Microsoft 
vs. Sony is no longer the biggest battle in the video game world. These days it’s Apple vs. Google — and it’s proving to be a lucrative fight for game makers.
Just as the console giants regularly battle it out for third-party exclusive games, the kingpins of mobile are turning their sights on game developers as they look to widen their market share.
The 
battle between the undead and garden vegetation just escalated.
After a delay of several months, the aptly-named Plants vs. Zombies 2: It’s About Time has finally hit the App Store. It’s a much-anticipated return for one of the most popular franchises for PopCap Games, though it’s not without some controversy.
Get 
ready for more plants, more zombies, and we can only hope more Crazy Dave.
PopCap Games has announced a sequel to its monster hit Plants vs.Zombies. It’s currently planned for a late spring 2013 release.
For the most part, 2011 
has been a pretty crummy year for video game sales.
Other than April, every month has shown declines. For the year, the industry is 10 percent behind 2010’s pace. That puts video games retail on track for its third consecutive year of negative growth — the first time that has ever happened in the gaming world.
As retail sputters, more and more publishers are looking to downloadable games to help fill the gaps.
Though it’s a Facebook exclusive, Pig Up! 
is a game that could easily be played on any platform. And that, in itself, is an incredible achievement. But the game’s real strength is its utterly addictive nature. It’s the video game equivalent of a potato chip: Playing just once is nearly impossible. Fighting to top your friend’s scores adds a fun, safe competitive edge to the game. It also motivates you to improve, since a special flapple is deployed — giving you thousands of points and three extra flaps — whenever you pass the most recent high score set by your friends.
The game is still in preview/beta mode and PopCap will likely be adding new power-ups and perhaps new enemies, but even in its incomplete state it’s one of the best games on the social network site.
Owain Weinert is nine years old
— and like countless children his age, he plays lots of video games. He wants to make them, too, so he conceived and designed a title on his own.
For most kids, the story would end there. But Owain has leukemia. And with the help of the Make-A-Wish foundation, he got to spend some time with the developers at PopCap Games (Bejeweled, Plants Vs. Zombies) earlier this year, impressing the game makers so much that they developed the game he had conceived.
It went live on the App store Thursday.
You can’t turn a corner these days without 
running into the debate over whether 99 cents is too cheap for a game or $60 is too high. Ultimately that comes down to the quality of the game, and as it happens, some of the best games of all time — as well as some innovative new titles — can be found for less than $10.
Here are 10 you simply can’t miss.
[Gamasutra editor-at-large Chris Morris talks to PopCap CEO 
David Roberts about the rise of casual gaming, the possibility of an initial public offering for the company later this year, and why Bejeweled’s popularity rises from the fact that “good games are good games.”]
PopCap Games, to borrow (and slightly mangle) a phrase from Barbara Mandrell, was casual when casual wasn’t cool.
Long before companies like Rovio and Zynga were dominating headlines, the Seattle-based development house was building a loyal following with titles like Bejeweled and Bookworm. And that gives it some perspective in this fast-growing market.
We certainly have no problem getting caught 
up in the fun of playing games, but the people who create them have their pocketbooks to worry about, too. In this column, finance expert and GameSpy contributor Chris Morris guides you through the tricky corridors the gaming industry’s financial side, touching on big-time business decisions and how they matter to the common gamer.
Change is on the way for casual games titan PopCap Games. The question is: What sort of change?
Investors in the video game space are hoping it will be the odds-on favorite: A public offering by the beloved independent game company. But with all the cash floating around the video game space these days, no one is ruling out a takeover.
Investors looking for a chance to get a piece of the 
fast-growing social network gaming and mobile gaming spaces could have the opportunity by year’s end.
PopCap Games, known for such titles as “Bejeweled,” “Bookworm” and “Plants vs. Zombies,” is mulling an IPO. And while a casual game company might seem an unlikely contender to go public, this one boasts both a rabidly loyal audience (that often buys multiple copies of its titles on multiple platforms) and steady revenue growth. As a result, it has been on Wall Street’s radar for a while now.
Chris Morris: Journalist 