Week in review: Modern Warfare 2 smashes records, Facebook co-founder’s Asana raises $9M

Here’s our rundown of the week’s business and tech news. (It’s a little shorter than normal due to the Thanksgiving holiday.) First, the most popular stories VentureBeat published in the last seven days:
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 smashes industry records — The latest in a parade of video game hits, Activision’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has sold an estimated $550 million in the first five days of its release, bringing the entire Call of Duty series to $3 billion in sales.
16-year-old launches Vye music-sharing site. Another Napster? — With the help of close friends and family, Charles Allatt has launched Vye Music, which aggregates search results from other music sites.
What are Google’s real motivations behind Chrome OS? — A former Google employee (who wasn’t involved in the Chrome OS project) argues that people are missing some of the key implications behind the in-development, web-focused operating system.
Review: Multiplayer gaming makes Modern Warfare 2 live up to its hype — VentureBeat’s Dean Takahashi says the sales juggernaut’s single-player campaign has strong gameplay but a weak plot, but it really excels in multiplayer mode.
And here are four more stories we thought were important, thought-provoking, or fun:
Facebook co-founder’s Asana raises $9M from Benchmark, Andreessen-Horowitz — The startup was founded by Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz and lead engineer Justin Rosenstein, who say they’re trying to reimagine productivity management.
Our top 10 gift ideas: Last year’s gadgets are worth the price — We look at 10 products or services that make good gifts because they’ve been around for a while, meaning the kinks are worked out and the prices are lower.
LinkedIn expands platform in an attempt to one-up Facebook Connect — The professional networking site is allowing external business applications to access your LinkedIn data (with your permission of course). The goal is to turn LinkedIn into your default professional identity across apps.
IPO talk revs up for Tesla Motors — Rumors swirled earlier this week that the electric car maker would be considering an initial public offering soon, though the company denied it. Speaking of Tesla, the city of Downey, Calif. is looking like a probable spot for the company’s assembly plant.