Big-budget games such as Halo 4 and Call of Duty: Black Ops II might brag about how they rule the Xbox 360 in terms of sales, but indie games can also compete – if they’re addictive enough and offer enough value. Take Minecraft, an indie game developed by Markus “Notch” Persson’s company Mojang. According to Mojang, Minecraft, an indie game originally made for PC and ported to the Xbox 360 seven months ago has sold 4,476,904 copies as of the end of November with 40,000 to 60,000 copies sold every week. Minecraft is an anomaly because it doesn’t boast high-definition graphics that ooze of detailed lighting effects and didn’t cost millions of dollars to make, and yet it is the third-most played game on Xbox LIVE. According to Gamasutra’s analysis and

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This week brings us a solid line-up of titles. At the head of the pack is the latest MMO from Spacetime Studios, Arcane Legends. It takes a more action-oriented approach than their previous titles, but it’s just as good as the rest. We’ve also got a few solid games from Miniclip.com, one being a brawler and the other an adorable runner. Additional releases include  a clever image-based puzzler, a dragon breeding management simulation, and the tie-in game three-pack to movie Wreck-it Ralph.

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Hothead Games is a mobile gaming powerhouse. In the past few years, the firm has developed some extremely popular games for the iOS and Android platforms, including the Big Win Sports series, Sea Stars, and Machinarium. The Big Win games are immensely popular all over the world, which is a testament to their success as a game development firm. The games combine card-playing, real-time strategy, and social gaming with a console mentality to produce a truly unique sports gaming experience.

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Sony Corp. is revamping its PlayStation Store as it prepares a common storefront across devices from its game console to its Web-connected TVs, Blu-ray players and phones.

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DORTMUND, Oct 23 (Reuters) - Borussia Dortmund midfielder Sven Bender has had enough of playing against Real Madrid on his video console and cannot wait to face the genuine article in their Champions League Group D clash on Wednesday. "I have stopped playing Real Madrid (on the games console) in the past week," the 23-year-old Germany international told reporters on Tuesday. "It will be a real highlight to have them in the stadium and not on playstation. ...

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SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Zynga Inc laid off 5 percent of its full-time workforce and shut its Boston office on Tuesday as it embarked on a sweeping cost-cutting campaign that may eventually see the "FarmVille" game creator close its Japanese and British studios as well. The company, which is trying to arrest a steep decline in earnings as users gradually migrate onto mobile devices or rival games, plans to "sunset" 13 unspecified older titles, Chief Executive Mark Pincus said in a staff memo on Tuesday that was published on the company blog. ...

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SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Zynga Inc laid off 5 percent of its full-time workforce and shut its Boston office on Tuesday as it embarked on a sweeping cost-cutting campaign that may eventually see the "FarmVille" game creator close its Japanese and British studios as well. The company, which is trying to arrest a steep decline in earnings as users gradually migrate onto mobile devices or rival games, plans to "sunset" 13 unspecified older titles, Chief Executive Mark Pincus said in a staff memo on Tuesday that was published on the company blog. ...

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SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Zynga Inc laid off 5 percent of its full-time workforce and shut its Boston office on Tuesday as it embarked on a sweeping cost-cutting campaign that may eventually see the "FarmVille" game creator close its Japanese and British studios as well. The company, which is trying to arrest a steep decline in earnings as users gradually migrate onto mobile devices or rival games, plans to "sunset" 13 unspecified older titles, Chief Executive Mark Pincus said in a staff memo on Tuesday that was published on the company blog. ...

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Companies in the video games industry have begun releasing their earnings reports for the latest quarter. Here's a look at selected companies that make or sell video games or machines.

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England's players have been banned from tweeting about matches for 24 hours before the game.

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LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL: Web game maker Zynga previewed some of its new games and unveiled a network designed to ensure its players have access to the same features whether they are competing on Facebook, mobile devices or the company's own website.

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In 2006, writer and raconteur Merlin Mann came up with the concept of Inbox Zero as a way of managing the deluge of email in our lives. The idea was to get down to no messages in your email inbox as quickly as possible. Who hasn’t felt that crush of email? Managing email is a huge amount of work. It can be stressful.

So why do I feel the same stress about the games on my phone?

Keep reading...

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