The week in gaming news: February 3, 2012

Somehow it seems we’re already a month into 2012. Time sure does fly! A lot happened in the games industry this week, and pretty much all of it had to do with plagiarism. People were accused of copying other people’s games, people denied copying other people’s games, and people even filed lawsuits about people copying their games. It was a crazy week, and here’s everything that happened.

Monday

• Over the weekend Triple Town developer Spry Fox announced that it was filing a lawsuit against the publisher behind Yeti Town.
• Not to be outdone, Buffalo Studios released a snarky inforgraphic suggesting that Zynga’s Zynga Bingo was a copy of Bingo Blitz.
• Naturally, with all of these plagiarism allegations going around, we decided to tackle the subject in our weekly editorial series.
• NASA has decided to get into social games with a new trivia title on Facebook.
• In our latest Kickstarter Picks feature, we look at the cross-platform monster battler Kymera Keeper.

Tuesday

• Harmonix may also be looking to get onto Facebook, at least according to the latest rumors.
• Many developers hate piracy, but Angry Birds developer Rovio welcomes it.
• We talk to the developers behind the upcoming claymation title Clay Jam.
• In two seperate interviews, Zynga has responded to plagiarism allegations.
• The newest Humble Indie Bundle has launched, and this time it’s for Android games.
• ngmoco’s mobile RPG SkyFall has entered public beta.

Wednesday

• Want more Kickstarter Picks? You’re in luck, as we also take a look at Hourblast Games’ Dueling Blades.
• This week’s Replay Wednesdays column features Law & Order and Emily’s True Love, to name a few.
• Bigpoint’s playerbase keeps on getting bigger, and has now grown to 250 million registered users.
• Excited for The Hunger Games movie? Well now you can be excited for the Facebook game, too.
• Android fans rejoice, as The Sims Freeplay is coming to your mobile OS of choice.
• Facebook finally went public, and we learned that Zynga games account for a large percentage of the social network’s profits.

Thursday

• Good news for Ticket to Ride fans, as the pocket edition of the game now supports asynchronous multiplayer.
• Gamespy has announced the line-up for its forthcoming indie open house.

Friday

• The IMGA has announced the nominees for its eigth annual mobile game awards.
• GOG is having a huge sale on classic Sierra games, which are available for 50 percent off.
• 6waves has denied breaching any NDA when it comes to Spry Fox’s Triple Town.

Andrew Webster