id Software co-founder and chief mad scientist John Carmack revealed during the keynote address at QuakeCon yesterday that his studio had to cease developing mobile games to focus on Quake 4. Carmack said that it had to close its mobile game operation and shelf whatever iOS projects it was working on to focus on other important priorities:

"It saddened me a lot to because I loved doing the mobile work," he said. "It was fun, it was fun for the company, it makes money but it's not a grand slam sort of thing."

Dead Trigger developer Madfinger Games has made the iOS version of the game free, following reports earlier this month that it would make the Android version of its zombie shooter a free downloaded due to "unbelievably high" levels of piracy. Today the company has taken the same action for the iPad and iPhone version of the game, though its claims about piracy on this platform seem to be slightly more subdued.

While Political Machine 2012 is probably the de facto election year strategy game of choice for PC and Mac players right now, those looking to run a campaign on iOS and Android devices can always check out Election Game 2012: Race for the White House. While we can't attest to the quality of this game (we haven't played it personally) developer Lunagames promises a down and dirty political campaign to win the highest office in the land: the presidency.

Apple has found a way to fight against a Russian hacker who made it so that users could circumvent the in-game purchase system to get premium versions of freemium games for free. Apple claims that it has found a solution to the Borodin App Store hack operated by Russian hacker Alexey Borodin.

Borodin admitted on his blog that the party is over for his hacking service.

"Currently game is over," Russian hacker Alexey Borodin said.

EA has decided to yank both Rock Band and Rock Band Reloaded from the Apple App Store next week, the company revealed. The games and the songs that users have downloaded for it will be unavailable after July 31, though local play will still be available. Electronic Arts said that it was pulling the apps because its licensing agreement with game developer Harmonix was coming to an end.

In an interesting interview with CNBC, Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello says that the company's recent decline in its stock price isn't due to the business, but to a lack of understanding in how the business works on the part of investors. For starters industry's focus on NPD's packaged game sales numbers is "misguided," and ignores the current strong shift towards digital sales - which NPD doesn't have a handle on yet. He points to their success with games on Apple's platforms as well as on Facebook.

Travis Baldree, president of Runic Games is publicly calling out Chinese mobile developer EGLS for stealing art assets and sound files from his company's game, Torchlight. The game in question is an iOS-based massively multiplayer game called Armed Heroes Online. Baldree noticed the striking similarities in the character art from the game and Torchlight and took to Twitter earlier this month to point it out:

In what could be considered taking a great stride towards the promise of Microsoft’s Smart Glass, the company has revealed that its My Xbox Live app is now fully compatible with Apple's iPad. Microsoft's app now provides the same capabilities that were added to other Apple devices last month including the iPhone and iPod touch.

Earlier this week iOS users noticed that a number of their apps were suddenly broken and unplayable. Over 70 apps including popular titles like Angry Birds were broken after a new update from Apple was deployed. It turns out the real culprit was Apple's DRM scheme, FairPlay. The short story is that, after the update was deployed, the DRM failed to recognize the game or app in question as "valid" and even uninstalling and reinstalling the app wouldn’t fix the problem.

Epic Games created Unreal, Unreal Tournament, Bullet Storm, and Gears of War. Among those AAA franchises which would most people think is the most profitable for the company? Well it turns out that Epic's iOS game series, Infinity Blade, has proven to be the biggest money maker for the company.

Another day, another court doing the dirty work of one corporation against another. This time around it is Samsung who finds itself in the unenviable position of having the sale of its products banned in the United States.

Time's Techland points out some interesting statistics that many of us didn't know about Apple's iPad and iPhone devices: it costs less than $2 USD a year in electricity to charge. Of course, depending on where you live, and how hands-off your state government is in regulating your local utility company that cost might be slightly higher or lower.

FiveOneNine Games has released its first iOS game today called Political Rampage. The game gives players control of "outrageous caricatures" of famous American politicians who battle in quick match-three battles to win debates on the campaign trail. The items you will be matching in the game are issues important to the voting public.

Florian Mueller, patent law expert and proprietor of the wonderful web site Foss Patents, passed along a note letting us know that the Federal Trade Commission recently sent a letter to the International Trade Commission asking the organization not to ban the sale of the iPhone, iPad or Xbox 360 related to complaints filed by Google.

Engage Digital has issued a call for speakers for the second annual App Conference on October 18-19, 2012 in Santa Clara, CA. Those interested in sharing their expertise with the app development and business community can submit their pitches here.

The deadline is June 11. The event caters to app developers on various platforms including game developers.

Electronic Arts says that it is not shutting down or discontinuing Rock Band on iOS devices and calls a notice sent to customers as well as a FAQ entry "errors." Speaking to Polygon an EA spokesperson assured that publication that the iOS version of the Harmonix hit music game isn't going anywhere.

