On the heels of revealing its full year results, social game maker Zynga announced that it would close three of its games - CityVille 2, The Friend Game and Party Place. All three games launched in the last quarter, though other games that launched at about the same time will remain active - CoasterVille, Bubble Safari Ocean and Ayakashi. No word on when these games will go offline...

While it won't come as any shock, THQ has filed a FORM 8-K with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission ("Item 5.02 - Departure of Directors or Certain Officers; Election of Directors; Appointment of Certain Officers; Compensatory Arrangements of Certain Officers") that it sacked its top executives on January 30, 2013. Given that the company was sold off to various bidders in bits and pieces in an auction in late January, it makes sense that they would inevitably have to let their executives go into the wild. The online filing reads as follows:

Dell has officially gone from being a publicly traded company to a privately owned firm with the help of a $2 billion loan from Microsoft. Given that Microsoft makes the top operating system for the platform, I suppose they have a vested interest in one of the PC market's biggest players staying healthy. Dell completed the terms of the deal that will take the company private, buying out stockholders at $13.65 a share in a $24.4 billion deal.

According to research by analyst firm FADE, Xbox Live Arcade set a record for annual revenues in 2012. In 2012 Xbox Live Arcade made $290 million according to the firm. The driving force behind these revenues were three games: Minecraft, Trials Evolution, and The Walking Dead.

The biggest title of all was Minecraft, bringing in an estimated $97.38 million, followed by Trials Evolution at $14.29 million, and The Walking Dead at $10.27 million. Even the lowest game on the top ten list of best selling games managed to rake in nearly $2.8 million.

IGN is now owned by Ziff Davis, parent company J2 Global today confirmed with GameSpot. Terms of the deal to buy the IGN assets from News Corp. were not disclosed as of this writing.

Earlier reports suggested J2 Global had inked a deal on IGN, paying "considerably" less than the $650 million News Corp. purchased the company for in 2005. In fact, some have speculated that they paid considerably less than what News Corp was asking for in today's market: $100 million.

The official EA blog offers a recap of a recent "New Grad Launch" event that EA hosted to encourage and inform new employees of the company fresh from college about the culture and leadership of the video games publisher. The four-day event featured speakers from various levels of the company sharing their experiences working there and how new employees can be successful too. These new graduates targeted for this event are described as "full time employees at EA for six months or less."

Brian Reynolds is the latest high profile executive to exit social-game making giant Zynga. Reynolds was the Chief Game Designer at Zynga and headed up Zynga East in Baltimore, Maryland, which he helped launch in 2009. Prior to that he served as Creative Director at 38 Studios. Prior to that he was a major force in Big Huge Games. While at Zynga, Reynolds was instrumental in the development of Zynga's Frontierville and CityVille 2.

Japanese publisher GungHo Group has acquired Lollipop Chainsaw developer Grasshopper Manufacture. The studio was founded by famed Japanese games developer Suda 51 (Goichi Suda), whose work includes No More Heroes and Killer 7. The company is currently working on Killer is Dead. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

GungHo publishes online and mobile game titles such as the popular MMO Ragnarok Online and Dragon Saga.

Nintendo has cut its hardware sales forecast after a less than stellar performance in the fourth quarter. Projections for the Wii U have been revised down to 4 million by the end of the fiscal year that ends on March 31 - from 5.5 million. Nintendo also says that it now expects to sell 15 million units during this fiscal year - down from 17.5. The Nintendo DS will sell 2.3 million units during this fiscal year, down from a previous forecast of 2.5 million.

Brighton, England-based publisher Lace Mamba Global has responded to recent accusations by developer CBE Software that it broke its publishing agreements for J.U.L.I.A. and J.U.L.I.A. Untold when it failed to deliver money the two companies "mutually agreed upon" or royalty payments. The developer claimed that it tried to resolve the issue with the publisher amicably but gave up on that after it received no response from the publisher.

Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices division raked in $3.8 billion in revenue during the last three months of 2012, the company announced today. That number represented an 11 percent decline compared to the same period a year ago. The division is responsible for Windows Phone, Xbox and other devices. While revenues were down, so were marketing cost which made it easy for the Entertainment and Devices division to record a pre-tax profit of $596 million - a 15 percent increase over the same period a year ago.

According to GamesIndustry International, computer and console peripheral and accessories giant Logitech will stop manufacturing and selling video game console accessories. The exit out of the market is the result of a 14 percent drop in sales to $615 million for Q3 FY 2013.

As a result the company will sharpen its focus on PC and mobile accessories.

Last night we detailed what assets THQ sold off as part of its auction to generate enough cash to pay down some of its debt, and today we know just how much. The information comes from THQ's filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware. The court has approved the sale of the assets, but the Chapter 11 bankruptcy case will continue as the former top-three publisher figures out what to do with its remaining assets.

Apple had a pretty good Christmas, selling tens of millions of its portable iOS devices and generating billions in revenue. In the three-month period that included the holiday shopping season, Apple sold 47.8 million iPhones, 22.9 million iPads, 4.1 million Macs and more than 2 million Apple TVs. During the same period last year, Apple sold 37 million iPhones, 15.4 million iPads, 5.2 million Macs and approximately 1.2 million Apple TVs.

