Gameloft yesterday released its earnings for Q1 2013. The French mobile game developer achieved sales of €54.2 million ($70.1 million), up 21 percent over the same quarter a year ago.

Smartphone and tablet revenues increased by 71 percent year-over-year, representing 60 percent of total group sales compared with 43 percent in Q1 2012.

Gameloft attributes its fast growth to the success of the free-to-play model. The company adds that more than 67 percent of its smartphone sales came from in-app purchases and ad revenues in Q1. In terms of which games performed well in the quarter, Gameloft says older titles from as far back as 2011 and 2012 like Dungeon Hunter 4: Zero Hour, World at Arms, My Little Pony, Ice Age Village, Order & Chaos Online, Gangstar Rio: City of Saints and Asphalt 7: Heat, have largely contributed to the company’s strong performance in the first quarter.

Gameloft hopes three recently released titles in the past few weeks including Dungeon Hunter 4, Iron Man 3 and Order & Chaos Duels, help grow sales in future quarters. Gameloft claims Iron Man 3 was the most downloaded game worldwide on the iOS after it was launched. Future releases include Gangstar Vegas, Despicable Me and Uno & Friends.

Gameloft didn’t provide an earnings forecast for Q2 2013. Gameloft’s share price closed today at €5.29 ($6.84), up 0.95 percent.

WeChat now has 190 million MAU – Tencent’s deputy general manager Hou Xiaonan revealed on the final day of the Global Mobile Internet Conference (GMIC) in Bejing that the company’s messaging app WeChat now has 190 million monthly active users (MAU). This put’s WeChat on par with U.S. messaging app competitor WhatsApp, which reveled in April that it has north of 200 million MAU.

Viber reaches 200 million user mark, launches desktop client – Mobile communication app Viber recently reached the 200 million user mark, up from its last reported user figure of 140 million in December 2012, and launched a desktop client. Viber’s main competitors are messaging apps like WhatsApp and VoIP services like Skype.

Plants vs. Zombies 2 launching this July – Electronic Arts’-owned game studio PopCap revealed that its upcoming Plants vs. Zombies 2: It’s About Time will launch sometime this July. No platforms have been revealed yet.

Gameloft announces movie tie-in mobile game for Blue Sky Studios’ Epic – French mobile game developer announced a new game based on the upcoming animated feature Epic from Fox Digital Entertainment and Blue Sky Studios. This is the second game partnership between Gameloft and Fox Digital Entertainment for a Blue Sky Studios, with Ice Age Village as the first title, which launched in April 2012. The game will launch in May to coincide with the film’s theatrical release.

Amazon launches Appstore in China – Amazon launched its Android in Appstore in China this week. Amazon becomes the first western company to offer paid Android apps in the county, beating Google to the punch since Google Play only offers free apps in China, not paid apps.

Gameloft launches Blitz Brigade for iOS and Android – Gameloft recently launched its free-to-play team-based shooter Blitz Brigade, which is takes place in a World War 2 setting. Look for our review of the game sometime next week.

Sunstorm Games currently sees 10M MAU, 1M DAU, 140M downloads – A relatively unknown mobile game developer and publisher called Sunstorm Games announced that its user base has grown to 10 million monthly active users (MAU) and one million daily active users (DAU) along with seeing 140 million downloads of its titles. The game studio’s most popular franchise is its “Maker” series, while the company has also built long-term partnerships with brands like Icee and SuperPretzel.

Game Insight brings 2020: My Country to iOS and Amazon – Russian mobile game giant Game Insight released its city builder 2020: My Country, which was first available for Android, on the Apple App Store and Amazon Appstore. The title is the follow up to Game Insight’s other city-building strategy game My Country.

Kamicat raises a round of funding from iVentureCapital – German mobile-social game maker recently raised a round of funding for an undisclosed amount from iVentureCapital. The Hanover, Germany-based Kamikat is most known for its game Kamicat Football for Facebook, which currently has five million registered users.

TenFarms raises $2.7M in a round of funding – Mobile startup TenFarms, which is working on two products — Photopoll and Adtile — recently raised $2.7 million in a round of funding from an undisclosed angel investor. The funds are going toward the deployment of Adtile, a new mobile advertising product that allows native integration with apps and websites, and to support the contiuous development of Photopoll, a multi-photo polling app.

Folks from Paltalk, MessageMe and Tango will be speaking about mobile messaging at our Inside Social Apps conference June 6 to 7 in San Francisco. Learn more here.

