Hot Five: Kim Kardashian makes mobile move, why Dead Trigger 2's devs swear by Unity 3D, and 5th Wave Brands proves there's life after Rovio
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.
'We're teaching Rovio a few things about free-to-play': Pocket PlayLab talks Juice Cubes
You'd think being picked up by the Rovio Stars publishing initiative would be a one-sided arrangement for most developers.
But Pocket PlayLab isn't just another developer, and it's keen to make sure that it has something to give back to Rovio other than a polished game, Juice Cubes.
In an interview with our own Peter Willington, Pocket PlayLab's Jakob Lykkegaard notes that his team is "actually teaching them [Rovio] a lot about freemium, about how to acquire users. Because Rovio games are based around the fact that they launch a game, and everybody downloads them."
You can read the rest of the interview, which includes Pocket PlayLabs Thomas Andreasen as well, by clicking here.
Stars in their eyes: Glu Mobile signs up Kim Kardashian
Glu Mobile's in a bit of a sticky spot at the moment, and it's turning to licensed IP to help turn its fortunes around.
The latest outing in this arena is a just-announced game for iOS and Android that will feature the name and likeness of famesque celebutante, Kim Kardashian.
While details on the game are still in development, we're told players will follow in the elder Kardashian's footsteps as they learn to "navigate themselves into a famous Hollywood lifestyle."
After posting an $8 million loss for the previous quarter, Glu is understandably excited about working with "Kim Kardashian's brand and fan base of 18 million Twitter followers, 15 million Facebook fans, and 11 million Instagram followers."
Making of Dead Trigger 2
Madfinger has a reputation for making graphically gorgeous and gore-spattered games for the App Store.
It's latest offering, Dead Trigger 2, continues both trends as the Unity-powered shooter seeks to recapture the magic of the original which has - incidentally - been downloaded over 26 million times since its initial release.
James Nouch got an in-depth look at the making of Dead Trigger 2, in which Madfinger CEO Marek Rabas notes that "it's definitely more difficult and more challenging to create a good free-to-play game."
Hall of Fame: Kevin Chou
Have you heard of the PocketGamer.biz Hall of Fame? It's our attempt to celebrate those within the industry who have helped transform mobile gaming into the multi-billion dollar sector it is today.
One such player is Kabam's Kevin Chou who helped turn Kabam from a small studio above a dim sum shop to a massive global powerhouse of over 650 employees with an expected revenue of $325 million.
Chou helped secure vital partnerships with Hollywood titans like Paramount Pictures, Warner Brothers, and MGM to make mobile games based on some of the most popular movies and franchises.
To welcome him into the Hall of Fame, our own Jon Jordan caught up with Chou to chronicle his path from obscurity to prominence.
Ex-Rovio employees launch new licensing agency for mobile's next generation
It might be difficult for some of us to understand why anyone earning their crust at a studio enjoying the kind of success Rovio has mustered over the last few years would want to leave.
One trio of former Rovio staffers are starting to make waves of their own, however, in the form of 5th Wave Brands - a licensing agency founded specifically to create and execute global licensing programs for 'the next wave of mobile games'.
5th Waves' founding members - Heikki Laaninen, Khalid Bur, and Mari Turhanen - all came from Rovio, and are all united in making 5th Waves Brands a major global player in the world of mobile games.
We caught up with Mari Turhanen in an interview, where she said the trio learned the power of licensing from Rovio and talks about what the world can expect from the Nordic trio.