1）据All About Windows Phone报道，微软Windows Phone 7平台应用商店产品数量目前已超过4万。

WP-Marketplace-number-of-content-items(from venturebeat)

该平台应用数量在今年8月份达3万，在10月份达3.5万。苹果App Store应用数量已超过50万，谷歌Android Market也已突破30万。

2）日本社交游戏公司DeNA美国子公司ngmoco最近宣布与德国移动公司net mobile AG（游戏邦注：日本最大电信运营商NTT Docomo持有该公司80%股份）进行合作，通过后者渠道将Mobage推向德国、奥地利、瑞士、英国和澳大利亚等市场。

NTT Docomo已于今年4月与DeNA在日本结盟，把Mobage平台预装到Docomo功能性手机及Andorid智能手机设备中。

3）市场调研公司Cowen and Company最新报告指出，仅有26%休闲玩家在任天堂DS、3DS或索尼PSP设备上玩游戏，但有52%休闲玩家体验手机游戏。

该调查执行于今年9月份，调查对象是1300名随机筛选的美国用户，其中有1001人是视频游戏玩家。

super mario(from games)

4）日本第三方游戏开发商Gloops日前宣布《Dainekkyo!! Pro Yakyu Card》这款棒球卡片游戏在Mobage平台发布93天收获200万注册用户（该游戏发布于8月19日）。

据Gloop所称，该游戏发布58天后收获150万注册用户。

Dainekkyo!!Pro Yakyu Card(from sns.265g.com)

日本游戏发行商Konami之前曾起诉Gloop，理由是这款游戏抄袭了Konami同题材作品《Professional Baseball Dream Nine》，Konami这款游戏之前仅在GREE平台独家发布，在上个月才刚登陆Mobage，与Gloops这款游戏形成了正面交锋。

5）据gamezebo报道，PlayFirst论坛近日的一则消息透露，这家休闲游戏公司很可能抛弃原来的桌面游戏业务，集中开拓手机游戏市场。

diner dash(from games.yahoo.com)

该论坛管理员“oby1”针对PlayFirst是否在开发《Diner Dash》和《Wedding Dash》新版PC游戏的问题时发贴回复道，“我们目前没有开发任何新版PC/Mac可下载游戏，很抱歉让各位失望了。我们公司目前致力于向手机游戏市场进军，所以未来可能会推出更多针对移动设备的游戏。”

6）市场调研公司SuperData最近预测2014年巴西社交游戏市场规模将达2.38亿美元，届时将有5200万巴西人是社交游戏玩家（目前该国社交游戏用户为3500万）。

7）分析公司Experian Hitwise最新报告指出，Google+在截止11月12日的那一周中获得680万次的美国用户访问量，比之前一周增加5%，比一个月前增长25%。

Google+ share of total visits (from hitwise)

Google+首个访问高峰期发生于向所有用户开放服务的9月24日及其后一周时间，在10月份的美国用户访问量比9月份增长3%，平均访问次数也增加了15%。

在过去数周中，Google+重复访问用户（游戏邦注：这里指在过去30天中曾访问该网站的用户）比例也有所增长，与9月份头两周相比，10月份的Google+重复访问用户增长18%。在11月12日那周时间中，Google+的回头客流量所占比例高达74%。

8）据Pingdom调查结果显示，有88%的全球平板电脑网络流量来自苹果iPad，远超过所有Android平板电脑和黑莓PlayBook设备的总和。

ipad(from appleipadtobuy.com)

但观察者也指出，尽管iPad现在遥遥领先，但亚马逊即将推出的Kindle Fire这种售价比iPad低300美元的平板电脑很快就会分食iPad的市场份额。

Pingdom报告通过对不同操作系统平板电脑网络流量进行分析，发现苹果iOS占比87.6%，Android平板电脑占10.9%，webOS设备占0.7%，黑莓平板电脑也仅占0.7%。

John Gruber在数月前发布的报告也显示，iPad已占美国平板电脑销量的83%，在全球销量中占比73%。

9）《侠盗猎车手》开发商Rockstar Games联合创始人及创意副总裁Dan Houser在最近媒体采访中表示，他们并不关心电子游戏是否算正规的艺术表现形式，此类争论从未影响公司开发产品。

Rockstar Games(from gamebreakers)

他称Rockstar关注的重点是制作好玩的内容，他个人并不认同任何具有艺术性的东西都不好玩的观点，在他看来，游戏与流行音乐和电影一样，都属于一种商业媒介，可以同时具有艺术性和盈利性。

他希望大众不要将游戏视为一种高端艺术，因为这样可能会让游戏受到更多约束，沾染更多学术气息，这样就会丧失许多自由的乐趣。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需载请联系：游戏邦）

1）Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 platform now features more than 40,000 apps and games in its Marketplace, according to All About Windows Phone.