NARR8 gains monetization and auto play features – Motion comics app NARR8 for iPad (review) added a virtual currency called NARRs tokens, which can be used to unlock new episodes from the variety of different content series that are available. Users can acquire NARRs by just using the app as well as by purchasing the currency with real money. NARR8 also added a auto play feature for its motion comic series, which lets users continuously stream content with a one tap. In the future, NARR8 plans to turn its app into a platform, allowing third-party publishers the ability to publish and sell their content through NARR8.

Tapjoy partners with Popcornflix, launches freemium movie streaming app PopcornflixGold – Mobile advertising and publishing platform Tapjoy partnered with movie streaming service Popcornflix to launch a new mobile app for Android, named PopcornflixGold, that lets users watch movies for free on their mobile devices by engaging with ads. Similarly to a monetization model seen in mobile games, the app allows users to match movies by earning a virtual currency called FlixPoints, which can be earned by interacting with ads from the Tapjoy Marketplace.

Playnomics adds behavioral targeted push messaging feature to its PlayRM platform – Predictive analytics company Playnomics added a new behavioral targeted push messaging feature for mobile games to its PlayRM platform. This new feature may increase user engagement for developers by sending targeted, real-time messages to individual players based on in-game behaviors.

Gameloft launches Dungeon Hunter 4 for Android – French mobile game developer Gameloft launched dungeon crawler Dungeon Hunter 4 for Android this week. Click here for our review of the iOS version of the game.

Former Zynga Boston employee raises $2.25M for new game studio Proletariat – Seth Sivak, a former lead designer from the defunct Zynga Boston office, raised $2.25 million for his new game studio Proletariat. The raised amount in equity funding appeared in an SEC filing. Proletariat’s first release came back in March, with word game Letter Rush for iOS.

Appolicious launches educational app discovery service appoLearning – App discovery service Appolicious launched appoLearning earlier this week, which is a new service geared toward helping parents, teachers and others find the best educational apps for children.

Chilingo launches Snoopy Coaster – Mobile games publisher and division of Electronic Arts announced the launch of Snoopy Coaster on the App Store. The game, developed by independent developer CGMatic in partnership with Peanuts Worldwide features the iconic Peanuts comics characters and will have players tapping the screen to catch coins, pop balloons and avoid obstacles. Players can also interact with friends, with chat and, swapping and sharing trading cards they unlock. The game is available to download for $0.99 from the iTunes App Store.

Gameloft launches Order & Chaos Duels – French mobile game developer Gameloft announced the launch of Order & Chaos Duels, a card battle and collecting game set in its fantasy Order & Chaos universe. The game is available to download for free from the iTunes App Store and will be made available on Google Play “very shortly.”

Gameloft launches UNO & Friends – The mobile game developer also officially announced UNO & Friends, based on the popular card game, though the game had soft launched a few weeks ago. UNO & Friends is the first cross platform game from the developer, allowing players to compete across iOS and Android devices as well as through Facebook via Facebook Connect and Game Center. The game will release worldwide soon.

Digisocial passes the 2 million downloads mark – Social sharing app for iOS Digisocial announced that it has been downloaded more than 2 million times with more than half of the downloads coming from the U.S., U.K., Mexico and France. Digisocial also announced the release of version 1.2 for the app which gives users the ability to filter posts by location and control who can view their posts. You can read our full review of Digisocial here.

Agawi announces B2B2C platform, brings indie PC titles to tablets — Game streaming solution provider Agawi announced a new partner which allow PC developers to bring their games to tablets with no additional rewriting of code required. Indie developers that have already signed on to the program include MiniBoss, Teotl Studios and Daedalic Entertainment. Starting in April, Agawi will first bring the games to Android and later on to the iPad. Developers interested in the program should contact partners@agawi.io.

More than 10 million people play Rage of Bahamut — Love it or hate it, Rage of Bahamut just had its one-year anniversary. As a result, we’ve been given a handy infographic showing off various highlights about the game, like how it’s in the top three grossing apps on Google Play in 25 countries now and been mentioned on Twitter more than 2 million times.

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment opens WB games San Francisco — Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment  today announced the formation of a new game studio in San Francisco, WB Games San Francisco. The studio will open this year and focus on creating free-to-play, mobile, social and browser-based games. The studio will be located in the same offices as San Francisco-based Flixster.

Kiip opens second Build Fund – Mobile rewards platform Kiip announced the relaunch of its Build Fund, which will select 10 developers to receive $10,000 in funds, $5,000 worth of services and mentorship from notable industry figures. This year Kiip is partnering with Pepsi and will focus on health and fittness apps. Developers can apply here, and learn more here.