EA said that the pop-up message that the app sent to users was an oopsie. The message popped up when users opened the Rock Band iOS app. It warned users:

Users of the iOS version of Rock Band were surprised to receive a notice from the game warning them that it was going to expire on May 31. First noted by this Reddit thread and pictured to your left, the notice warned users that the $4.99 app was going to expire at the end of the month, but iTunes is still selling the app without such a warning and EA is incommunicado on the story as of this writing.

XEOPlay has launched Tilt World, a game that hopes to "end climate change" through "play sourcing." Nicole Lazzaro, CEO of XEOPlay introduced Tilt World to the audience at DEMO Spring 2012 in Santa Clara, CA. In Tilt World, players control Flip, a tadpole who is trying to conquer climate change by planting trees in the real world using the power of players (playsourcing) and through a partnership with WeForest.org.

A federal judge has finally granted Apple's motion to intervene on behalf of iOS developers who have found themselves in a legal battle against Lodsys. It took the court nearly a year to come to this decision. This ruling allows the iOS platform holder to argue in court on behalf of developers who have been sued over alleged patent infringement for using the iOS system's in-app purchasing APIs. Apple has licensed the technology from Lodsys so it will argue in court that developers who use the platform do not infringe on the patent because Apple already obtained a license.

The cheering at political rallies is pretty good, but you know what it needs more of? Cowbell. This is such an odd app for iOS devices that it at least deserves a mention here, even though it is not a game, nor does it have much use outside of providing information and making a lot of noise. The app is called Cowbell 2012, and its sole purpose is to give users the ability to ring a cowbell at a political rally or out in public. Here's more about it from its developers:

Registered sex offenders of all designations residing in the state of New York will no longer be able to interact with children in some online console and PC games. New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's office has convinced several platform holders and game companies such as Microsoft, Apple, Blizzard Entertainment, Electronic Arts, Warner Bros. and Disney Interactive Media Group to shut down the communication privileges of registered sex offenders.

While we are not sure if it is the first Kickstarter funded game development project to come to market, Saturday Morning RPG is the first in recent memory to be released. The iOS action RPG which is being released as an ongoing serial (i.e. like a Saturday morning cartoon) successfully managed to raise $10,661. The developers were looking to raise $6,000. The first two episodes launch today.

It will be interesting to see how the public (who didn’t participate in the Kickstarter) receive the game. The App Store page for the game contains mostly positive reviews so far.

Epic Games and Train2Game announced a who's who of judges to decide the winners of the Make Something Unreal Live competition. The game development competition comes to the Gadget Show Live on April 10-15, 2012 at the NEC in Birmingham, UK. Complementing the Make Something Unreal Live advisory board and Train2Game directors, the new judges will review the program’s new Fighting Fantasy iOS games and coach start-up teams.

Last week EA Mobile removed Battlefield 3: Aftershock from the Apple App Store because users complained about stability and a lack of content. Now we have learned that another recently released iOS title, The Simpsons: Tapped Out, has been yanked from Apple's App Store. This time out EA says that it pulled the popular free app from the marketplace because of an "overwhelmingly positive" reaction to the game. 

On February 22 EA Mobile pulled its iOS Battlefield 3 spin-off game from the Apple App Store after users complained about the game's lack of depth and a number of serious issues including connection problems and control issues. Today Vox Games has been told by an EA Mobile rep that development on the game has been halted and permanently shelved - never to return to Apple's devices.

Earlier this month Electronic Arts released the free-to-play, ad-supported Battlefield 3: Aftershock game on the Apple App Store. It seemed to be doing well, but apparently the game has been yanked. The sudden removal of the game isn't all that much of a mystery: EA looked at the negative reviews the game was getting and decided that it needed to make some drastic changes. The average user review score for the game was right around 2.5 stars.

IndieGames.com has an interesting story chronicling the falling out of the people behind the popular iOS and Android game Hard Lines. The fight involves Spilt Milk, who by their own admission provided art assets and marketing for the game, and the game's programmer Nicoll Hunt. The argument is over who owns the game, who was wrong in breaking a contract they had in place, and what a reasonable amount of compensation is for hard work.

Over the weekend some modern-day hucksters decided to put up "Pokémon Yellow" on Apple's App store. The app, which purported to be "just like the original" and has since been yanked from the store by Apple, made it into the number 3 position on the store's paid app charts. The app certainly confused plenty of customers, who gleefully plunked down .99 cents to play an authentic Pokémon game on their iOS device of choice, only to find that it crashed when launching.

Xie Xianghui, the lawyer representing Shenzhen Proview Technology in China, said that the Intermediate People’s Court in Huizhou (a city in the southern China province of Guangdong) ruled on Friday that distributors should stop selling Apple's iPad devices  in the region. The company is in a bitter dispute with Apple in China because it owns the rights to the "iPad" trademark there. Under Chinese law, the company has the power to stop imports and exports of the product. 

A studio formed by five ex-Sony developers last year explained why they ditched the PS3 and the PlayStation Network to develop games for Apple's iOS platform. When asked what drove them into the arms of Sony's competitors, the answer was simple enough: