1）日本手机社交网站GREE日前公布2011年财报（截止6月30日），该时期净销售额为642亿日元（约合7.94亿美元），比2010财年增长82%。

运营利润达311亿日元（约合3.85亿美元），同比去年增长59%；净收益为182亿日元（约合2.25亿美元），增幅达59%。

gree-sales-profit-fy2010-2011(from pocketgamer)

85%的销售额来自GREE在日本手机社交平台的付费服务及游戏业务（游戏邦注：该平台目前有348款付费游戏，123款免费游戏），其他销售额来自广告业务。

GREE加上其收购的OpenFeint目前共有1.236亿全球用户，其中GREE日本用户约2640万，其合作伙伴mig33目前有5000万用户。

该公司在2011财年第四季度的净销售额为210亿日元（约合2.61亿美元），同比上一财年第四季度增长93%；GREE指出第四季度是公司该财年发展最为强劲的时期。

GREE最近与中国腾讯的智能手机平台进行合作，并宣布与韩国最大运营商SK telecom旗下的T Store联手推广游戏。

该公司计划在2012财年收获3亿用户，其中日本用户将达3000万。预计2012财年销售额将达11亿美元，增幅为55%，净收益达3.5亿美元，增幅为55%。

2）据Develop报道，有知情者透露，EA Play执行副总裁Jeff Karp即将追随公司前首席运营官John Schappert的步伐，于日前离职并加入Zynga团队。

Jeff Karp(from mcvuk.com)

Karp在EA已经就职将近11年，曾在公司担任市场营销高级副总裁、首席税务官等职位。EA Play主要负责开发EA的休闲游戏系列，旗下工作室包括The Sims Studios、MySims、孩之宝、Maxis和Casual Studios等团队。

3）迪士尼互动传媒日前公布季度（截止7月2日）财报表明，其该时期营收为2.51亿美元，同比去年增长27%，运营亏损为8600万美元（亏损减少2100万美元），目前仍是迪士尼集团唯一出现运营亏损的部门，该公司称出现亏损与2010年高价收购Playdom的影响有关。

disney interactive(from austinpost.org)

该公司于上个月从旗下社交游戏工作室Three Melons裁减近30名开发者，之前还关闭了Black Rock Studios（《Pure》和《Split/Second》开发商）和Propaganda Games（《电子世界争霸战：进化》开发商）工作室。

迪士尼集团所有公司在该时期总利润为14.8亿美元，比去年同期的13.3亿美元略有增长；从总体上来看，其营收在该时期增长7%，共达107亿美元。

4）Facebook最近针对Facebook Credits系统添加了一项新API“玩家状态”（Gamer Status），支持开发商借此辨别哪些用户最具盈利性。Facebook已向这类用户自动提供20%的Credits折扣优惠，在Facebook白名单榜上有名的开发商也可以采用这个API向这类玩家提供特殊折扣。

facebook-credits(from socialtrakr.com)

开发商可以调用$ret = $facebook->api_client->users_getStandardInfo($user_id, array(‘gamer_status’)); 来判断用户的“玩家状态”，那些“玩家状态”>1的用户（其中包括鲸鱼玩家）消费水平高于普通用户。这项API会尊重用户隐私权，不会向第三方分享他们的实际消费纪录。

开发商可以针对这些用户提供虚拟商品折扣服务，由于这类用户在购买Facebook Credits已经得到20%的优惠，他们应该会更乐意再次获益，购买打折虚拟商品。开发商可由此测试这种折扣手段落是否有利于刺激这类用户多花钱，从而补足商品降价的差额。假如确实可行，那么“玩家状态”API也将成为一项有力的盈利工具。

这项API还可用于提升用户留存率，开发商可以将其与电子邮件信息搭配使用，吸引用户因折扣商品而再次回访游戏，然后逐渐恢复商品原价。

Facebook禁止开发商专门使用这项API提升商品价格，压榨高消费用户，另外还声明该API信息不可用于市场营销意图。

Top Gainers This Week-Games(from AppData)

5）在本周的DAU发展最快Facebook游戏榜单上，《The Smurfs & Co.》（育碧出品）、《Bubble Island》和《Empires & Allies》分别位居前三甲。

值得注意的是第12名Kabam太空实时策略游戏《Edgeworld》，该游戏尚处于测试阶段，但却已经过一系列更新。数周之前，另一家社交游戏开发商Kixeye宣称《Edgeworld》抄袭《Backyard Monster》游戏创意，而Kabam则回应称该游戏灵感源自他处，并不存在剽窃情况。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

1）With Q4 growth accelerating, GREE posts FY11 sales of $794 million, up 82%

by Jon Jordan

//NB: this article has been amended using June 30 currency exchange rates rather than 10 August as originally written.

Japanese social mobile company GREE (TYO:3632) has announced its FY11 financials for the 12 months ending June 30.

Net sales were ¥64.2 billion (around $794 million), up 82 percent compared up FY10.

Operating profit was ¥31.1 billion (around $385 million), up 59 percent year-on-year.

Net income was ¥18.2 billion (around $225 million), up 59 percent.

The majority of sales (85 percent) came from paid services and games on GREE’s mobile social platform in Japan. Open to thirdparty developers, there are now 348 paid games and 123 freemium games available. The remainder of sales were from adverts.

Firm foundations

During the year, GREE bought US mobile social gaming network OpenFeint and now claims a total global user base of 123.6 million. Of these 26.4 million are on GREE’s Japanese network, which funds the vast majority of its business.

It also announced it was standardising GREE with mig33, a mobile community in emerging countries such as South Africa and Indonesia, which has around 50 million users.

Breaking out its fourth quarter performance, net sales were ¥21 billion (around $261 million), up 93 percent compared to Q4 FY2010.

Net income was ¥5.7 billion (around $70 million), up 83 percent.

As the company pointed out, the fourth quarter saw the largest rate of growth and sales during FY2011.

Focus on China

In terms of future strategy, GREE is looking to its agreement with Chinese online company Tencent, which will see the Tencent Wireless Open Platform for Community integrated with the GREE platform for both feature phones and smartphones.

It’s also kicked off a business and development alliance with game outsourcing company UltiZen, and is in the process of opening a local Chinese office in Beijing.

In addition, GREE has a deal with Korea’s biggest operator SK telecom, which will see it gain a special section on its T Store.

High hopes

GREE plans to end FY2012 with 300 million users globally, of which 30 million will be in Japan. This feeds into ambitious growth targets. It predicts FY12 sales up as much as 55 percent to $1.1 billion and net income up as much as 55 percent to $350 million.

The company ended the year with cash and cash equivalents of ¥22.3 billion (around $275 million), down 4 percent compared to its total at the end of March 2011.

It generated ¥8.8 billion (around $109 million) from its operating activities during the fourth quarter.（source:pocketgamer）

2）Report: EA Play Exec Jeff Karp Moving To Zynga

by Mike Rose

Jeff Karp, EVP for Electronic Arts’ EA Play label, is leaving the company in a move to social games giant Zynga, just months after chief operating officer John Schappert also moved to the social giant, according to media reports.

Karp is set to leave his position at EA very soon, and will join the Farmville creator, an unnamed source told UK-based game news site Develop.

Karp is leaving his current role as EVP of EA’s Play label, which focuses on developing casual titles and includes studios such as The Sims Studio, MySims, Hasbro, Maxis and Casual Studios.

The executive has been with EA for nearly 11 years, and has taken on roles ranging from senior vice president of marketing to chief revenue officer at the company.

Gamasutra has contacted EA for confirmation.

The move comes just months after John Schappert, previously chief operating officer at Electronic Arts, left the company to take up an executive post at Zynga.（source:gamasutra）

3） Losses Narrow For Disney Interactive’s Fiscal Q3

by Tom Curtis

The Disney Interactive Media Group posted decreased losses year over year, as the company as a whole saw a profitable third fiscal quarter.