TestFlight announces FlightPath – App beta-testing service TestFlight announced the private beta launch of FlightPath, a mobile analytics service for mobile app developers, featuring real-time data that can be customized and segmented to the developer’s liking. Interested developers can go here to learn more.

Selfpubd launches indie game promotion site Thumb Arcade — The Portland, OR-based company focused on helping independent developers promote and monetize their games launched a new website, Thumb Arcade. Users can use the site to discover and download new games. The site is optimized for mobile phones and supports iOS and Android games with support for Windows coming soon.

Chilingo and Samsung partner to launch “100% Indie” — Mobile game publisher and division of Electronic Arts Chilingo has partnered with Samsung to launch “100% Indie.” Developers can submit their games to www.100PercentIndie.com to be considered for Samsung’s mobile app marketplace. Developers who are accepted into the program in the first six months will receive 100 percent revenue for their titles and are guaranteed higher revenue share through March 2015.

Gameloft, GREE release Dragon Summoner — Mobile game developers GREE and Gameloft announced the launch of a new card battle game they created together. The game can be downloaded for free on the iTunes App Store here and on Google Play here.

Glu launches Small City — Mobile game developer Glu launched Small City for iOS, a city management sim and the sequel to Small Street. In the game players will be able to customize their street, play with friends, help their citizens and collect trophies. You can find the game here.

Rovio, DreamWorks partner for The Croods — Based on the upcoming animated feature by the same name, The Croods will release on iOS and Android on March 14 and will include an exclusive short animated clip. Rovio has dabbled in movie tie-ins before with projects like Angry Birds Star Wars and Angry Birds Rio, but this will mark the developer’s first game to be based on a movie with no connection to its hugely popular Angry Birds brand.

Red Hot Labs raises $1.5 million in seed funding — Mobile developer Red Hot Labs which was founded by former FarmVille creators Amitt Mahajan and Joel Poloney announced it has secures $1.5 million in seed funding for the development of mobile games and platform technology. Investors include Andreessen Horowitz, Greylock Partners, SV Angel, General Catalyst, Japan’s IT-Farm and private individuals.

Bing Fund invests in Sonar – Location-based social mobile app Sonar announced Microsoft’s Bing Fund has made a strategic investment in the company. The amount of the investment was not disclosed at this time. you can find our review of Sonar for Android here.

French mobile developer Gameloft today posted yet another record earnings today, reporting record sales of €57.7 million ($77.8 million) in Q4 2012, up 23 percent year-over-year and up 4.2 percent since last quarter. Fiscal year 2012 revenues totaled €208.3 million ($280.9 million), up 27 percent from €164.4 million ($221.7 million) in 2011.

The company’s smartphone and tablet sales for Q4 grew by 66 percent year-over-year, accounting to 56 percent of the studio’s revenues, up from 41 percent in Q4 2011.

Gameloft attributed its Q4 2012 performance to recent game releases like Modern Combat 4: Zero Hour, World at Arms, My Little Pony and Playmobil Pirates as well as older titles such as Ice Age Village, Order & Chaos Online, The Amazing Spider-Man and Asphalt 7: Heat.

The North American region continued to be the most lucrative region, which attributed to 31 percent of sales in 2012. Europe and the Middle East accounted for 27 percent of sales, Asia pacific for 22 percent and Latin America for 20 percent.

Unlike previous quarterly earnings reports, Gameloft didn’t reveal any figures for its earning estimates in 2013. Instead, Gameloft “anticipates solid growth of sales and results in 2013.”

Gameloft stock went up by a sliver since releasing its Q4 2012 earnings, closing trading today at €5.24 ($7.07) a share, leaving the game studio with a market cap of €416.7 million ($561.9 million).

gumi releases Knight Legend on the GREE platform for Android – Japanese mobile social game developer gumi announced that it released the fantasy-themed card battle game Knight Legend on the GREE Platform for Android devices. The game, which already has almost a million players in Japan, was released on the GREE Platform in Canada, Australia, Singapore and the United Kingdom, with global release expected in the coming weeks. The game is free to download from the Google Play store with in-app purchases.

King.com launches Bubble Witch Saga and Candy Crush Saga on Android – Leading casual social games company King.com announced its two most popular games Bubble witch Saga and Candy Crush Saga are now available to download from Google Play. The Android versions will allow players to have their leaderboards, scores, progress and virtual goods fully synchronized across Facebook regardless of where they play.

