Battlerite walks the dinosaur with its Prehistoric Mania event

Battlerite is getting a dose of cavemen and dinosaurs with its new Prehistoric Mania event, which goes on from today until December 12. Battlerite is an arena brawler that’s similar to a traditional MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena), except it focuses on smaller teams and mo … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 7 years ago

AWS cloud databases go serverless and multi-master

Amazon Web Services updated its portfolio of database services today to provide customers with increased reliability, scale, and ease of use. The company’s Aurora database went serverless, while a new Neptune service arrived to help customers run graph databases. Its longstanding … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 7 years ago

Game veteran starts Traega Entertainment in Nashville

Traega Entertainment is coming out today as a new independent game studio started by veteran game developers. Dax Hock, who formerly worked at games such as Dreamfall: The Longest Journey and Anarchy Online at Funcom, has assembled a team of game developers to work at an independ … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 7 years ago

Amazon Web Services embraces Kubernetes with two container services

Amazon Web Services unveiled a pair of new services today aimed at helping companies run containerized applications in its cloud. The provider embraced the open source Kubernetes container management system today with the announcement of the Elastic Container Service for Kubernet … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 7 years ago

57% of net neutrality comments submitted to FCC appear to be fake

(Reuters) — More than half of the 21.7 million public comments submitted to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission about net neutrality this year used temporary or duplicate email addresses and appeared to include false or misleading information, the Pew Research Center said … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 7 years ago

The RetroBeat: Amazon’s new investment in old games

Retro gaming is becoming a bankable business. That’s why Amazon has opened up a portal dedicated to it. In early November, Amazon opened its Retro Zone. It’s a page available on the retailer’s site and app that displays retro products, such as mobile ports of classic games, appar … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 7 years ago

Why is sending money internationally so expensive when sending an email is free?

SPONSORED: Presented by TransferWise Expensive, frustrating and slow. That’s what it’s like to send money internationally. But how can that be the case in an era when it’s free to send an email? The truth about how your money moves around the world “I was really shocked when I sa … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 7 years ago

Shin Megami Tensei V for the Switch is coming to the West

In October, Atlus announced that Shin Megami Tensei V was coming to the Switch in Japan. Today, the Sega-owned studio revealed that the role-playing game is also releasing in the West. The Shin Megami Tensei franchise once rarely left Japan, but the Persona sub-series has helped … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 7 years ago

Amazon says Cyber Monday 2017 was its biggest shopping day ever

We already knew that the Alexa-powered Echo Dot speaker was Amazon’s top-selling item from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday, but now the final numbers are in. Sort of. The ecommerce giant has confirmed that Cyber Monday was its biggest shopping day in history, surpassing the pre … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 7 years ago

Amazon Web Services names NFL, Disney, Expedia as key customers

Amazon Web Services has officially announced three major customers for its cloud platform today, showing continued momentum in attracting top business even amid heavy competition. Expedia, the Walt Disney Company and the NFL will all be using that cloud technology to underpin key … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 7 years ago

Google’s Waze goes hands-free with new voice command and gets motorcycle mode for tailored navigation

Waze is getting a couple of new features today as the Google-owned navigation app targets two-wheeled motorists and doubles down on its safety credentials. First up is motorcycle mode, a feature that has been frequently requested by users in the past and which will give riders ta … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 7 years ago

How Arizona Sunshine racked up $1.2 million in sales in one month

SPONSORED: Presented by Intel  No question, VR is the new frontier for developers. They have to rethink everything they know about game design. The new technology also requires a different way of thinking when it comes to selling VR games and building a community around them. Tha … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 7 years ago

Microsoft to rebuild its Seattle HQ as battle of the tech mega campuses heats up

Faced with a sprawling campus that’s grown long in the tooth, Microsoft today announced an ambitious “refresh” of its Redmond headquarters as it seeks to create an architectural wonderland that can compete with the space-age workplaces of rivals such as Amazon and Apple. In a blo … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 7 years ago

Uber’s Q3 net loss widens to $1.46 billion

(Reuters) — Uber’s quarterly losses widened, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday, as the ride-hailing company wades through legal troubles and faces regulatory scrutiny across the globe. The Silicon Valley-based company’s net loss increased to $1.46 billion … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 7 years ago

Amazon Web Services launches bare metal compute instances

Amazon Web Services is moving full steam into the bare metal hosting market with the release of a new cloud computing instance. The i3.metal instance will provide customers with a beefy server running in an AWS datacenter that is useful for applications that require a ton of raw … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 7 years ago

Amazon will let developers build Alexa skills that recognize unique voices in 2018

Amazon today announced that starting in early 2018, developers will be able to build Alexa skills that recognize unique human voices. Personalized voice profiles are set up through the account of the primary user of an Alexa-enabled device and can be extended to up to 10 users. V … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 7 years ago

FCC’s Ajit Pai, addressing net neutrality rules, calls Twitter biased

(Reuters) — The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Ajit Pai, accused social media company Twitter Inc of being politically biased on Tuesday as he defended his plan to roll back rules intended to ensure a free and open internet. Pai, a Republican named by Presiden … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 7 years ago

