Epic 
Games, whose Unreal Engine has powered some of the biggest video games ever made, is making some major changes as we begin a new console cycle — and it could have a ripple effect on the rest of the industry.
The developer unveiled a new pricing strategy for its cutting-edge Unreal Engine 4 at the Game Developer’s Conference in San Francisco on Wednesday, abandoning the traditional licensing model for a flat monthly fee and a small percentage of any retail sales.
Virtual 
reality just got a lot more real.
After months of whispers, Sony confirmed Tuesday evening that it’s working on a virtual reality headset for the PS4. And while it didn’t give any details regarding a release window or price, Sony’s entry into this market further raises the profile of so-called VR 2.0 devices, building on the momentum Oculus started with their anticipated Rift device.
Look 
out GameStop. Here comes Walmart.
The world’s largest retailer has announced plans to begin offering store credit — good for anything it sells — for used video games. The program starts March 26 in 3,100 stores across America. By this summer, it hopes to begin re-selling those games to customers alongside new (more expensive) copies of the same title.
Middleware, 
post-mortems on game design, and discussions on ways to improve monetization in free-to-play titles generally aren’t the sorts of things that rev up players. And, on paper, the annual Game Developer’s Conference might seem a little too ‘inside baseball’ for the average person.
But in the detail-obsessed gaming world, GDC is one of the highlights of the year. It lacks the pomp and circumstance of E3 — as well as the big game announcements, generally — but it’s one of the best ways to get a sense of where gaming is going.
Typically, 
console prices obey the rules of gravity: they fall. But in Canada, things are just plain loony. Er, loonie.
Sony is reportedly raising the price of the PlayStation 4 by $50 in the country. DualShock 4 controller and PlayStation Camera prices are also on the rise, each climbing $5.
Everyone’s 
a critic. And when the subject is next generation consoles, they’re especially ferocious.
Sometimes that’s legitimate. Sometimes, it’s user error. (And sometimes, it’s an odd mix of both.) Fixya has dug through over 40,000 complaints to determine the most common problems with each of the new machines on the market.
Achievement 
unlocked.
It took eight years and three months, but insatiable gamer Raymond Cox has finally done what he set out to do: reach the unthinkable Xbox Live Gamerscore of 1 million.
Cox, who goes by the username Stallion83, hit the milestone late last night after finishing a game of Titanfall. It was a momentous achievement, but hardly the first for him.
You 
may think your kindergartner is pretty proficient at Mario or Angry Birds, but we’ve got some sobering news. Your kid can’t hold a candle to Cheetah.
A study in the American Journal of Primatology finds that chimpanzees are actually better at games than the average 3-6 year old.
Flappy 
Bird may fly again.
Roughly one month after deleting the game from the Apple and Android app stores, Dong Nguyen says he’s having second thoughts. But if the game comes back, it’ll be a bit different.
The 
game might be named after him, but there was no way I was going to let Mario win this race. After all, this is apparently still the year of Luigi.
That sort of competitive thinking generally goes through my mind whenever I play Mario Kart on a couch, but when you’re sitting in a real Kart with real speed boosts and obstacles, it’s only amplified.
Chris Morris: Journalist 