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.
He's the new Warren Spector of narrative gameplay, but Irrational Games' creative director Ken Levine isn't a fan of iOS gaming.
At least, he's not a "huge Fruit Ninja" fan.
"It just doesn't interest me. I respect what those guys do, and obviously they're able to tap into a kind of zeitgeist that is outside what I do, but it's just not me. I'm a core gamer," he told IGN, despite the almost simultaneous news that two developers from Irrational's Australian studio left to set up a mobile-focused developer.
Many, many headlines start with the words, "Zynga has announced the acquisition of..."
However, when it came to open source 2D Android OpenGL game engine AndEngine, technically the social gaming giant just hired Nicolas Gramlich, the developer behind the project.
"Zynga has long been an advocate of the open source community. For example, the key contributors behind cocos2D recently joined Zynga, and I'm proud to join in this tradition," he said of the deal.
AndEngine will continue to be available for people to use; we assume it, or the smarts behind it, will be powering future Zynga Android releases too.
At PocketGamer.biz, we love Tapjoy.
It's pure mobile gaming news gold; something it proved again this week as CEO Mihir Shah said Android users were five times more valuable to advertisers than iOS users.
Thanks to its huge cross platform network, the company gets to see plenty of interesting stats about how different OSes work, and Shah said an Android user on Tapjoy was worth $1.17 compared to just $0.24 on iOS.
Presumably, Apple banning its incentivised download model may have something to do with it.
Continuing the interest when it comes to mobile advertising, our interview with Brian Wong, CEO of achievement-based mobile ad network got people reading.
"Using Kiip, developers get paid on inventory they've never earned money from before, and they're giving their users free stuff," Wong pointed out.
"We're all about rewards, revenue and retention. That's why we're a no-brainer."
Certainly the biggest surprise of the week, albeit local surprise was Apple's decision to increase App Store prices in the UK from 59p to 69p, at the lowest level.
As we pointed out, 'For the record, in July 2008, 59p was worth $1.17. Now it's worth 95c. 69p is now worth $1.11. Euro deflation wrt $ has only been 10 percent', so the pricing tweak made financial sense.
Developers were generally happy too, gaining slightly more revenue, although some did point out there could be additional resistance at higher prices.
"It may have a big effect on apps at the £3.99 price point and above," warned Albino Pixel's Dave Allanson.
And as Mainly About Games' Anthony Gowland pointed out, "The real winners will be the freemium guys."
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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