1）Bioware执行制作人Casey Hudson在最近的媒体采访中透露，备受期待的《质量效应3》有可能登陆社交网络和iOS设备，但没有公布更多详情。

质量效应(from games)

观察者称，从Bioware不久前发布的社交游戏美工招聘启事等一系列迹象中可以看出，Bioware很有可能推出一款独立的《质量效应3》社交游戏，而不单纯是一款原版硬核产品的衍生游戏。

2）据《赫芬顿邮报》报道，著名PC游戏《创世纪》系列开发者、社交游戏工作室Portalarium联合创始人Richard Garriott经常通过一个远程机器人管理位于德克萨斯州奥斯汀的工作室。

Garriott's robot(from games)

从今年7月份开始，Garriott经常在纽约家中通过一个安装了摄像头号和麦克风的远程移动机器人与Portalarium的25名成员见面或者沟通，他只需要有宽带网络、笔记本电脑、麦克风和两个摄像头就能执行这项操作。

据Garriott所称，他并不仅仅是为了工作才花1.5万美元买下这个Anybot QB机器人，他最初是为了让年迈的老母也能参与他和妻子今年初在巴黎的婚礼，才买下这个机器人，然后让母亲在家中操控出现在婚礼上的机器人，从中获得身临其境的参与感。

3）日本DeNA公司的全球社交游戏业务执行制作人Kenji Kobayashi在最近的媒体采访中表示，许多人认为日本付费用户很疯狂，但实际上DeNA极高的ARPU并非得来全不费功夫，他们也需要经过深入调查，分析何时才能让用户满意，最大化游戏营收。

DeNA_logo(from hippestphone.com)

该公司ARPU值高达12美元，远超过一般社交游戏公司，他认为Zynga在盈利分析这方面的工作并不到位，Zynga一般只通过补充能量、扩张地盘、解琐道具或装饰性内容等途径盈利，但这些内容似乎并无多大意义。他认为Zynga与DeNA的最大区别在于用户的消费次数不一样。

他称自己曾看到一些文章指出，所有的Facebook应用的每月ARPU一般是20美元，但付费用户比例仅有3%左右，他认为多数用户看不到购买虚拟商品的意义所在，所以他们不愿意花钱。DeNA的游戏出售的并非道具，而是乐趣。《Kaito Royale》和《Ninja Royale》是关于搜集宝物的游戏，但如果玩家可以付费购买到这些宝物，那就会打破游戏的平衡性，破坏游戏的核心体验。

DeNA出售的是更容易搜集到宝物的机会，例如在玩纸牌游戏过程中，你仅有一次机会可以得到同花大顺，但如果支付100日元（即1.31美元）就可以得到三次这样的机会，这对玩家来说会更有趣味性。

4）分析公司Cowen and Company最新报告显示，Zynga新游戏的用户增长已经进入瓶颈状态，在未来数月恐怕难以实现突破，旧款游戏的用户数量仍在持续下滑。

Zynga-logo(from logok.org)

在过去5周中，该公司的DAU流失了70万，目前总共4690万，而在去年2月份，其DAU高达7000万。

报告指出，Zynga自2009年10月份以来，“DAU并无实质性的增长”，但由于增加了盈利策略，该公司自2009年以来的营收一直不断增长。

EA在过去5周中的DAU流失了350万，目前总共1460万，该公司在本周称《模拟人生社交版》的DAU达800万；迪士尼旗下的Playdom游戏DAU在同一时期流失了50万左右，目前共430万，在4月份发布的《Gardens of Time》用户已无增长倾向。

5）社交游戏公司6waves Lolapps日前宣布收购北京工作室Smartron5，扩大公司在亚洲市场影响力。

Smartron5已成为6waves Lolapps旗下第五家工作室（游戏邦注：6waves Lolapps在亚洲已有三家工作室，在伦敦和旧金山分别设有工作室），其30人团队将负责开发和发布锁定中国市场的游戏，帮助公司第三方发行合作伙伴进入亚洲市场。

Top Gainers This Week-Games(from AppData)

