PocketGamer.biz Week That Was: Koch buys Fishlabs, Clumsy Ninja's early promise, top 5 investment tips, and Kabam gears up for 2014

It's easy to be swept up in a tumult of emotions as the year draws to a close.

On one hand, you're looking forward to the holidays and all the mirth, warmth, merriment, and consumerist glee that they entail (and good luck to those running UA campaigns during this crowded season).

On the other, it's also tempting to look back at the previous 12 months and wish that you had done more with them.

But whether you scored a huge $1.5 billion sale or had modest success with an indie launch, it's important to celebrate your successes and use them as jumping off points for the year ahead rather than ruminate on things that might have been.

So with that advice in mind, go grab a glass of egg nog, crank up the Christmas carols, and let us walk you through the PocketGamer.biz week that was.

• Our big industry event, PG Connects, kicks off next Month in London. Microsoft, Sega, and Apptronics are all on board and our speakers list continues to grow. Interested in attending? Click here for more details.
• And do you want to make your voice heard? If so, take a few minutes to fill out our Global Mobile Developers' Survey.

• App Annie and IDC released their Q3 Portable Gaming report and found the Kindle Fire to be America's most popular Android gaming tablet.
• And Tapjoy found that Gingerbread had a higher ARPU than Jelly Bean for the year, so Android devs need to think carefully about what build to develop for first.
• Meanwhile, the iPhone 5S and 5C gave Apple a 'significant bounce' across Europe, but Android still reigns supreme.

• Fortumo's Jacob Hauskens gives some valuable insight on why you need local partners if you're planning to tap the unbanked gamers in emerging markets.
• This week's Monetizer fixed its laser-like gaze on the performance of Wormhole Games' iPad-only Tank Nation.
• While the Charticle looked at the early performance of NaturalMotion's Clumsy Ninja.
• And Sega partnered with NativeX to boost its mobile advertising revenue, with ads launching in Sonic Dash.

• Johanna Ji from LineKong gave us some insight on how best to appeal to mobile gamers in China, and what problems Chinese devs face in bringing their games to the west.
• Are you looking for an investment? Follow GameFounder's Top 5 Tips for studios hoping for some investment capital.
• Kabam's Andrew Sheppard goes on record as stating that while it has big things planned for 2014, it's not competing with Supercell, King, or GungHo.
• There's quality in clones, and our own Chris Kerr astutely points out that not all clones are created equal.
• Meanwhile, Carter Dotson from 148Apps cautions that violent change is coming to the F2P space, and only the innovative will survive.
• And Julia Lebedeva from Nevosoft gave some advice to Game Connection Europe attendees - if you want to crack the Russian market, it helps to know the local rules.

• Christopher Natsuume of Boomzap Entertainment warned devs not to go indie unless you can hack the life of a fat, Ukrainian prostitute.
• While Bossa Studios said it's just 'not worth' launching a game at 99c / 69p.
• Are you looking to score a contact at Apple? Gumi's Nicholas Godement Berline says you should court the press first.
• And Wooga's corporate development lead Sebastian Kriese estimates that less than 0.1% of App Store games are successful, so don't be afraid to kill games before they're released.
• And to that end, our mobile gaming mavens hash out whether Google and Apple should be responsible for getting good games discovered.

• One of the biggest ways to acquire users in Japan is through TV commercials, that's how Colopl managed to hit 60 million registered users this year.
• And King is looking to match that success, as it became the first foreign company to launch a TV ad campaign for a mobile game in Japan.
• Looking to keep your users engaged? Behaviour Interactive's Stephanie Baudet shared 8 steps to mastering user engagement.

• The big news on the acquisition front was that Galaxy on Fire dev Fishlabs was acquired by Koch Media.
• Meanwhile, Fuse Powered picked up app discovery start-up AppHero.
• And Qihoo 360 took a 2.6% stake in Japanese game maker KLab.
• Finally, Spil Games announced a $5 million investment in the HTML5 ecosystem.