1）据Zynga最新修订的S-1文件显示，该公司今年已收购15家公司。

more-neighbors-means-more-exp-and-coins(from blog.games.com)

截止9月30日，Zynga斥资4060万美元收购13家社交及手机游戏公司，而10月1日以后又收购2家未知名公司（收购额为490万美元），今年在收购交易上总计已投入4550万美元，平均每笔交易为300万美元。

目前Zynga成员已超过2500人，其中多数来自收购项目。

2）新加坡在线游戏公司GigaMedia日前宣布与美国新兴休闲游戏公司City State Entertainment合作，共同针对手机、平板电脑、PC和社交网络开发社交游戏。

City State由前Mythic Entertainment公司（《亚瑟王宫的阴影》、《战锤Online》开发商）联合创始人及首席执行官Mark Jdn uuuu成立，位于弗吉尼亚州的费法克斯。

3）Tiny Speck创始人Stewart Butterfield在最近的媒体采访中表示，像Zynga开发的这类游戏寿命有限，人们迟早会厌倦这种游戏。

cityville energy bandits(from games)

他称玩家早晚会因社交游戏中的能量系统而厌烦，他们不愿意时不时被迫中止游戏进程，或者花钱加快游戏进程。

4）在本周MAU增长最快的Facebook游戏（MAU低于100万）榜单上，Ludia推出的《Family Feud & Friends》位居榜首，居于其次的是Mynet游戏《Mynet Çanak 101 Okey》，第三名则是CrowdStar的《Wasteland Empires》。

Top Gainers This Week-Games(from AppData)

出现在本榜单的新面孔包括《Hooked》、《Clickfun Casino》、《I AM PLAYR》以及《Lucky Space》等游戏。

5）由GameHouse委托Harris Interactive执行的一项调查报告显示，半数以上的美国在线游戏玩家（游戏邦注：这里包括在电脑、Facebook等社交网络或者iPhone、iPad等移动设备在线玩游戏的用户）是女性用户，这些女玩家比非其他非游戏玩家的女用户更具社交性（GameHouse称其在线游戏的女玩家比例也高达63%）。该调查执行于2011年10月，调查样本是2000多名美国用户。

调查发现42%在线游戏女玩家每天至少与家人和好友沟通一次，而非在线游戏女用户的这一比例仅31%。除此之外，86%的在线游戏女玩家经常参与社交网络的活动，非在线游戏女用户的这一比例仅71%。

但调查也指出，无论是不是在线游戏玩家，女性用户都很喜欢看电视，74%在线游戏女玩家至少每天看一次电视，非在线游戏女用户的这一比例也达到71%。

其他关于女性在线游戏玩家的调查结果包括：

*半数以上女性在线游戏玩家已经“名花有主”。64%受访者已婚或者已有情侣，22%未婚 ，14%已离婚、分居或者守寡。

*无论是不是在线游戏玩家，每周至少外出或者做一次运动的女性用户比例均为49%。

*玩在线游戏并非她们与人保持联络的主要方式。仅有16%在线游戏玩家称自己通过玩游戏与他人联络感情，61%称玩游戏是为了减压，58%称玩游戏是为了排遣寂寞，还有58%玩游戏是为了休息和放松。

*玩游戏让她们觉得自己更快乐更聪明。55%女性称玩在线游戏让她们觉得生活更快乐，50%感觉玩在线游戏让自己变聪明。

*妈妈级玩家常在孩子入睡后玩游戏。38%女性玩家拥有18岁以下的孩子，而非游戏玩家女性用户的这一比例为28%，61%女性玩家会在晚上8点至11：59时玩游戏。

*多数女玩家更为年长，并且集中于美国南部地区。女性在线游戏玩家平均年龄为42岁，其中有64%受访者年龄超过35岁。35%女性在线游戏玩家住在南部地区，东北地区女性玩家比例占21%，中西部地区和西部地区分别占比22%。（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）

women gamers vs non-gamers(from GameHouse)

1）Zynga has acquired 15 companies so far this year

Dean Takahashi

Zynga has acquired 15 companies so far this year, including a few it hasn’t announced.

The information is included in an amendment to an S1 filing that the company filed today. The S1 is Zynga’s document for going public. The date for the IPO hasn’t been announced, but it is rumored to be expected after Thanksgiving.

For the nine months ended Sept. 30, Zynga acquired 13 game companies in the social and mobile game realms for a total of $40.6 million. Since Oct. 1, Zynga has acquired two more unnamed companies for another $4.9 million, bringing the total amount spent this year to $45.5 million.

That is quite a shopping spree, but it’s clear Zynga is still getting deals on its developer acquisitions, as the average purchase price is around $3 million. Zynga has more than 2,500 employees now, with many of them gained through acquisitions.（source:venturebeat）

2）GigaMedia, City State Partner Up To Expand Their Social Gaming Reach

by Mike Rose

Singapore-based online game developer GigaMedia has announced a partnership with U.S.-based City State Entertainment, a new startup casual gaming company.

The partnership will see the two companies work together to create social gaming titles for mobile, tablet, PC and social network platforms.

The two companies noted that the partnership will allow them to capitalize on the growth of social games, while also expanding their reach to new markets.

City State was founded earlier this year by Mark Jacobs, formerly co-founder and CEO at Dark Age Of Camelot and Warhammer Online developer Mythic Entertainment, and operates out of Fairfax, Virginia.

