GamesBeat weekly roundup: Zynga shuts studio, top exec leaves EA, and Ouya ships March 28

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, Zynga shuts down its Baltimore studio while consolidating three others, THQ will sell off Homeworld, Darksiders, and Red Faction in its last auction, and the Android-based Ouya console will ship March 28.

You’ll also find reviews of Star Wars Pinball and Tomb Raider, as well as previews for Lego City: Undercover, Warface, Time and Eternity, and Throw Trucks with Your Mind.

News

• The DeanBeat: The Nintendo Wii U’s troubles start with a dearth of developers
• Co-creator of Counter-Strike will launch his Tactical Intervention shooter on March 28
• Sony’s 4K movie service coming to PS4, but 100GB downloads remind us why 4K is a waste
• It takes 600 people for Ubisoft to make a triple-A game on PlayStation 4
• CCP holding special Eve Online/Dust 514 event at PAX East for players to make in-game ‘history’
• German publisher Daedalic taps into the international power of adventure games
• Call of Duty: Black Ops II Revolution map pack now available on PlayStation 3 and PC (not Wii U)
• This week in the Nintendo Download: Castlevania, Runner 2, and Retro City Rampage
• Portal developer Kim Swift’s next game is exclusive to Ouya
• Ouya confirms March 28 console shipping and hires ex-Journey developer Kellee Santiago
• Scopely announces marquee game developers as mobile-platform partners
• CCP: ‘No reason we need to stop at just Eve and Dust’ as MMO passes 500K subscribers
• Official key art for Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag
• OnLive offers a free download with every cloud purchase of The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings
• With 23,000 expected attendees, GDC will drill down into everything from PS4 to free-to-play
• GDC attendee survey chronicles the explosion of indie gaming and fall of Nintendo
• The Carrot to-do list for iPhone is your new master
• Don’t play this 800-player (!) online version of Bomberman if you have work to do
• ‘The Thunder King’ trailer celebrates the imminent arrival of World of Warcraft’s latest patch
• EA’s top digital executive Kristian Segerstrale leaves
• Social-game developer Playdemic appoints ‘Fighting Fantasy’ author as new chairman
• Will Wright talks about the new SimCity
• Deadpool game rated M for jokes during violence and inflating a blow-up doll
• GameHouse bets it all on its social casino games
• Online gambling now legal in New Jersey
• Skullgirls reaches crowdfunding goal faster than any other game in Indiegogo’s history
• THQ to sell off Homeworld, Red Faction, Darksiders in last auction
• The War Z is back on Steam more than two months after Valve pulled it
• EA chief technology officer on PS4: ‘We no longer have to constrain our games’
• EA says it missed Sony’s event to maintain ‘balance’ with Microsoft — but Battlefield 4 is ‘stunning’ on PS4
• Toki Tori 2 dev explains why you won’t find any text in its puzzle-platforming sequel
• Anodyne and Surgeon Simulator among latest batch of Steam Greenlight games (updated)
• EA enables gamers to use a single identity across game platforms (exclusive)
• Goofy EA numbers that show how deeply players are engaged in games
• Blizzard debuts its StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm launch trailer on Twitch
• Wii Mini is heading to markets outside of Canada
• Uncharted 3′s multiplayer goes free-to-play
• Ex-FBI profiler: ‘We don’t see video games as the cause of violence’
• New developer Win releases Slots Craze social game backed by online-gambling company
• Online gaming giant Nexon invests in ex-Call of Duty creative strategist’s Robotoki game startup
• Sony appoints new firm to plan PlayStation media strategy
• Lombardi still with Valve — LinkedIn update made in error (updated)
• Zynga shuts Baltimore studio and consolidates three other locations
• Harris Poll: 58 percent of adults believe in a correlation between video games and violence
• Wooga: Inside the social games wonderland of Jens Begemann (video)

Mobile News

• Red Hot Labs raises $1.5M for mobile games and a platform to make them spread
• Disney Mobile launches Toy Story: Smash It! game on app stores
• Samsung offers 100% of revenue to indie developers that use its app store
• Firefox OS needs games: Mozilla is confident it can entice developers by eliminating fragmentation
• Exent launches Android game subscription service for TVs (exclusive)

Reviews

• Star Wars Pinball: That wizard is not just a crazy old man (review)
• Tomb Raider hurts so good (review)

Previews

• With 7.5M users in Russia, Crytek’s free-to-play shooter Warface is coming to the U.S. (preview)
• Lego City: Undercover is less violent than Grand Theft Auto but still just as fun (preview)
• Throw Trucks with Your Mind is the best Star Wars game ever (preview)
• Forget saving the world: In Time and Eternity, you have to save your marriage (preview)

Interviews

• Think tank Gun Media brings experts together to make games (exclusive interview)
• Bungie leader Pete Parsons discusses how studio is shaping gaming’s Destiny (interview)
• The peculiar origin of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance’s heavy-metal sound (interview)

Pieces of Flair

• Silent Hill: Revelation vs. Silent Hill 3: A visual comparison (gallery)
• Required Listening: Fire Emblem, Crysis 3, and interview with Tomb Raider composer Jason Graves