Game Developers Choice Online Awards Reveals Finalists — The finalists for the second annual Game Developers Choice Online Awards have been announced. Below are the social game nominees and their respective categories.

• Dragons of Atlantis (Kabam) — Best Online Visual Arts, Best Social Network Game
• CityVille (Zynga) — Best Social Network Game, Best Online Technology
• Gardens of Time (Playdom) — Best Social Network Game, Best New Online Game
• FrontierVille (Zynga) — Best Social Network Game, Best Online Game Design, Best Audio for an Online Game
• Ravenwood Fair (Lolapps) — Best Social Network Game, Best Online Game Design, Best Audio for an Online Game
• Empire Avenue (Empire Avenue — Online Innovation
• Zombie Lane (Digital Chocolate) — Online Innovation
• Monster Galaxy (Gaia Online) — Best New Online Game

Zynga Launches Campaing with Edible Schoolyard Project — The Edible Schoolyard Project is an organization that supports education throughout the United States and now Zynga’s FarmVille players can contribute. Players can purchase a limited edition “rainbow chard” for their farm with 100 percent of proceeds going to Edible Schoolyard. Additionally, should players donate $5, $10, or $25 they will both receive the chard but also gain a limited edition garden gnome decorative item. Once the crop is mastered, they will also receive a virtual lunchbox full of produce.

Zynga Boosts CEO Voting Power — According to pre-IPO documents obtained by Bloomberg, Zynga is revising its stock structure into multiple tiers so that CEO Mark Pincus has 70 times more voting power than public investors.

Bungie Aerospace Announces Crimson: Steam Pirates – Social and mobile game publisher Bungie Aerospace is ready to reveal its first game at the Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle this week. Crimson: Steam Pirates for iPad is a freemium turn-based strategy game developed by Harebrained Schemes. Bungie Aerospace was established by the Halo creator to support independent social and mobile game developers.

Sony to Redesign PlayStation Home — Ars Technica reports on an upcoming redesign for the PlayStation Home virtual space accessed via the PlayStation 3 console. The new direction will convert Home from “a social network to a social game platform.” Within the new Home, players will be able to visit four themed spaces representing and filled with different types of games and participate in an optional quest meta-game that encompasses all of Home.

WildTangent Adds DoubleDown Casino — WildTangent and Double Down Interactive have announced a partnership this week that will bring the social title DoubleDown Casino to the former’s game platform. A virtual casino, the game offers players chances to win virtual currency in games such as blackjack, slots, poker, and roulette.

MapleStory Runs Cross-Promotion With MapleStory Adventures — Nexon is running a cross-promotion between MapleStory and its Facebook title, MapleStory Adventures. Players that log on to the Facebook version will now be able to earn experience points and Mesos (virtual currency) for the primary game.

[Announcements] RockYou Adds Back To School Content to Gourmet Ranch — School across the U.S. started fall semester this week, and RockYou has updated its Facebook title Gourmet Ranch with a “Back to School” set of features. Users can now create a scholastic theme for their restaurant with items such as chalkboards, school-themed costumes, and healthy lunch recipes.

Though there were still a decent number of new hires this week within the social space, based on LinkedIn and other sources, the number of hires did decline ever so slightly since last week. Even so, this week had two rather large hires from both Zynga and King.com. The former brings on a new chief marketing and revenue officer, Jeff Karp, and the latter hires Gilles Storme as its new vice president of ad sales for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

As always, if your company is hiring new people or making a notable promotion, please let us know. Email editor (at) insidesocialgames (dot) com, and we’ll get it into this or next week’s post. Also, please note that the information about most new hires, below, comes directly from company updates from LinkedIn, and is only as current as each person’s profile.

Looking for new opportunities? The Inside Network Job Board presents a survey of current openings at leading companies

Here’s this week’s full list:

6waves LOLapps

• David Wong, Product Manager — The LOLapps side of the recently merged 6waves LOLapps brings on a single hire with David Wong. Wong was previously a consultant and acting VP of product at thruSocial.

CrowdStar

• Christine Nguyen, Associate Artist — Joining CrowdStar, Nguyen was previously a “green ninja” at House of Chai.
• Chad Wilson, Lead Game Designer — In an internal shift at CrowdStar, Wilson moves up from his prior role as a game designer.

Digital Chocolate

• Earl Dos Santos, Senior Product Manager — Digital Chocolate makes an internal change, moving Dos Santos up from his prior role as a product manager.

GREE

• Audrey Nakao, Business Development Manager — GREE starts of its list of new hires with Nakao. Before this, Nakao was a sales account manager for EA Mobile.
• Winson Wong, Strategy Manager — Also joining Gree is Wong, a former strategy consultant for Oliver Wyman.
• E.J. Fournier, General Counsel — Fournier was most recently a managing counsel at Oracle.
• Alex Sung, Product Manager, Analytics — Sung was previously a software engineer for eBay.

iWin

• Ayinde Benn, QA Specialist — iWin makes a single hire this week. Benn was previously an employee of Zynga.

King.com

• Gilles Storme, Vice President of Ad Sales, EMEA — As noted prior, King.com brings on Gilles Storme as its new vice president of ad sales. Most recently, Storme was head of RockYou’s advertising sales initiatives for EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa).

Peak Games

• Baran Sakallıoğlu, PHP Developer — Now at Peak Games, Sakallıoğlu was formerly a PHP developer at Nano DRM.

Playdom

• Michael Jones, Contract Sound Designer — Joining Playdom this week is Jones. Jones was most recently an audio designer for Pipeworks Software.
• Mark Pitman, Senior Software Engineer — Pitman also joins Playdom this week. He was previously a senior Java developer at the Geneva Foundation/NHRC.

RockYou!

• Gabriel Aussant, Customer Support Team Leader — RockYou! makes a single hire with Aussant, a former subject matter expert for GOA Games.

Zynga

• Jeff Karp, Chief Marketing & Revenue Officer — As stated already, Jeff Karp joins Zynga as its new chief marketing and revenue officer. Prior to joining Zynga, Karp was the executive vice president at EA Play.
• Nelson Hernandez, Associate Artist — Also joining Zynga this week is Hernandez, a former art lecturer at San Jose State University.
• Priyanka Amravati, Intern — Now at Zynga, Amravati was previously a student at MSRIT, Bangalore.
• Jason Ku, Software Engineer — In an internal change, Ku moves up from his role as a software engineering intern at Zynga.
• Ashli Tingle, QA Engineer II — Tingle was previously a video game tester at PsiNapse Staffing Technology (on behalf of Sega of America).
• Therese Tan, Graphic Artist — Tan was most recently a game artist under the recently acquired Astro Ape Studios.
• Karly Yohe, 3D Contract Artist — Joining Zynga, Yohe was previously a tutor at The Art Institute of California – San Francisco.
• Jose Cardenas, Senior Software Engineer — Also now at Zynga, Cardenas was formerly a supervisor of software development at Travelocity.
• Anthony Dallaryan, Art Director — Dallaryan was previously a senior artist at Astro Ape Studios.

Windows Phone to Gain Xbox LIVE Games & Features — Microsoft previewed several Xbox LIVE games and features for the Windows Phone at Gamescom. Features include Avatar Awardables (unlockable Xbox LIVE avatar items), Game Add-ons via in-app purchases with Microsoft Points, Parental Controls, and Fast Async (improved synchronous and asynchronous multiplayer). Fourteen new games were also announced, including Bug Village, Burn the Rope, and Gravity Guy.

Sony Reveals New Social Applications for PS Vita — Sony announced several new social enhancements to its mobile platform, the PlayStation Vita. At their press conference, they announced the integration of Facebook, Twitter, Skype, and Foursquare.

Battlefield 3 for iPhone Previewed — One of the few mobile games displayed at Gamescom last week was Electronic Arts’ and DICE’s Battlefield 3: Aftershock for the iOS. Pocket Gamer notes that the military first-person-shooter hosts no traditional campaign/story mode, but does contain single-player challenges and multiplayer via EA’s new Origin platform.

[image via Pocket Gamer]

The Sims Social Receives “Best Browser Game” – The Sims Social won an award at Gamescom for “Best Browser Game.” Currently, the game boasts a daily active user count of nearly 3.5 million.