Beeline Interactive launches Smurf Life on iOS – Social mobile game developer and publisher Beeline Interactive announced the launch of Smurf Life (the follow-up to its successful Smurfs’ Village) on iPod, iPhone and iPad. In the game players can choose a customizable male or female Smurf. As they explore the world, they’ll need to overcome obstacles by learning trades, gathering materials, and building tools.

PlayPhone adds 20 new games for its social gaming network – Mobile social gaming company PlayPhone is celebrating the holiday season by adding 20 new titles to the PlayPhone Social Gaming Network available on Android, iOS and HTML5 platforms. Among the more well known titles is iWin’s Jewel Quest: Heritage, a match 3 puzzle game. You can find the full list of games here.

Gameloft releases Heroes of Order & Chaos on Android — French mobile game developer and publisher Gameloft launched its MOBA game Heroes of Order & Chaos on Android. The game launched on iOS in late November.

addappt hits iTunes App Store – Founded by early LinkedIn and Microsoft employees, addappt is an always up-to-date private address book maintained by your friends. Once you update your contact information once, addappt will automatically update it in all your connected contacts’ address books. The app is free to download from iTunes here.

Beeline Interactive and Sony Pictures partner to develop Ghostbusters mobile game — Game publisher and developer Beeline Interactive and Sony Pictures Consumer Products announced the development of a freemium Ghostbusters game for smartphones based on the movie series. Armed with an arsenal of proton packs and ghost traps, players will assume the role of a new Ghostbuster as they capture ghosts and upgrade their gear by running experiments.

Sega and Three Ring Design launch Spellwood on Android, iOS — Developed by Three Rings Design and published by Sega, Spellwood is magic themed word battle game available now on the iTunes App Store and Google Play for $1.99.

Pocket announces first publishing partner, Matter — Content saving app Pocket announced that Kickstarter-funded digital publishing company Matter as its first publishing partner. Users who subscribe to Matter for $0.99 a month will be be able to access stories from and save them to the Pocket app.

GREE expands platform partnerships with Vostu, Brainz and more — GREE has signed partnership deals with five more international studios. The company announced this week it has signed up Vostu, Brainz, Sun Dried Games, Pangalore and Vast Studios. Our readers may remember in October GREE announced it had signed deals with Enders Fund, Fathom Interactive, Fifth Column and FreezeTag.

Variable rate iTunes gift cards now available — Apple customers can now decide exactly how much their friends and family are worth to them. The company has introduced new gift cards that can come in denominations ranging from $15 to $500 reports 9to5 Mac. The new cards are already rolling out at major U.S. retailers.

SGN teams with Betable — Social and mobile game developer SGN is the latest company to sign a deal with London-headquartered Betable to bring real-money gambling elements to its mobile titles. The features will only be available in markets where mobile gambling is legal, such as the U.K. SGN expects to roll out the features in the first half of 2013.

iPhone 5, iPad Mini finally headed to China — The latest generation of Apple devices will soon be in the hands of Chinese consumers. The company announced today the iPad Mini and the fourth generation iPad will be available in China on Dec. 7. The iPhone 5 will be available on Dec. 14.

LINE integrates with Facebook — NAVER’s ultra-popular Japanese chat app LINE has started integrating with Facebook. Facebook users can now create LINE accounts using their Facebook credentials according to Dr. Serkan Toto. Users can also invite their Facebook friends to the service.

PlayPhone picks up Red Herring Global 100 award — San Francisco based PlayPhone has won the Red Herring Global Top 100 award in the mobile category. The awards are decided by Red Herring editorial team and honor promising private technology ventures.

Gameloft teams with Red Bull — Gameloft has signed a deal with Red Bull that will see the energy drink maker’s branded cars coming to Gameloft’s racing game GT Racing: Motor Academy. The F1 RB8 (driven by F1 world champion Sebastian Vettel) and the Red Bull editions of the Camaro SS and Hyundai Genesis Coupe will all be available in the next update of the game.

GREE picks up Best Social Games Service Provider award — GREE has picked up a Mobile Entertainment award for Best Social Games Service Provider, beating out the likes of DeNA, PapayaMobile and PlayPhone for the honor. Based on London, the Mobile Entertainment Awards honor excellence in publishing, services and operations.

Blackboard Mobile Apps hit 4.5 million downloads — Blackboard Inc’s line of educational and campus life apps have been downloaded more than 4.5 million times on iOS and Android.

