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If you follow VentureBeat but don’t regularly check our GamesBeat site, here’s a list of the best video game stories we ran over the last seven days that you may have missed.
This week, Zynga lays off 5 percent of its employees even though the company’s stock price rose, game developers think the iPad mini is promising, and German studio Bigpoint lets 120 people go.
You’ll also find a review for Just Dance 4 and an in-depth interview the developers behind one of the season’s most intriguing indie games, The Unfinished Swan.
News:
- The DeanBeat: The iPad mini brings out the imagination of game developers
- HTML5 developer Softgames looking to expand after first round of funding
- Tim Schafer to host Rock Band charity night
- 80M people play arcade bubble shooter games on Facebook
- Nintendo’s weekly download report features giant presidential robots, Professor Layton, and New Super Mario Bros. 2 DLC
- Assassin’s Creed III is the most preordered Ubisoft game ever
- Dishonored developer announces three add-on packs
- 2K Games enlists Lineage developer to design Civilization Online
- Utherverse nabs a patent on scalable virtual worlds that can host unlimited users
- Wing Commander creator’s Kickstarter reaches goal in less than a week
- Gree acquires developer Pokelabo for $173 million
- THQ releases newest Darksiders II downloadable content on October 30
- Resident Evil 6 to get improved in-game camera in mid-December patch
- Halo 4 to get 3 multiplayer map packs through April
- DICE Summit shakes up its format for game creator talks and renames industry awards
- Game ratings board creates a no-cost service for putting content labels on digital games
- Borderlands Legends is an isometric strategy game due October 31
- Final Fantasy publisher signs deal to use Gears of War developer’s latest graphics technology
- Aiming to head off Apple, Microsoft shows off Xbox SmartGlass mobile app and Xbox dashboard update
- AMD launches new set of 8-core processors for gamers
- Here’s the first Wii U commercial from Nintendo
- Fight Club, Daredevil studio to help produce Assassin’s Creed film
- GameStop to get exclusive The Walking Dead: Collector’s Edition from Telltale Games
- Shigeru Miyamoto is Nintendo’s other original intellectual property
Earnings:
- Analysts pore through Zynga’s numbers as the stock price rises
- Zynga stock surges as it slightly beats analysts’ reduced targets for third quarter
- Facebook’s Zuckerberg unhappy with Zynga’s 20% decline in payments
Mobile News:
- Founders leave DeNA’s Ngmoco mobile gaming division
- Majesco expands into mobile games with Legends of Loot
- Mobile is now 20 percent of Zynga’s business
Layoffs:
- German games maker Bigpoint lets go 120 employees
- Zynga CEO’s letter to employees: We’ve laid off 5 percent of our workforce
- Zynga lays off almost entire Austin studio
Interviews:
- The story behind the emotional center of The Unfinished Swan (in-depth interview)
- The explanation behind the ending of the Unfinished Swan (interview part 2)
- Playboy’s Miss October talks about gamer stereotypes and breaking into the game business
- Here’s how you become an app store millionaire (interview)
Tablet wars:
- Game developers say iPad mini will be good for gaming
- This week could determine the fate of the digital economy
Reviews:
Pieces of flair: