Baen Books is running a special promotion that lets beta testers for online gamers win free eBooks.  Internet users who sign up to play Plant Baen, the publisher’s social game, will receive a free eBook. Players can earn additional eBooks if they do well in the game.

Here is more about the game from Planet Baen’s Facebook page: “The object of the game is to found a settlement on a lawless planet on the galactic frontier. The OTHER object of the game is to earn free Baen Ebooks by playing. We, of course, hope a player will stop playing, read and enjoy the book, buy all the other books in a series, then come back to the game and play some more. And for developing writers out there, we have a short story anthology that will be linked to the game, Stories from the Bars of Planet Baen.” Read more

In a move to make classic video games like Super Mario Brothers more 21st century, Nintendo will begin selling the content as a digital download for 3DS and Wii U devices through the Nintendo eShop, as well as through retail partners.

Wired has more: “The company has long offered two separate slates of game content — high-end games sold on discs and cartridges, and smaller games via download. Nintendo is expanding its digital business into games like New Super Mario Bros. 2 ‘in order to adapt to the changes in the circumstances surrounding the video game industry and to create a new business opportunity,’ [Nintendo president Satoru] Iwata said.” Those changes include the fact that more than 70% of Nintendo 3DS handheld devices in Japan and the U.S. have been used to go online.

Nintendo’s press release explains how the Nintendo eShop works. It “is a cash-based service and features games, applications and videos in both 2D and 3D. Users can add money to their virtual wallets using a credit card or by purchasing a Nintendo 3DS Prepaid Card at a retail store and entering the code from the card.”

While Zynga has made headlines for its international successful social gaming apps including Farmville and Words With Friends, the company is not alone at the top.

Berlin-based Wooga and London-based King.com are the second and third largest social gaming companies, according to AppData, Inside Network’s data service which supplies performance data, including historical user data, audience demographics, and company information for developers and applications.

The Wall Street Journal has more: “According to AppData, King.com has 10.26 million daily active users; Wooga 10.17 million DAUs; and EA 9.07 million DAUs. But Zynga (65.14 million DAUs) is twice as big as the next three games makers combined. But hang on, says Mr. Zacconi [CEO of King.com], we are comparing apples and oranges. ‘If you look at the actual social games that Zynga has —not, for example, poker games—then its lead is cut.’” Read more