The future of autonomous weapon regulation relies on public awareness

GUEST: Straight out of defense labs, autonomous and semi-autonomous weapons are already in use, but there’s no overarching agreement among key stakeholders on how to control their implementation and diffusion. Unlike nuclear or biological weapons, whose proliferation have been la … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 7 years ago

Infrastructure 3.0: Building blocks for the AI revolution

GUEST: By any measure, we’ve entered the age of machine learning and artificial intelligence. The confluence of massive data, cheap storage, elastic compute, and algorithmic advances, particularly in deep learning, has given rise to applications that previously were confined to t … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 7 years ago

Gang Beasts brawls its way out of Early Access on December 12

Gang Beasts is a delightfully goofy multiplayer brawler set in the colorful metropolis Beef City. Indie developer Boneloaf and publisher Double Fine Productions released it on Steam Early Access in 2014. It’ll be launching for PC and PlayStation 4 on December 12 for $20. Up to fo … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 7 years ago

eBay now lets you start shopping with a Google Assistant smart speaker and finish on your phone

eBay today released an updated version of its Google Assistant app that lets users start a conversation about an item you want to buy on a smart speaker, then continue the shopping experience on an Android or iOS smartphone. By saying “Hey Google, ask eBay to find me a” followed … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 7 years ago

Unity buys Game’s Multiplay game server hosting business for $25.2 million

Unity Technologies has bought the game server hosting Multiplay Digital division of United Kingdom retailer Game Digital for $25.2 million. The deal is part of the company’s ambition to be more than a game engine maker and to provide all sorts of services. In this case, it offloa … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 7 years ago

6 key ingredients for cultivating a startup mentality at your company

SPONSORED: Presented by Capital One Canada The culture of startups. It’s become almost an urban myth, or maybe digital dream would be a better term, since startups originated in Silicon Valley in the 1980s. You know how the story goes. Savvy young employees arrive at their workpl … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 7 years ago

Soomla: Some game ads can cause a mobile app to lose 3 times more users

EXCLUSIVE: Churn is a dirty word in mobile apps and games. It refers to users who don’t come back. And mobile monetization firm Soomla has found that some game advertisements can cause up to three times as much churn, or loss of users, as others.  It also found that advertising t … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 7 years ago

Yooka-Laylee’s December 14 launch continues the indie love for Nintendo Switch

Independent developer Playtonic announced today that its 3D platformer Yooka-Laylee is coming out on the Nintendo Switch on December 14. Yooka-Laylee is a spiritual successor to the Banjo-Kazooie series, with many of Playtonic’s employees made of former Rare developers. It receiv … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 7 years ago

IT giant DXC Technology to launch ‘digital transformation center’ in New Orleans

Earlier this month, DXC Technology, a $25 billion IT services giant created from the spring merger of CSC (Computer Sciences Corp) and the Enterprise Services business of Hewlett Packard Enterprise, announced their choice of location for their first U.S.-based Digital Transformat … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 7 years ago

Newzoo: Game industry growing faster than expected, up 10.7% to $116 billion 2017

Game market researcher Newzoo reported that the global game market will hit $116 billion in revenues on, up from 10.7 percent from a year earlier. The latest numbers are up $7.1 billion from Newzoo’s previous estimate. Mobile gaming revenues for 2017 were revised upward the most, … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 7 years ago

13 ways you can give back this holiday season

It’s the Tuesday after Thanksgiving in the United States, which means that after all the family dinners and the early morning rush to get in all that shopping, it’s time to give back to those less fortunate. Today is the fifth anniversary of Giving Tuesday, an event that encourag … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 7 years ago

Amid fake news scandal, Facebook launches effort to innovate in digital journalism

Facebook announced that it’s teaming up with the DMZ university incubator and the Ryerson School of Journalism at Ryerson University to support Canada’s efforts to advance innovation in journalism. The move takes place amid controversy over fake news, in which Facebook played an … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 7 years ago

WeWork acquires Meetup to host more face-to-face gatherings

Shared work space giant WeWork has acquired Meetup, the social community platform that helps people get together in real life (IRL). Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Rumors first started circulating yesterday that a deal could be on the cards, and New York-based Meetup confi … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 7 years ago

The Echo Dot topped Amazon’s global sales from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday

Amazon has announced some broad sales numbers regarding the retail-arrific holiday weekend, spanning from Thanksgiving, through Black Friday, and onto Cyber Monday. With the battle of the voice-enabled smart speaker market intensifying, Amazon lowered the price from the bottom-en … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 7 years ago

IOTA launches IoT data marketplace, envisions devices autonomously buying and trading information

IOTA, the eighth largest blockchain in the world and one built specifically to power the internet-of-things economy, launched a data marketplace today, in partnership with over 20 large organizations around the world, including Microsoft, Bosch, Samsung, and Fujitsu. The idea is … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 7 years ago

