PocketGamer.biz Week That Was: Microsoft moves on Nokia, ex-Rovio-ers find success out of the nest, and why there's no bursting the indie bubble

According to the hearth wisdom of ancient China, the worst curse one could level at a rival is "May you live in interesting times."

If this is true, then we've all run afoul of someone powerful in the past since we're living in some of the most interesting times that the gaming industry is likely to ever see.

As a new generation of consoles launch in uncertain waters and Nintendo finds increasing success with a gaming handheld, the mobile gaming landscape continues to change and evolve - torn simultaneously between the thriving creativity of small, indie studios and the methodical, efficient success of big players like King and Supercell.

There's no doubt that these interesting times we find ourselves in will come to redefine the gaming industry, but what the end result will be is anyone's guess.

We're not here for speculation, however. We're here to give you a good look back at the week that was.

• First off, who doesn't love data? The results of our Mobile Games Developer Survey report are now live for members of the Pocket Gamer Business Network. Not a member? Sign up, it's free!

• Unity and GameAnalytics announce a partnership that will bring free analytics tools to developers on Unity.
• Following a raft of cross-promotional tie-ins, we can't help but wonder if Puzzle & Dragons is proof that games can become platforms.
• Putting much faith in Remote Play, Sony is hoping the Vita can re-establish itself as a viable platform for triple-A titles.
• And GameMaker Studio YoYo Games unveiled $60,000 in prizes for a Tizen development competition.

• After launching in the US, Amazon rolls out its Coins currency platform to the UK and Germany.
• Our first of three Monetizers this week compared the success of Batman: Arkham Origins against Batman: Gods Among Us.
• While the second looks at how King, EA, Disney, and Rovio fared in October.
• And the third fixed its gaze on the performance of Kixeye's Backyard Monsters.
  

• We were in Busan, Korea for G-Star last week and learned a lot from our time there. We summed up our findings in a handy list, had a great networking party thanks to NativeX and CocoaChina, and took a look at the 13 British studios brought over to Busan by UKTI.
• Speaking of Korea, have you signed up for PG Connects yet? If you can be in London from January 20 - 21, you won't want to miss it.
• In addition to learning more about Asian markets, PG Connects will also be your next chance to pitch your game at The Very Big Indie Pitch. Submit your game for a chance to win $20,000 worth of prizes!
  

• Three ex-Rovio employees unveiled their new venture, 5th Wave Brands, a licensing agency aimed at making licensing easier for the next wave of mobile games.
• Start-up studio Hammer & Chisel raised $8.7 million to bring MOBA to tablets, led by Benchmark Capital partner Mitch Lasky.
• Nokia's shareholders approved the $7.2 billion Microsoft buyout of its mobile division and started packing boxes, as Microsoft's set to move into Nokia's Espoo HQ at the start of next year.
• In China, e-commerce giant Alibaba snatched up app analytics outfit Umeng.
• Kixeye's staying put in The Bay but it's just cut the ribbon on a new customer support office in Portland, Oregon.
  

• Our mobile gaming mavens ponder whether paid games can successfully switch to free-to-play after they've launched.
• Ex-Rovio employee Mari Turhanen sheds some light on 5th Wave Brands approach to harnessing the power of licensing for the next wave of mobile games.
• Hammer & Chisel's founder Jason Citron spells out exactly why MOBA is the genre most likely to attract a core tablet gaming audience.
• Carter Dotson from 148Apps argues that the indie bubble will never burst, but wonders if King and Supercell's might.
• Jim Stenman, currently at the helm of Rammin' Speed, feels that an obsession with metrics is killing everyone's love of games.
• Latis Global, one of Korea's oldest localisation companies, shares its feelings on why Korea's anti-gaming laws won't hurt mobile devs.

• PlayHaven shares 5 tips for push notifications and how you can best implement them into your game.
• Meanwhile, Playnomics' CEO Chethan Ramachandran says it's time to stop wasting your user acquisition budget and use its Acquisition Value Predictor instead.
• Tired of competing against the big players for new users in a crowded app marketplace? Hunter Hamster Studio's Andrey Kovalishin feels that HTML5 is the answer.
• If that's too drastic of a departure, UK trade association UKIE is sponsoring an event in London to give developers "simple and effective ways to get their games noticed".