Those device sales generated a profit of $13.1 billion during the three month period. Apple now has an estimated war chest of $137.1 billion.

Update: THQ has sold the WWE game license to Take-Two, according to IGN.

Dish Network announced that it plans to close hundreds of Blockbuster stores in the next couple of weeks and expects to cut thousands of jobs as a result. The video and videogame rental company was bought by Dish in 2010 after the company went bankrupt. CNN Money reports that 300 stores will be closed in the United states and 3,000 jobs will be lost.

While THQ is going through an auction today to decide what happens with its various assets, one of those asset partners says that it is not part of the deal. Filing a formal complaint with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of Delaware, South Park Digital Studios said that South Park: The Stick of Truth cannot be sold off to a new owner without the studio's approval, because of stipulations in the contract it signed with THQ.

HMV Canada owner Hilco has picked up the tab for the U.K.-based HMV retail chain, The Financial Times reports (subscription required to view). Hilco has purchased the debt that HMV UK owed to Lloyds bank and Royal Bank of Scotland, which is estimated to be around £176 million. Many speculate that Hilco paid far less than the estimated debt that HMV went into administration for.

Atari has filed for bankruptcy in the New York Bankruptcy Court and its assets will be sold off, according to GamesBeat. The company founded by Nolan Bushnell in 1972 will continue to operate during the bankruptcy proceedings.

UK retailer GAME is interested in buying some of troubled retailer HMV's stores in the UK, according to GII. GAME CEO Martyn Gibbs has confirmed with the Financial Times that his company is in talks with HMV administrators Deloitte about acquiring some of the company's stores in the UK.

Sony announced that it plans to sell its U.S. headquarters, a 37-story building located on Madison Avenue in New York City. The PS Vita and PlayStation 3 maker will gain an estimated $1.1 billion from the sale. The buyer is a real estate consortium headed by The Chetrit Group. Sony expects that the transaction will close in March 2013. After paying back debt related to the building, Sony plans to pocket around $770 million from the sale.

Former Boston Red Sox pitcher and 38 Studios founder Curt Schilling will sell the famous bloody sock that he wore during the 2004 World Series. The sock is expected to net at least $100,000. The Associated Press is reporting that an online auction for the piece of rare sports memorabilia will open on February 4, with an in-person auction to be held on February 23.

While many think that the Nintendo Wii has won the overall race in this current console cycle against Xbox 360 and PS3 in the United States, one research firm says that it will ultimately be Microsoft's console that sits at the top of the mountain. DFC Intelligence's new report predicts that more Xbox 360s will be sold in the US than Wiis by 2017. The research firm is forecasting that Xbox 360 will have sold over 46 million units in the US by 2017, while the Wii is estimated at just over 42 million. Sony's PS3 comes in at 33.5 million.

UK retailer HMV will enter into administration on Tuesday, the company announced. The move to administration (the European equivalent of bankruptcy here in the U.S.) comes after major suppliers like Universal Music, EMI, Warner Brothers and Disney refused to provide further financing needed for the retailer to continue trading. The company has turned to Deloitte as its administrators after lackluster Christmas sales made the retailer unable to secure terms on various loans. If things go badly it could mean the loss of an estimated 4,500 jobs and the possible closure of over 200 stores.

During 2012 S2 Games, the developers behind the popular MOBA Heroes of Newerth, doubled its workforce and launched a mobile gaming division called iGames. To make room for these latest additions and continued growth of the company in 2013, S2 announced that it has relocated its headquarters to a corporate suite in the Portage Trade Centre, outside Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Even though Funcom's The Secret World MMO found success after switching from a monthly subscription fee to a free-to-play payment model (more than 70,000 copies of the game were sold in the last four weeks, according to Eurogamer), the company is still forced to move ahead with restructuring, according to Develop.

Trade organization the Business Roundtable issued a 32-page report this week backing the approach taken by the House of Representatives to fight cybersecurity threats. That approach, the bill called the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), passed the House. The Senate proposed another bill called the Cybersecurity Act of 2012. The House bill passed, but the President didn't think it offered enough protections for American Internet users' privacy rights.

Video game retailer GameStop revealed that sales for the last nine weeks of 2012 came in at $2.88 billion, a 4.6 percent decrease from the 2011 holiday shopping season. The retailer blamed a lack of in-store traffic as the primary cause. Second-hand sales were also down 15.6 percent because of limited inventory, according to GameStop. New game sales were also down by 5.1 percent, while hardware numbers were down 2.7 percent.

It looks like the sale of THQ could be settled as soon as Jan. 23. Yesterday the company received approval from the Delaware Bankruptcy Court to sell off its assets. After a committee of unsecured creditors and potential buyers sat down and hashed out an agreement the court gave the company the greenlight to sell of its assets.

Update: GamesIndustry International is reporting that Electronic Arts has been revealed as one of the five publishers looking to buy intellectual property or other assets from THQ. Some are also speculating that Ubisoft could be part of that group too.