1）据TechCrunch报道，手机社交游戏公司Storm8正准备融资3亿美元，使其身价涨至10亿美元。

Storm8游戏目前的DAU已超500万，在不同平台上的游戏下载量达2.1亿次，玩家体验游戏时间累计为180亿分钟左右。代表作品包括《iMobsters》及其TeamLava团队推出的《Restaurant Story》等游戏。

storm8(from invisiongamers.com)

据称本轮融资支持者包括Accel Partners、Technology Crossover Ventures，Zynga曾有意收购Storm8但因其出价太高而作罢。

2）Glu Mobile最近宣布向谷歌Chrome Web Store发布《Gun Bros》。该游戏在iOS和Android平台已收获1300万次下载量，是Glu在2011年首款向Chorme Web Store推出的社交游戏。

Chrome Web Store虽然仅限运行于HTML5网页浏览器，但在今年5月下载量已超过1700万次。

glu-mobile-logo(from blackberryrocks.com)

3）Glu Mobile日前透露6月份公司游戏在iOS、Android和Facebook平台的MAU为1650万，DAU是160万（游戏邦注：其3月份MAU是1190万，DAU为95.3万）。从营收上看来，第二季度该公司共达成99.9万笔IAP（应用内置付费功能）交易，比第一季度增长32%。平均每笔IAP价值也从原来的2.31美元，增长至4.07美元。据Glu所称，这种现象的主要原因是其虚拟商品售价较高。

《Gun Bros.》仍是Glu公司第二季度的拳头产品，在该时期为其智能手机业务创造了220万美元的非GAAP收益，但比起第一季度的230万美元略有下降；另一款游戏《Contract Killer》则创造了250万美元的非GAAP收益。

4）据Touch Arcade报道，Glu Mobile日前将旗下游戏《Gun Bros.》的顶级Kraken武器价格，从原来的1400个warbuck（游戏虚拟货币），涨至3499个warbuck。也就是说，玩家需要花487.89美元的现金，才可购得3499个warbuck，买到这件超级武器（游戏邦注：曾有一名YouTube用户指出该武器原来的现金售价为200美元）。

Kraken weapon(from removewat.com)

虽然玩家也可以通过观看广告视频和下载指定推广应用来兑换warbuck，但几乎不可能凭借这一模式换得如此之多的warbuck。

5）日本游戏公司Capcom日前与Peanuts Worlwide合作达成协议，获得后者的著名卡通形象史努比版权，Capcom将根据史努比角色设计一系列社交游戏。

Capcom-and-Snoopy(from metrowny.com)

Capcom之前以蓝精灵角色为主题的手机游戏《蓝精灵村庄》大获成功，该游戏与《Zombie cafe》目前在App Store下载量已经超过1000万次。

6）移动分析公司Flurry日前向其开发者分析工具中添加了用户年龄和性别这两项功能设置，此外还支持开发者通过地理位置、应用兴趣、使用习惯等分析用户行为。开发者还可以使用更高级的用户分析服务，例如比较用户访问应用的不同时间，以便观察应用完善之后，用户在应用中升级或消费的情况是否得到改善。

Flurry analytic tool(from insidemobileapps)

Flurry服务目前已覆盖10万款应用（拥有3亿MAU），每月可追踪170亿次匿名用户访问量。

7）Square Enix的《最终幻想战略版：狮子战争》日前终于在新西兰App Store登陆，其iPhone版本添加了手势控制系统，并优化了图像效果以及战略玩法。但需要注意的是，该游戏目前仅支持运行于iPhone平台，其iPad版本可能要今年秋季才会问世。

Final Fantasy Tactics:War of the Lions(from beefjack.com)

该游戏即将在英国和美国App Store露面，预计其售价为10.99英磅和15.99美元。

8）IDC和Appcelerator最新开发者调查显示，仅半数受访者表示纯付费应用销售是其主要运营模式，这一比例比过去半年的调查结果下降了9%（游戏邦注：本次调查受访者为2000多名开发者，调查时间是7月20至21日）。

business models(from IDC)

与此同时，认为IAP是主要创收渠道的开发者比例从原来的42%略微上升至43%，有50%受访者认为IAP将成为今后最重要的应用盈利模式。

支持iOS平台开发者数量最多，高达91%受访者锁定了iPhone平台，他们很看好iOS 5的信息推送服务、iCloud、绑定Twitter等功能设置，认为这些功能将有助于更好地开发应用。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

1）Rumours suggest Storm8′s first funding round will value it at $1 billion

by Jon Jordan

Despite being publicity shy, rumours suggest mobile social gaming powerhouse Storm8 is raising its first funding.

TechCrunch suggests the round could be worth up to $300 million, valuing the company in the $1 billion category.