While Microsoft’s fledgling smartphone operating system is way behind in adoption compared to iOS and Android, there are signs that Windows Phone is poised to pick up a lot of steam in 2012, and its phones will feature less-expensive hardware options, 4G LTE and NFC capabilities. Several research firms, including Gartner and IDC, have predicted the Windows Phone 7 platform will be the No. 2 overall smartphone platform in the world by 2015. One thing that will likely help its growth will be Nokia, which has bet the house on Windows Phone 7 and recently debuted its slick-looking Lumia 800 and 710 smartphones.

Back in August, the Windows Marketplace hit the 30,000-app mark and hit the 35,000 mark in October, an indication that developers are beginning to see the value in having a Windows Phone app on top of having one for iOS and Android. Microsoft has been paying the development costs for some high-profile companies to make Windows Phone 7 apps, as well as coaxing webOS developers to move to the Windows Phone platform since HP decided to stop manufacturing webOS devices.

Apple’s App Store has more than 500,000 apps while the Google Android Market has more than 300,000 apps. The 40,000 mark may not sound like much compared to those much larger numbers, but it’s more impressive when you consider the Windows Phone platform is only about a year old.（source:venturebeat）

2）DeNA (ngmoco) Inks Deal With Germany’s net mobile AG [Social Games]

by Dr. Serkan Toto

DeNA‘s US subsidiary ngmoco has inked a deal with Germany-based mobile company net mobile AG (Japan’s biggest telco NTT Docomo holds a 80% stake in net mobile) to help Mobage enter more countries.

The German company explains:

net mobile AG will help place Mobage, DeNA Group’s worldwide social mobile games network, with mobile carriers and serve as a sales conduit in key markets across Europe and Asia. In addition, net mobile will help conduct business development services on behalf of ngmoco, to support content acquisition for Mobage.

(…) net mobile AG, in cooperation with parent NTT DOCOMO, will provide specific local support for Mobage’s rich catalog of top Android and iOS games, and boost the network’s visibility in key markets such as Germany, Austria, Switzerland, UK and Australia.

In Japan, NTT Docomo has entered a far-reaching business alliance with DeNA in April, bringing Mobage to the official menu of Docomo feature phones and the Docomo Android market on smartphones.（source:serkantoto）

3）Casual gamers dump 3DS, PSP to hook up with iPhone, Android

by Joe Osborne

As Facebook would say, “It’s complicated.” According to a survey released by research firm Cowen and Company, only 26 percent of casual gamers are playing on a Nintendo DS, 3DS or Sony PSP, GamesIndustry.biz reports. By contrast, 52 percent of those surveyed reported playing games on their phone. Granted, this is a survey, but we smell a trend … a bittersweet one.

“Over the last five years, the penetration of dedicated handheld platforms into survey respondents self-identifying as casual gamers has declined by 29 per cent, with the vast majority of that decline occurring in the last two years,” the report reads, according to GI.biz. “We believe cellphone and smartphone gaming is significantly impacting demand for dedicated handheld devices.”

The report is based on a survey conducted in September across 1,300, randomly selected people throughout the US, 1,001 of which reported that they’ve played video games. The report resonates with not only recent surveys, but with how a lot of investors feel. Well, at least in Nintendo’s case. The big N’s response?

“The concept of having our core franchises on other systems really flies in the face of what we believe in, and that’s because by understanding the hardware, that’s how we’re able to bring these great experiences forward,” Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime recently told us, referring to games like Super Mario 3D Land for 3DS. At the very least, bonus points for sticking to your guns, guys.（source:games）

4）Gloops’ Social Baseball Card Game On Mobage Gets 2 Million Users In 93 Days [Social Games]

by Dr. Serkan Toto

One of the biggest third-party game providers on Mobage, Tokyo-based gloops, announced that its social baseball card game on Mobage has hit 2 million registered users on November 18. “Dainekkyo!! Pro Yakyu Card” was released on August 18, meaning the game took 93 days to reach that milestone.

Gloops reported 1.5 million registered players for the title (after 58 days) just four weeks ago.

Konami filed a lawsuit against gloops, saying that Dainekkyo!! Pro Yakyu Card is too similar to their social baseball card game, Professional Baseball Dream Nine. The Konami title was available exclusively available for GREE, until it hit Mobage last month, putting it in direct competition to the gloops game.（source:serkantoto）

5）Is PlayFirst out of the PC gaming business?

