1）社交游戏开发商CrowdStar及创业孵化公司YouWeb日前投入1000万美元成立StarFund基金会，“为下一代手机社交游戏开发商提供支持”，打破大型公司和现有游戏长据应用商店榜单前列的局面。

CrowdStar-logo(from happyaquarium.wikia.com)

开发者可通过填满写CrowdStar的在线表格，向该基金会申请获得最高达25万美元的项目资金扶助。

2）据Fusible报道，微软于日前“无意”泄露了其社交平台项目的机密。近日在微软收购的Socl.com网站（原名Social.com，据称微软仅收购其域名就花费260万美元）上突然出现一个名为Tulalip的页面，其中显示了“您可以通过Tulalip搜索自己所需的内容，并更方便快捷地与好友共同分享”等内容，有人称从“搜索”和“分享”这两个字眼中可以看出，该网站或许将结合Bing功能。

tulalip(from techcrunch)

此外，该页面还植入了Facebook和Twitter登录按钮。尽管微软立即将该页面删除，并向用户致歉称他们“无意”如此，但观察者表示这或许是微软“有意”而为之，以便为该项目提前制造舆论气候。

3）移动广告网络Millennial Media最新报告显示，Android连续第七个月成为该网站第一大智能手机平台，在今年6朋份，其广告印象份额上升至54%。微软Windows Phone在Millennial Media平台的广告印象市场份额虽然很小，但正逐月提升，已从5月份的1%上升至2%，略低于Symbian的3%。而黑莓同一时期则是15%，比之前的17%略为下滑。

smartphone OS Mix(from millennial)

从Millennial Media网站所覆盖的范围来看，iOS应用在美国市场所占营收比例最高，达到49%，其次是占据41%的Android。

Application platform mix(from millennial)

4）据澳大利亚开发商GAMEized所称，他们通过苹果Game Center发现旗下的足球游戏《FingerKicks》的盗版现象严重，有91%的用户下载的是盗版游戏。

该公司在博客中指出，由于苹果每天仅提供一次应用销量数据，他们就只能使用Game Center作为查看玩家付费购买游戏的测量工具。一般来说，如果有5000名玩家就意味游戏销量是5000份，而且还有些玩家并非Game Center用户，所以实际的游戏销量应该更高。

FingerKicks(from ipadown.com)

但实际情况却是，该公司发现仅有160份游戏是通过合法途径下载，其他基本上是通过Installous等非官方应用商店下载。也就是说，到目前为止，仅有1163份《FingerKicks》是合法销售产品，在Game Center上玩盗版游戏的用户达到1万5950人，这相当于91%的游戏属于盗版产品。

5）据Doritos Dip Desperado针对2052名用户的最新调查显示，女性用户对电子游戏的兴趣超过了两性关系。49%的女性受访者承认自己在玩“在线游戏”，但调查并未指出这些女玩家是更青睐《使命召唤》还是《CityVille》这类游戏。这个比例仅比男性受访者少1%，这表明两种性别的用户都很乐衷于玩游戏。

female game player(from columbiabusinesstimes.com)

在这49%的女性玩家中，又有84%表示自己很享受游戏过程，仅有70%表示更喜欢“炒饭”（love making)，还有女性用户称比起洗澡和购物，她们更爱玩游戏）。调查还指出，23.1%的女性玩家比男性玩家花更多时间玩在线游戏（男性用户的这一比例为22.3%）。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

1）CrowdStar, YouWeb Collaborate On $10M Mobile Development Fund

by Frank Cifaldi

Social game developer CrowdStar (It Girl, Happy Aquarium) and incubator YouWeb are offering $10 million in funding for mobile game development.

The fund, called StarFund, will be used “to help spur the next generation of mobile social gaming innovation,” according to the company.

“What we know is that great teams and products can still get to the top in mobile social gaming,” said CrowdStar mobile head Blair Hamilton. “With StarFund, we are looking to fund the next stars in mobile social games.”

Developers may apply to receive up to $250,000 in funding through CrowdStar’s online application.（source:gamasutra）

2）Microsoft Leaked Its Own Social Networking Secret, Then Swore It Was Accidental

Jordan Crook

Hot on the heels of all this Google+ madness, Microsoft has “unintentionally” leaked its own social networking platform. Whether this is a grab at all the hype or a genuine mistake on the part of some IT guy, we still have one question: What the heck is a Tulalip? I kid… Fusible, which picked up the story first, discovered that the name Tulalip is also the name of a Native American tribe located near Redmond, Washington, Microsoft’s home turf.

The teaser page pictured below was published to the web today on socl.com, which is apparently owned by Microsoft, reports Fusible. There are rumors that Microsoft is the lucky buyer of Social.com, which would mean they paid $2.6 million for the domain name alone.

