As 
Zynga’s stock continues to hover around its all-time low, the number of high-level executives bailing from the social games maker is reaching critical mass.
Chief Creative Officer Mike Verdu is the latest to jump ship, announcing Tuesday that he was leaving the company to start a new firm.
After 
a long day of taking arrows in the knee, it’s nice to have somewhere to kick up your feet.
Hearthfire, the next downloadable expansion to The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, will let players purchase land and build houses from the ground up. The add-on is set to release for the Xbox 360 on September 4 for 400 Microsoft points. There’s no set date at this point for a PC or PS3 version.
The 
$60 video game isn’t going away anytime soon, but that doesn’t mean you have to shell out big money if you want to play a triple-A title these days.
More and more big-name games are now offering free experiences. Even better, they’re being made by some of the industry’s top developers with the same cutting-edge graphics engines powering pricey releases. So long as you don’t fall too far down the rabbit hole of microtransactions, you can have all sorts of fun without dropping a cent.
Sorry, 
New York Giants fans: Big Blue isn’t going to make it to Super Bowl XLVII. Heck, they won’t even make it to the playoffs.
That’s the prediction, at least, of the latest incarnation of EA’s venerable Madden football franchise.
Humans 
gave up their species exclusivity on video games a long time ago.
Monkeys have been playing Pac-Man for years. Cats are regularly beating humans in iPad app battles. And now, fish are getting in the swim of things.
There 
is no game with higher financial stakes than the one venture capitalists play every day.
A ceaseless flood of hungry entrepreneurs are constantly knocking on the door, seeking funding to help their business advance to the next level and succeed. The most frequently used word in the VC vocabulary is “no” but the real trick to the job is figuring out when to say “yes”.
As 
Zynga’s share prices circle the drain, Gamasutra editor-at-large Chris Morris examines how CEO Mark Pincus’ “insistence on absolute control” has left the company’s investors in a tough position.
It’s a pretty safe assumption that anyone who shelled out for Zynga stock when the company went public — or even in the five months that followed — isn’t real happy these days.
After reaching a high of nearly $16 per share, the stock now dwells in the cellar, closing Thursday at $3.25. (And, if it weren’t for JMP Securities’ bullish words when it initiated coverage on the company Wednesday, it would almost certainly be even lower.)
The 
early days of a start-up throw a lot at entrepreneurs.
There’s cash flow to worry about. There’s staffing. There are often patents or leases to secure. It’s easy for tasks to slip through the cracks. All too often, though, the first to do so is serious thought about the company’s culture.
The 
saga of the U.S. women’s soccer team during this year’s Olympics may have been as captivating as the “Fab Five” or Michael Phelps’ quest to set an Olympic medal record, but when it comes to the world of video games, soccer is strictly a sport for men.
It’s a frustrating reality — and one that excludes a wide swath of potential players. And now the executive producer of EA’s immensely popular FIFA franchise is acknowledging the problem.In a conversation with Kotaku, EA’s David Rutter noted that while women’s soccer won’t be a feature in this year’s installment of the game (it’s too late to add it), it’s something the team is considering.
Every 
entrepreneur who breaks away from the pack deals with doubts and setbacks. And every company that succeeds has to tweak its business plan along the way — sometimes completely reversing course.
While there’s no single secret to success, a big key in attaining it is knowing exactly when to pivot. And successful entrepreneurs recognize these “ah ha!” moments when they encounter them.
Chris Morris: Journalist 