As we found out when we spoke to CEO Perry Tam at WWDC 2011, he certainly doesn’t lack ambition, proclaiming his goal to become ‘the number one social gaming mobile company’.

“It’s a huge market. The growth in mobile is almost unimaginable,” he explained.

In the vanguard

Storm8 is well placed to take maximum advantage of the situation, being the largest mobile-only social publisher.

The company claims over five million daily active users, 210 million downloads on 58 million unique devices, and around 18 billion minutes of gameplay across its Storm8 male-focused titles such as iMobsters and female-focused TeamLava releases Restaurant Story, Fashion Story etc.

It also benefits from its own proprietary social graph, which enables it to cross promote games and link all players into one community. As we’ve seen from companies such as DeNA, GREE, OpenFeint and ngmoco, these platforms are currently extremely valuable.

In this way, Storm8 suffers much less in terms of reliance on Facebook compared to companies such as Zynga.

Similarly, Storm8 also announced its first peak $1 million day of revenue in June; which is how the company has organically funded its growth to-date.

TechCrunch says VC such as Accel Partners and Technology Crossover Ventures are involved, citing Zynga was looking to buy it outright, but the price was too high; something it also experienced with PopCap.（source:pocketgamer）

2）Glu goes Google as Gun Bros hits Chrome Web Store

by Keith Andrew

Following a path already marked out by indie studios, Glu has announced it’s taking key titles in its library to the Chrome Web Store, starting with Gun Bros.

The game, which already boasts 13 million downloads on iOS and Android, will be the first of four social games making their way to Google’s platform in 2011, including Contract Killer, Big Time Gangsta and Bug Village.

All the Gs

“Google Chrome offers another powerful platform for Glu to bring great social gaming experiences to global audiences,” said CEO Niccolo de Masi.

Chrome Web Store, though restricted to HTML5 equipped web browsers, passed 17 million downloads in May and can call on a potential userbase of 160 million.

“We are delighted to be launching one of the first games that support microtransactions on the Chrome Web Store and look forward to bringing additional Glu games to this growing platform,” de Masi added.

Indeed, in-app purchases are an increasingly important facet of Glu’s business, with volumes rising 32 percent from Q1 2011 during the firm’s most recent quarter.（source:pocketgamer）

3）With 16.5 million MAUs, Glu sees IAP volumes up 32% with average transaction worth $4.07

by Jon Jordan

Following the release of its Q2 2011 financials, Glu Mobile (NASDAQ:GLUU) provided more detail in a follow up call with analysts.

It was keen to point out this was first quarter in which its smartphone business – now based on the freemium model – generated more revenue than its legacy feature phone business.

“Glu has become a majority smartphone revenue

What’s most significant about Glu’s business however is how the freemium model is growing and monetising.

It’s now had a total of 101.9 million cumulative installs on iOS, Android and Facebook, of which 31.8 million occurred in Q2.

As a result, it had a total of 16.5 million monthly active users across Apple, Android and Facebook in June up from 11.9 million in March. It had 1.6 million daily active users in June, up 72 percent compared to March’s 953,000 users.

When it comes to monetisation, Glu booked 999,000 IAP billable transactions, up 32 percent compared to Q1. The average revenue per IAP increased from $2.31 to $4.07. Glu said this was mainly due to higher price points for its virtual goods.

In terms of games, Gun Bros. remains Glu’s key release. It generated $2.2 million of non-GAAP smartphone revenues in Q2, slightly down from the $2.3 million in Q1, thanks to the loss of CPI revenues, down from $1.5 million in Q1 to $1.1 million in Q1.

More importantly for Glu, the growth in IAP for Gun Bros. was a 29 percent quarter-over-quarter increase.

Also, newer game Contract Killer generated $2.5 million in total non-GAAP revenues in Q2, 36 percent of which was related to CPI activity.（source:pocketgamer）

4）Glu Mobile Selling Gun Bros. Weapon For Nearly $500

by Kyle Orland

The revolution in free-to-play games has brought with it a collection of high-priced in-game items of questionable value, but Glu Mobile has taken the idea to a new extreme with a Gun Bros. weapon worth nearly $500.

Touch Arcade notes that the company increased the price of Gun Bros. top tier Kraken weapon to 3499 of the game’s warbucks currency, up from 1400.

At the most generous bulk conversion rate, that much virtual currency would cost a user $487.89 to purchase. Warbucks can also be obtained by watching advertising videos and downloading specific apps, but not easily in such extreme quantities.

The Kraken weapon provides an incredibly powerful spread of homing missiles and periodic laser blasts that easily annihilates most oncoming enemies in the dual-stick shoot-’em-up.

One YouTube user showed that, with the gun “you can just sit here and win, basically,” adding that “it’s really good but I don’t know if it’s worth $200 [the old price].”

