1）日本社交游戏公司DeNA Mobage项目经理Sun Kang在最近的GDC China上表示，文化差异和盗版问题仍是DeNA上海工作室面临的一大挑战。

从玩家基础上看，他认为日本用户比中国用户更有耐心，例如《Kaito Royale》这款游戏在日本很受欢迎，但玩家得有足够的耐心才会发现游戏的有趣之处。

kaito-royal-mobage(from serkantoto)

但这款游戏移植到中国市场后却鲜有玩家捧场，他个人认为中国用户更看重游戏的画面特效，而《Kaito Royale》却更侧重故事元素，玩家得花一定时间看完其中内容方能领会其乐趣所在。

据他所言，中国用户更希望通过画面和玩法获得即时满足感，所以《愤怒的小鸟》和《切水果》在中国市场人气极旺。

除此之外，虽然DeNA旗下另一款游戏《Tap Slash Ninja》（在西方市场名为《Ninja Royale》）虽然每天都会新增成千上万的iOS中国用户，但许多用户为了获取免费道具，都会试图通过越狱手机破解游戏软件。

Sun Kang称DeNA在处理支付流程时，会先从自己的服务器审核从苹果发送来的收据，越狱iPhone用户可以使用破解软件，但这个方法在DeNA的系统上行不通，他们有办法对付这种问题。

中国市场的另一个更严重的问题是黑卡，即用户使用非法信用卡购买道具，然后DeNA就不得不处理退款问题。他表示希望苹果能够提供一些有效方法，帮助他们找到哪些用户盗用了他人信用卡。

2）日本社交平台GREE近日宣布将于2012年1月在迪拜成立一家新工作室，扩展GREE在中东地区的业务。

GREE之前在北京、加州、首尔、新加坡、伦敦、阿姆斯特丹和圣保罗已分别成立工作室。

3）据彭博社报道，动视暴雪首席执行官Bobby Kotick在最近的媒体采访中暗示，公司下一个产品有可能是社交游戏，他称Zynga或Facebook的最大意义在于将原来的非游戏用户引进了游戏世界。

他表示动视暴雪从来不是首个吃螃蟹的人（即首先进入某个新兴领域），但却总是做得最好的公司。

观察者称，这是动视暴雪首次积极肯定了社交游戏，其首席技术官Thomas Tippl则在不久前透露公司正“有条不紊地向投资移动和社交游戏项目”。

4）日本发行商Capcom近日宣布面向社交平台GREE的功能性和智能手机版本发布热门游戏《Monster Hunter》（其原版游戏销量已超过1900万份）。

gree-monster-hunter(from serkantoto)

Capcom之前还曾向GREE平台发布其他高质量IP产品，例如《Biohazard Outbreak Survive》（游戏邦注：这是Capcom于6月份发布的《生化危机》功能性手机版本，10月份用户已达100万）。

观察者称，这项合作对Capcom和GREE来说是一个双赢，因为《Monster Hunter》在日本极受欢迎，而且这款游戏的奇幻RPG、多人模式风格比《生化危机》更适合投放到手机社交游戏平台。

5）迪士尼最近公布的财年报告指出，公司总营收和利润都在增长，但电子游戏部门迪士尼互动传媒亏损明显。

该公司表示收购Playdom是其持续亏损的主要原因，不过视频游戏销售额抵消了部分影响。

Disney Interactive Studios(from consolebuzz)

截止2011年10月1日，迪士尼互动传媒在这一财年的营收为9.82亿美元，比去年的7.61亿美元增长29%，但亏损达3.08亿美元，而上一财年的亏损则是2.34亿美元。

从总体上看，迪士尼公司这一财年总营收为409亿美元，比上一年的381亿美元增长7%，利润达48亿美元，比去年的40亿美元增长21%。

6）Facebook最近展开新一轮“开发者优先咨询”服务（Preferred Developer Consultant Program），鼓励社交应用和游戏开发者注册成为Facebook开发项目的推荐合作者。

之前已有近90家开发商加入该项目，成为Facebook优先考虑的平台合作伙伴。能够服从平台政策，运用Facebook API开发大型社交应用的开发商可申请加入该项目，其产品还应该绑定Facebook Pages、Open Graph、Insights、广告和移动内容等功能。