According to Digital Spy, an EA representative stated that The Sims Social will be getting a mobile companion app. Players will be able to access the game via java-supported mobile handsets such as Android.

iQU Launches Online Games Analytics & Marketing Service — VentureBeat covered the demo of a new marketing and analytics platform for online games from iQU. The company is a data intelligence firm and states that it can better help with game marketing due to its larger database of gamers and how they act within the social, mobile, and web spaces.

Activision States Social Game Company Valuations are “Out of Whack” — Activision-Blizzard believes that the valuations of social game companies are a bit too high. According to Bloomberg, CEO Eric Hirshberg stated in an interview that “valuations of some of the companies in that space are out of whack, so that’s an issue when it comes to acquisitions.” Nevertheless, Activision is planning to methodically move into the space (no official announcements regarding Facebook games have been made) and is slated to introduce a social network for players in Call of Duty with “Call of Duty Elite.”

Through Call of Duty Elite, players will be able connect with other users and play with people that share similar interests and skill levels. They will also be able to compete in community tournaments and view short films (“webisodes”) based on the game.

Wooga Wins Best Publisher & Best Social Game – The 2011 European Games Award was given out earlier this week. Of the 69 nominated companies across 23 categories, social developer wooga walked away as the best European publisher and host of the best social game, Diamond Dash.

Digital Chocolate Acquires Sandlot Games — Digital Chocolate acquired casual games developer and publisher Sandlot Games. Through Sandlot, Digital Chocolate is looking to expand further into Seattle and Eastern Europe as well as “grow faster in pursuit of its cross-platform leadership strategy.”

SyFy Games Notes Six Facebook Games On The Way — SyFy is working with KlickNation under a muti-year, multimillion dollar contract, reports Games.com. While the social games developer will release Age of Immortals for Facebook later this year, SyFy president David Howe also told Hollywood Reporter that “around six Facebook games” are also in the works.

Restaurant City Hits iOS in Canada — Restaurant City’s iOS version is finally going live this week, starting in Canada.

[Update] Empire Avenue Now Supports Foursquare & Instagram — Virtual stock market Empire Avenue has announced a new update that introduces support for Foursquare and Instagram. Every check-in, photo, tip, comment, and follower, will improve players’ virtual stock value. Empire avenue also recently announced the raising of $1.2 million in funding.

[Announcement] Thunderstone Game Franchise to Launch on Social & Mobile Platforms — Zabu Studio and Alderac Entertainment Group have announced that strategy card game franchise Thunderstone will be making its way to Facebook, iOS, and Android with a free-to-play model.

[Announcement] Castle & Co Launches on Naver — Ubisoft is expanding Castle & Co to Korea. Under the name of 마법의 성 (Magic Castle), the title is now live on Korean social network and portal, Naver.

[Announcement] Game Insight Releases Crime Story on Android — Social-mobile games developer Game Insight has launched their newest Android title, Crime Story. The game will allow users to build out a criminal empire, defeat enemy crime lords, and conquer uncontrolled regions of the city.

[Announcement] Dungeons & Dragons: Heroes of Neverwinter Hits Closed Beta — Atari launched a closed beta of Dungeons & Dragons: Heroes of Neverwinter this week. The turn-based role-playing game allows users to joing with friends to crawl through dungeons, fight fantasy creatures, and upgrade their own customizable character.

[Legal] Zynga Sued Over Credits Patent — More lawsuits enter the social space as Agincourt Gaming files against Zynga over two of its patents involving “credits-based online gaming and a prize redemption system based on the outcome of game play,” according to CNET. The company is seeking a permanent injunction against Zynga.

Also be sure to check out our social and mobile gaming highlights from GDC Europe.

14 social companies showed hiring activity this week, based on information from LinkedIn and other sources, though most of the developers bringing on only one or two new individuals.

Out of these, three – SponsorPay, We R Interactive, and Wild Tangent – made managerial hires. As part of SponsorPay’s U.S. expansion, the company brought on Dave Westin as its new SVP and general manager where he will focus on U.S. sales and business development activities. Christian Purslow joins We R Interactive’s board as the newly created non-executive independent director. And as for Wild Tangent, it gains Brett Orlanski as its new director of business development.

