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每日观察:关注《Camelot: The Game》等社交游戏(5.14)

发布时间:2011-05-14 13:56:08 Tags:,,,

1)继电视剧同名社交游戏《斯巴达克斯:神之竞技场》问世后,Starz Digital Media最近又准备推出该电视剧的第二款Facebook游戏《Camelot: The Game》,在未来数周内,用户可登录Facebook并输入“Merlin”这个密码以体验该游戏的测试版本。《斯巴达克斯:神之竞技场》上个月在Facebook的月活跃用户为100万,Starz Media数字媒体和运营发展战略高级副总裁Marc DeBevoise表示公司对该游戏表现很满意,但拒绝透露具体营收情况。

camelot:the game

camelot:the game

《Camelot: The Game》与《斯巴达克斯:神之竞技场》的不同之处在于,它支持玩家拥有更高的控制权,指挥军队的行动和进攻。玩家还可以通过Facebook Credits购买虚拟商品以加速游戏进程。Starz Digital Media 表示将继续与社交游戏发行商6waves合作发布该游戏(游戏邦注:6waves目前的月活跃用户已超过5500万)。

2)由德国汉堡的Innogames公司开发的《WestWars》是一款结合了《FrontierVille》主题以及《Mafia Wars》玩法的社交游戏,但虽然它的决斗模式颇具深度,但其简单的玩法却并不能与真正的《FrontierVille》或《The Oregon Trail》等Facebook匹敌。

westwars

westwars

它的游戏进程与《Mafia Wars》一样:点击职业按钮,赢取经验值或消耗精力,如此重复后再等待恢复精力。玩家可选择三种职业角色:决斗者、军人和冒险家,每种角色都有自身特长和缺陷。与其他西部主题的游戏一样,《WestWars》也提供迷你游戏以及一些更有深度的社交功能。从总体上来看,该游戏产品质量不俗,只是它出道的时间太晚了,所以无法与Zynga的同类游戏齐名。

3)《Doomsday Defense》是一款由MMO游戏开发商IGG在Facebook平台推出的塔防游戏,它在今年1月份登陆Facebook曾经取得短暂成就,其全盛时期的MAU曾达到73.7万,DAU也有10.3万,但后来就有一个月时间陷入低迷。最近该游戏又跻身insidesocialgames的用户发展最快速游戏榜单,近日的MAU达到22.9万,DAU是3.2万。它是IGG公司继《众神之战》后推出的第二款Facebook游戏。

Doomsday Defense

Doomsday Defense

该游戏拥有PvE、PvP模式可供玩家选择,主要通过资源、塔楼模板、工人和许多升级道具销售获得收益,该游戏含有两种虚拟货币:vouchers和cash。用户可通过信用卡或PayPal支付方式购买cash,目前该游戏尚未绑定Facebook Credits,不过已采用offer wall广告服务,为用户提供cash奖励。

4)位于伦敦的社交游戏工作室We R Interactive在第二轮融资中筹得500万美元,该公司拥有一些传媒和金融领域背景,将利用这笔资金继续推动其首个项目《I AM PLAYR》的发展(游戏邦注:该游戏已在3月份上线),并开发包括音乐和时尚风格的新游戏作品。

5)EA的内容开发商麻辣马游戏公司(游戏邦注:Spicy Horse Games,它是由美国著名游戏制作人American McGee领导的一家位于上海的工作室)日前获得新加坡和上海Vickers Venture Partners的300万美元投资。该公司专注于开发3D社交及在线游戏,已协助EA推出《Alice 2》,现正与PopCap上海工作室合作开发后者的一款3D在线版休闲游戏,该游戏将首先在亚太地区发布。

Alice 2

Alice 2

McGee在采访中表示,他来到中国的目标是脱离掌机游戏领域和零售包装销售模式,公司追求的是新型开发和运营模式。麻辣马团队耗时两年开发了《Alice 2》,但他希望公司以后每6个月就可开发完成一款游戏,或者在未来两年中开发五款游戏,开拓PC多人在线游戏、手机游戏(主要是平板电脑游戏)以及社交游戏等领域的业务。

