News::Activision bought the 'Candy Crush' developer for $5.9 billion

Say what you will about the quality of Activision's output, but the company makes incredibly smart business moves. Like the announcement that it purchased Candy Crush studio King Digital Entertainment for a cool $5.9 billion. For comparison's sake, Amazon paid a paltry $970 million for Twitch while Facebook spent $2 billion on Oculus VR and $19 billion on messaging platform Whatsapp. Oh, and Minecraft only set Microsoft back $2.5 billion. Bobby Kotick and Co. definitely think this is a big deal, and considering just how many people play the mindless puzzler this is likely a smart investment.

Source: Activision Blizzrd

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News::What's on your HDTV: 'That '70s Show,' 'Call of Duty,' 'Master of None'

This week is all about Call of Duty, as this year's edition arrives on consoles Friday. If you want Black Ops 3 first them you can of course try downloading it, but if you prefer a disc some retailers are adding midnight delivery as an option next to the standard midnight release. Also this week, Mill Creek Entertainment is releasing the entire run of That '70s Show on Blu-ray, which isn't cropped or zoomed (like, say The Wire) since it was originally shot in widescreen on film. Netflix premieres Aziz Ansari's series Master of None, while the first two season of Game of Thrones are being rereleased on Blu-ray with Dolby Atmos surround sound -- check after the break for a trailer explaining how important the new audio is. There's a Need for Speed game hitting new-gen consoles, and Pixar's Inside Out is available on Blu-ray this week. Look after the break to check out each day's highlights, including trailers and let us know what you think (or what we missed).

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News::Battlezone's PSVR reboot is the ultimate fan service

It could be argued that Atari's 1980 arcade classic Battlezone was the first virtual reality game. In a simple duel of tanks, players looked through a small opening in the cabinet to maneuver their lumbering vehicle, firing at a single enemy and avoiding being struck by projectiles. The game's wireframe design was graphically simplistic, but stenciled in thin green lines on the horizon was a single object that drew the attention of fans: an erupting volcano. Rumors swirled of a secret route that would lead players to the volcano's crater where a castle lay awaiting brave explorers. "Of course, none of this was true," Atari engineer Lyle Rains pointed out in Van Burnham's 2001 book Supercade. But that didn't stop the dreamers. In one case, a fan even wrote to Atari to tell the company he'd reached the mythical castle.

After decades of speculation, developer Rebellion, best known for the Sniper Elite series, is rebooting Battlezone for Sony's PlayStation VR and taking players into the heart of the volcano.

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News::Gfinity needs more cash to build its UK eSports empire

Although demand for eSports continues to rise every day, helped by Twitch and YouTube, making money from competitive gaming can be hard (unless you're a successful player). It's a struggle that UK eSports events company Gfinity knows all too well after it revealed it lost £3.6 million in its first full year. Given that the company invested heavily in getting its business off the ground, which includes the launch of the UK's first dedicated arena, the loss doesn't come as a surprise, but it does highlight the need to quickly convert its growing audience into paying customers.

Via: Gamesindustry.biz

Source: Gfinity (PDF)

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