From the looks of it, this will likely be a venture into “social search” with Bing running the show. “With Tulalip you can Find what you need and Share what you know easier than ever,” reads the teaser tagline. Notice the capitalization of Find and Share? Yep, we’re pretty sure this will be where search meets share, which is kind of good news since you can’t do a Google search within Google+ (What’s that all about, anyways?). Oddly enough, there are Facebook and Twitter log in fields on the teaser page, which leads us to believe that this will be a rather light foray into social networking rather than a heavy-duty Microsoft experience. If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em right?

The teaser page has since been pulled, while Microsoft swears it was an accident. Here’s what they replaced it with: “Thanks for stopping by. Socl.com is an internal design project from a team in Microsoft Research which was mistakenly published to the web. We didn’t mean to, honest.” Well, we’re still not sure if we buy into that whole “we didn’t mean to” part, but either way, we’re glad it happened.（source:techcrunch）

4）Windows Phone doubles US share as ad impressions jump 31% in a quarter, reports Millennial

by Keith Andrew

Perhaps Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer had seen an advance copy of Millennial Media’s latest Mobile Mix report when he dubbed Windows Phone’s share of the market as “very small”.

There’s no escaping the fact Windows Phone has failed to make a significant impact in terms of snapping up users since its launch last October.

There are, however, finally signs the platform is beginning to gain a foothold in its home territory, with its share of the market doubling month on month according to Millennial’s figures.

All aboard Android

Windows Phone’s growth comes as Android enjoys an extended run at the top.

Google’s OS is the largest smartphone platform on Millennial’s network for the seventh consecutive month, its share up 1 percentage point to 54 percent in June.

It’s against this backdrop, however, the doubling of Windows Phone’s share – from 1 percent in May to 2 percent a month later – is put in context.

Microsoft’s OS remains a sideshow in the US despite this growth, a smaller player than even Symbian on 3 percent and well behind BlackBerry on 15 percent – RIM’s share down from last month’s three month high of 17 percent.

No app attack

Nonetheless, there’s further good news for Windows Phone in the rest of the report.

Ad impressions on the platform are up 31 percent quarter on quarter – the highest rate of growth of any major OS on the network.

When it comes to app share, however, Microsoft remains some distance behind the pack.

On this score, iOS is the dominant force, with a 49 percent share of all app revenue in the US to Android’s 41 percent.（source:pocketgamer）

4）Suffering 91% piracy rates, FingerKicks dev GAMEized slams ‘bewildering’ Game Center support

by Keith Andrew

Game critics aren’t the only group to use Game Center leaderboards as a measure of a game’s popularity.

According to Australian developer GAMEized, studios waiting on sales reports often do the exact same thing, though the results aren’t always pleasing.

Indeed, it was GAMEized’s decision to monitor the performance of its football themed FingerKicks on Game Center that led the realisation that 91 percent of the game’s userbase had downloaded pirated copies.

The hidden truth

“Because Apple only provides app sales data once per day, GAMEized used the Game Center leaderboards as a barometer for how many players had purchased FingerKicks,” the developer revealed in a blog post.

“It was reasonable to assume that 5,000 players meant at least 5,000 sales, and since many customers don’t use Game Center, the actual sales numbers might have been much higher.”

When the real figures came through, GAMEized discovered only 160 copies had been purchased legally. The rest has been made through unofficial app stores such as Installous.

“As of this writing, FingerKicks has sold only 1163 legitimate copies but there are at least 15,950 pirated copies being played on a regular basis on Apple’s Game Center,” the studio added.

“That equates to an astonishing 91 percent of downloads that are pirated.”（source:pocketgamer）

5）Respectable research firm Doritos finds women like games more than sex

by Joe Osborne

We’ve all heard the chocolate gag, but this is just ridiculous. Doritos–you know, Nacho Cheese?–found during a survey of 2,052 people for its upcoming Facebook game, Doritos Dip Desperado, that women like video games more than sex. Well, at least that’s how we’re (and everyone else is) spinning it, because crazy statistics like this are fun … and its Friday.

According to the survey, 49 percent of women admitted to playing “online games,” though as GamePro points out: It’s not made clear whether these women are bombing cities in Call of Duty or building them up in CityVille. We’re going to go with the latter. Regardless, this number is just 1 percent below men, meaning a whole darn lot of folks have their eyes glued to some screen, somewhere.

Of the 49 percent of video game femme fatale, 84 percent said they enjoy gaming sessions, compared to just 70 percent who said they enjoy love making, whoopee, boinking, what have you. (Women also reportedly enjoy games more than having a bath and shopping.) Now, here’s the clincher: 23.1 percent of women, according to Doritos, spend more time online playing games than men, who came in at 22.3 percent. Dudes, we know you’re digging on Halo more than FarmVille, but maybe it’s time you joined the lady–ain’t no shame in trying something new.（source:games）