Blizzard dev opens up about how Overwatch matchmaking works Blizzard's Scott Mercer pops the hood on Overwatch's competitive matchmaking tech in a new forum post (full of stats) aimed at calming fans' fears about grouping up in ranked multiplayer.

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  Video: How Blizzard created the visual effects of Diablo III In this GDC 2013 session, Blizzard Entertainment's Julian Love discusses the implementation of visual effects in Blizzard's Diablo franchise.

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  Nintendo and Microsoft partner to bring cross-play of Minecraft on Switch Nintendo and Microsoft are collaborating to bring cross-play capability for Minecraft to the Switch by announcing a new update that will bring cross-platform play with other consoles.

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  Microsoft says original Crackdown 3 dev no longer working on the game Reagent Games has gone dark after Microsoft Studios confirms that the creator of the Crackdown franchise is no longer involved in the game's development.

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4 Don't Miss: Veteran director Khris Brown on the secrets of great voice acting Producing believable, satisfying voice acting for your game is tricky business, so Gamasutra sat down with Khris Brown to explore how high-quality voicework in games comes together.

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  Weekly Jobs Roundup: Funcom, Tilting Point, and more are hiring now! Here are just some of the many, many positions being advertised right now on the Gamasutra Job Board.

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  SteamVR introduces new skeletal input system for advanced animations SteamVR introduces the Skeletal Input System, allowing for developers to capture more accurate hand motions.

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1 Discord takes a page from Steam's book with a new, game-focused hub page Discord is launching a new Games Tab that aims to put games in the spotlight.

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  Nintendo stole the show during E3, at least as far as Twitter is concerned Twitter has put together a nifty roundup that offers devs a look at what Twitter users were talking about during E3 last week.

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  At XRDC, learn how (and why) to effectively simulate stress in VR! Ex-BioWare dev Jonathan Perry is coming to XRDC to share what he's learned about simulating affecting, stressful situations in VR -- and how such experiences can help people train and learn better.

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  Blog: Making a tabletop-style party game for consoles Snap Finger Click's development director Martijn van der Meulen discusses how the studio created an adult tabletop-style party title for consoles.

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  Microsoft scraps plans for VR support on Xbox Microsoft no longer plans to support virtual or mixed reality on Xbox, and claims "the PC is probably the best platform for immersive VR and MR."

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  Mighty Bear Games secures 'millions' to create next-gen online titles "The diversity of expertise will be a great asset especially as we prepare to launch our first game this month and scale globally in the months ahead."

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  Pokemon Quest hits 2.5M Switch downloads ahead of mobile launch The notable milestone, which was confirmed by the official Japanese Pokemon Twitter account, has been reached before the title's scheduled mobile launch later this month.

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1 Blog: The problem with mobile strategy game design Command and Conquer Rivals is the latest in the strategy genre to show up on mobile, but it also represents the biggest problem with trying to simplify the genre and its design.

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4 Designing a true first-person camera in Unreal Engine 4 "There is little to no documentation on this specific type of first-person view...[so] I wanted to write about it. Especially since I had a few issues which took me a bit of time to resolve."

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  Dev taps blockchain tech to make Pokemon playable on Twitch -- for a price While the game itself isn't terribly fresh (it's basically Twitch Plays Pokemon, For A Price) it is intriguing to see a dev layering in cryptocurrency fees to play a live game on a per-action basis.

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  Video: How EA manages source control for globally distributed games In this GDC talk, EA's Josh Nixdorf goes over his team's best practices for handling the source control and build and test automation challenges for globally distributed titles like FIFA.

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  Onrush dev breaks down the prototyping of Codemasters' arcade racer Watch the director of Onrush explain the process behind making an off-kilter racing game.

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7 Following hardware exploit, Nintendo bans Switch consoles with pirated games After a hardware exploit for the Nintendo Switch was noticed back in April, a hacker warns against individuals pirating games by pointing out how Nintendo cracks down on illegal downloads.

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  PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds introduces a paid event pass Starting this week, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds will introduce the Event Pass, a 4 week limited time add-on for players where they can unlock exclusive content and missions.

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  Educational app TinyTap raises $5M toward accessible learning Educational games company TinyTap has raised $5 million in funding to go toward providing accessible learning for children through its games.

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  Get a job: Creative Assembly is hiring an Animation Programmer for Total War As Animation Programmer, you will be making Total War’s uniquely epic battles look visually dynamic and immersive, ensuring the studio stays on the cutting edge.

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2 Don't Miss: Creating audio that matters Dead Space 2's J White, Limbo's Martin Stig Andersen, and One Single Life's Thom Kellar explore what goes into the creation of audio that really sticks with players and brings more to the game

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  Mojang revives Scrolls as the free-to-play PC game Caller's Bane Mojang has relaunched the game as a free-to-play title, this time with the ability for players to host their own online servers and a less controversial name.

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