6)PlayFirst与Wooga关于“Dash”商标权纠纷一事达成了协议,PlayFirst宣布同意Wooga将“Dash”一词用于《Dianmond Dash》这款游戏,但并未公开Wooga对PlayFirst的补偿金额。据PlayFirst所称,公司在2008年4月就已注册“Dash”商标,并于2009年获得该商标的所有权。

claritics

claritics

7)社交应用分析公司Claritics日前融资150万美元以拓展市场营销业务并优化品,帮助社交游戏和应用开发商分析用户数据并创造更多收益。该公司位于加州山景城,本轮融资支持者包括Cervin Ventures和TiE Angels。其在社交游戏领域的竞争对手包括Kontagent和Mixpanel,在范围更广的分析领域劲敌是Omniture和Webtrends,该公司有意超越社交游戏领域的范畴,扩大其业务运营规模。

8)美国动视联合创始人及Acclaim前首席执行官Howard Marks成立了Gamezee公司,转战手机及社交游戏领域。据Marks所称,公司将致力于推出基于HTML5技术的跨平台游戏,针对社交网络、手机设备及网页平台开发游戏。

Gamezee位于美国洛杉矶,目前共有包括游戏业务副总裁Josh Levitan在内的五名成员,他们均为来自Playdom、Acclaim和Meteor Games公司的游戏元老。该公司目前已投入开发第一款社交游戏,将植入创新游戏机制和地理定位功能。

John_Blakely

John_Blakely

9)据Kotaku报道,索尼在线娱乐(SOE)的Facebook和MMO游戏业务开发副总裁John Blakely最近加入社交游戏开发商Zynga团队,成为Zynga奥斯汀工作室总经理。索尼在线娱乐最近因玩家数据失窃而遭遇信誉危机,但John Blakely的离开与此事并无直接关系,据inside Social Games观察发现,SOE的社交游戏发展状况也同样不容乐观,例如《PoxNora》的每月用户就已下滑至目前的3000人左右,而其知名授权游戏《Catch A Killer》也不过是2.2万的月活跃用户。

10)在本周增长最快速的Facebook游戏榜单上,《Auto Hustle》仍稳居头把交椅,新晋榜单的游戏包括《Alpang Puzzle》和Nickelodeon的AddictingGames门户网站。除此之外,最引人关注的当属排在第12名的《Super Mario Bros.3》这款非官方版任天堂娱乐系统的Java游戏。(本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译,转载请注明来源:游戏邦)

top gainers this week-games

top gainers this week-games

1)WestWars on Facebook: If FrontierVille and Mafia Wars had a baby…

by Joe Osborne

Like many celebrities find themselves in strange mash-ups of names (Brangelina, anyone?) so do Facebook games, at times. This time, we’re looking at FrontierWars–er, WestWars, my apologies.

Developed by Hamburg, Germany-based Innogames, WestWars combines the best of FrontierVille’s theme and Mafia Wars’ gameplay. While the game’s combat offers some depth, this style of button-click gameplay simply can’t hang with games like the real FrontierVille or The Oregon Trail on Facebook. WestWars is one finely crafted, polished social game, but it’s a few years too late.

For those familiar with Mafia Wars, much of the progression is identical: Click on job button, earn XP and lose Energy, repeat, wait for more Energy, repeat. Every once in a while, you will need an item to complete a job, which modifies the pattern slightly: Click on item to buy it, then click on job button, earn XP and lose Energy, repeat, wait for more Energy and, again, repeat. A large portion of your time playing WestWars will be spent doing this.

But as western games like The Oregon Trail offer fully animated sequences, mini games and somewhat deeper social features than Gangs and Dueling, it’s tough to recommend WestWars. The game is executed beautifully and displays some impressive production value, but this is what social games were in 2008.(source:games

2)Starz to Launch ‘Camelot’ Social Game on Facebook

by Georg Szalai

It is the second such game for the company following the January launch of “Spartacus: Gods of the Arena.”

NEW YORK — Starz Digital Media is rolling out its second social media game tied to an original series. After Spartacus: Gods of the Arena became one of the first major TV properties to add a game in January, Camelot is now getting the social game treatment from the digital and on-demand licensing arm of premium TV provider Starz.

