Zynga is laying off 5 percent of its full-time workforce, closing its Boston studio and significantly reducing staff at its Austin studio, CEO and founder Mark Pincus writes in a letter to employees. Zynga is proposing closures of its Japan and UK studios, retiring 13 older games and "significantly reducing" its investment in The Ville.

"In addition to these studios, we are also making a small number of partner team reductions," Pincus writes. "In all, we will unfortunately be parting ways with approximately 5 percent of our full time workforce. We don't take these decisions lightly as we recognize the impact to our colleagues and friends who have been on this journey with us. We appreciate their amazing contributions and will miss them."

As part of a larger restructuing, Zynga is cutting "spending on data hosting, advertising and outside services, primarily contractors." Pincus says these measures will "improve profitability" and allow the company to "reinvest in great games."

Pincus will host a webcast tomorrow, following its earnings report. There is no word of the Zynga Chicago studio losing staff, as was rumored earlier today. Read Pincus' full letter below.

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The Borderlands franchise will make its portable gaming debut on Wednesday, October 31, when Borderlands Legends launches on iPhone and iPad for $4.99 and $6.99, respectively. Rather than furthering the series' FPS heritage, however, Legends instead opts for an isometric action-RPG take on murdering people and then stealing from them.

Familiar inventory management and skill tree systems return, though the rest of the experience is reportedly an entirely new, touch-based affair, according to 2K Games' announcement. Based on what we've seen in the gallery below, we're inclined to believe this ain't your mother's Borderlands.

During a press event today, Apple revealed the "4th generation" iPad, built around a new "A6X" processor, which doubles the CPU and graphics performance of the iPad, which Engadget says brings the iPad line to parity with iPhone 5 – the connector has been changed to Lightning as well. The FaceTime camera is now 720p.

The 16gb Wi-Fi device will sell for $499. 4G LTE versions will cost $629 to start.

In addition, Apple announced that 100 million iPads have been sold to date.
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Microsoft confirmed today SmartGlass will launch alongside Windows 8 tablets on October 26, with Dance Central 3 and Forza Horizon among the first games to support it. The Xbox 360 app, which turns devices into secondary screens for the console, will be available for Windows 8 phones at launch on October 29. SmartGlass is expected to arrive on iOS and Android in 2013.

SmartGlass is implemented in the latest Xbox dashboard update, which Microsoft tells us it's rolled out to 3 million users so far. Another wave will receive the dashboard update today, so more users should have access to SmartGlass when the companion app becomes available for Windows 8 tablets on Friday.

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Super Crate Box turns two today, Vlambeer announced – just two years ago, the PC version of the addictive, endless platform shooter launched. To celebrate that milestone, the developer has made the non-free iOS version free, for today only.

Along with that giveaway, the developer also showed off an early build (above) of Super Bread Box, an incredibly faithful adaptation for Commodore 64 by C64anabalt creator Paul Koller. It'll be available in "early December," giving you plenty of time to dust off your C64.

Borderlands Legends is an iPad and iPhone game releasing later this month. Gearbox Forums user Ownzilla spotted the above advert for the iOS game in the Borderlands 2 digital strategy guide.

Despite the details and screenshots in the advert, it's unclear exactly how Legends plays. What it features for certain are the four playable characters from the first Borderlands, character-specific abilities and powers unlocked by levelling up, plenty of weapons, a "strategic cover system," and a 'Fight for your life' mode which likely ties in to its namesake in Borderlands 2. And since there's mention of "in-game cash", surprise surprise, in-app purchases are likely to feature too.

The advert includes no release details beyond Borderlands Legends arriving in October. We've reached out to Gearbox for more info.

Brian and Gina, the stars of Pendulo Studios' point-and-click Runaway series, take center screen in Hidden Runaway, a brand new episode available now on the App Store for $2.99.

Pendulo has been in the point-and-click adventure business for a while now, and Hidden Runaway celebrates the 10-year anniversary of its first Runaway game for PC, A Road Adventure. Hidden Runaway has Brian and Gina, who now hate each other, telling their story to a Hollywood executive who wants to make a movie based on their exploits. The app is universal for iOS 4.3 or later.

It turns out a full console version of Zombies!!! is still shambling around, according to a new trailer and dev diary released this week. Developer Barbaroga has been working on a bigger and better video game version of the Twilight Creations board game for over two years now, though the project's been dark since late 2010.

A version did get released on Windows Phone last year, but it's finally arriving soon, according to these videos, on Xbox Live, Windows, iOS and Android.

The graphics have been updated, the gameplay and controls have been tweaked, and Babaroga has added asynchronous multiplayer features, so players will be able to trade turns back and forth. Babaroga says the full console version of Zombies!!! should be out as soon as "winter" this year.

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Telltale Games has released the third episode of its critically acclaimed episodic series The Walking Dead on iOS. iPhone and iPad users will find the $4.99 episode ready to download now.

If you're wondering what awaits Lee and Clementine in the third chapter of their "adventure," give our episode three review a gander. We enjoyed it quite a bit, especially how the episode brings Lee and Clementine closer than ever.

Way back in May, Zynga filed suit against French social/mobile developer Kojobo over its usage of the suffix "Ville" in its Facebook game PyramidVille, saying that it was confusing to consumers and that Kojobo's game could easily be mistaken as one of Zynga's 'Ville properties.

Well as of today, the two developers have settled the matter out of court, with no money being exchanged in the process, according to Gamasutra. While neither party is talking specifics, the major extent of the settlement appears to be that Kojobo has renamed PyramidVille to PyramidValley and PyramidVille Adventure to PyramidValley Adventure.