6）在本周新晋游戏（MAU不超过100万）榜单上，《梦幻商城》、《Spa Life》和《Slots Farm》位居前三甲，出现在榜单上的其他游戏包括解谜题材的《Triple Town》，以及一款并非授权移植游戏《Super Mario》。观察者指出，在10月31日万圣节将来临之际，该榜单除了排在第13名的《Vampire Wars》之外，居然没有其他恐怖题材的游戏，这种现象颇令人意外。（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）Mass Effect social game on Facebook, Google+, iOS confirmed?

by Joe Osborne

Whoops–didn’t mean to let that cat out of the bag, huh Bioware? (Actually, you probably so planned that.) During an interview with CVG, Executive Producer Casey Hudson on Bioware’s much-anticipated Mass Effect 3 revealed that a version of the game is likely coming to social networks and iOS devices. Granted, we’ve expected as much for awhile, but nothing’s ever been said.

“For the first time, wherever you go – online, mobile, on social networks – you’ll be able to follow your progress,” Hudson told CVG. “You’ll never have to leave the Mass Effect experience.” The website went on to note that it caught “glimpses of an all-new social game for Facebook and Google+, as well as a bespoke iPad and iPhone adventure.”

So, there you have it, straight from the turian’s segmented mouth. We had suspicions of a Mass Effect social game since EA2D, the studio that created the briefly successful Dragon Age Legends, became Bioware San Francisco. And let’s not forget the recent Bioware job posting that called for “a well-rounded Artist to work on an exciting, new, social game for gamers.”

With such an ambitious launch on so many platforms at once, we’d have to imagine that this social game will prove to be more than a companion game. That’s especially considering the fact the core Mass Effect 3 will have a persistent multiplayer mode. Unfortunately, we all know what the average shooter fan thinks of social games … or do we?（source:games）

2）Ultima creator Richard Garriott runs social game studio with … a robot?

by Joe Osborne

At this point, with a guy who flew into space and once ran the craziest haunted house in the nation within his house, I guess you should expect these things. The Huffington Post reports that Richard Garriott, creator of the famed Ultima PC game series and co-founder of social game studio Portalarium, manages his Austin, Texas-based studio remotely … with a robot. Seriously.

Since July of this year, Garriott has conversed with Portalarium’s 25 employees in meetings and casually (the robot is a mobile, remote-controlled machine equipped with cameras and microphones) from his New York home. According to The Huffington Post, all he needs is a broadband connection, his laptop, a microphone and two cameras to make it work.

“When I’m up north, I log in in the morning and can meander over to anyone’s desk and really be a part of the casual conversations that are so essential to our work,” Garriott told The Huffington Post. “Sometimes I feel like a spy, but fundamentally it feels like I am really there.” But the game industry veteran didn’t buy the $15,000 Anybot QB solely for this job.

When Garriott married his wife earlier this year in the spring, he purchased the robot to ensure that his mother could participate in the ceremony and reception, which took place in Paris. The game designer strapped a cardboard cut-out of his elderly mother to the robot, gave her the controls from her Las Vegas home and it was as if she was there. Hey, at least we now know how dedicated Garriott is to Portalarium’s upcoming crown jewel, Lord British’s New Britannia (and his mum).（source:games）

3） DeNA Director: ‘I Think That Zynga Has Not Really Researched Monetization’

by Christian Nutt

Kenji Kobayashi, DeNA’s director, and the global executive producer for its social games business, is convinced that the high average revenue per user which the company sees isn’t a fluke.

“I think that people who don’t know much about the Japanese market just dismiss those users as crazy, but that’s not the case. You really need to research thoroughly at what time monetization becomes the most fun for your users,” he told Gamasutra in a recent interview conducted at the company’s Tokyo headquarters.

DeNA is the owner of U.S.-based Ngmoco, which recently launched the company’s successful Mobage social games platform in the West.

A $12 ARPU is a lot higher than other social games companies manage, and, according to Kobayashi, “It’s a very different scene, and I think that Zynga has not really researched monetization.”

“With Zynga, monetization often comes in the form of energy refills, or area expansions, or item unlocks, or decorative stuff. If you ask whether there’s any reason to buy all of that, there really isn’t. So I think the biggest difference between us and Zynga is in the number of payments made by users.”