有意者可在12月6日太平洋标准时间的下午5点前向Facebook网站提交申请。

7）在本周MAU增长最快的Facebook游戏榜单（MAU低于100万）上，《The Pokerist Club–Texas poker》（当前MAU为87万）、西班牙语版游戏《Galaxia Online II》（当前MAU为36万） 、《Wasteland Empires》（当前MAU为52万）居于前三名。

Top Gainers This Week-Games(from AppData)

该榜单新面孔包括新晋社交游戏开发商Row Sham Bow作品《Woodland Heroes》（当前MAU为11万），以及MindJolt游戏《Bubble Atlantis》（93万）和Large Animal Games益智游戏《Picturiffic》（由iWin发行，当前MAU为17万）。（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）GDC China: DeNA’s Sun Kang Discusses The ‘Big China Problem’ For Freemium Games

by Brandon Sheffield

Japanese social game giant DeNA has made good headway in the Chinese market, as freemium games become the dominant business model for iPhone and Android games.

But DeNA Mobage division project manager Sun Kang told Gamasutra at GDC China that cultural and piracy-related differences are still a big concern for the Shanghai-based DeNA office.

In terms of the player base, “The Japanese users are maybe more patient than Chinese users,” Kang says. “For example, we have a game called Kaito Royale in Japan, and you have to be very patient to see how interesting that game is.”

The game did well in its local market, but after they ported it to China, “unfortunately was not so popular,” Kang admitted. “From my point of view, I think that’s because visual effects are more [important] for Chinese users. But Kaito Royale is more like a story, and it takes a long time to read through it to get interested.”

According to Kang, Chinese users like more instant gratification in terms of both visuals and gameplay, tending toward games like Angry Birds and Fruit Ninja.

In fact, DeNA has a game called Tap Slash Ninja (Ninja Royale in the Western markets) which Kang says has gained tens of thousands of new users every day on iOS after launching in China.

But more than the cultural difference, people trying to crack the games for free items is “the major China problem,” he says. Users may jailbreak their phones, and try to crack the game to get free items.

“Our charge model is that if you want to buy some items, we verify the receipt from Apple on our own servers,” he says. “On a jailbroken iPhone, users can use a cracker, but that doesn’t work on our system, so we can prevent that sort of thing.”

But there’s another, even bigger problem, especially with freemium games; illegal credit cards. Users buy items with illegal cards, and then DeNA has to deal with chargebacks. “We’re seeing if maybe Apple can provide some method for us to find out what users are using someone else’s credit card illegally,” Kang posed.

In spite of the setbacks though, China is a big market for social games, and smartphones have had a dramatic uptick in the region. In spite of cultural differences, Kang says that in DeNA’s games people pretty much want to buy the same sorts of items in China as they do in the Western or Japanese markets.

Still, the local team in Shanghai customizes each game it brings over, which is key to legitimizing these games on the user side. Piracy may not be a totally solvable problem, but DeNA’s Chinese office seems to be getting along just fine even so. （source:gamasutra）

2）GREE Opens Office In Dubai, Now Only Antarctica Left [Social Games]

by Dr. Serkan Toto

I have the feeling GREE plans to cover the entire world with offices: the company just announced it will open an office in Dubai. The presence in the Arab Emirates will stand in line with GREE offices in Beijing, California, Seoul, Singapore, London, Amsterdam and Sao Paolo.

I don’t get it, but the Dubai office will be opened in January 2012. GREE says that “the subsidiary in Dubai will further GREE’s expansion and support into the Middle East and surrounding regions”.（source:serkantoto）

3）Does the Call of Duty maker hope to rock the world of social games?

by Joe Osborne

Activision Blizzard, the publisher of hit shooter series Call of Duty, appears to have a love-hate relationship with Facebook gaming. But that scale appears to slowly be tipping in the lovey-dovey direction. During a recent interview with Bloomberg, Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick hinted that the company’s next move could be a social one, and in a big, big way.

“The exciting thing about Zynga or Facebook as a platform, is they’re bringing new audiences to gaming that have never been gamers before,” Kotick told Bloomberg. “When you think about that target of a 50 or 55-year-old woman that has never really experienced a game, or someone who’s coming in for the first time to play a game with their friends on Facebook, that is a fantastic new platform.”

These comments are far more enthusiastic about social gaming than Activision has ever been. While strides have been made to capitalize on the benefits of social gaming with the Call of Duty Elite service, other execs within the company appear even threatened by the prospects of Facebook games. But recently, CFO Thomas Tippl revealed that the shooter king is “methodically investing in mobile and social gaming projects.”

