1）游戏发行商THQ日前宣布关闭两家澳大利亚工作室，削减近200名员工以便重新定位业务发展方向。这两家澳大利亚工作室分别是THQ Studio Australia和Blue Tongue，主要负责开发授权游戏，THQ已把开发工作转移到位于Phoenix的团队。

该公司表示，THQ现在正进行业务转型，不再以开发儿童游戏和电影授权游戏为重心，并且不会再积极研发《MX vs.ATV》系列产品。裁员后的THQ目前留存的5家工作室包括THQ蒙特利尔、Volition、Relic Entertainment、Vigil Games和THQ圣地亚哥。

unemployment(from gamepolitics.com)

THQ称公司当前的四大数字发展策略核心分别是：《黑街圣徒3》等主要掌机游戏作品，与Jimmy Buffet（美国乡村摇滚的老牌传奇歌星、商人和畅销书作家）合作推出的《Margaritaville Online》等iOS和Facebook游戏，创造稳定收益的MMO游戏《战锤40K》，以及通过现有渠道和THQ网站发售的产品。

该公司于去年3月裁员30多名Kaos Studios和Volition工作室，并于6月份关闭Kaos和英国Digital Warrington工作室。

2）EA Playfish于日前宣布与广告网络Nanigans进行合作，双方在《模拟人生社交版》正式发布之前达成了协议（游戏邦注：EA Playfish之前推出的《Madden NFL Superstars》、《Monopoly Millionaires》和《Restaurant City》采用的正是Nanigans广告引擎服务，Nanigans在刚刚更新的官方新闻通稿，删除了有关《模拟人生社交版》的字眼）。

nanigans(from articles.sfgate.com)

Nanigans广告引擎使用了Facebook广告API，支持开发商优化获取付费或忠实用户的广告投入。这种定位型广告投入可以帮助社交游戏开发商减少总体安装成本，提升社交游戏运营表现。该公司最近为拓展Facebook广告平台业务融资300万美元。

据AppData数据显示，《模拟人生社交版》最近的MAU达100万，DAU也超过了6.8万。

3）据Fusible报道，日前有传闻称社交游戏开发商RockYou的下一款游戏是《Hooked》，原因是该公司于8月2日注册了一个名为Hooked的商标。但RockYou拒绝对此事做出回应。

4）据Gamasutra报道，动视发行公司首席执行官Eric Hirshberg日前在公开表示，他认为《使命召唤》的玩家在游戏中的投入程度和沉浸感，远高于Facebook前三名社交游戏的玩家，他们在游戏中的消费金额也明显高于后者。

Eric Hirshberg(from games.com)

观察者指出，Hirshberg忽略了《使命召唤》是售价达60美元的AAA游戏，而Facebook游戏采用的却是免费模式。Facebook目前仅在美国就有近1200万付费游戏玩家，其中有100万左右用户每月至少为虚拟商品付费50美元。另外，动视最近也已经被曝出正在制作社交游戏的消息，其竞争对手EA也正大力投入开发Facebook和手机游戏，Hirshberg为何抛出这番言论着实令人费解。

5）俄罗斯网游公司Nival日前宣布回合制策略游戏《King’s Bounty：Legions》结束封测，在Facebook进行公开测试（游戏邦注：该游戏由俄罗斯工作室KranX Productions开发）。

King's Bounty Legions(from games.com)

Nival总经理和该游戏主要制作人David D Christensen表示，Facebook平台上据称已有8000万用户是策略游戏玩家，他认为《King’s Bounty：Legions》将为这些Facebook用户提供最好的策略游戏体验。

6）国际黑客组织Anonymous日前宣称因为不满Facebook的用户隐私安全管理问题，他们将在今年11月5日向Facebook发动攻击，以捍卫广大用户的个人隐私权利。

Anonymous vows to destory Facebook(from games)

该组织之前已因维基泄密等事件，攻击过Pentagon、新闻集团等大型公司，他们最近表示Facebook向政府机关、信息安全机构出售用户信息，为这些机构打开了监视世界各地用户的大门，用户不可能完全删除Facebook帐号及其信息，该网站的隐私设置选项只是一种并无实际作用的“迷惑之术”。

观察者指出这并非Anonymous首次因大众隐私问题而向Facebook宣战，另外该组织最近还宣称将建立自己的社交网络与Google+相抗衡。

farmville-sad-cow(from games.com)

7）据games报道，Zynga旗下的多款Facebook游戏近日发生无法访问的故障（观察者认为这有可能是该公司采用的亚马逊云服务因雷击而停摆所致），而Reddit和Foursquare等其他网站也出现了同样的问题。不过经过Zynga员工抢修之后，这些游戏已经恢复正常运营。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom编译，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

1）THQ Lays Off 200 Employees, Closes Australian Studios

by Tom Curtis

Publisher THQ announced today that it has closed two of its studios and laid off approximately 200 employees as part of a larger plan to narrow the company’s development focus.

