James Gwertzman spent eight years at PopCap Games, much of it in China, as the game industry went through many changes. PopCap’s own struggles to adapt to the new free-to-play game business spurred the idea for a new company. Gwertzman’s PlayFab, a Seattle spinout from online game company Uber Entertainment, will provide the back-end infrastructure that mobile and online game companies need to support their free-to-play games.