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: Is GREE's first-party thrust failing to win over western gamers?
News that GREE is to close down OpenFeint before the end of 2012 caused us to pause and take a look at just how the Japanese giant's games in the west are performing.
Our conclusion? GREE has enjoyed somewhat mixed success with its first-party releases so far, but it's not yet made that killer breakthrough.
"It's clear that Funzio's output represents a notable bright-spot in GREE's western portfolio," detailed news editor James Nouch in our weekly look at the app charts.
"It's also clear that GREE's notoriously high user-acquisition spending hasn't always resulted in a well-monetised userbase as far as the grossing charts tell us, at least."
"But while it's easy to portray GREE as an irresponsible big spender, it seems that at least one of its big-money acquisitions the $210 million purchase of Funzio may yet prove to be a shrewd move in its ongoing western expansion."
An ode to OpenFeint: The PocketGamer.biz Mobile Gaming Mavens close the door on social gaming's star platform
Given the focus on GREE, it should be of little surprise that, also proving popular last week was the response to the aforementioned OpenFeint closure.
GREE's Eros Resmini had already given his response to criticism regarding the timing of the news forcing developers to remove OpenFeint from their apps in the Christmas run-in - exclusively to PocketGamer.biz.
Now everyone else got to have their say.
"I have to imagine the decision to pull the plug in a way that screws over developers at the worst time possible came straight from Naoki Aoyagi who is acting as CEO for international operations," offered Bolt Creative's Dave Castelnuovo.
"He clearly has no clue how to run a business that is dependent on developers trusting in your product. Who's to say that the GREE SDK won't go away next year at a moment's notice? Who's to say that GREE won't suddenly change its developer agreement at a moment's notice in a way that is not favourable to you?
"Naoki Aoyagi has made it clear that he can't be trusted with the future of your app."
Opinion: Will Cross-Buy be the PS Vita's system seller?
Despite a spike in sales in Japan, Sony's PS Vita continues to struggle to find its feet commercially across the globe.
Cross-Buy the firm's initiative that lets consumers buy a version of a game on PS3 that can also be played on Vita, or vice versa could, however, prove to be the handheld's saviour.
"For me, Cross-Buy solves one one of the main problems that has dogged 'console quality' handhelds ever since the PSP emerged in 2004," offered Pocket Gamer editor-in-chief Kristan Reed.
"For as great as it is in theory to have brilliant versions of your favourite console game to play on the move, the truth is you quickly start to resent having to pay for the same game twice.
"To really make Cross-Buy work, and to transform the PS Vita into the must-have system that it deserves to be, the initiative would have to extend to all the big titles across the board.
"Whether Sony can sweet-talk enough third parties to get involved will be the deciding factor."
Exclusive: Is Unity demanding 'six figure sums' from games with gambling?
With nations around the globe loosening the leash on real-money gambling in gaming, so development tools are also adjusting their approaches to accommodate them.
Well, Unity is anyway, but is its new license for games that feature gambling mentioned in the Unity 4.x EULA a case of the company retooling its platform to aid gambling games, or is it looking to squeeze more money out of them?
"I own a digital interactive agency called 2Advanced Studios that was approached by a very prominent client in the gambling industry to build them a poker game," claimed Tony Novak, who serves as president and CFO of Bad Juju Games.
"Naturally, I recommended Unity3D, especially given that they wanted to take their gambling client cross platform. Somewhere along the path, my client reached out to Unity3D and came back to me saying 'Forget Unity, they want over six figures!'."
Unity's response? The firm is to evaluate whether games fall under this additional gambling license on a "case by case basis."
"We'll also be integrating gambling specific features to Unity across 2013 in order to empower developers and better facilitate their success in the gambling space."
The Boyfriend Maker debacle rumbles on...
Top story or, rather, stories last week focused on the removal of controversial virtual dating game, Boyfriend Maker.
The game, which came with an age rating of 4+ and appeared aimed at girls, came with a chat mode that frequently delivered extreme, explicit responses, making what appeared to be references to rape and paedophilia.
The app has since been removed, though the debate about just how it sat on the App Store unchallenged continues, raising questions as to the legitimacy of an ever-growing marketplace moderated by just one party, Apple.
