Twitch's new 'Host Mode' allows channels to cross-promote Whether you use it to help promote games from developer friends or it evolves in a way for popular channels to curate the feeds they like best, it could be a significant upgrade.

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  Facebook's Zuckerberg promises heavy investment in Oculus VR "We can help define what the next generation of computing is going to be," said Facebook founder and CEO Zuckerberg, by way of explaining the $2 billion deal for Oculus VR.

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  Video: Designing games to be impactful, not escapist entertainment In this GDC 2013 talk, designer Jane McGonigal reminds developers that their games really do affect the lives of their players and gives design advice to ensure those effects are positive.

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2 Riot experiments with permabans to stamp out toxic behavior The company is testing a new system in League of Legends that can permanently ban players for "extreme toxicity" like griefing and use of racial or homophobic slurs. Because, c'mon now.

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  Facebook has good results on ad uptick, but game payments look weak In its latest quarterly results, revenue grew 61 percent year-on-year, but the company's big wins were advertising-related, with game revenues falling for the second straight quarter.

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  Get a job: Turbine is hiring a Mobile Software Engineer The house responsible for Lord of the Rings Online and the Infinite Crisis MOBA needs a software engineer to work on mobile projects in its Needham, Massachusetts office.

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4 Don't Miss: An Architectural Approach to Level Design "Architectural techniques and theories for level designers to use in their own work, practical elements of how designers construct space are addressed along with experiential elements of how and why humans interact with this space."

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4 Controversial Areal Kickstarter suspended, but dev soldiers on Members of the original S.T.A.L.K.E.R. team launched a Kickstarter campaign for open-world game Areal -- but it's been kicked off the funding platform amidst irregularities and accusations.

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7 Wii U won players over after E3, market report suggests GameSpot Trax, the editorial site's analytics and research arm, suggests its readers have dramatically increased their interest in the Wii U following Nintendo's strong showing.

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5 How Ubisoft taught a strategy game studio to be a AAA shooter studio How does Ubisoft develop a game across as many as 10 different studios? Gamasutra speaks to David Polfeldt, managing director of Massive, developers of The Division, to find out.

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17 5 nightmares of a modern game designer "The Game Designer is the only person who is completely in charge of the game experience... I want to show you five working issues that Game Designers (well, me) experience like a nightmare in a B-movie."

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  Lionsgate bolsters its game division with free-to-play studio deal Lionsgate continues to chase game development, announcing this week that it has partnered with -- and invested money in -- the newly-minted Finnish F2P developer Next Games.

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  5 important facts about the mobile game market A new poll of over 10,000 app developers puts into numbers just how challenging the game app market has become.

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  Q&A: Jonatan Van Hove launches GDC Europe's first innovation showcase Van Hove shares his experience as a European indie developer and his inspiration for working to establish the first-ever European Innovative Games Showcase at GDC Europe 2014 this August.

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1 Europe's free-to-play crackdown: Hot air or hot topic? Attorney Jas Purewal takes a deep look at the European Commission's four key objectives for mobile games, as adopted by Google and, so far, rejected by Apple.

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11 6 key points from the 2014 Indie Salary Report This is the fifth year for the indie developer salary report, in which we survey non-salaried game developers. 2013 was a mixed bag overall, with some salaries up, some down year-on-year.

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7 As mobile takes hold, PC Gaming Alliance changes its name The PC Gaming Alliance was founded in 2009 with the purpose of advocating the growth and standardization of games on PC. Now, the non-profit’s mission becomes broader.

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18 Blog: Is Amiibo Nintendo’s next costly disaster? This blog post outlines threats and weaknesses in Nintendo's "figure platform" Amiibo that may mean that the company can't capitalize on the potential Skylanders' success implies.

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6 Prototyping methodology for Assassin's Creed IV's ship battles Lead designer Sébastien Lambottin shares the prototyping methodology which lead to Assassin's Creed IV's naval battles -- what he calls a "prototyping library."

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  Apple's quarter sees good performance, solid phone sales Apple has strong financial performance for its third quarter as iPhone sales are up slightly year-on-year, while iPad sales are down.

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12 Microsoft CEO Nadella sticks by Xbox, citing bigger opportunities CEO Satya Nadella plans to continue to back Xbox because of the prominence of games in today's software ecosystem, saying, "gaming is the largest digital life category in a mobile-first, cloud-first world."

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  Microsoft ships 11.7 million Xbox consoles in 2014, a modest gain Full-year results for the company overall show gains, but pre-price drop Xbox One performance doesn't move the needle for the quarter -- or much for the year.

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1 EA sees profits rise on the back of strong packaged game sales The company is reporting modest growth in both revenue and profits as sales of packaged games like EA Sports UFC overtake digital for the first time in months.

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  Get a job: Petroglyph is looking to hire a Network Programmer Programmers with experience in game networking technology, take note: Grey Goo developer Petroglyph Games is hiring a network programmer to work alongside in its Las Vegas studio.

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3 Don't Miss: The beautifully intricate design of Else Heartbreak Erik Svedäng and Niklas Åkerblad talk Else Heartbreak, a story-driven game set in the fictional harbor town of Dorisburg: "a strange kind of homemade Grand Theft Auto, without any guns or cars."

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