Zynga exec: Debate over clones is a ‘distraction’ — everyone copies

Zynga New York general manager explains what he meant when he admitted that the developer copies others.

Build your own SimCity on Mac this February

The new SimCity will launch for Mac as well as PC in February 2013.

EA attempts to calm nervous investors during its annual stockholder meeting

Electronic Art's stock has been in decline since the Battlefield 3 and The Sims 3 publisher warned investors of a tough upcoming quarter. Now EA is attempting to calm panicking stockholders.

Zynga’s Mark Pincus discusses how mobile could disrupt the game industry (video interview)

Zynga chief Mark Pincus isn't shy about expressing his opinion -- especially at our MobileBeat/GamesBeat 2012 conference last week. Here's the video.

Zynga’s latest Facebook game takes Electronic Arts’ Sims Social head-on

The Ville is Zynga's latest social Facebook game allowing players to build virtual homes and gardens. It's also the company's answer to Electronic Arts' The Sims Social.

SimCity Social: If this free-to-play game is too good, will you pay $60 for the full PC version?

Electronic Arts is finally unveiling a long-rumored Facebook game, SimCity Social. And with it begins a great experiment: Will fans who enjoy this free-to-play online game also dish out $60 when the full-fledged SimCity remake arrives for the PC in …

Gaming art for your Facebook Timeline (Part 5: Social and Mobile)

Shiny Timeline cover images of mobile and social games like Angry Birds Space, CityVille, and Bejeweled Blitz for your Facebook profile.

GamesBeat Weekly Roundup

If you follow VentureBeat but don’t regularly check our GamesBeat site, here’s a list of the best games stories we ran over the last seven days that you may have missed.

The Sims Social on life support? EA says no way

Electronic Arts came out swinging against what it calls a "misinformed" article in Business Insider, which said that EA's The Sims Social game is on "life support."

EA and Tencent to take The Sims Social game to China

Electronic Arts and Chinese social network Tencent are taking EA’s The Sims Social game to China.

Beijing-based Tencent, which has hundreds of millions of users, will publish the game on the Tencent Open Platform under the Chinese name Mo Ni …

Zynga reports a profit for third quarter on eve of IPO

Zynga reported net income of $12.5 million in the third quarter ended Sept. 30, down 54 percent from $27 million a year ago, according to an updated S1 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The performance isn’t stellar, but …

Sims Social, sports games, and digital sales drive EA’s Q2 earnings

For Electronic Arts, success in its second quarter came from strategies both old and new.

The company reported solid earnings based on strong sales of its major sports games, like FIFA 2012, Madden 2012, and NHL 2012, as well as …

Facebook changes how it tracks users, raising questions about true audience numbers (exclusive)

Zynga may be losing some ground after spending years completely dominating the Facebook social gaming market.

Facebook today announced that it is changing the way it counts the number of active users who access an application on its site, a …

EA’s The Sims Social has stolen millions of players from Zynga

Electronic Arts came out of nowhere when it launched The Sims Social on Facebook. The social game that simulates human life took off like wildfire, surpassing FarmVille and closing in on Zynga’s most popular game, CityVille. Now Raptr, the social …

Zynga takes its most popular game, CityVille, to Google+

Zynga announced today it has taken its most popular game, CityVille, to the fledgling Google+ social network.

The move could be strategically important for both Google and Zynga, which need each other: Zynga needs Google+ to help it gain more …

Brands finally succeed in social games on Facebook

Facebook gamers are finally embracing well-known brands in their social games. That’s one of the conclusions from a panel on social games at the f8 conference for Facebook developers yesterday.

Sean Ryan (pictured left), director of game partnerships, pointed out …