—MMO Life: Massively-multiplayer role-playing games portal operator MMO Life today receives first round funding of €1 million (£900,000) to finance its expansion and investment in third-party projects, three months after its launch. The money comes from Klaas Kersting and Alexander Roesner, founders of German MMO developer Gameforge, and from former Endemol media executive Pim Schmitz. Amsterdam-based MMO Life launched MMOhub.org late last year and plans to launch a series of portals offering news, reviews and demos to the millions of MMO fans in Europe and North America—sector leader World of Warcraft hit the 11 million subscribers mark in October, though MMO Life prides itself on coverage of the smaller games too. Release.

—Mind Candy: Children’s online games developer Mind Candy has bought early learning website Tutpup, which is developed by Cominded, the firm owned by Paul Birch, co-founder of Bebo. Figures were not disclosed. The purchase adds to Mind Candy’s roster of sites including Moshi Monsters, and brings Tutpup’s 350,000 users in to the company’s grasp. The company plans to incorporate Tutpup’s multiplayer puzzles into the Moshi Monsters game—and 23 million puzzles have been played through that game since its launch.

—Gamestop: Global games retailer Gamestop is looking to buy Russian video game retailer 1C-Interes for as much as $5 million. 1C-Interes has 48 shops in 19 Russian cities, as well as an online store, and made more than $10 million in sales in last year. From Kommersant, via Quintura.