Gameloft releases Heroes of Order & Chaos — Mobile game developer and publisher Gameloft announced on Wednesday that it released its first Mobile Online Battle Arena (MOBA) game on iOS and Android devices. You can read our previous coverage of the game here.

Gameloft and Hasbro launch Littlest Pet Shop — Gameloft also announced it’s launching their latest collaboration with toy manufacturer Hasbro, Littlest Pet Shop. The game will allow players to collect and care for 150 pets, build houses and play areas and find hidden objects. The game is free to download on the iTunes App Store and the Google Play Store.

[Black Friday] Gameloft games on sale — The following Gameloft games will sell for a reduced price of $0.99 during the Thanksgiving holiday: On iOS: The Amazing Spider Man, Gangstar Rio: City of Saints, Backstab and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Shadow Vanguard. On Google Play: The Amazing Spider Man, Gangstar Rio: City of Saints, Backstab and The Adventures of Tintin – The Game. And on Amazon: The Amazing Spider Man, N.O.V.A. 3 and Backstab.

[Black Friday] Special events and sales on DeNA’s Mobage platform — Mobile game publisher and developer DeNA’s Mobage platform will feature several events and sales over the Thanksgiving weekend. Games like Blood Brothers will see the return of special cards from previous events and one new Thanksgiving card. You can check out the rest of Mobage’s holiday offerings here.

[Black Friday] BitFlip’s Minion Master Beta 50 percent off sale — Developer BitFlip Games announced it will celebrate Black Friday with a 50-percent-off sale ton he pre-order price of its tactical collectible card game Minion Master. From Friday to Sunday the Minion Master beta is reduced from $20 to a sale price of $10.

Glu launched Dragon Slayer — Mobile games publisher and developer Glu announced on Wednesday the launch of Dragon Slayer, a magic-based combat game. The game is free to download with in-app purchases.

Activision releases Skylanders Battlegrounds, Skylanders Lost Islands – On Tuesday game publisher Activation released two new mobile games in the Skylanders franchise: Skylanders Lost Islands, which introduces character and resource management, and Skylanders Battlegrounds, which brings the franchise’s signature blend of physical toys and digital video games to mobile for the first time. Both games are now available to download on iTunes App Store.

Applits.com partners with Buzztouch — Applits.com announced that users who submit their app ideas to its monthly contest and receive the most interest from the community will now be able to use Buzztouch’s hosted software to create and manage their app.

DeNA and Yahoo! expand their business alliance — DeNA and Yahoo Japan Corporation today announced that they agreed to expand their existing business alliance for PC-based social games in Japan to include offerings for smartphones and other smart devices. The Yahoo! Mobage service is directly accessible from Yahoo! JAPAN, which currently has over 26 million active user IDs. The companies are also planning to continue their collaboration for Yahoo! Mobage, including joint development of PC games.

Gameloft expands support for Duo Gamer controller — Mobile games developer Gameloft today announced that Modern Combat 3 and Brothers in Arms 2 are now optimized for its branded Duo Gamer controller for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. You can read our review of the Duo Gamer here.

HeroCraft brings Magic Orbz to iOS — Russian game developer HeroCraft announced that its bringing the PlayStation Network game developed by Creat Studios and co-published with i-Free Magic Orbz to iOS in the coming weeks. Magic Orbz is an Arkanoid-style game with realistic physics which features 42 levels. You can watch the trailer for the game here.

Monster Galaxy Exile available for free — Gaia Interactive today announced that the sequel to its monster collecting game Monster Galaxy: Zodiac Islands, Monster Galaxy: Exile is now available for free on iOS, Android and Amazon Kindle Fire.

Freshdesk launches MobiHelp — Cloud-based customer support platform Freshdesk announced the launch of MobiHelp, a free mobile SDK that allows iOS developers to integrate their Freshdesk help desk into their apps with just a single line of code. Developers get to use the customer support capabilities in Freshdesk to automate workflows, identify critical issue areas and complete the conversation loop with their users.

China Telecom brings iPhone 5 to China in November, early December — All things D Is reporting China Telecom Corp. plans to start offering Apple’s iPhone 5 to Chinese customers in late November or early December.

AT&T begins selling Windows 8 Phone devices, Verizon starts taking pre-orders –AT&T began selling Windows Phone 8 handsets including the Nokia Lumia 820 and 920 and the HTC 8X. Verizon also began taking pre-orders for the HTC 8X and Nokia Lumia 822 and 820.