The beta launch of the game, which is simply called Camelot: The Game, on Facebook is set for later in the day Friday. The consumer launch is expected for the coming weeks. People who register on Facebook and enter the password “Merlin” will be eligible to play the beta version.

Spartacus: Gods of the Arena surpassed 1 million monthly users last month, according to appdata.com. “It has done well, and we have been pleased with the results,” Marc DeBevoise, senior vp digital media, business development and strategy at Starz Media, said without sharing financial or other details.

Unlike Gods of the Arena, where players didn’t control battle scenes, the Camelot game allows players to have a high degree of control over the movement and attacks of their soldiers. Players can purchase Facebook credits to accelerate their progress.

Starz Digital Media again partnered with social media game publisher 6waves, which also worked on Gods of the Arena, to launch the social game. 6waves has more than 55 million monthly active users.(source:hollywoodreporter

3)Doomsday Defense Offers “Unrivalled” Tower Defense Gameplay in English Market

By Pete Davison

Doomsday Defense is a graphically-polished tower defense game for Facebook from free-to-play massively multiplayer online game developer IGG Inc., which began aggressively launching social games a year ago. The game launched in February and enjoyed a brief period of growth with an all-time high of 737,000 monthly active users and 103,000 daily active users, but then lost momentum after about a month. Recently, the game clawed its way back into our weekly growth lists of fastest-growing games with present-day users clocking in at 229,000 MAU and 32,000 DAU.

Gameplay in Doomsday Defense has several modes. There’s Player vs Environment (PvE), which tasks the player with building tower defenses against computer-controlled enemy units. There is also Player vs Player (PvP), where attacking forces are sent by opposing players instead of the computer. Lastly, the game incorporates a castle-building element that grants the player advantages in both PvE and PvP gameplay modes.

Doomsday Defense is still under active development, but Zhang and his team are currently focusing their efforts on Galaxy Online II, IGG’s second-most successful Facebook game after GodsWar. Zhang tells us that future plans for Doomsday include enriching the quest system and adding a wider variety of monsters and towers to make the game “more challenging and engaging.”(source:insidesocialgames

4)We R Interactive Raises $5M In Second Round Of Funding

by Mike Rose

We R Interactive, a London, UK-based social games studio that combines the film and gaming industries to create interactive social games, has raised $5 million in a second round of private investment funding.

This second round of funding will go towards the ongoing development of We R Interactive’s first game I AM PLAYR, which was launched in March. It will also be used to allow the studio to branch out into other genres including music and fashion.(source:gamasutra

5)American McGee’s Spicy Horse Gets $3M Funding, Signs PopCap Deal

by Christian Nutt

Today, the Shanghai-based studio Spicy Horse, which has completed work on Alice 2 for EA, is announcing that it has secured $3 million in investment from Singapore and Shanghai-based Vickers Venture Partners.

The company, from this point forward, will focus on developing 3D social, online games for a global audience. Spicy Horse is working on its first post-Alice 2 project alongside PopCap’s Shanghai studio — a 3D online version of one of the casual titan’s games, to be launched initially in the Asia/Pacific region.

Spicy Horse’s direction is “definitely going to be about free-to-play online multiplayer games,” which McGee is “much more excited about” than packaged console titles, he said. Spicy Horse wants to “prove that experience can translate to 3D, and maintain that casual audience — so we want to be there as that wave starts to come up.”

Said McGee, “The reason I originally came to China is that I wanted to get into that new model — I wanted to get away from console game production and retail, disc-based sales.” In other words, Alice 2 was a “beautiful distraction” from the company’s true focus, in his words. While he expects the title to be a success, the studio is pursuing “new style development, new style monetization” here on out.

