1）据insidesocialgames报道，继谷歌传出将推出社交网站的消息后，最近亚马逊也爆出一个重要消息——亚马逊正在为进军社交及智能手机游戏领域招兵买马。该公司的一则招聘信息表明亚马逊正在寻找“创意、设计和开发Facebook、智能手机游戏的设计师”。

Ravenwood Fair(fron thefacegamer.com)

2）社交游戏开发商LOLapps透露公司准备推出新游戏《Ravenshire Castle》，其主要场景与《Ravenwood Fair》相似，美术风格和角色形象也基本相同，但同时也保持了自身的独立性。但与《Ravenwood Fair》原先的扩展游戏内容Ravenstone Mine的不同之处在于，《Ravenshire Castle》的游戏设置与前者并无直接联系，该游戏正处于构思阶段，LOLapps并没有公布更多详情，仅表示希望玩家创建《Ravenshire Castle》的全新虚拟形象，但也会考虑为玩家提供跨游戏的虚拟形象。

Ravenwood Fair---MAU DAU(fron insidesocialgames.com)

该游戏有可能在今年问世，观察者称LOLapps有可能借助《Ravenwood Fair》的人气，为新游戏招徕用户。据AppData数据显示，《Ravenwood Fair》的MAU是620万，DAU是100万。有趣的是，该游戏在本月刚添加扩展内容Ravenstone Mine的时候，它的MAU却开始出现下滑，而DAU却基本保持不变。

3）在本周的MAU增长最快的Facebook游戏排行榜中，King.com公司持续表现抢眼，其最新游戏《Bingo Adventure》位列榜单第九名。而Playdom的新游戏《Deep Realms》发布尚不足一个月，其MAU和DAU流量的增势却甚为可观，但与该公司另一款热门游戏《Gardens of Time》相比仍有较大差距。

Top Gainers This Week-Games(from insidesocialgames.com)

4）《Trials of Elsword》是大型多人在线角色扮演游戏《Elsword Online》的Facebook“演示”版本（游戏邦注：该游戏在Facebook问世仅一周左右，完整版的《Elsword Online》于5月5日在美国上线）支持Facebook游戏玩家从中解锁一些可用于完整版MMOG游戏的虚拟形象或功能，玩家只有邀请好友才可以实现这一操作。据AppData数据显示，《Trials of Elsword》目前的MAU是8529，DAU是943。

Trials of Elsword(from insidesocialgames.com)

这款游戏设置好友邀请机制主要是为了宣传和推广，目前并没有任何盈利渠道，而且存在许多漏洞。insidesocialgames认为该游戏开发商Killer3rcombo将完整版的游戏植移到Facebook，也许是一种更可行的方法，有助于获取用户。另外，该游戏如果可以添加更多社交玩法，也许可以通过Facebook获得额外的营收来源。

5）据montrealgazette报道，迪士尼互动传媒集团（包括旗下的社交游戏公司Playdom）在最近一个季度（截止4月2日）亏损1.15亿美元（游戏邦注：去年同期亏损是5500万美元）。迪士尼高管称他们正处于发展阶段，并不寄希望于游戏部门在2013年前创造利润。华尔街分析师Richard Greenfield称迪士尼投资者目前最关心的问题是，该公司能否采取明智的策略推动今后几年的发展。

disney_playdom(from strategyguide.nl)

还有分析师认为，迪士尼财政亏损的主要原因是其去年斥资5.63亿美元收购Playdom，而交易落幕后，Playdom的用户数量严重下滑，出现了五个月内鲜有新作问世的真空期。在今年3月底Playdom的用户数量是2070万，远低于去年10月的4230万。而其竞争对手Zynga的每月用户则高达2.48亿，排行第二的EA Playfish也有3300万的每月用户。分析师认为迪士尼若仍需要多下功夫，方有望填补其财政亏损。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，如需转载联系：游戏邦）

1）Amazon job posting points towards move into mobile social gaming

by Keith Andrew

Job postings aren’t always the most reliable indicator as to a company’s intentions.

Apple is repeatedly subject to speculation regarding a widescale move into games development thanks to such detective work, even though such a shift has never materialised.

However, a vacancy posted by online retailer Amazon makes specific reference to a desire to move into the mobile social scene, with innovation within the genre key to its strategy.

