1）移动广告网站InMobi日前发布的欧洲报告显示，iPhone 4仍是该平台欧洲市场第一手机设备，在当地所占份额为7.2%，其次是三星GT-i9000，所占份额为4.9%，第三是HTC Desire S，占3.1%的份额。

Android平台占InMobi欧洲广告市场的33%份额，iOS所占比例为14.9%，Android在今年第三季度首次成为该市场冠军。

报告还指出，由于iOS 5和iPhone 4S出击市场，Android将面临更激烈的竞争。

2）据pocketgamer报道，DNA Interactive将把BBC热门电视连续剧《Merlin》改制成手机游戏《Merlin,the Game》，让玩家在这款指向点击游戏中扮演少年巫师的角色。

关于这款游戏的具体情况尚未公布，目前只能得知它将在2012年第一季度登陆Android和iOS平台。

3）EA近日宣布旗下的Origin数字游戏平台发布4个多月以来，目前每日用户已超过500万。

EA首席营销官Peter Moore表示，他们发布该平台之后，持续更新并优化平台内容，根据用户反馈调整服务，所以收获了数量可观的用户。该公司首席技术官Eric Brown则表示，Origin“很快”将发布第三方内容（游戏邦注：该平台之前仅供应EA游戏）。

4）加拿大手机游戏发行商Magmic在黑莓App World已投放70多款游戏，据其所称，免费模式在黑莓平台也同样颇受欢迎。

以免费游戏《纽约时报纵横字谜》为例，该应用通过基于1个月、6个月和12个月的订阅模式创收。尽管App World的官方订阅模式仅限基于7天或30天的时间，但Magmic却成功地使用自己的IAP功能推出付费服务。

该游戏目前在黑莓、iOS和Android下载量已超过100万次，用户每日访问达12万次，平均订阅时长达184天。

Magmic的另一款付费游戏《Ka-Glom》现已推出广告赞助的免费版本，目前下载量超过500万次，所创收益比纯付费版本时还高数倍。

该公司的头号免费游戏是仅限黑莓平台的《Texas Hold ‘Em King》（下载量超过100万次），其99美分和4.99美元的IAP付费选项创造了游戏78%的收益。平均每笔IAP交易是14美元，还有2%付费用户消费399.99美元，甚至有些玩家在游戏中挥霍了5000美元以上。

5）SliverTree Media（《Sleepy Jack》、《Cordy》开发商）首席执行官Nate Smith在日前的媒体采访中表示，Android Market中的游戏克隆和山寨现象并不全是坏事，他认为这种现象有助于推广和传播原创作品，提高游戏的曝光度。

但该公司创意总监Ben Smith也表示，公司并没有因此而放任他人剽窃自己的游戏，他们还是会全力开发好游戏，尽量增加他人仿制游戏内容的难度，让山寨产品永远也无法达到原创内容的美术效果和玩法质量。

6）Millennial Media最近更新了旗下移动广告平台，推出新版SDK以服务iOS和Android平台的客户。

其移动广告平台推出的“客户广告”功能将支持使用Millennial技术的开发者，向自己的客户提供应用内置广告展位，从而让开发者更顺利地实现广告盈利。除此之外，新工具还支持开发者在应用中植入品牌广告，向第三方广告网站分配广告印象，在自己的广告目录中推广应用。

7）据insidemobileapps报道，《蝙蝠侠》动画片创意总监Jeff Matsuda最近与Mike Su（前在线传媒公司Break Media副总裁）联合成立了手机游戏工作室Massive Joe。

据Su所称，他们认为手机游戏将与漫画书一样，成为电影行业的原创内容来源，他们俩人都具有多年的好莱坞工作经验，有足够实力尝试这种操作。

该公司将推出一款拥有华丽美术风格的经典石子剪子布游戏《Age of Monster:Rock,Paper，Scissor Edition》，将通过出售额外角色或支持玩家查看竞争对手“历史记录”（游戏邦注：例如，让玩家知道对方选择剪子的概率是60%）等功能盈利。

该公司目前正筹备种子轮融资，目前仅有两名联合创始人是全职员工，计划每季度至少推出一款新游戏，在刚起步时会保持小团队规模。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

1）Google dominates the world with Android OS

by Zen Terrelonge

But leaves room for Apple’s iPhone 4 to lead European device sales.

Advertising network InMobi has compiled the Mobile Insights Report: European Edition, which examines the mobile market for Q3 2011.

The firm claims the iPhone 4 remains the top device in Europe with a 7.2 per cent share, followed by the Samsung GT-i9000 on 4.9 per cent and the HTC Desire S  on 3.1 per cent.

Android accounts for 33 per cent of all ads in Europe, more than doubling Apple’s iOS on 14.9 per cent, according to the report. Google’s OS has seen growth over the past nine months pushing it to become number one in Q3 for the first time.

James Lamberti, VP global research & marketing, InMobi, said: “Consumers have truly embraced mobile and we’ve seen a tremendous spike in mobile usage over the last quarter.

“The significant growth trend that we have measured quarter-on-quarter hasn’t slowed down, highlighting the need to implement effective mobile advertising campaigns, especially in the run up to Christmas.”

The report also says that Android will face increased competition with the introduction of iOS5 and the iPhone 4S, although it will be difficult task to catch the firm up.（source:mobile-ent）

2）DNA Interactive announces iOS and Android spin-off game of popular BBC series Merlin

by James Nouch

This year, we’ve already seen both Doctor Who and Torchwood shrunk down for the iPhone screen, and it would now seem that another popular BBC series is about to make the leap to smartphone.

In DNA Interactive’s forthcoming iOS and Android Merlin spin-off – Merlin, the Game – players take control of the titular young wizard in a point-and-click adventure game.

Story details are sparse right now – all we know is that you’ll be “on a quest to help Arthur and Guinevere”. We assume they’ll want help with something epic and life threatening, though, rather than just a spot of DIY.

Promising a mixture of puzzling and conversation, Merlin, the Game will contain an episodic structure, though whether that means new content appearing on a scheduled basis, or simply a bunch of in-app purchases available from the off is not yet clear.

Merlin, the Game will launch on Android and iOS devices in the first quarter of 2012. （source:pocketgamer）

3）EA: Over 5M Gamers Use Origin Daily

by Mike Rose

Electronic Arts has revealed that its Origin digital game distribution service currently sees over five million users on a daily basis.

Speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald, EA COO and industry veteran Peter Moore explained that, despite launching only four months ago, the service has seen respectable user numbers.

“Like any piece of software, and I worked at Microsoft for enough years to say this, you launch software and continue to polish it, upgrade it, get feedback and make it better,” he explained.

“That’s where we are with Origin. We’re only four and a half months in and already over five million people are using it on a daily basis.”

The company said last month that Origin had seen a total of four million installs of the client.

EA CFO Eric Brown also revealed that third-party content will be available via Origin “very soon.” The service currently only supplies EA-published games. （source:gamasutra）

4）BB DevCon 11: Magmic on the opportunities of freemium on BlackBerry; top players of Texas Hold ‘Em King spend over $5,000

by Jon Jordan

Freemium is the key business model for all mobile platforms, and that’s also the case on BlackBerry, although few companies are presently exploring the opportunity.

On company that is, however, is Canadian publisher Magmic, which is one of the largest games companies on the platform with over 70 games on the App World

In a talk entitled ‘Monetising freemium products to work for you’, Ryan Henry and Ian MacDonald discussed some of Magmic’s findings in the area.

5. Up

One example is its New York Times Crossword app.

This is a free download, which includes some puzzles, but monetises on a subscription model based on 1, 6 and 12 month access to the daily puzzle of the New York Times, plus 5,000 back catalog puzzles.

Significantly, while officially App World subscriptions are only 7 or 30 day, Magmic has constructed its own durations using in-app purchases, rather than plugging in the official subscription API.

Downloaded over one million times on BlackBerry, iOS and Android, the game has around 120,000 daily sessions, with the average subscription duration being 184 days.

Magmic has also experimented with ad-funded models. Its puzzler Ka-Glom was switched from paid to ad-supported, with the option to pay to remove the ads.

The result has been over five million downloads, with the company making multiple times the amount of money compared to when it was a straight paid game.

Aces high

The company’s top performing freemium game, however, is the BlackBerry-only Texas Hold ‘Em King, which has been downloaded over one million times.

Users get free chips daily, but there’s also the option for users to spend their own cash.

As seen on other platforms, the biggest item sales by volume are the lowest priced options; with the 99c and $4.99 IAP option making up 78 percent of sales.

But, overall, the average sale is $14, with 2 percent of purchasers spending the maximum $399.99.

Indeed, some individuals have spent over $5,000 in the game. （source:pocketgamer）

5）Clones on the Android Market are ‘a nice problem to have’, Sleepy Jack developer says

by Brendan Caldwell

According to the developer of Sleepy Jack and Cordy, clones and copycat games on the Android Market aren’t a major issue.

“In general, our view of people seeing something of ours and copying it a bit – it’s a nice problem to have, I guess,” SilverTree Media CEO Nate Smith states in an interview with Pocket Gamer.

“Like, if you’re trying to expand the market for SilverTree-type product, it’s good. I’d like to have as many eyeballs on us as possible.”

Preventive medicine

But, Ben Smith, the creative director of the studio, says that this doesn’t stop SilverTree Media from doing everything possible to prevent it from happening.

“We find that we spend a lot of time making sure that every part of the game feels great, and that’s the hardest part to duplicate.

“So, there can be clones out there, but usually they don’t reach either the artistic quality level or gameplay quality level.”（source:pocketgamer）

6）Millennial Media updates iOS and Android SDKs, lets devs sell campaigns to their own advertisers

by Matt Sakuraoka-Gilman

An ad platform by trade, Millennial Media has made a name for itself using the data it accumulates to serve up a valuable monthly snapshot of the US smartphone market.

Upgrading the platform itself, however, is now the company’s priority, with Millennial announcing a number of enhancements to its developer website and updates to its SDKs for iOS and Android to better cater for its clients.

For one, a new ‘client ads’ feature has been brought on board, which will allow developer to sell campaigns to their own advertisers while using Millennial’s technology to run those ad campaigns in their applications.

It’s a similar approach to that adopted by Chartboost, which essentially lets developers organise their own cross-promotion deals with other studios through the SDK.

It ads up

“With new capabilities and solutions only available in this version of our SDKs, this is a great opportunity for developers to make even more money through advertising,” said senior VP of global monetising solutions Matt Gillis.

“I strongly encourage developers to integrate now to prepare for holiday demand and improve user experience.”

Metrics available on mmDev have also been improved, while developers can now place ads from leading brands in their apps, allocate impressions to other third party ad network partners and create ad campaigns to promote their apps on their own inventory.（source:pocketgamer）

7）‘Batman’ Animator Launches New Gaming Studio With an Over-The-Top Rock, Paper, Scissors Game

Kim-Mai Cutler

Angry Birds is starting to prove that mobile games might be able to launch the next great entertainment franchise.

So it’s no surprise to see that Hollywood talent is starting to pay attention.

Jeff Matsuda, who was the creative director for ‘The Batman’ cartoon, has co-founded a new gaming studio called Massive Joe with Mike Su, who used to be a vice president of gaming at male-focused online media company Break Media.

“Mobile games could be a source of intellectual property for the movie industry in the way that comic books have been,” Su said. “We have a lot more leverage to experiment here. Jeff has been in the Hollywood system for most of his career and the development cycles take millions of dollars.”

The company is launching is a really extreme version of the classic childhood game rock, paper, scissors. This version, called Age of Monsters – Rock, Paper, Scissors Edition, comes with extravagant artwork and intricately designed monsters that players can pick from.

Since synchronous games have historically not performed as well in the casual space because you need to match players in real-time, Massive Joe turned Rock, Paper, Scissors into an asynchronous game. Each player gives their three moves ahead of time. Then when they’re matched with a player, the game rolls as if they’re competing simultaneously.

There’s also a social element to the game, where a player can talk smack about their rival.

The company views this app as the first in a series that will introduce and develop a fictional world.

“We just wanted to get a very simple game out with a universally understood mechanic,” Su said. “We asked Jeff — ‘What would be the most amazing waste of your talent? Let’s do a rock, paper, scissors game!’”

He added, “We wanted to go way overboard. Like what would Michael Bay do if he was making a rock, paper, scissors game?”

The game will eventually monetize through the sale of additional characters or through giving players the ability to see a rivals’ historical stats — like the fact that they might choose scissors 60 percent of the time.

Massive Joe launched the title with an OpenFeint promotion today and is looking into other paid marketing channels to support the app.

Right now Massive Joe is in the process of raising a seed round and just has two full-time people — the co-founders. It’s planning on doing at least one game per quarter and keeping it small at first.（source:insidemobileapps）