1）市场调研公司NPD最新报告表明，今年第一季度用户对实体包装游戏、数字在线游戏的总投入是59亿美元，比去年增长1.5%。

尽管零售游戏的销量正在下滑，但整体电子游戏行业的发展依然呈上升趋势。第一季度用户在掌机和PC软件新游戏上的投入为20.3亿美元，比去年同期的22.6亿美元略为下降。

video_game_players(from articles.nydailynews.com)

而用户在同一时斯向新型数字渠道游戏的投入却是18.5亿美元，超过去年的16.8亿美元（游戏邦注：这里指的数字渠道包括旧款游戏销售、游戏出租、订阅方式、数字游戏下载、社交游戏、可下载内容和手机游戏）。用户在第一季度在游戏硬件、内容和配件上的消费金额是21.1亿美元。

2）据路透社报道，日本社交游戏巨头DeNA已准备于本月在全球范围向智能手机平台推出英文版Mobage（不包括中国地区），并将于本月或下月向中国市场发布一个单独的中文版本。

DeNA(from fatfoogoo.com)

值得注意的是，Mobage英文版将首先在Android平台现身，而之前的日文版本也采用了同一策略（游戏邦注：日文版Mobage仍未在iOS平台发布）。

3）据知情人透露，不久前收购社交游戏工作室Ohai的神秘买主正是美国发行商EA公司。双方没有公开收购价格，但观察者认为这家公司的成交额比较低，因为Ohai虽然拥有出色的团队成员，但进军社交游戏领域的过程却并不顺利，该公司原来的首席执行官Susan Wu也已经离任，取而代之的是原董事会成员Rex Ishibashi。

ohai memebers(from venturebeat)

4）据games.com报道，Firaxis推出的第一款Facebook游戏《Civ World》最近发生访问故障，引起用户的抱怨和不满。Firaxis则回应表示，由于过多用户在短时间内访问游戏，导致游戏服务器出现技术性故障，但他们团队会将这个问题列于第一位，将尽快创造条件让玩家重访游戏世界。

Civ World(from games.com)

5）DeNA和Gree这两大日本社交网络平台都在最近宣布，将面向第三方开发商推出开发工具，支持他们将原来运行于功能性手机的Flash Lite版游戏，移植到iOS和Android等智能手机平台。

Gree-logo(from toucharcade.com)

DeNA曾在6月30日收购ExGame引擎的开发商Broadtail，并向第三方开发商提供该引擎技术服务，DeNA称这个引擎有助于开发商将Mobage平台上的1000多款功能性手机游戏移植到智能手机平台（游戏邦注：ExGame是一款可让Flash Lite 1.1应用程序运行于iOS和Android智能手机的工具，Flash Lite是轻度版本的Adobe Flash，主要运用于Docomo的功能性手机）。

Gree于7月11日宣布开发了一个Flash与HTML5转换工具，支持开发商将功能性手机平台的Flash应用移植到iOS平台。

6）跨平台休闲游戏公司King.com宣布推出《Miner Speed》的Android版本，以及Facebook版本的《Mahjong Saga》。

《Mahjong Saga》在Facebook目前的DAU已超过10万，而《Miner Speed》在6600个评价中的平均得分是4.6（满分为5）。《Mahjong Saga》含有100个关卡，有可能成为Facebook上最受欢迎的麻将类游戏。

miner speed(from socialtimes)

《Miner Speed》之前在Facebook上的MAU是170万，King.com游戏在Facebook的MAU总数是1300万，表现最为出众的是《Bubble Saga》（MAU为670万）。该公司竞争者对手包括西班牙的SocialPoint（在Facebook的MAU约1700万），以及德国的休闲社交游戏开发商Wooga（MAU为3300万）。

7）《My Country》是一款由欧洲社交游戏开发商innoWate推出的国家建设游戏，据AppData数据显示，它最近的MAU是80万5493，DAU则是4万4489。

my country(from onlinegameslist.org)

由于Facebook平台上的城市建设游戏已经趋于饱和，因此有不少游戏都通过添加其他元素以使自己同Zynga力作《CityVille》有所区别。《My Country》主要侧重于建筑和经营的微管理，玩家的主要任务是做生意，例如开办一家出租车公司，聘请一名专业司机然后逐渐创造收益。该游戏支持玩家访问好友的城市，并且可以跟进好友的等级、城市人口和国家总体价值等情况。