As always, if your company is hiring new people or making a notable promotion, please let us know. Email editor (at) insidesocialgames (dot) com, and we’ll get it into this or next week’s post. Also, please note that the information about most new hires, below, comes directly from company updates from LinkedIn, and is only as current as each person’s profile.

Looking for new opportunities? The Inside Network Job Board presents a survey of current openings at leading companies in the industry.

Here’s this week’s full list:

5th Planet Games

• Colby Schneider, QA Lead — 5th Planet Games brings on a single hire. Schneider was previously a QA analyst for Zynga.

CrowdStar

• Aggie Cheung, Artist — Joining CrowdStar this week, Cheung was previously an artist for Playdom.

Gaia Interactive

• Yvonne Chow, User Interface Designer — In an internal shift at Gaia Interactive, Chow was previously a graphic designer.

GSN

• Matt Durgavich, Game Programmer — GSN brings on Durgavich, a former programmer for Rockstar Games.
• Lauren Foye, Mobile Publishing Manager — Also now a part of GSN, Foye was formerly a marketing manager for Isabella Products.

iWin

• Christian Hernandez, UI Designer — iWin fills us in on the hiring of Hernandez, whose previous experience stems from Hitatchi GST.
• Ariel Katz, Software Engineer — Also joining iWin is Katz, who is formerly from Sony.

Kabam

• Jill Hu, Flash Developer/Software Engineer — Now at Kabam, Hu was previously a software engineer for Ohai. That said, the hiring appears to only be a late update.

Nordeus

• Vladimir Mitrović, Software Development Engineer — Joining Nordeus this week is Mitrović. He was previously a lead iOS developer for NextWidget.
• Venijamin Živković, Software Development Engineer in Test — Also joining Nordeus, Živković was formerly an analyst team leader for ApexSQL LLC.

Playdom

• Samson James, Manager – Human Resources — Starting off a trio of new Playdom hires is James. James’ prior experience includes an HR executive position at Mind Source Consulting Services.
• Stephen Justice, Quality Assurance Lead — In an internal change at Playdom, Justice moves up from a quality assurance tester.
• Gitin George, QA Test Engineer — Also joining Playdom is George, a former test engineer for e4e.

Playfish

• Seema Dookie, Scrum Master — Joining Playfish this week is Dookie, who was previously a business analyst at Rank Interactive.

PopCap Games

• Carter Edwards, Finance Department Intern — Marking a single hire for PopCap Games, Edwards was most recently a lead manager for Eastside Boat Manager.

SponsorPay

• Dave Westin, SVP & General Manager — As part of its U.S. expansion, SponsorPay brings on Dave Westin as its new SVP and general manager. Before SponsorPay, Westin was VP of sales at Gambit and later SupersonicAds.
• Maria Virginia Baptista, Operations Manager — SponsorPay makes an internal change as Baptista shifts roles from a customer services agent.
• Jessica Eliason, Recruitment Manager — Prior to SponsoryPay, Eliason was an assistant at Hays.

We R Interactive

• Christian Purslow, Non-Executive Independent Director — As noted prior, Christian Purslow joins the We R Interactive Board and is now in the newly created role of non-executive independent director. He was previously a managing director for Liverpool FC.

Wild Tangent

• Brett Orlanski, Director of Business Development — In yet another major hire. Brett Orlanski joins Wild Tangent as its new director of business development. Previously, he was VP of business development at Virtual Greats.
• Enric Pedró, Sales Coordinator, EMEA — In an internal change at Wild Tangent, Pedró moves from his prior role as consumer marketing, EMEA.

Zynga

• Jana Johnson, 3D Contract Artist — Kicking off a fairly small week of new hires for Zynga is Johnson, a former 3D contract artist for Disney Interactive Media Group.
• Antara Sara Mahthai, Producer — Now at Zynga, Mathai was previously an assistant manager for Star TV.
• Truman Simpson, QA Engineer — Simpson was formerly a senior quality assurance tester for Sony Computer Entertainment America.
• Rainer Knopf, Community Support Specialist — Also joining Zynga this week is Knopf whose prior role is unknown.
• Mauro Fiore, Senior Game Designer — Fiore was most recently a senior game designer for Rockstar Games.

Editor’s Note: We’re not at Game Developers Conference Europe this week, but there’s lots of news coming out of the show, so we’re bringing you the highlights from the social and mobile games industry perspective.

