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

This week, THQ’s assets went up for auction, leaving Darksiders and its developer Vigil Games without a parent company. Nintendo threw a mini-E3 announcement revealing Wii U updates and an HD remake of The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, and the long-troubled Atari files for bankruptcy protection.

You’ll also find reviews for Tokyo Crash Mobs and The Cave, as well as previews for Phone Fight and Dead Space 3.

News:

• The DeanBeat: Game acquisitions rise 23 percent to $3.4B in 2012
• Sony and MLG will make PlanetSide 2 into a competitive e-sport with huge teams
• The Secret World developer shuts down Beijing studio — executes layoffs at other offices
• Audojo iPad case brings full physical controls to Apple’s tablet
• Rockstar Games allegedly threatened to sue director Frank Darabont over ‘L.A. Noir’ TV show
• EA’s Origin service for Mac goes into alpha
• SAP launches an analytics dashboard for NFL.com fantasy football fans
• Biden reiterates the need for research on effects of violent video games
• Microsoft sells 5.9M Xbox 360s in second quarter; Halo 4 is the best-selling Halo
• Microsoft’s Xbox division down 11 percent for the second quarter
• What the 7 million-dollar Kickstarter games of 2012 did right
• The GLaDOS recruitment agency: Using Portal 2 to find employees
• There may be life for Darksiders and other unsold THQ franchises after all
• Nintendo introduces online multiplayer to the new Luigi’s Mansion
• Logitech to discontinue its console-gaming peripherals
• This week in the Nintendo Download: The Cave, Brain Training, and an anniversary party
• Trion to publish XL Games’ massive online game ArcheAge in Western markets (exclusive)
• Get the deets on BioShock Infinite’s Industrial Revolution add-on pack in a new trailer
• THQ bids farewell after raising $72M in asset sales
• Piston, Razer Edge could bring the rise of easy PC gaming this year
• League of Legends summons a Mac client
• Build your own Batcave in DC Universe Online’s Home Turf update
• Turtle Rock Studios outbid for its own game: Take 2 thinks it’s worth $11M
• No bids for Darksiders or developer Vigil — employees laid off
• THQ auction results: Sega buys Relic, Ubi gets THQ Montreal, Koch lands Volition, and more
• Classic NES and SNES games for 30 cents on Wii U eShop
• Ouya, Steam Box, and Razer Edge: We explain the cluttered console-alternative market
• Kickstarter kills new GameStick backer tier that gives devs 100 percent share of sales (update)
• The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD is happening
• Kirby team spins a new yarn exclusively for Yoshi
• New 3D Mario, Smash Bros, and Mario Kart will be at E3
• Nintendo will ‘rethink the conventions of Zelda’ on Wii U
• Hoax watch: Xbox 720 may just be named ‘Xbox’
• You can transfer your Wii Virtual Console games to the Wii U … for a price
• Ouya CEO says momentum behind its ‘people’s game console’ keeps growing
• South Park Digital Studios objects to THQ trying to sell the license agreement for Stick of Truth RPG
• Tactical role-playing game Project X Zone brings together Namco, Sega, and Capcom characters
• Iconic game company Atari files for bankruptcy protection
• Big layoffs for longtime PC game developer Gas Powered Games

Mobile News:

• Facebook touts why its social network makes mobile games better
• Temple Run 2 is finally available for Android

Interviews:

• Life after Epic: Getting to know Cliff Bleszinski (exclusive interview, part one: his past)
• Life after Epic: Getting to know Cliff Bleszinski (exclusive interview, part two: his present and future)
• GamesBeat 2012 interview vault: Check out our archive of conversations with industry leaders

Previews:

• Phone Fight wonders if my iOS device can beat up your iOS device (hands-on preview)
• Dead Space 3′s opening hours feel strange yet familiar (hands-on preview)
• Tomb Raider multiplayer keeps Lara Croft fans entertained (hands-on preview)

Reviews:

• The Cave is a (not-so) wretched hive of scum and villainy (review)
• Tokyo Crash Mobs is a hectic puzzle game with animated-GIF sensibilities (review)

Community Spotlight:

• Games need to address women in military combat
• Karaoke on Xbox 360 is a free app with more depth than most music games
• Android gaming may have an identity crisis ahead of it
• Violent game tax more opportunistic than realistic
• It’s time we consider video games as ‘experiences,’ not mere products
• What’s up with the Wii U? Nintendo’s console is off to a slow start

Pieces of Flair:

• 3DS in danger: Why piracy is a bigger problem than just sales
• ROUNDTABLE’D! Game characters solve violence in video games!
• Video game characters modeled after famous people (gallery)

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Click here for all of GamesBeat’s Nintendo Wii U launch coverage.

The Wii U is only a day old, but that’s plenty of time for Nintendo to get into some trouble.

A hidden debug menu inside the Wii U, which Nintendo called a “mock up” menu, revealed Miiverse communities for titles like Yoshi’s Land Wii U, Soul Hackers, and Resident Evils. Nintendo has since locked down access to this backend interface, but not before one Wii U user snagged some screenshots.

NeoGAF forum user Trike revealed that he could access this admin-level content by pressing the GamePad’s “X” button while hovering over the “exit” prompt in the Wii U’s social-networking service, Miiverse. That no longer works for him, as Nintendo has apparently plugged that leak.

Nintendo released the following statement to Games Industry International:

“It has come to our attention that some people were able to access a mock-up menu on Miiverse following the launch of Wii U in the US. Please note that this was only a mock-up menu and has now been removed and is not accessible.”

That suggests that the Miiverse communities were simply created as tests for the system. The “Resident Evils” even suggests that the designers were originally playing around with franchise-wide communities.

In 1995, Nintendo released Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island for the Super Nintendo. It is a 2D platformer that follows the adventures of Yoshi the dinosaur as he attempts to rescue a baby version of Mario. Many fans and critics consider it one of the best games in its genre. The publisher released a pair of sequels, 1997′s Yoshi’s Story for the Nintendo 64 and 2006′s Yoshi’s Island DS. Both failed to live up to their predecessor.

Nintendo has never released anything called Yoshi’s Land.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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