Samsung brings LED displays to European movie theaters, plans U.S. launch in 2018

Samsung has announced that it’s bringing its much-hyped LED movie theater screen to Europe and plans to bring it to more markets around the world —  including the U.S. — in 2018. The Korean tech titan unveiled the Samsung Cinema LED in Las Vegas back in March before rolling out t … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 7 years ago

Airbnb now lets groups of guests split the cost of their stay

When Brian Chesky asked last December what Airbnb should be working on, one of the most popular requests the company’s chief executive received was the option to let groups of guests more easily share the cost of their stay. Today, powered by the company’s acquisition of Tilt, a … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 7 years ago

NFX accelerator launches first institutional fund of $150 million to disrupt the VC model

NFX, a San Francisco-based accelerator program, announced today that it is launching its first institutional seed fund, which closed at $150 million. Limited Partners (LPs) range from endowments to founders and fund of funds, among others. According to the NFX team, this won’t be … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 7 years ago

Google gives Search a dedicated ‘finance’ tab, drops portfolio feature from Google Finance

Google is no stranger to displaying finance-related information, having launched a dedicated Google Finance portal way back in 2006 to highlight data around stocks, mutual funds, financial news, among other relevant tidbits. And Google Search itself has long displayed some financ … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 7 years ago

VMware expands its AWS-based cloud service to West Virginia region

VMware announced that its joint offering with Amazon Web Services is expanding to a second cloud infrastructure region, providing customers with additional geographic availability and access to new services. Businesses can deploy applications through the VMware Cloud on AWS servi … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 7 years ago

Microsoft and SAP expand partnership to use and sell more of each other’s cloud services

(Reuters) — Business software giants Microsoft and SAP have agreed to expand the use of each other’s cloud-based products and services delivered via the internet, they said on Tuesday, as they laid out a common product road map for joint customers. In a joint statement, Microsoft … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 7 years ago

Doctolib raises $42 million, becoming one of Europe’s hottest medtech startups

Just 10 months after raising a $28 million round of venture capital, Paris-based Doctolib announced today it has bagged another $42 million as it seeks to expand the international footprint of its online doctor booking service. Founded in 2013, Doctolib has now raised a total of … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 7 years ago

Grocery giant debuts picking and packing robot that uses computer vision to determine the best grasp

A British online supermarket chain is trialing a new automated grocery picking and packing system that uses computer vision to determine the best grasping mechanism to transfer goods. By way of a quick recap, Ocado is among the world’s biggest online-only grocery retailers, and i … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 7 years ago

FCC gutting net neutrality would reverse over a decade of work trying to protect internet users

In a new proposal issued last week, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) set out a plan to eliminate net neutrality protections, ignoring the voices of millions of Internet users who weighed in to support those protections. The new rule would reclassify high-speed broadban … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 7 years ago

SoftBank offers to buy Uber shares at a $48 billion valuation, a 30% discount

(Reuters) — Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp is offering to purchase shares of Uber Technologies Inc at a valuation of $48 billion, a 30 percent discount to its most recent valuation of $68.5 billion, a person familiar with the matter said on Monday. The investment, which was approved … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 7 years ago

Sensor Tower: Animal Crossing gets 15 million mobile downloads in 6 days

Judging by the flood of memes on Twitter about Nintendo’s Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, it’s no surprise to hear that it had a successful launch. In the first six days, it’s been downloaded at least 15 million times from the Apple App Store and Google Play, according to market an … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 7 years ago

Want to break into the AR or VR industry? Here’s how

GUEST: Everyone gets excited when a new technological frontier takes off. However, with rapid growth comes uncertainty. When the landscape is shifting dramatically, it can be difficult to identify a reliable plan for building a career in the emerging industry. I’ve interviewed fo … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 7 years ago

Understanding user privacy in the age of smart speakers

GUEST: Voice is becoming a primary interface. It’s in many of the technologies we use on a daily basis, like our home appliances, cars, and mobile apps. We can turn off the lights, order takeout, buy our weekly groceries, or listen to our favorite albums, all by using one of the … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 7 years ago

Here’s my Cyber Monday haul: Dropmix, Wi-Fi extender, and more

We’re deep into Cyber Monday at this point, but I wanted to give you an idea of how I’m spending my money on this holy day of commerce. I already have most of the things I need for my day-to-day gaming. For example, I don’t need a new keyboard or video card, so I’m looking […] | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 7 years ago

Amazon Web Services unveils new program to fund machine learning research

Amazon Web Services announced a new award program today that’s designed to fund academic machine learning research using its cloud. The AWS Machine Learning Research Awards will provide both one-time unrestricted awards to academic institutions as well as credits for sue with its … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 7 years ago

VRWERX: Scaring the cr*p out of you

SPONSORED: Presented by Intel The brief history of modern VR is a history of scaring people. Even a whimsical adventure can elicit moments of terror if you find yourself standing on the edge of a cliff or trying to make a huge jump. Overt horror experiences, then, can be truly te … | Continue reading


@venturebeat.com | 7 years ago