Large single transactions are a major revenue driver for free-to-play games, with 30 percent of all mobile free-to-play game revenue coming from purchases worth $50 or more, according to a recent Flurry study.

An Inside Virtual Goods study from last June found that roughly 5 percent of Facebook game players spend at least $25 per month on at least one free-to-play title, with top spenders dropping tens of thousands of dollars total on the games.

Glu posted a reduced loss of $3.2 million for the fiscal quarter ending March 31 on decreased revenues of $16.4 million. （source:gamasutra）

5）Snoopy goes social with Beeline as Capcom picks up Peanuts licence

by Keith Andrew

Following on from the ‘unimaginable’ success it enjoyed with Smurfs’ Village, Capcom has acquired the rights for Snoopy, courtesy of an agreement signed with Peanuts Worldwide.

The deal will see Capcom develop a series of social games based around Snoopy and associated characters under its newly launched Beeline mobile business.

The first title will hit iPhone and iPad this autumn, with Beeline launching three other social releases – Smurfs’ Grabber, Dream Park and Monster Pet Shop – in August and September.

Social storm

The Snoopy deal marks another chapter in Capcom’s efforts to gain a greater hand in the social gaming market, following the 10 million downloads the publisher amassed on the App Store across both Smurfs’ Village and Zombie Cafe.

Combined, both titles boasted 6.5 million monthly active users back in February – a userbase Beeline was pitched with expanding upon.

The firm has suffered controversy in the field, however, with claims that it was far too easy to mistakenly buy virtual currency in Smurfs’ Village resulting in Capcom restricting in-app purchases to five items per 15 minutes, before Apple changed the set up for all freemium games. （source:pocketgamer）

6）Flurry Adds Age, Gender Demographics in Revamp of Analytics Product

By Kim-Mai Cutler

Flurry did a big overhaul of its core analytics product today, adding ways for developers to break out their users by age and gender.

Developers can also look at their user base by location, app interests and usage. For example, a developer could look at the differences in behavior between low, medium and high-usage players. They can also do more advanced cohort analysis, where can they compare the behavior of users who joined the app at different times. (That helps developers to see whether a few tweaks improved the number of users who advance in an app, level up in a game or move onto purchases.)

The company, which has been through many incarnations from originally being an e-mail and news reader for smartphones four years ago to becoming a major player in incentivized installs, has grown a large footprint through its free analytics. Flurry now reaches 100,000 apps and 300 million monthly unique users and tracks 17 billion anonymous user sessions a month.（source:insidemobileapps）

7）Square Enix’s RPG Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions released in New Zealand, iPhone-only for now

by Ryan McGowan

Square Enix’s Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions has finally landed on New Zealand’s App Store, meaning it won’t be long before it hits the rest of the world, too.

This tactical RPG was originally released way back in the forgotten mists of 1997, but was remastered a few years ago for the PSP.

The iPhone version spruces things up again, adding in gesture-based controls and optimised graphics to complement the isometric perspective and strategic gameplay.

You should bear in mind that today’s release is iPhone-only, so if you’ve got an iPad, you’ll probably want to hold off for now. An iPad edition is currently scheduled for “Fall 2011″.

Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions is out now on the Kiwi App Store, with a UK and US appearance to follow at around midnight this evening, likely priced at £10.99 / $15.99.（source:pocketgamer）

8）App makers relying more on repeat users to make money

By Erica Ogg

Tweet inShare68Mobile developers are increasingly focusing on engaging repeat customers rather than chasing sales of apps to new users, according to a new survey of developers. It’s a natural outgrowth of the explosion of the apps marketplace, which is nearly impossible to stand out in anymore, with more than 425,000 apps in the iOS App Store and 250,000 in the Android Market alone.

Just over 2,000 developers were surveyed by IDC and Appcelerator between July 20 and 21, and just about half of them said pure sales of apps was the primary strategy driving their business model. That’s down about nine percent from Appcelerator developers surveyed six months ago.

At the same time, the percentage of those who said in-app purchasing was a major factor in their moneymaking strategy inched up slightly from 42 percent to 43 percent. While that change is pretty negligible right now, looking ahead to next year, 50 percent of those surveyed say in-app purchasing will be the most important strategy, tying with app store sales. And that would be a fairly significant change.

So it’s not a coincidence that the same survey found that the platform these same developers are most interested in creating apps for, iOS (91 percent say iPhone is their target platform) have the kinds of features that consistently drive people back to using apps repeatedly: iOS 5’s improved notifications, iCloud, integration of Twitter, reminders and iMessage. All of these features are designed to more easily nudge users back into apps rather than relying on them to remember they downloaded something specific.（source:gigaom）