$5.2 million of the company’s new cash comes from existing investors, such as Mayfield Fund, Trinity Partners, DCM, and Rustic Canyon Ventures, while the remaining $4 million represents debt financing made available by Comerica Bank.

PlayFirst notes that during its expansion into the mobile and social spaces in the past year, its Facebook game Chocolatier: Sweet Society gained more than 800,000 monthly active users — the brand has a total audience of more than 40 million players around the world and across multiple platforms.

Its “Dash” franchise has secured three spots in the App Store’s top 100 grossing games list with Diner Dash, Cooking Dash, and Wedding Dash. Those three iOS games have received over 100 million play sessions in 2010, while the entire Diner Dash series has seen over 500 million downloads.

“This financing enables us to keep our focus on the opportunities in the mobile and social gaming sectors and provides the flexibility to quickly respond to changes and opportunities as the market continues to shift rapidly,” says PlayFirst president and CEO Mari Baker.

Baker adds, “With this capital, we will continue to aggressively optimize the PlayFirst brands that consumers love, like Diner Dash, to social and mobile platforms and look for growth through partnerships and potential acquisitions.”

Hartness’ promotion will aid the firm’s social gaming plans, as his responsibilities include overseeing the overall strategy, execution, and results for PlayFirst’s efforts in that field. Before joining the company, he was chief marketing officer at PlaySpan and marketing VP at Electronic Arts’ Redwood Shores studio.

With this appointment, the publisher also added several members to its staff: former Loomia/Nokia architect Matt Levy, Playdom senior product manager Lars Berg, Playdom/Zynga senior product manager Roxanne Gilbert, Playdom/Zynga senior game designer Ray Holmes, and Zynga lead engineer Vamsi Prakhya — all will assume similar roles at Playfirst.

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In a diverse week for new job postings, Gamasutra’s jobs board plays host to roles across the world and in every major discipline, including opportunities at Blizzard, Bungie and more.

Each position posted by employers will appear on the main Gamasutra job board, and appear in the site’s daily and weekly newsletters, reaching our readers directly.

It will also be cross-posted for free across its network of submarket sites, which includes content sites focused on online worlds, cellphone games, ‘serious games’, independent games and more.

Some of the notable jobs posted this week include:

Blizzard Entertainment: Senior Software Engineer, Engine, Starcraft II
“Blizzard Entertainment is seeking an experienced engine programmer to focus on core engine development for StarCraft II. This position will involve extending StarCraft II‘s animation and effects systems, as well as working with the team on other ongoing core engine and graphics technologies.”

Bungie: Lead AI Programmer
“Bungie was founded in 1991 with two goals: to develop games that combine brilliant technology, beautiful art, intelligent stories and deep gameplay, and then sell enough of those games to achieve our real goal of total world domination.”

Edge of Reality: Lead Designer
“Edge of Reality is an independent veteran studio based in Austin, Texas. We are working on multiple projects including some with the Sims Studio of the EA Play Label. The studio has shipped 12 games over 12 years including several hits. The chemistry of the studio is very positive. Everyone puts aside their egos, and works hard to make the best game possible. Come join our team!”

Warner Bros: Art Director
“WB Games Inc. seeks an Art Director to be responsible for collaborating on product position and design, for overseeing development of art concepts and visualizations, and for approvals of final content, working very closely with the Creative Director and Designers to develop and realize the vision of the game.”

Raven Software: Design Director
“Raven Software is an award-winning computer game software developer based in Madison, Wisconsin. With a focus on graphic excellence and high-level, intense playability, Raven has produced hit games including the Soldier of Fortune series and various Star Wars titles.”

To browse hundreds of similar jobs, and for more information on searching, responding to, or posting game industry-relevant jobs to the top source for jobs in the business, please visit Gamasutra’s job board now.

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A cloud-based streaming service that allows iPad users to play Flash games on the Apple device has been released on the App Store.

iSwifter streams Flash games from portals to its dedicated iPad application, in a similar way to console-focused services OnLive and Gaikai.

Apple’s devices do not natively allow users to play games or view content in a web browser that uses the Adobe Flash plugin. Recently, Apple updated its policy and now allows developers to use third party development tools to create games and apps for its devices.

Flash game portals supported by the app at launch include Yahoo! Games, AOL Games, Facebook and Kongregate, with, at time of writing, one game per service playable. User reviews on the iTunes App Store indicate that there is a degree of lag associated with playing games through the app, a common hurdle for could-based services.

iSwifter is the product of tech incubator YouWeb, a support service for entrepreneurs that has produced gaming startups Aurora Feint, CrowdStar and Sibblingz.

The company plans for more games and services to be added in coming weeks, and for iPhone and iPod touch, as well as Android and Windows Phone 7 versions of the app to roll out in the future.

“We are targeting the much larger user base of casual and social gamers who want to consume gaming content on-the-go”, said Rajat, creator of iSwifter, along with his co-founder, Rohan.

“As more mobile devices hit the market,” he continued, “there is no reason why game developers should be locked out of the hottest handsets.”

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Continuing efforts to expand its North American reach, Japanese developer DeNA has acquired Mountain View-based mobile social game company Gameview Studios (formerly known as Bayview Labs, LLC).

Established just last April, Gameview produces social gaming apps for iOS platforms, and has released free titles like Tap Fish: Exotic and Tap Birds to the App Store. The company has new releases planned for Android devices, too, and hopes to eventually hold “a firm position in the smartphone market.”

DeNA intends to have Gameview working with MiniNation, its smartphone-focused subsidiary and iPhone social network. The Japanese firm believes that leading Gameview’s socially active users to the MiniNation platform will bring more activity to the social network while increasing its value.

The company adds that it is “aggressively investing” in promising social app developers around the world in order to push its “X-device” “X-border” strategy, which aims to promote game development across different mobile devices and borders.

Its purchase of Gameview follows several other moves DeNA has made in the U.S. in recent years, such as its backing of Burlingame-based iOS developer Aurora Feint, which created mobile social network OpenFeint; and its acquisition of Bellevue-based mobile social network developer IceBreaker.

DeNA operates Japanese mobile social gaming community Mobage-town, which currently claims more than 20 million subscribers. Last month, the firm reported a 175 percent increase in revenues to $279 million for the first quarter of 2010 (ending June), and it expects to generate $1 billion by the end of the fiscal year.

“Our acquisition of Gameview today is congruent with our goal of rapidly expanding our mobile footprint as a leading brand and platform in mobile social gaming,” says DeNA CEO Tomoko Namba. “We were impressed by the creativity and passion that the Gameview team has for creating addictive and engaging gaming experiences, and we’re excited to welcome them into the DeNA family.”

Namba continues, “The overwhelmingly wide range of games and active users in the community are the formula for success DeNA has utilized on Mobage-town in Japan. This acquisition will enable DeNA to replicate this success in the smartphone market and MiniNation platform, further expanding DeNA in the global market.”

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