THQ says that it has decided to close a pair of its studios in Australia, and has eliminated a development team at the company’s Phoenix location. A trustworthy Australian industry source on NeoGAF identified the shuttered Australian studios as THQ Studio Australia and Blue Tongue, both of which primarily focused on licensed titles.

According to the THQ, the company is currently in the process of transitioning away from developing kids titles and movie-based games. The company also noted that it has “decided not to actively pursue further development of the MX vs. ATV franchise at this time.”

“With this realignment, we are narrowing our focus to high-quality owned IP with broad appeal that can be leveraged across multiple platforms, and to work with the best talent in the industry. By right-sizing our internal development capacities for our console portfolio, our five internal studios are focused on delivering high-quality games with talented teams driving the execution of those titles to market,” said THQ president and CEO Brian Farrell.

“As we have outlined in our business strategies, we are making shifts to reduce movie-based and licensed kids’ video games in our portfolio, which underscores our strategy to move away from games that will not generate strong profits in the future.”

Following these studio closures, THQ’s five remaining internal studios include THQ Montreal (Unannounced title), Volition (Saints Row: The Third, inSANE), Relic Entertainment (Company of Heroes, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine), Vigil Games (Darksiders II), and THQ San Diego (WWE All Stars).

THQ also reiterated its “four pillar digital strategy,” which is to focus on major console titles such as Saints Row: The Third, to target iOS and Facebook with titles such as the Jimmy Buffet-inspired Margaritaville Online, to bring in regular revenue with the MMO Warhammer 40,000: Dark Millennium Online, and to drive sales through existing channels as well as through the THQ website.

Last March, the company laid off over 30 employees at Homefront developer Kaos Studios and Saints Row developer Volition. In June, THQ closed Kaos altogether alongside the UK-based Digital Warrington.

THQ also recently noted that it has chosen not to pursue future titles in its sci-fi Red Faction franchise, saying that the game “did not resonate with a sufficiently broad console gaming audience.” （source:gamasutra）

2）EA Playfish Signs With Nanigans Ad Platform, Moves Toward Sims Social Launch

By AJ Glasser

EA Playfish announced today an exclusive ad network partnership with Nanigans just ahead of launching The Sims Social, a Facebook installment of EA’s 10-year-old Sims franchise. Nanigans also announced a $3 million first round of funding led by Avalon Ventures.

The Nanigans partnership grants EA Playfish first dibs on new features in the former’s ad engine platform. The social game developer has already put the ad engine to use in Madden NFL Superstars, Monopoly Millionaires, and Restaurant City. Nanigans’ ad engine uses the Facebook’s Ads API to conduct real-time bidding that optimizes developer ad spend for acquisition of users that make purchases or have sustained engagement.

Yesterday, we explored how targeted ad spend can help social game developers reduce overall cost-per-installs, which leads to a better-performing social game. Nanigans is one of several services that help developers purchase Facebook application installs, like AdParlor, Alchemy, Spruce Media, or Brighter Option. By securing funding from Avalon, Nanigans ads Rich Levandov, one of the first investors in Zynga, to its board.

The Sims Social, a collaboration between EA Playfish and EA internal developer The Sims Studio, officially launches “soon” on Facebook, although players can click Go To App as of today. Even before a closed beta launched in late July, the game’s page routinely made our weekly rankings lists of fastest-growing social games by monthly active and daily active users. According to our AppData traffic tracking service, the game currently has 1 million MAU and over 68,000 DAU. Read our exclusive hands-on experience with The Sims Social for more details.

UPDATE: Nanigans updated the original press release to remove mention of The Sims Studio as part of its EA Playfish partnership.（source:insidesocialgames）

3）Rumor: next game from RockYou will have you Hooked

By Andrew Webster

With his like Zoo World 2 and Gourmet Ranch under its belt, many gamers are probably wondering what’s next from the team at RockYou. Though no substantial details are available, rumors are surfacing that the developer’s next game will be called Hooked.

Unfortunately, the name is all we have at this point. It comes by way of Fusible, which reports that RockYou recently filed a trademark for the name Hooked. The trademark was filed on August 2. But the game hasn’t been officially been announced, nor is it definite that it is indeed a game that will be released. We reached out to RockYou and received the following statement:

“We don’t comment on trademark applications.”（source:gamezebo）

4）Activision: Call of Duty more engaging than Facebook’s top three games

by Joe Osborne

Really, Activision? Then why are you working on Facebook games as we speak? Gamasutra reports that Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg said during the 13th Annual Pacific Crest Global Technology Leadership Forum that Call of Duty players are more engaged in the company’s games than the players of the top three Facebook games are. Hirshberg went on to say that Call of Duty (CoD) gamers put up more cash than Facebook gamers.

“Call of Duty has more players who pay-to-play online than any Facebook game,” Hirshberg said, “and our players pay more per player on average than any Facebook game.” Um … duh? Hirshberg fails to make the distinction that Facebook games are free to play, and triple-A franchise games like Call of Duty cost $60 per copy. In other words, of course more CoD gamers are paying to play than Facebook gamers–they’re all paying to play the game. (Well, aside from the pirates, which is sort of a given.)

