War of Mercenaries is one of those games that may look a little too familiar when you first boot it up--specifically, it bears more than a passing resemblance to Kixeye's beloved Backyard Monsters and, more recently, Supercell's Clash of Clans. To its credit, it handles the popular concept well. Gone are the monsters and their suburban environs; in their place we have the trappings of medieval high fantasy and a host of memorable units. That might be enough to win you over if your preferences lean more toward high fantasy than Monsters, Inc., but be prepared to bring along some friends—the social requirements get demanding fast.

Lost Jewels is a match-3 game for Facebook. Despite its attempt to deliver an exotic theme befit for submerged cities and faded civilizations, there’s nothing mysterious about the game’s title. Given the way the jewels on the game’s boards are shattered and blasted, it’s no wonder said jewels are considered “lost” at the end of it all. 

Here at Gamezebo, we get a lot of press releases. As I type this to you right now, I’m swimming in press releases. Wearing a bathing suit made of press releases. In all seriousness, though, not everything can make the cut. But when the already fast-growing game startup by the name of Peak e-mailed to tell us that they were in fact growing explosively? I took notice. Why? Because now they’re outpacing Facebook themselves.

We in the West don't normally think of Turkey as a nation of gamers or game developers, so most of us would be surprised to find that Facebook boasts 32 million Turkish subscribers. This month, Turkish game developer Peak Games brings us Facebook's newest bubble popper, Lost Bubble, a game that clearly demonstrates the potential of Middle Eastern game companies. It also suggests that while Peak Games knows how to recognize and jump on a hot new genre, it hasn't yet discovered how to expand upon it.

Peak Games, which has offices in Istanbul, Ankara, Amman, Barcelona and Berlin, is the fastest-growing games studio for emerging markets, including Turkey and Middle East North Africa (MENA). It's about to grow a little faster thanks to its recent acquisition of Kammelna Games, a social games company that's based in Saudi Arabia.

With the rise of Turkey as a viable market for social games, many developers are looking at creating localized versions of hit games specifically for the Turkish market. And the latest to do so is Meteor Games, which has partnered with Peak Games to bring Island Paradise to Turkish gamers.

By focusing on underserved markets in places like the Middle East and North Africa, Peak Games has now become one of the top six game developers on Facebook. To continue this growth the company has announced new game acquisitions and additional funding.

Social games publisher and developer RockYou has announced a partnership with Peak Games in order to localize its games for new markets across the Middle East.