For the quarter ended July 2, 2011, revenue for the division increased 27 percent to $251 million year-over-year, and operating losses decreased by $21 million to $86 million — the Disney Interactive Media Group remains the only division within the company still operating at a loss.

The company noted that these losses are partially related to continued costs from the 2010 acquisition of Playdom, though these were somewhat offset by an improvement in its console game business thanks to sales of Lego Pirates of the Caribbean and Cars 2.

Across all of its divisions, Disney took in $1.48 billion in profit, up slightly from $1.33 billion during the same period last year. Overall, revenue grew 7 percent to $10.7 billion for the quarter.

Last month, Disney Interactive laid off approximately 30 developers from its social game studio Three Melons.

Previously, the company shut down Pure and Split/Second developer Black Rock Studios and Turok reboot and Tron: Evolution developer Propaganda Games.（source:gamasutra）

4）Facebook’s Gamer Status API Lets Developers Target High Monetizing Users with Discounts

By Josh Constine

Around the time of the deadline for mandatory migration to Facebook Credits, Facebook quietly added a new “Gamer Status” API that allows developers to identify which of their users monetize the best. Facebook automatically offers these users a 20% discount on Credits purchases, but developers who’ve been whitelisted can use the Gamer Status API to offer them special discounts.

Prior to the mandatory migration of all Facebook Games to Facebook Credits as their sole payment method, several incentives were offered to encourage developers to switch early and use Credits as their premium in-game currency. These incentives can be accessed by developers whitelisted though Facebook’s Credits Special Incentives program.

Those with access can call $ret = $facebook->api_client->users_getStandardInfo($user_id, array(‘gamer_status’)); to determine a user’s Gamer Status. Those tagged with a Gamer Status > 1 are users that monetize above average, including lucrative whales. The API respects user privacy by not sharing any details about their actual purchase history, just the fact that the make many purchases.

Developers may then target these high monetizing users with discounts on their virtual goods. Because these users also receive discounts on buying Facebook Credits, they’re more likely to have a balance to spend. Developers can test to see whether offering discounts to these users leads to enough sales to offset the reduced prices. If so, Gamer Status can be used to increase revenues.

Gamer Status could also be used to drive retention. If paired with reengagement messages such as emails, developers may be able to lure previous users to start playing their game again with a signficant discount. Once these gamers have begun investing time in a game again, developers can return prices for them to normal.

Facebook forbids developers from using the Gamer Status API to increase prices above their normal leve for high monetizing users. Facebook also says that “You may not use gamer_status for any purpose other than internal and administrative purposes related to the operation of your game. For example, you may not use this information for marketing purposes.”

It’s not clear exactly how high monetizing users will react to discounts, so developers should test how Gamer Status-based offers impact their revenues before fully implementing it. With some smart testing though, it could become a valuable tool for boosting sales volumes and keeping users that regularly pay hooked on their games.（source:insidesocialgames）

5）The Smurfs & Co Top This Week’s List of Fastest-Growing Games by DAU

By AJ Glasser

Ubisoft’s The Smurfs & Co. top this week’s list of fastest-growing games by daily active users with Bubble Island and Empires & Allies rounding out the top three.

Farther down the list is Premier League Fantasy Football, a soccer management game from Citizen Sports via Yahoo! With the start of England’s Premier League season just five days away, we’re not surprised to see this game gaining ground in DAU and in monthly active users. It could explain some of the surge EA Playfish’s FIFA Superstars is seeing, but FIFA may also be enjoying pre-release hype for EA Sports’ annual installment of the FIFA series on consoles due out in September.

At No.12 this week is Kabam’s Edgeworld, a space-themed real time strategy game. Though the game hasn’t “officially” launched, the beta has received a series of updates and contests in the last week that suggests Kabam is close to release. A couple of weeks ago, developer Kixeye claimed that Edgeworld was a clone of Kixeye’s title, Backyard Monsters. Kabam responded that it draws inspiration from everywhere for its games and that it was flattered at the attention. Stick around for a closer look at Edgeworld when the game is in a more “final” state.（source:insidesocialgames）