Welcome to PocketGamer.biz's weekly rundown of the stories clocking up the hits, picking up the click-throughs and generally keeping the advertisers happy by serving up page views.
Or, if you'd prefer, the top five stories currently dominating our readers' attention.
Each week, we'll be counting down the biggest news from the previous seven days, giving just a glimpse of the industry's big issues, from five to one.
The Charticle: Mobage flexes its muscles as Blood Brothers hits Google Play top 10
A new regular addition to PocketGamer.biz's flow of analysis is the Charticle, in which news editor James Nouch will evaluate what's hot across the App Store, Google Play and Amazon Appstore for Android.
In his debut article, he looked at how DeNA was building on the success of Rage of Bahamut on its Mobage platform with new game Blood Brothers, which has now entered the US top grossing on Google Play.
Read the full story here
Opinion: User acquisition is a waste of money, and will eventually kill the mobile games industryLast week's provocative opinion piece continues to draw an audience.
Arguing that the rush to buy users mirrored previous destructive app store business activities such as the 'dash to 99c', editor-at-large Jon Jordan said that while user acquisition could make sense for platform companies such as GREE and DeNA, many companies were getting sucked into a 'mee too' situation that made little financial sense.
Read the full story here
Rovio taps up Unity for Angry Birds successor Bad PiggiesMuch anticipated - even if we don't yet know many details - the big news about Rovio's Bad Piggies wasn't its existence. Rather, the surprise was that the game is being developed using the Unity engine rather than Rovio's internal tech.
It's due for release on 27 September, priced 99c/69p for iOS and Android.
Read the full story here
Infographic: Glu Mobile, Gameloft and Com2uS best at working the social networks
How socially connected are you? That was the core of our infographic on the most successful mobile games companies, at least with respect to Twitter and Facebook.
Big publishers such as Glu Mobile and Gameloft came out on top, with Korean publisher Com2uS a surprising entry in the list of the most followed and liked companies.
Read the full story here
Opinion: Where Vita has failed, PlayStation Mobile must succeedGiven Sony's perceived failure to-date with PS Vita, PocketGamer.biz editor Keith Andrew took time to consider whether the company - which now integrates Sony Ericsson within its corporate ranks - has the ability to make something of its PlayStation Mobile initiative.
This is a framework that will enables games to run across hardware, including PS Vita and Android devices.
The present lack of detail is a concern, while the failure of Sony's previous attempt to hook up indie developers - in the shape of the PSP Minis program - doesn't inspire confidence either.
"It's going to take a willingness from Sony to listen to what developers want and an appetite from studios to support another new vehicle if that potential is going to be realised," Andrew commented.
Read the full story here
Hot Five
Contributing Editor
A Pocket Gamer co-founder, Jon is Contributing Editor at PG.biz which means he acts like a slightly confused uncle who's forgotten where he's left his glasses. As well as letters and cameras, he likes imaginary numbers and legumes.
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