The studio will pursue PC multiplayer online, mobile device — primarily tablets — and social network games. (source:gamasutra

6)Social Gaming Roundup: Trademarks, Funding, Earnings, & More

By Christopher

Diamond DashPlayFirst & Wooga Reach Agreement Over “Dash” Trademark — Earlier this week, PlayFirst announced an agreement with wooga over the use of the word “Dash” in wooga’s Diamond Dash Facebook game. The exact compensation wooga makes to PlayFirst remains undisclosed. PlayFirst says its “Dash” trademark was filed back in April of 2008 and awarded in December of 2009.(source:insidesocialgames

7)Claritics raises $1.5M for social analytics apps

by Dean Takahashi

Social analytics firm Claritics has raised a $1.5 million round as it tries to help social game and app developers analyze their data and reap more money from their efforts.

Mountain View, Calif.-based Claritics calls its work “social intelligence.” Claritics has been testing its cloud-based analytics with partners that range from game companies to utilities and media companies. It’s all about getting enough data and organizing it in a way that it becomes “actionable.”

The company raised the round from Cervin Ventures and TiE Angels. Raj Pai is the chief executive. The company will use the money to expand its sales and marketing and to improve its product.

The vision for the company is to leverage the immediacy of the social web and the rich profile and behavioral data available to create automated processes around it. That allows developers to optimize their reach, retain users, and launch revenue campaigns on the fly. The data become useful not just for looking back but for predicting the future, Pai said.

Rivals include Kontagent and Mixpanel in games as well as Omniture and Webtrends in the broader analytics business. Claritics hopes to reach beyond social game companies to the broader market of social commerce, said Neeraj Gupta, managing director of Cervin Ventures. He said that companies have to harness the incredible amount of data available and make immediate changes to their content or marketing campaigns. Claritics is one of 50 companies chosen to present at TiECon, which takes place in Santa Clara on May 13 and May 14.(source:venturebeat

8)Social Gaming Roundup: Trademarks, Funding, Earnings, & More

By Christopher

Howard Marks Focuses In on Social-Mobile Startup Gamzee — Activision co-founder and ex-Acclaim CEO Howard Marks is turning his attention to social-mobile gaming startup Gamzee, says VentureBeat.

According to Marks, the developer will be focusing on cross-platform games built with HTML5, in theory allowing them to make games that run on social networks, mobile devices, and the web.(source:insidesocialgames

9)Sony Online Entertainment VP John Blakely joins Zynga Austin as GM

by Joe Osborne

It almost goes without saying that Sony has had one turbulent spring, but the company suffers yet another loss in its Sony Online Entertainment division. And this time, it’s not your information.

SOE VP of Development John Blakely has moved on from his position with the Facebook and massively multiplayer (MMO) game creator to Zynga, Kotaku reports. Blakely will become GM of Zynga Austin.

According to Kotaku, this took place over a month ago, as Blakely’s Linkedin page reads.

The move came just as the company suffered a debilitated network that will likely cost the company (and its developers) millions. However, Inside Social Games observes that this move could have been a long time coming, according to AppData’s findings on SOE’s social games. Games like PoxNora have suffered a terribly steep decline to now just over 3 thousand monthly players. And even it’s games attached to mega licenses like Catch A Killer enjoy a mere 22 thousand monthly players.

When contacted, SOE responded to Kotaku, thanking Blakely for “the passion and leadership he brought to work every day and fully support him in his future endeavors.” Blakely is succeeded by Lori Jameson, executive development director at SOE, who ironically enough oversaw all of SOE Austin’s efforts for five years running. The road to recovery for SOE just keeps growing longer, but it takes more than this to bring a multi-billion dollar company down.(source:games

10)Unofficial Super Mario 3 App One-Ups This Week’s List Of Emerging Facebook Games

By AJ Glasser

Auto Hustle maintains its growth pattern post-official launch while other familiar titles like UFC Undisputed Fight Nation and Spot The Difference stay strong on this week’s list of emerging Facebook games. Uno Boost classes out of our list this week, having broken 1 million monthly active users earlier this week.

New to our list this week is the just-launched Alpang Puzzle and Nickelodeon’s AddictingGames portal site, which we took a quick look at earlier this week when it popped on our list of fastest-growing Facebook games by daily active users. Also new is an unofficial Java version of classic Nintendo Entertainment System game, Super Mario Bros. 3. We’ve been unable to successfully open this Facebook app on Firefox as it causes the browser to crash.(source:insidesocialgames


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