Wooga Talks Social Games Appeal — Wooga CEO Jens Begemann explains the appeal of social games. He states that social games are looking to turn gamers into “FarmVille farmers,” but should instead seek an audience outside the subset of traditional gamers. Social games allows users to become absorbed into a world without a multi-hour time investment, at a low cost, and with a negligible learning curve.

Begemann also points out other elements of social games. For example, he notes that monetization through virtual items actually shows the most revenue in terms of speeding up game play: “Time is money even for social/casual players.” Additionally, he highlights the interaction levels between users: “Social games are parallel play. People want to play for themselves. Sometimes, they may walk up to the other and either help or destroy what the other has been doing.”

Richard Garriott: Mobile & Social Are “The Future of Games” –Game designer and founder of social developer Portalarium gave the final keynote address at GDC Europe in which he recaps the single player and MMOG eras of gaming. He also notes that playing with friends through social and mobile games is now the most rapidly evolving and important space for the games industry.

These games are free or cheap to acquire, easy to learn, and allow users to play with real world friends asynchronously, on their own time. Additionally, while early social and mobile games were “too simple,” the player base is growing to accept more and more complex activity.

i-Jet Media Unveils New Social Games Platform — During the Social Games Summit at GDC Europe, i-Jet Media revealed its new i-Jet Connect social platform. The platform is intended to consolidate social game development solutions and features the ability to quickly publish titles to both global and local social networks, manage traffic, and incorporate brand advertisements.

Papaya Mobile Tips on Social-Mobile Games — Papaya Mobile’s Oscar Clark spoke on design social games, providing ten tips on creating a successful social-mobile game. Highlighted by PocketGamer, the top tips include treating a game like an evolving service, analyzing what types of players are looking for what types of rewards, and ensuring that all users (free, paid, and “whales”) all equally enjoy the game in the way that they play it.

Ideal Time for Mobile Mergers and Acquisitions — It is the perfect time for mobile game studios to consider mergers and acquisitions, says Tim Merel of investment bank Digi-Capital. Though he states that merging or selling one’s company is not always the right choice for everyone, he does point out that global investments are not only accelerating, but that the mobile space is currently one with no truly dominant presence, yet is quickly expanding.

Public Funding — The independents of Yacine Salmi and Alexander Zacherl discussed a few interesting ways to acquire public funding for games development. As highlighted by Gamasutra, the big point made is that developers can find funding from non-game related funds for things like art or research (e.g. for a game engine). Doing so is advantageous, as it reduces exposure should a startup fail, but at the same time, developers do lose a bit of their independence.

Hot on the heels of GDC Europe is Gamescom, which kicks off today in Germany. Stay tuned for a roundup of social and mobile gaming news out of that conference.

FIFA Superstars Nominated at Best Free-to-Play Game — Electronic Arts and Playfish have received a nomination for the GameMaster Golden Joystick Awards this week for FIFA Superstars. The awards ceremony will take place October 21st.

Zynga to Gain EA Executive — Another executive from Electronic Arts is defecting over to Zynga, reports Develop. According to a “U.S. source” Jeff Karp, one of EA’s social games executives, is slated to join Zynga after 11 years at EA.

Jeremy Verba Leaves Zynga — According to VentureBeat, Zynga general manager Jeremy Verba has left the company after 19 months to become CEO of dating site, eHarmony.

OpenFeint Releases New Social Features — Aside from its activity in China, OpenFeint has begun its roll out of new social features for Android. This includes player status updates and a new message wall.

Mobage Releases for iPhone in Japan — DeNA has released its mobile social games network, Mobage, in Japan’s App Store this week, reports Penn-Olson. Though the platform has been available in mobile browsers, it did not have a dedicated app.

Zynga vs. Vostu Lawsuit Clashes Abroad –  Last week, Zynga filed its copyright infringement lawsuit against Brazilian startup Vostu, again, in a Brazilian court. This led to a preliminary injunction against Vostu. Now, TechCrunch reports that U.S. District Judge Edward Davila has issued an order that restrains Zynga from enforcing the Brazilian courts decision to shut its games down.

