-grossing game on App Store for 2012 Apple freezes the App Store in advance of the holiday app-downloading bonanza Jordan Mechner’s Karateka remake returns to Apple (iOS) devices today Mochi Media says 86 percent of Flash game developers are expanding into mobile (exclusive) MindSnacks’ new iPad games help you learn languages, pass the SAT After 6M paid downloads, mobile hit Pocket God wraps up with its final, apocalyptic update Kamcord is helping users record 7 mobile-game videos every second With more than 20M downloads, Battle Bears mobile game hits San Francisco’s billboards Plain Vanilla releases its multiplayer video game quiz for iOS MediaBrix’s responsive design ensures in-game ads will always look right (exclusive) SGN launches its MasterKey tool for making cross-platform social and mobile games Gamevil surpasses 200M game downloads on smartphones Exclusive: Go Ninja developer brings Shaquille O’Neal back to video games Best of 2012: GamesBeat’s 2012 Game of the Year: The Walking Dead The best indie games of 2012 The best games of 2012 (GamesBeat staff picks) The game industry’s 2012 holiday cards Interviews: Heroes of Newerth 3.0 adds bots, hopes to teach new players (interview) Crytek’s chief: Nothing will beat Crysis 3′s graphics for at least two years (interview) Previews: Hawken’s open beta shows a thoughtfully designed mech combat game (preview) Insomaniac’s Fuse lets you lead a team of four badass agents (preview) Toki Tori 2′s simple mechanics reward your curiosity (hands-on preview) Zen Pinball 2 on Nintendo’s eShop gives you a choice of dozens of pinball tables (preview) The 3DS library gets a little weirder with these quirky eShop games (preview) Reviews: Marvel Heroes needs more humanity, more warmth, and more MMO Black Knight Sword’s punishing difficulty requires more luck than skill to overcome (review) Middle Manager of Justice is all business, no gameplay (review) Mass Effect 3: Omega is explosive, nostalgic, and somewhat pointless (review) Pieces of Flair: What sales managers can learn from the four types of online gamers Solving a Wii mystery: The fate of the awesome toy WeeWaa Exploring why some players are unable to initiate Halo 4′s single-player campaign A history of bodies: Video game violence and the player Love your free players to unlock the full potential of free-to-play games What are your holiday gaming traditions?

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