Not to mention that close to 12 million Facebook gamers in the U.S. alone pay for digital goods in their favorite social games monthly, according to a PayPal study. Better yet, about 1 million of those are paying at least $50 monthly for virtual horses and other boosts. While those folks are special cases, games like Call of Duty lack the payment structure for such dedication.

Hirshberg continued to elaborate on the fact that CoD players are more engaged than Facebook gamers: “They’re also more engaged – the percentage of Call of Duty’s monthly unique players that play the game every day is higher than that of the top three Facebook games.”

We all know at this point that Hirshberg is referring to Zynga, though he does raise a good point with his use of the word “unique.” Many of the monthly players of Zynga’s games play more than one of them, hence the overlap and the fewer unique monthly players. The Activision exec makes these claims after the company revealed recently that it is, in fact, working on social games. Not to mention that its number on competitor, EA, is investing heavily in Facebook and mobile gaming. Furthermore, Activision is building a social overlay (though sans Facebook) to support its upcoming Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. So, we’re not sure just where the Activision exec is coming from on this one.（source:games）

5）King’s Bounty: Legions exerts its rule on Facebook; enters open beta

by Joe Osborne

Warriors, demons and monstrous plant creatures at your command? Check. All within a beautiful-looking strategy game that’s free to play on Facebook? Double check. Nival has announced that the social adaptation of the classic turn-based strategy game King’s Bounty has graduated from closed beta to open beta on Facebook.

In other words, King’s Bounty: Legions, developed by Russian studio KranX Productions under a license by 1C Company, is live and available for all strategy fans on Facebook. Hey, we all know how long some games (ahem, FarmVille) like to keep the “beta” subhead.

The game throws players into a war-torn world of magic, monsters and mayhem–eh, you get the idea. There’s certainly a sprawling storyline involving warlords in defense of an ancient kingdom, but we know what you really care about: the combat.

And boy, does this new Facebook game has it in spades with more than 30 units spanning the three factions of the Kingdom, Chaos and Beasts ready to duke it out in hexagonal battles through both a single-player adventure and multiplayer duels. And Nival has high expectations for the socially revived franchise.

“It was recently reported 80 million Facebook users are playing strategy games,” Nival GM and lead producer on King’s Bounty: Legions David D Christensen said in a release. “I’d play matches against all 80 million to demonstrate King’s Bounty: Legions is the best strategy gaming experience on Facebook.” (Would that be considered overtime?)（source:games）

6）Anonymous vows to destroy Facebook (and your games) this Nov. 5

by Joe Osborne

Remember, remember the Fifth of November? It’s the hacker group Anonymous’ favorite day of the year, and this time around, it’s going for the largest target of them all: Facebook. The Village Voice reports that the international collective of nameless hackers has declared war on the 750 million-strong social network, and that it will take down the website this Nov. 5 over issues it has with the company’s supposedly lax commitment to privacy.

Anonymous has already attacked the Pentagon, News Corp and other major organizations in response to events like the WikiLeaks scandal and the recent News International phone hacking dilemma, respectively. This time Anonymous claims, “Facebook has been selling information to government agencies and giving clandestine access to information security firms so that they can spy on people from all around the world.”

The group goes on to point out that deleting a Facebook account is “impossible,” and that the website’s privacy options are “a delusion.” It’s funny that Anonymous mentions this, as many social gamers have had issues with Facebook games and privacy, namely due to how the website handles app permissions.

Of course, this is far from the first time Anonymous has spoken out, and threatened to act, on the behalf of the public’s privacy. Just recently, Anonymous vowed to create its own social network in response to Google essentially kicking the group out of its Google+ service. (If Facebook actually does go down, perhaps Google+ Games will have a better chance at beating Facebook than we thought.) Take a listen to the full message here and, well, expect them.（source:games）

7）Zynga’s games suffer outages, now what do we do?

by Brandy Shaul

Throughout the evening, Zynga’s many Facebook games suffered intermittent outages. Games like FrontierVille, FarmVille and Empires & Allies were entirely unplayable for some time (presumably due to the Amazon Cloud Server downtime caused by a lightning strike), but the crew at the big Z have already gone right to work restoring service to games. In fact, FrontierVille and Empires & Allies are already back online, while farmers still may not be able to get into FarmVille as of this writing.

Don’t worry either way, though, farmers. While it may be upsetting that we’ve had to take a break from our games, it doesn’t look like we’ll have to worry about losing any progress. If anything, think of this as though someone unplugged the power to all of your outlets in your house, rather than you simply unplugging one appliance. As other sites like Reddit and Foursquare were also affected during this outage, we can’t blame Zynga’s tinkering for any missing items like likely won’t occur.

Either way, if you still can’t get into FarmVille (or another Zynga game on Facebook), just be patient, as Zynga is working as quickly as they can to restore service to all players. Once that’s done, you’ll be back to harvesting your crops in no time!（source:games）