[Launch] Greenopolis Stays Environmentally Friendly in New Mobile App — The environmentally friendly Greenopolis has launched a new mobile app for iOS and Android dubbed RecyclePix. The social title allows users to take pictures of themselves and friends recycling and share them on social feeds. Doing so earns “Greenopolis Points” which can then be redeemed for real world rewards and discounts.

[Launch] Yazino Socializes Bingo as a Team Sport — Yazino announced the launch of its newest social game, Extreme Bingo for both Yazino.com and Facebook. Combining traditionally Bingo rules with the use of strategically placed power-ups (on the Bingo “Battleboard”), players are able to compete in synchronous, team-based play.

Though not as busy as last week, the social games industry saw decent activity as nine developers brought on new team members, according to data from LinkedIn and other sources.

As always, if your company is hiring new people or making a notable promotion, please let us know. Email editor (at) insidesocialgames (dot) com, and we’ll get it into this or next week’s post. Also, please note that the information about most new hires, below, comes directly from company updates from LinkedIn, and is only as current as each person’s profile.

Looking for new opportunities? The Inside Network Job Board presents a survey of current openings at leading companies in the industry.

Here’s this week’s full list:

Digital Chocolate

• Pranab Das, Game Artist — Now at Digital Chocolate, Das was previously a senior graphics artist for games at Jump Games.

Gaia Interactive

• Amie Pantle, Sprite Artist — Gaia Interactive shows activity this week, bringing on Pantle. Pantle was previously a freelance illustrator for Invitation Solutions and is also currently a graphic designer and 2D clean-up artist for Retna Media and Reverge Labs.

iWin

• Fadila Kochkar, Senior UI Designer — iWin fills us in on the hiring of Kochkar, a former freelance artists.
• Jessica Rapue, Customer Supoort Representative — Also joining iWin is Rapue, a former part of member services at Zipcar.
• Jerry Mahoney, Freelance Writer — Mahoney was previously a student at the University of Southern California.

Kabam

• Allen Williams, Senior Concept Artist — Kabam makes a single hire this week with Williams who was previously a concept artist for Guillermo Del Toro.

KlickNation

• Andrew Breese, Assistant Producer-Marketing — Starting off a long list of new hires for KlickNation is Breese. He was formerly a behavior therapist and respite care provider.
• Dan Zerzan, Software Engineer — Also joining KlickNation is Zerzan. Zerzan was most recently a development software engineer for Vertical Communications.
• Jamie Greeson, Director of HR –  Jamie Greeson joins KlickNation as its new director of human resources. She was previously the interim HR manager at Rezolve Group.
• Ryan Thomas, Community Manager — Thomas was formerly a senior quality engineer for Digital Video Group.
• Jason Wigle, Assistant Game Designer — In an internal shift, Wigle moves from his prior role as a community manager.
• Ranelle Moore, 2D Art Apprentice — Moore graduated to this position from an internship at KlickNation.
• Meagan Sevier, Manager – Revenue & Content — Sevier was previously a marketing assistant for BlackDog Education.
• James Walker, Assistant Content Specialist — Previously, Walker was a former processor at MedeAnalytics.
• David Andrew Ottman, Assistant Content Specialist — Ottman also graduates to his role from a QA internship at KlickNation.

Playdom

• Matthew John, Software Engineer — Playdom makes a single hire this week, bringing on John. He was most recently an intern for the advanced technology group at NetApp.

Playfish

• Alice Yang, Client-Side Developer Intern — Joining Playfish this week, Yang was previously a student at the University of Pennsylvania.
• Staffan Måhlen, Developer — Also joining Playfish, Måhlen was formerly a developer and team leader at Jadestone Group.

Socialvibe

• Alanna Strauss, Account Manager/Account Strategy — Strauss was previously an assistant account executive at Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising.