Originally, Zynga had sought damages totaling three times the amount of money Kojobo made from PyramidVille, whatever that figure may have been. Now, it looks as though Zynga is content with Kojobo's renaming of its properties, and Kojobo is content with not being sued into oblivion.

Indie developer Psyonix, who once upon a time made Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars for the PSN, are about to launch their new game Arc Squadron.

The Unreal-powered space shooter for iOS and Android has a bunch going on under the starcraft hood. The game features 64 levels, twenty different environments, lots of ships and the standard Gamecenter support with leaderboards and achievements.

The game was announced at a previous PAX, but it's currently in the "we're-almost-ready-as-soon-as-Apple-approves-us" stage. So, likely, a few weeks.

Now that developer Big Blue Bubble's iOS Fighting Fantasy games are no more, it's time for developer Tin Man Games to take charge of the choose-your-own-adventure series. The studio's first Fighting Fantasy project, Fighting Fantasy: Blood of the Zombies, is now available on iOS and Android.

Blood of the Zombies was written by series co-creator (and "life president" of Eidos), Ian Livingstone, in celebration of Fighting Fantasy's 30th anniversary. You can pick up Blood of the Zombies now for $6 on either iTunes or Google Play.

Street Fighter X Tekken Mobile will soon get a free update that includes Rolento as a brand new character. The update also brings a mystery character that's so secret even community manager Brelston says he doesn't yet know who it is.

"Once I have that info, I'll make sure it's on Unity ASAP," he writes on the Capcom Unity blog. How mysterious. Street Fighter X Tekken Mobile is available on iOS devices.

Infinity Blade: Dungeons won't come out until 2013, Epic Games spokesman Wes Phillips tells AllThingsD. Infinity Blade: Dungeons premiered with the unveiling of the new iPad in March but still hasn't touched down, it wasn't mentioned during the iPhone 5 reveal, and some rumors had it launching with Apple's supposed iPad Mini on October 23.

Not so, says Epic. "Ever since the talented team at Impossible Studios got their hands on Infinity Blade: Dungeons, they've been busy adding their great ideas to the game," Phillips says. "There was also the matter of getting the Impossible Studios team up and running with desks, chairs, staplers and computers. The logistics of a new studio and implementing all these great ideas required a little extra time, so Infinity Blade: Dungeons will hit iOS in 2013."

Terry Cavanagh is considering bringing VVVVVV to iOS and Android, after releasing his short 2009 game Don't Look Back for free on the App Store and Google Play today. The Super Hexagon creator posted on his blog revealing he saw the Don't Look Back port as a "trial run" for VVVVVV. While Cavanagh isn't promising an iOS and Android port, it's certainly a distinct possibility. Although Cavanagh tells Joystiq "it may not happen this year." So don't go pinning all your hopes on finding the iPad version of VVVVVV under your Christmas tree (especially since it'll be digital and your tree's probably physical).

Cavanagh's chiptune-stuffed 2D platformer arrived on PC back in 2010, and then made the jump to 3DS last year. It didn't, however, use the console's touch screen controls. This may explain why Cavanagh wanted to try porting Don't Look Back first, a 2D platformer which he gave on-screen buttons to on iOS. As Cavanagh puts it, it's a "pretty simple port" of a game which is a bit rough around the edges. It's unlikely to be indicative of how VVVVVV would run on iOS, especially given how sado-nefariously intricate Super Hexagon is.

Ubisoft filed a $1 million lawsuit yesterday against BEP Music LLC, a company which owns the Black Eyed Peas trademark, for neglecting to recognize the publisher's planned iOS version of The Black Eyed Peas Experience. Following the Wii and Xbox 360 versions released last year, Ubisoft claims BEP breached the companies' contract regarding an iOS version. According to Ubisoft, the contract states the band agreed to approve or disapprove the iOS version within 10 business days of a request. Ubisoft says BEP Music failed to acknowledge requests for approval, despite repeated attempts.

Ubisoft claims the company spent $233,000 developing the iOS game, and that figure combined with loss of profits amounts to a total of $1 million in damages. While Ubisoft didn't name the company or the game in question in its complaint, as Player Attack notes BEP Music only owns the one trademark. I Gotta Feeling the French publisher isn't about to Shut Up about this anytime soon.

Carmageddon is now on the App Store for iPhone and iPad, and as promised British studio Stainless Games is offering it for free on its first day there. It's launched slightly later than anticipated, but the gory racer once infamously banned in its home nation is now available to all at no cost. Well, all the age of 12 and over - come on, it's still Carmageddon. Anyway, if you're unlucky enough not to nab it in the first 24 hours, it'll still be available but at its regular price of $1.99.

A lot's changed since Carmageddon released in 1997. Back then Grand Theft Auto was only a single game, nobody really knew who Britney Spears was, and a certain Steve Jobs had just returned to a struggling company called Apple to save them from near bankruptcy. Stainless' classic, however, plays on iOS much as it did 15 years ago, albeit with a few touch-ups. It now comes with various customized controls, editable video replays, retina display and iPhone 5 support, leaderboards, and other enhancements to boot. It of course still features, as Stainless puts it, "buckets of gibs."

The Android version is due to hit late 2012/early 2013.

Rayman Jungle Run on iOS was bumped up to version 1.0.3 today. The update optimizes the game for retina display on iPhone 5, adds a menu option that allows players to gift Rayman Jungle Run to a friend (you still have to pay the $3, mind you), and fixes minor glitches in iCloud and elsewhere.

Rayman Jungle Run is available for Android and iOS. We think it's "evil," but in a good way.