“Now, we’re never gonna be first guys into those markets, but we usually are the best,” Kotick said, closing the interview with Bloomberg on a high note. We’ll just have to see how Zynga and EA respond to that. In the video interview below, skip to about 4:30 to hear Kotick’s thoughts on Facebook games.（source:games）

4）GREE And Capcom Announce Monster Hunter Social Game [Social Games]

by Dr. Serkan Toto

Big win for GREE today: Capcom and GREE jointly announced a social game from the super-popular fantasy game series Monster Hunter, which has sold over 19 million units so far.

“Monhan Tankenki Maboroshi no Shima” will be released by the end of this year, simultaneously for GREE on feature phones and smartphones.

Capcom already used valuable IP for a social game on GREE, namely for Biohazard Outbreak Survive (Resident Evil), which was released back in June (feature phones only) and hit 1 million users in October.

GREE explains:

Monhan Tankenki Maboroshi no Shima is a social game based on the characters that appear in “Monster Hunter Frontier Online”. Players explore the island in order to acquire and raise monsters. During the exploration, players will confront many types of monsters. The game incorporates many elements that are unique to the social game format. For example, players can exchange items and cooperate with other players in order to go up against enormous monsters.

The reason why Capcom and GREE have a potential winner here is that a) the Monster Hunter series is extremely popular in Japan and b) that the genre and game content (fantasy RPG, multi-player) is more suitable for being turned into a social game than Resident Evil, for example.（source:serkantoto）

5）Playdom Acquisition Adds To Disney Interactive Full Year Losses

by Mike Rose

As part of the Walt Disney Company’s full fiscal year earnings, the company noted that overall revenue and profits were up, but that its Interactive Media division, which houses its video games sector, saw notable losses.

The company said that the impact was due to the acquisition of Playdom, which happened late in the fourth fiscal quarter.

This impact was offset by an increase in console game sales, it said. The company called out Lego Pirates of the Caribbean, Epic Mickey and Cars 2, stating that these releases had driven sales in the current fiscal year.

It also noted that lower product development costs had helped improve console game sales.

For the fiscal year ended October 1, 2011, Disney’s Interactive Media division posted revenue of $982 million, up 29 percent compared to $761 million year-over-year.

However, it posted losses of $308 million for the fiscal year, compared to losses of $234 million in the previous fiscal year.

Overall, the Walt Disney Company recorded revenues of $40.9 billion, up 7 percent compared to the previous fiscal year’s $38.1 billion, and profits of $4.8 billion, up 21 percent from $4.0 billion year-over-year. （source:gamasutra）

6）Facebook Seeking Applicants For Preferred Developer Program

by Kyle Orland

Facebook has opened a new round of applications for its Preferred Developer Consultant Program, letting social app and game developers sign up to become recommended contractors for Facebook development.

Those chosen for the program will join an exclusive group of roughly 90 developers that Facebook suggests as good partners for companies looking to bring an application to the social network.

Facebook is looking for developers with professional experience building policy-compliant, large-scale social apps that use Facebook’s APIs, platform and plug-ins. Developers will be expected to integrate Facebook Pages, Open Graph, Insights, Ads, and mobile into their products.

Preferred developers receive increased access to Facebook employees and training, and will be expected to engage in high-level cooperation with the network.

Web-game specialists Mediatonic became one of the few exclusively game-focused developers to join the selective program back in May.

Interested parties can apply using this web form until 5pm PST on December 6. （source:gamasutra）   http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/38537/Facebook_Seeking_Applicants_For_Preferred_Developer_Program.php

7）The Pokerist Club, Galaxia Online II Top This Week’s List of Emerging Facebook Games

AJ Glasser

Texas Hold ‘Em poker game,The Pokerist Club, tops our list of emerging Facebook games this week with a Spanish-language version of Galaxia Online II and Wasteland Empires just behind.

Toward the bottom of the list is where we see more of our newcomers, such as Woodland Heroes from new social game developer Row Sham Bow, MindJolt’s Bubble Atlantis, and puzzle game Picturiffic from developer Large Animal Games with publishing help from iWin. We’ll be keeping an eye on these titles in the coming month, seeing if the holiday season has any impact on the growth of newly-launched games.（source:insidesocialgames）