Social shopping

“Amazon is building a new team focused on social games innovation,” the ad reads.

“This group offers a creative, fast paced, entrepreneurial work environment where you will be working on a cutting edge initiative within Amazon.”

The job itself is for an “experienced game designer to envision, design and create great new social games for Facebook and smartphones.”

While that suggests Amazon is considering launching social games on multiple platforms, selling its wares on Amazon’s Appstore for Android would be something of a challenge as things stand, given the store doesn’t yet support in-app purchases.（source:pocketgamer）

3）King.com’s Bingo Adventure Appears on This Week’s List of Emerging Facebook Games

By AJ Glasser

King.com has made a few headlines in the last month between its growth spike, top-ranking games and cross-platform efforts. Now, the developer nets one more for itself as its newest game, Bingo Adventure, pop onto this week’s list of emerging Facebook games.

Meanwhile, Playdom’s Deep Realms is making a bid for more traffic across both monthly active users and daily active users. Its upward climb started early this week and hasn’t show signs of letting up. Deep Realms still has a ways to go to catch up with Gardens of Time, but it’s still nice to see the game getting some kind of attention after being so thoroughly overshadowed less than a month after launch.（source:insidesocialgames）

4）Trials of Elsword Experiments With Demoing A Full MMOG on Facebook

By Carolyn Koh

Trials of Elsword is marketed as a tie-in Facebook game for side-scrolling massively-multiplayer online role-playing game, Elsword Online. The tie-in is actually a “demo” version of the full MMOG where Facebook players can only unlock additional characters and gameplay modes by inviting friends, which is a strategy we haven’t seen much of on the platform.

According to our traffic tracking service, AppData, Trials of Elsword currently has 8,529 monthly active users and 943 daily active users.

Even so, Trails of Elsword represents an interesting opportunity for MMOs on Facebook. We’ve seen that the Unity engine, on which Elsword Online is build, is capable of running complex 3D experiences on the platform and we’re seeing more MMO-style games emerging from big and small developers. If Elsword developer Killer3rcombo had the inclination, it could conceivably run Elsword Online in its entirety on Facebook and also run the game from its own site, potentially increasing its overall user base. Or, if the current “demo” strategy were somehow revised to support true social network gameplay, Elsword could at least tap into an additional revenue stream via Facebook.

As the Facebook component only just launched a week ago, we’ll be keeping an eye on it to see if developer Kill3rCombo revises its strategy. Elsword Online launched in the U.S. on May 5.
（source:insidesocialgames）

5）Disney struggles to turn social gaming into magic potion

By Dawn C. Chmielewski and Alex Pham

LOS ANGELES – Walt Disney Co. wagered that its acquisition last summer of game developer Playdom Inc. would help bring Mickey, Snow White and other familiar characters to a new generation of fans who play games on social networks. The bet has yet to pay off.

Disney’s $563 million investment was a key component in a broad restructuring of its interactive group intended to put the perennially money-losing division on the road to profitability. It signaled a strategic shift away from traditional console video games, to focus on emerging opportunities online and on mobile devices.

But so far, Disney hasn’t found the magic to fix what ails its Interactive Media Group, which includes Playdom, Disney’s Web properties and its games business. Losses widened to $115 million in its most recent quarter ended April 2, compared with $55 million in the same period a year earlier.

Much of the pain stems from Disney’s acquisition in August of Playdom, a Bay Area company that makes games such as “Sorority Life” and “Social City” for Facebook and other online networks.

Since the transaction closed, however, Playdom’s audience has fallen precipitously amid an unplanned five-month hiatus in launching new products – time Disney executives said they took to elevate the quality of the games and bolster its network’s capacity. In that fallow period, the number of monthly Playdom users plunged to 20.7 million in late March from 42.3 million in early October, according to AppData.com, which measures usage of applications on Facebook.

Even though the social game arena is relatively new – barely in existence four years ago – it appears that a clear winner has already emerged. San Francisco’s upstart Zynga Inc. boasts 248 million monthly players, dwarfing all others, including the No. 2 game developer, Electronic Arts Inc.’s Playfish, which has 33 million users, according to AppData.（source:montrealgazette）