Zynga

• Howard Wooten, QA Engineer Intern — Wooten was previously a student at Year Up.
• Mayumi Yoshida, Mobile QA Lead — Yoshida comes to Zynga following a stint as lead mobile QA engineer for Hitachi Solutions.
• Jonathan April, Game Designer Intern — April was previously a QA tester for n-Space.
• Bryan Waters, Senior Software Engineer — Waters was most recently a lead software engineer for GoTV Networks.
• Sabah Azam, Customer Service Lead — Azam was a student at the University of California.
• Daniel Feldstein, Senior Employment Counsel — Feldstein comes to Zynga after serving as senior corporate counsel at Synopsys.
• Verity Davis, QA Analyst — Davis was previously a QA analyst at Namco Bandai Games America.
• Bob Scarduzio, Associate Producer — Scarduzio was a financial services representative at First Investors Corporation.
• Luke Lanford, Product Manager — Lanford was previously a senior associate at Innosight.
• Mark Turmell, Senior Creative Director — Turmell was formerly a senior creative director at Electronic Arts.
• Cynthia Saw, Public Relations Coordinator — Saw was most recently an account executive at The OutCast Agency.

Segan Files Patent Lawsuit Against Zynga — Another patent lawsuit appears this week as Segan LLC, files a suit against Zynga over a “System for Viewing Content Over A Network and Method Thenrfor.” As noted by TechCrunch, the complaint centers around the association of a user to a character icon as well as how to manage character updates.

It Girl to Expand to Russia — CrowdStar is expanding its popular social title It Girl to Russia. Partnering with Russian distributor 101XP, It Girl will go live on Odnoklassniki.ru, Vkontakte.ru, and Mail.ru in the next two months. The game is also currently available on Odnoklassniki.

Exit Games to Power King’s Bounty: Legions — Earlier this week, we previewed the upcoming title, of King’s Bounty: Legions for Facebook. Only a few days later, Exit Games announced that its network engine, Photon, has been selected to power the network features of the coming game.

RockYou Makes Aktiv APAC Sales Partner – Asia Media Journal reports that social game developer and publisher RockYou has made online media sales house Aktiv an APAC sales partner. The move gives RockYou’s new ad platform distribution in the Asian market.

AT&T & ngmoco Bring Mobage to Android — Last week, ngmoco and DeNA brought the Mobage social gaming platform to Android Market. This week, AT&T and ngmoco announced a new agreement stating that Mobage will act as a hub for AT&T Android users to discover and play games as well as connect with other global users.

Blizzard to Use Real Currency for Virtual Goods Transactions — Blizzard Entertainment announced earlier this week that its upcoming Diablo III online game will allow the sale of virtual items via both in-game and real world currencies. For real money trades, Blizzard will take a small transaction fee.

[Announcement] MyTown Expands to Japan — Earlier this week, social and mobile apps developer Booyah and YUMEMI announced a partnership that will bring the location-based iOS title of MyTown to Japan as a new product for iOS, Android, and other feature phone platforms this Fall.

[Announcement] RockYou Updates Gourmet Ranch with New Content — RockYou Playdemic released a new content update for its title, Gourmet Ranch. Over the course of the next few weeks, players will gain access to the “Fun Fair,” and with it, new limited edition ingredients, quests, and rewards.

[Announcement] iWin & Sony Pictures to Bring The $100,000 Pyramid to Facebook — Family Feud developer iWin announced a new licensing deal with Sony Pictures Entertainment that will bring TV game show The $100,000 Pyramid to Facebook later this summer.

It has been a busy week in the social games hiring space as 11 highlighted developers bring on new individuals according to LinkedIn and other sources. Moreover, many typically quiet developers showed new activity with Zynga hosting a massive hiring streak all its own.

Two leadership hires were also reported this week, including Michael Scholz, who joins Gamzee as its new Chief Technology Officer, and Phil Frazier, who joins Zynga as an executive producer (although he appears to have been in that role since June).

As always, if your company is hiring new people or making a notable promotion, please let us know. Email editor (at) insidesocialgames (dot) com, and we’ll get it into this or next week’s post. Also, please note that the information about most new hires, below, comes directly from company updates from LinkedIn, and is only as current as each person’s profile.

Looking for new opportunities? The Inside Network Job Board presents a survey of current openings at leading companies in the industry.

Here’s this week’s full list:

6waves LOLapps

• Jonathan Akhavan, “People Team” — The LOLapps side of the newly merged 6waves LOLapps notes the hiring of Akhavan this week. Akhavan was most recently a recruiter for Ask.com.