By Jim Squires

While more and more companies are making a bigger push towards mobile lately, few developers who grew up in the PC casual market have completely abandoned the idea of desktop gaming. A surprising post on the PlayFirst forums, however, suggests that the house of Flo may have done just that.

In response to an inquiry about whether there were any upcoming Diner Dash and Wedding Dash PC games in the works, PlayFirst forums moderator “oby1” posted the following;

“Note that at this time we do not have any new PC/Mac download games in the pipeline for development. Our apologies for the disappointment. As a company we are at the forefront of the growing mobile gaming market so you can expect to see more games from us for this platform at this time.“

We’ve sent a request for comment to PlayFirst, and will let you know the moment we hear back.（source:gamezebo）

6）Brazilian Social Gaming Market Growing Quickly – Research firm SuperData is predicting that the Brazilian social gaming market is will be worth $238 million by 2014. At that point more than 52 million Brazilians will play social games, up from the 35 million people who currently identify as social gamers.（source:insidesocialgames)

7）Google+ records 3rd biggest week since launch

Last week Google+ recorded its 3rd largest week in terms of total US visits for the week ending Nov. 12, 2011 receiving more than 6.8 million total US visits. The growth represents a 5% increase versus the previous week and a 25% increase compared to a month ago. The recent growth could possibly be attributed to several new announcements that have come out recently.

The top two weeks for overall visits to Google+ took place when the service opened up to all users the week ending Sept. 24, 2011 and the week directly after. Traffic also increased 3% overall in terms of total US visits and the average visit time increased 15% in October vs. September 2011.

Another positive sign for the site is the share of visits from returning visitors (defined as having visited the website in past 30 days) has been increasing over the last few weeks. The average of the first two weeks of November versus the same time in October shows the share of returning visitors to the Google+ site increased 18%. Last week, 74% of the traffic to Google+ was from returning visitors, suggesting that Google+ users are returning to interact and engage with their networks (aka circles). （source:weblogs.hitwise）

8）iPad has 88% of global tablet web traffic, but Kindle Fire could start eating it

Sean Ludwig

To the surprise of absolutely no one who’s been paying attention, the iPad is the clear leader in global tablet web traffic, with an astounding 88%, far greater than all Android tablets and afterthoughts like the BlackBerry PlayBook, according to Pingdom.

But while the iPad has such a sharp lead in tablet web use, almost certainly because it’s the most popular tablet, the upcoming Kindle Fire, which costs $300 less than the iPad and features the powerful Silk web browser, could begin eating away at that stat.

Pingdom’s study admits that the exact figures of tablet web use aren’t readily available, but it was able to extrapolate from a variety of other sources to complete a convincing picture that the iPad owns about 88% of tablet web traffic. StatCounter regularly completes surveys of the percentages of OSes that access the web. When you bring down those OS web access stats to just tablets, iOS has 87.6%, Android takes 10.9%, webOS has 0.7% and BlackBerry OS has 0.7%.

These statistics match up well with sales figures throughout the world, as noted in a post a few months ago by John Gruber. In the U.S. alone, the iPad makes up 83% of tablet sales, and around the world it counts for 73% of tablet sales.

No Android tablet up to this point has been a runway hit – not even Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 and Motorola’s Xoom, arguably the two slickest premium Android tablets. But the Kindle Fire could change that. It doesn’t look like Android on the surface, but it still is built using Android’s operating system and could greatly help Android’s tablet market share because the $199 price point is so attractive. Microsoft’s Windows 8, which will go live next year, also looks like a viable competing OS that could help bring the iPad down a notch.（source:venturebeat）

9）Rockstar’s Houser: ‘Art’ Is Irrelevant, We Make Enjoyable Games

by Staff

The legitimacy of video games as a medium of artistic expression is irrelevant to Grand Theft Auto series maker Rockstar Games.

Speaking to Gamasutra in a rare interview, studio co-founder and vice president of creative Dan Houser called the argument a “parlor debate,” saying that it never affected the studio’s output.

“We make something we think above all is going to be enjoyable for people to play. Otherwise they are not going to keep doing it — and the idea that anything could be artistic and not enjoyable is something that I am not sure I agree with,” he says.

According to Houser, games are a commercial medium — just like pop music and cinema — and can be artistic just as easily as they can be exploitative. True, the public in general has a hard time grasping this, but will the common man accept games as a credible medium?

“In some ways I hope not, because we will become more and more controlled and Academy-sized [as an industry] and you’ll lose a lot of the freedom that we enjoy,” he says.（source:gamasutra）