Jacobs said of the move, “We are delighted. The partnership creates a launch pad for exchanging creative ideas and information – an exciting mix of East and West.”

Yichin Lee, GigaMedia CEO, added, “Mark is truly among the greats of global game developers and his team has an outstanding track record of creating games brimming with appeal, fun and flair.”

“We are proud to be working with him and thrilled to have him and his newly formed team develop new games and brands with us.”（source:gamasutra）

3）Quote of the Moment: ‘People will get burnt out on’ today’s social games

by Joe Osborne

Better prepare your last words, CityVille. Alright, so the top Facebook game might have longer than that in it, but Glitch developer and Tiny Speck founder Stewart Butterfield says that games designed like Zynga’s best can’t last forever. Speck, best known for creating Flickr, made the projection during an in-depth interview with GamesIndustry.biz.

“People will get burnt out on this,” Butterfield told GI.biz. “Maybe some of them will last for a very long time, but I feel like the easy successes have been taken already, and that won’t work in the long run. I mean, I could be wrong about that, and I hope I am, because that would be a lame future for games.”

The social game rookie is speaking to how the majority of, if not all, popular Facebook games are designed: the Energy system. Butterfield thinks that social gamers will eventually grow tired of being forced to either wait to progress in a game after their Energy is spent or put up a buck to keep going. (Only it’s slowly becoming more like $5.)

“Just my own reaction, the first time I saw that it was okay, the second time I saw that it was okay, and by whatever time it is now I’m like, ‘I get this. It’s transparent, and I don’t give a shit about having a bigger building here that cost me three dollars.,’” the Glitch maker admitted to GI.biz. In other words, he’s tired of the gated progress design in Facebook games. Actually, so should we after four years of putting up with it.（source:games）

4）Family Feud & Friends Top This Week’s List of Emerging Facebook Games

AJ Glasser

Ludia’s Family Feud & Friends leads the pack of emerging Facebook games this week with Mynet’s second-largest Okey card game variant and CrowdStar’s Wasteland Empires rounding out the top three.

There are a handful of newcomers to our list this week, like Hooked and Clickfun Casino, as well as a few familiar titles like I AM PLAYR and Lucky Space. Super Ferme down at No.18 appears to be a French-language version of المزرعة السعيدة, a farming sim that climbed the charts in July thanks to publishing help from Peak Games. At this time, it looks like there are two English-language versions of the app: Happy Land and Country Life. We’ve contacted representatives of Peak Games to find out more about the different variants of this game.（source:insidesocialgames）

5）Women who play online games are more social, says new study

By Erin Bell

A new study casts doubt on the stereotype of the online gamer as an anti-social, basement-dwelling introvert. On the contrary, the study, which was conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of GameHouse, found that more than half of online gamers (people who play online games on their computer, social networks like Facebook, or mobile devices like iPhones and iPads), are women, and that these women tend to be more social than women who don’t play online games.

The survey polled more than 2,000 adults in the U.S. in October, 2011 and found that 42% of female online games socialize with friends and family in person at least once per day, versus only 31% of women who didn’t play online games. Also, 86% of those who play online games socialize on social networks compared to just 71% who didn’t play online games.

Female online gamers apparently even have the edge on sex! According to the study, female online gamers were found to have sex slightly more frequently than females who didn’t play games online (38% have sex at least once per week, vs. 34% ).

However, both females who play online games and those who don’t are spending a lot of time watching TV (74% of female online gamers watch TV at least once per day as well as 71% of females who don’t play online games).

“Maybe if we all watched a little less TV and played more games online, we’d all be having a little more sex,” said Matt Hulett, chief gamer at GameHouse, a division of RealNetworks, Inc. “Joking aside, this survey matches up with our internal data that women are widely embracing online games with 63% of GameHouse players being women. It’s nice to know that females who play online games are happy – both in their relationships and even in the bedroom.”

Here are a few other surprising facts about today’s females who play online games:

More than half are in a serious relationship.Sixty four percent are married or living with a partner, 22% have never been married, and 14% are divorced, separated, or widowed.

7 out of 10 are happy with their relationship status.When asked how satisfied they are in their relationship on a scale of 1-10 (with 10 being “completely satisfied” and 1 being “not at all satisfied”), 71% of female online gamers rated their current relationship status with a 6 or above.

She is just as active as those who don’t play online games.As it relates to working out or playing sports, there was no significant difference found between those who play online games and those who don’t. Forty nine percent of both females who play online games and females who do not play online games work out or play sports at least once per week or more.

She doesn’t play online games to connect with people.Only 16% of the women who play online games say that connecting with people is why they play. More popular reasons are relieving stress (61%), alleviating boredom (58%), and providing a mental break (58%).

Games make her happy and feel smarter.Fifty five percent of women who play online games indicated that they are happier in their life because they play online games and 50% feel that online games make them feel smarter.

Mommy gamers are likely playing after their kids go to bed.With 38% of women gamers saying they have children under the age of 18 vs. 28% of females who do not play online games, 61% of female online gamers play in the evening between 8:00 pm – 11:59 pm.

She’s older and most live in the South.Sixty four percent of female online gamers are over 35 years old with an average age of 42. Thirty five percent of female online gamers live in the South, compared to 21% in the Northeast, 22% in theMidwestand 22% in the West. （source:gamezebo）