The week in news: 19/12/2012

Seven thousand brand new Wii U consoles have been stolen in a warehouse robbery in Seattle USA. ABC has reported that after gaining access to the SeaTac Air Cargo warehouse, thieves used forklifts to lift palettes of the new console onto two semi trailers and left the scene unimpeded.   The stolen consoles have a retail value of 2.1 Million US dollars.  When asked about any anti-theft technology that would prevent stolen Wii U consoles from being used online, Nintendo declined to comment.  The thieves and the precious cargo are still at large.

Mark Pincus, CEO of Zynga, has been identified by Bloomberg as the fourth worst CEO of 2012. According to the list, compiled by respected business professor Sydney Finkelstein,  Pincus has made disastrous missteps this year in leading his company, which has seen it’s shares fall 80 percent since March.  Zynga, who are the creators of Farmville, The Ville and Zynga Poker, have received consistently negative press coverage throughout 2012 which includes accusations of insider trading, the defection of numerous company officers and, most recently, copyright infringement.

Big Ant Studios, the Melbourne developer of Rugby League Live 2, has been put into voluntary liquidation. According to Kotaku, the studio had debts of nearly 7 million dollars that it was unable to recoup.  CEO Ross Symons said that this was a business restructuring and would not affect the employment of staff.

Violent video games have once again come under the spotlight in the US media. After it was revealed that the shooter who killed 28 people in Connecticut, USA played video games in his spare time, Fox News and the NRA have suggested that violent video games played a part in his decision to carry out the massacre.   No studies have conclusively proven that a link exists between violent behaviour and violent video games.