The two markets aren’t as different as developers might think, Kobayashi told Gamasutra. “I read in article that the ARPU across all Facebook apps is something like $20 a month, which is up there with the best of Japan’s game scene. However, the ratio of paying users is only three percent-ish, I think. That’s one of the big differences, and I think that’s most people don’t see enough reason to start purchasing things; that or the purchases just aren’t that exciting. They don’t expand on the fun.”

His company sells chances — not items — for fun. “We’re certainly different from Zynga in that respect. Both Kaito Royale and Ninja Royale are games where you’re gathering treasure, but if users could get this treasure via paid items, then the game balance would fall apart. There wouldn’t be any meaning to it; you’d be ruining the core of the game,” Kobayashi said.

“What we sell instead is the opportunity to make treasure gathering easier. For example, have you played mahjong? This may work with poker, too. If you’re one card away from a royal flush, you only get one chance to draw that card. Well, what if you paid 100 yen [$1.31] and get three chances instead? (laughs) Which do you think is more interesting to the user: very difficult odds, or a chance at easier odds?”（source:gamasutra）

4） Analyst: Zynga Experiencing ‘Difficult Time Driving User Growth’

by Mike Rose

A new analyst report has found that user growth for recent games from social games giant Zynga has been lacking, with certain recent releases already showing signs of peaking in player numbers.

Doug Creutz and Jason Mueller at analyst group Cowen and Company noted that, while Zynga is by far the largest social games company on Facebook, it is having a “difficult time driving user growth” in recent months.

The company has experienced its number of daily active users decline by 700,000 people to 46.9 million overall in the last five weeks. This compares to the 70 million DAUs the company had in February 2010.

Several of the company’s recently-launched core titles are already seeing numbers peak, while older titles continue to experience declines.

Titles such as CityVille, Empires & Allies and Cafe World saw declines in user numbers, while more recent releases such as Pioneer Trail and Adventure World are already 50 percent of the way to their projected DAU highs.

The report also noted that Zynga has had “essentially no growth in DAUs” since October 2009, which saw similar numbers to those which the company is currently experiencing.

However, the company has been able to grow revenue since 2009 by increasing its monetization strategies, said the report.

In comparison to other social game developers on Facebook, Electronic Arts’ DAUs have declined by 3.5 million in the last five weeks to 14.6 million in total. EA reported this week its Sims Social Facebook game has 8 million DAUs.

Meanwhile, DAUs for Disney’s Playdom have dropped by half a million in the last five weeks to 4.3 million total. The company’s Gardens of Time, released in April, has now “definitely peaked”, said Cowen and Company. （source:gamasutra）

5）6waves Lolapps Acquires Beijing Developer Smartron5

by Tom Curtis

Social developer and publisher 6waves Lolapps announced today that it has acquired Beijing-based studio Smartron5, which will help bolster the company’s presence in Asian territories.

This new acquisition marks the fifth global office for 6waves Lolapps, which now has three branches in Asia, as well as offices in London and San Francisco.

As part of 6waves Lolapps, the 30-man team at Smartron5 will develop and release games targeted at the Chinese market, and will assist the company’s third-party publishing partners break into Asian territories.

“The Asian market is complex and the Smartron5 team brings western-production values with a deep understanding of how to be successful in China,” said 6waves Lolapps CEO Rex Ng.

“This addition to our team is key to our globalization strategy and will benefit our own game development efforts as well as those of our publishing partners.”

Since 6waves and Lolapps merged earlier this year, the company has secured an additional $35 million in funding, and has expressed interest in expanding its business into the mobile market. Just this month, the company launched its newest Facebook title, Ravensky City. （source:gamasutra）

6）Role-Playing, Slots and Puzzle Games Lead This Week’s List of Emerging Facebook Games

AJ Glasser

夢幻商城 (Infinitesimal Castle), Spa Life and Slots Farm claim the top three slots on our emerging Facebook games list this week.

There isn’t much rhyme or reason to the mix of genres that make up the rest of the rankings. We see everything from puzzle game Triple Town and games based on licensed brands to hardcore strategy titles and the odd unlicensed port like Super Mario. It being the week before the October 31 Halloween event, we’re surprised to see a lack of horror-themed games on this list — the lone exception being Vampire Wars at No.13.（source:insidesocialgames）