8）在本周MAU增长最快的Facebook游戏榜单上，Zynga新作《Empires & Allies》与Kabam旗下的《Global Warfare》分别位居第一第二席位，但从MAU总数来看，两者差距较为悬殊，前者MAU约5110万，后者是365万。而Digital Chocolate的同类题材策略游戏《Army Attack》却保持500万MAU，并没有明显增势因而没有上榜。

Top Gainers This Week-Games(from AppData)

Facebook平台上的策略类游戏大战还远未结束，据称Playdom也将推出一款风格与《Global Warfare》颇为相似的游戏《City of Might》。Kabam目前共有11款游戏在Facebook上运营，游戏MAU总数已达1170万，比上周上升了27%，同一时期的DAU则增长22%，共达110万。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

1）Consumers spent more on digital online games in Q1

Dean Takahashi

Consumers spent a total of $5.9 billion on both physical and digital online games in the first quarter, up 1.5 percent from a year ago, according to market researcher NPD.

The number shows that the overall video game industry is growing, despite the fact that retail sales of games have been falling. Those numbers — showing growth instead of a decline — are important to give a boost to investor confidence in the video game sector.

Consumers spent $2.03 billion in new video game console and PC software in the first quarter, compared to $2.26 billion a year ago.

But the total amount spent on new digital methods was $1.85 billion, up from $1.68 billion a year earlier. Digital methods include sales of used games, game rentals, subscriptions, digital full-game downloads, social network games, downloadable content and mobile phone games. If you add hardware, content, and accessory numbers ($2.11 billion), you get a total of $5.9 billion.（source:venturebeat）

2）Report: DeNA To Release Mobage Worldwide This Month

by Dr. Serkan Toto

Reuters just added a more in-depth report on their visit to DeNA (well worth the read).

It’s not really a detailed report, but according to Reuters, DeNA is ready to release the long-awaited English version of Mobage on smartphones worldwide (excluding China) this month. New CEO Isao Moriyasu told Reuters that a separate Chinese version will launch either this month or the next.

What’s interesting is that Mobage for smartphones in English will apparently be released for Android first – a launch strategy DeNA already followed back in May with the Japanese version (the iOS version is still to be released).

Moriyasu also said that DeNA is on the lookout for acquisition targets and currently talks to mobile carriers worldwide for distribution deals – something a company of that size is doing constantly.（source:serkantoto）

3）EA buys social gaming firm Ohai (exclusive)

Dean Takahashi

Electronic Arts has purchased social gaming company Ohai, according to a source familiar with the matter.

The deal has not been announced, so we aren’t sure of the exact stage in the process the acquisition is in and when it will be announced. The deal shows that EA is serious about social games and is picking up talent where it can in the wider competition to expand beyond traditional games into digital online markets.

We aren’t sure of the purchase price, but we believe the company sold for a relatively low price. Ohai has been one of the also-rans in the social gaming business. But the company assembled a good team and managed to ship games. It may have attracted bids from companies such as Kabam, Tencent, Perfect World and Aeria Games. (Those companies declined to comment earlier).

As we noted in our earlier story on the bidders for the company, Ohai is a San Francisco-based company started in the fall of 2008 by Susan Wu, (pictured under the bat), a former partner at Charles River Ventures. Wu, a former professional Quake 2 gamer, recruited a number of game veterans such as Blake Commagere, creator of the early Vampires game on Facebook; Scott Hartsman and Don Neufeld of Sony Online Entertainment. Both Commagere and Hartsman departed early.

Wu is not the CEO of Ohai anymore. Rex Ishibashi, who was formerly a board member of Ohai, says on his own LinkedIn page that he is the CEO of Ohai. (This change evidently happened a while ago). Ishibashi and Wu did not respond to emails for comment.（source:venturebeat）

4）CivWorld on Facebook might be a blast, if we could play already

by Joe Osborne

If you’re one of the 73 thousand players who seem to have brought the CivWorld servers to their knees, you already know that the first Firaxis game on Facebook is currently offline for

many players. But considering how small of a number that is, we’re going to guess you might be out of the loop. Well, the game has suffered connection issues since its launch last week, really. After much complaining and dreaded 004 error codes, Firaxis decided to respond recently with:

We’ve had a large volume of people join the game in a very short amount of time (which is great!), and that has led to some technical challenges that we’re addressing right now. Restoring access to everyone is our team’s top priority. We’ve put some fixes into place and the team is working diligently on the remaining issues. We’ll continue to keep you updated on our progress and have you back ruling the world soon!（source:games）

5）Mobage And Gree Both To Bring Their Flash Games Into Smartphone

by Akky Akimoto

Two huge Japanese social gaming networks who are working on oversea expansion showed a new move to utilize their accumulated assets on Japanese feature phone world – Flash based games.

