Chinese online game company ZQGame has partnered with Los Angeles-based SEE Games to create, co-invest in, and publish an original MMO (massively multiplayer online) game based on Sony Pictures Entertainment’s 2012 summer event film, Total Recall (2012), starring Colin Farrell. The deal represents the first time a Hollywood entity has partnered with a game company from China to develop an online game in-full.

The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) Foundation’s 14th annual “Nite to Unite – for Kids” gala raised $900,000 to support the Foundation’s work on behalf of America’s youth. The proceeds from the annual dinner, auction and charity casino night will enable the ESA Foundation, the video game industry’s philanthropic arm, to improve the lives of children through grants to a wide variety of organizations, as well as a college scholarship program.

Mafia Wars 2 is Zynga’s first official sequel, taking one of the company’s most successful franchises to a new level of wicked fun. With the game’s official launch on Facebook and Google+, players are already building their criminal empire. Zynga is bringing its most ruthless game to date to as many players as possible. Let’s face it – you can’t be a true franchise if you only own one turf.

In anticipation of its IPO, Zynga showcased new games at Zynga Unleashed, its first media event hosted by CEO and Founder Mark Pincus held at its new San Francisco headquarters. The company gave a sneak peek of several new social games, including the next chapter in its Ville franchise and teased its own new play service, code named Project Z. CastleVille is the newest game heading to Facebook. Cityville, the last title in the franchise, has over 74 million gamers. There’s also a new Zynga Casino that features Zynga Poker and the newly announced Zynga Bingo to create the world’s largest and most social casino. The company is also launching a new Hidden Objects genre with the social game, Hidden Chronicles.

“Welcome. And congratulations. I am delighted that you could make it. Getting here wasn’t easy, I know. In fact, I suspect it was a little tougher than you realize.” Alright, alright, I didn’t write that. That charming prose belongs to Bill Bryson’s A Short History of Nearly Everything (2003). Awesome book. But in theme, these few lines apply greatly to your predicament in Rage, id Software’s heavily anticipated first-person shooter for PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360.

It’s been a pretty big week for Epic Games on the technology front. Epic Games Chief Executive Officer, Founder and Technical Director Tim Sweeney presented the company’s award-winning Unreal Engine 3 (UE3) technology running fully inside an Adobe Flash-based environment during a keynote at Adobe MAX 2011 in Los Angeles, Adobe’s annual conference for developers, designers and business leaders. Epic Games President Mike Capps took the stage in San Francisco to showcase Infinity Blade II, the sequel to Chair Entertainment’s bestselling iOS game, running on the new iPhone 4S during Apple’s press conference. That’s on top of Gears of War 3 continuing to sell at a record pace, and with the first DLC already coming in November.