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.
Pedal to the metal: The making of CSR Racing
Go to any games conference and you'll repeatedly find CSR Racing being held up as an example of how to do free-to-play both well and, perhaps more importantly, lucratively.
Yet, hard as it is to believe, Boss Alien's drag racer is well over a year old now. Time for us, therefore, to catch up with studio founder Jason Avent for his take on how this freemium fiesta came to be.
"We kind of had some idea of how successful it would be from the soft launch," detailed Avent of the game's success.
"Then we were at WWDC 2012 [where the game was demonstrated as part of Apple's keynote] and the reception was really good. Then we hard launched, and the numbers just went astronomical."
Top 5 things we learned at Unite 2013 in Vancouver
It's a little bizarre to have a top five list within a top five list, but there was nonetheless a lot to take away from Unity's latest Unite conference in Vancouver at the end of August.
Perhaps most interesting was the revelation that Unity is to move into game publishing, starting with two titles on iOS and Android this autumn.
"We have six games in production at various stages of completion we couldn't triple that with the team we have, so we're going to have to start slowly and be very selective, unfortunately," detailed Unity CEO David Helgason.
"I don't think the publisher ever went away it was something of a fantasy, or a dream.
"Before we decided to start this, I was sort of in the 'who needs a publisher' camp, but I learned through a lot of watching, a lot of talking, a lot of reading and a lot of debates that the publisher doesn't go away as something that adds value."
Opinion: Plants vs. Zombies 2 downloaded more times than Plants vs. Zombies 1, but who cares?
Given Plants vs. Zombies 2 is a free-to-play release whereas its predecessor was a paid game, what sense is there in comparing the downloads of the two games?
Very little, argued editor-at-large Jon Jordan last week.
"The only comparison that matters in this case is an apples-to-apples revenue comparison," detailed Jordan.
"That's something EA is unlikely to do formally, but we'll hopefully get some visibility on the situation when it announces its Q2 financials at the end of October."
Why indie mobile game development is no longer a worthwhile commercial prospect
Having previously given his take on the influence architecture can and does have on games design, indie developer Nicholas Lister took to PocketGamer.biz again last week, this time to call time on indie mobile game development as a worthwhile commercial prospect.
According to Lister, developers need to view their projects through the eyes of a bank manager before they go ahead with them.
"Since starting to do this, whenever I have put the idea of independently making and selling mobile games in front of myself-as-bank-manager, I find myself suggesting to the imaginary unfortunate in front of me that I could better invest my money by putting it all on Lucky Lad in the 3:20 at Chepstow," detailed Lister.
"There are some notable exceptions, of course. A mobile version of a recent and very popular game from another platform, for instance, given the right arrangements, is about as close to a surefire yes as you are likely to get."
PS Vita's indie assault: Devs reveal why they're rallying behind Sony's handheld
Sony's PS Vita may not be blowing the world away when it comes to pure sales, but the sheer number of page views our look at the indie devs throwing their weight behind the platform amassed last week suggests interest in the handheld remains high.
Indeed, given a total of 24 new indie games were announced at Gamescom in Cologne, we felt it only right to get in contact with some of the studios behind those titles to find out what drew them to Sony's portable.
Safe to say, there was no 'one size fits all' answer, though you can catch up with all the responses here.
Hot Five
With a fine eye for detail, Keith Andrew is fuelled by strong coffee, Kylie Minogue and the shapely curve of a san serif font.
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