On June 30, Mobage company DeNA announced [J] that they had purchased Broadtail, a Tokyo-based tech start-up, who developed a tool named “ExGame” to run Flash Lite 1.1 applications on smartphone(iOS and Android). Flash Lite is a light version of Adobe Flash, which is used on Docomo’s feature phone. realized huge variety of Docomo’s cellphone app store years before Apple’s app store.

DeNA is to provide the ExGame engine to their important third-parties like Kayac, Klab, Crooz, Koei-Techmo, Pokelabo etc.

DeNA says that this engine enables to offer their over 1,000 feature phone games on Mobage into their smart phone platform.

Then today, July 11, Gree announced [J] that they developed and are to provide a Flash-to-HTML5 converter, which makes feature phone Flash applications run on iOS, for Gree partners(their development partners).

Gree also revealed that July 5 released smartphone version of Kurinoppe, a virtual pet raising social game which is one of their most popular games on feature phone platform, was made by using this converter.（source:asiajin）

6）King.com Launches Mahjong Saga on Facebook; Miner Speed for Android

Cross-platform casual gaming company King.com announced the launch of a few new games: Miner Speed for Android and Mahjong Saga for Facebook. More after the jump.

Mahjong on Facebook has garnered over 100,000 DAUs since its launch and Miner Speed has acquired an avg of 4.6 / 5.0 ratings with over 6,600 ratings executed. Mahjng Saga could become the most popular Mahjong game on Facebook offering over 100 levels to players.

Miner Speed, King.com’s jewel-swapping title, has already been played heavily on Facebook with 1.7 MMAUs. Miner Speed is a bejeweled-blitz like game that offers the same replay with less polish but more fun powerups so it seems. Miner Speed is also available on King.com and on iOS where its accumulated over 200 years of total playing time since launch less than 9 weeks ago.

Overall King.com has 13 MMAUs on Facebook, with Bubble Saga being their dominant game with 6.7 MMAUs. Others offering casual titles on Facebook with competitive twists include SocialPoint, from Spain, which has roughly 17 MMAUs on Facebook, and the casual leader Wooga boasting 33 MMAUs. King.com’s goal to create true cross platform competitive gaming is a difficult stride but they are in a great position to pursue it.（source:socialtimes）

7）My Country Lets Players Build Nations, Game Builds Impressive User Base

By Randy Nelson

My Country, a nation-building game developed by European social game developer innoWate, is making some waves on our growth charts as 6waves continues its publishing arrangement with the studio. The game appears to have soft-launched in early June ahead of an official launch somewhere around the 17 of that month.

According to our traffic tracking service AppData, My Country currently has 805,493 monthly active users and 44,489 daily active users.

As the city-building genre becomes saturated, various games have had introduce gameplay components to set themselves apart from Zynga’s juggernaut, CityVille. My Country focuses on micro-management of the buildings and businesses that players create in addition to the traditional expansion of their nations. Players are tasked with establishing businesses — a taxi cab company, for instance, under the Transportation category — then must expend energy to open them, upgrade existing buildings in order to earn the components to (in this case) hire a taxi driver (a Professional) and eventually establish contracts that will bring in cash over a period of time.

Everything that is built adds to a country’s overall value, and upgrading buildings enables them to house more residents. The game uses an experience point system that allows players to level up, with each new level offering a variety of new content from businesses such as water parks to cosmetic features.

Social integration resembles that of other city-builders where players can visit friends’ countries in order to help them achieve accomplishments. The game keeps track of players’ standing among their friends based on level, population and overall value of their countries.（source:insidesocialgames）

8）Empires & Allies Battles Global Warfare on This Week’s List of Fastest-Growing Facebook Games by MAU

By AJ Glasser

Zynga’s Empires & Allies does direct combat with Kabam’s Global Warfare on this week’s list of fastest-growing Facebook games by monthly active users. Digital Chocolate’s competing strategy game, Army Attack, drops out of the growth race with a steady 5 million MAU to its name.

It may not be the end of the strategy Facebook game wars, however, as Playdom still means to release what sounds like a competing game called City of Might. A glance at previews for the game make it look somewhat more like Global Warfare than Empires & Allies, however.

Meanwhile, several other Kabam titles continue to make our weekly rankings charts as the developer expands its audience. With 11 known games now live on Facebook, its overall MAU is up 27% in the last week to 11.7 million as of today while daily active users rose 22% to 1.1 million in the same time period. Looks like that $85 million fourth round of funding is being put to use.（source:insidesocialgames）