Breaktime Studios

• Heidi Anspaugh, Community Manager — Anspaugh joins Breaktime Studios this week. Before this, she was a Home community manager at SCEA, PlayStation Network at Sony Computer Entertainment America.
• David Leistiko, Software Engineer — Leistiko was previously a software engineer at Sony Online Entertainment.

Gamzee

• Michael Scholz, Chief Technology Officer — As noted prior, Gamzee hires on Michael Scholz as its new CTO. Scholz boasts experience from several studios, including Sierra Online, WildTangent, THQ, and SkillJam.

Kixeye

• Nicole Tanner, Game Writer — Kixeye brings on Tanner this week. She was previously an editor for IGN Entertainment.

Mindjolt

• Bhaskar Upadhyay, Software Engineer — Mindjolt shows its first activity in a while, hiring Upadhyay. Prior to this, he was an ASP.NET programmer intern at Civic Resource Group.

NaturalMotion

• Frank Kitson, Art Director — NaturalMotion hires on four new team members this week, starting with Kitson, a former senior art director at Crytek.
• Straun Robertson, Product Director — Also joining NaturalMotion is Robetson. He was most recently a student at The University of Edinburgh.
• Andy Johns, Senior Technical Artist — Johns was previously a senior technical artist at UTV Iginition Entertainment.
• Patrik McCormack, Producer — McCormack was formerly a producer at Activision.

Nordeus

• Tamara Stojanović, HR Assistant — Nordeus also shows hiring activity this week, starting with Stojanović. She was previously a student at the Univerzitet u Beogradu.
• Nemanja Posrkača, Online Marketing Manager — Also joining Nordeus is Posrkača, a former project manager at AIESEC Serbia.
• Marija Mitrovic, Software Development Engineer — In an internal change at Nordeus, Mitrovic moves up from an internship role.
• Zarko Petrovic, Software Development Engineer — Petrovic is noted to hold prior experience with PSTech.

Playdom

• Juny Chen, Art Intern — Now at Playdom, Chen was previously a student at the Academy of Art University.

PopCap Games

• Stephen Byrne, Artist — In a single hire for PopCap Games, Byrne joins the team this week. He is currently a freelance illustrator for RTE and storyboard artist for H2 Films, and he was previously a storyboard artist for Irish International.

Wooga

• Esko Javanainen, Product Manager — Javaninen joins wooga this week. He was formerly a gameplay designer for Remedy Entertainment.

Zynga

• Fransiskus Xaverius, Software Engineer — Xaverius kicks off a heavy week of new Zynga hires. He was previously a software engineering intern at Google.
• Keith Brown, Desktop Support Technician Vendor — Also joining Zynga, Brown is also a student at Year Up, and was previously a student at City College of San Francisco.
• Wei Hai, Software Engineer — Hai was formerly a programmer for Uniplay Design.
• Channing Corn, Software Engineer — Prior to Zynga, Corn was a senior software developer at Multimedia Games.
• Neil Chheda, Product Manager –  Chheda was a business analyst at McKinsey & Company.
• Keki Burjorjee, Software Engineer — Joining Zynga this week is Burjorjee, a former software development engineer for Amazon.
• Amy Luu, Lead Analyst — In an internal shift at Zynga, Luu changes roles from a fraud/risk analyst.
• Gyan Upadhyay, Software Engineer — Upadhyay was previously a White Box QA engineer at BetaSoft Inc.
• Phil Frazier, Executive Producer –  Phil Frazier is noted to have become a new executive producer for Zynga. Prior to this he was an executive producer for EA Tiburon. That said, he has been in the role since June and this is merely a late update.
• Todd Freedman, Senior Accounting Manager — In another internal Zynga change, Freedman moves up from his prior role as an accounting manager.
• Adarsh VN, Talent Acquisitions — Adarsh VN was previously a senior recruitment specialist at the Yahoo Software Development Center.
• Sunil Kata, Software Engineer — Kata was previously a product engineer at Rediff.com.
• Ramkrish Raja, Software Engineer — Raja was most recently an IT manager and web developer at the University of Pennsylvania – Weiss Tech House.
• Lei Zhang, Art Producer — Zhang was formerly a project manager and art lead for Funcom.
• Kalyan Chakravarthy, Software Engineer — Chakravarthy was previously a software engineer at ESPN Cricinfo.