1）广告代理机构TBG Digital最近发布的2011年第四季度Facebook广告报告指出，Facebook目前广告收益极为可观，每千次广告印象收益比2011年初增长23%（游戏邦注：该报告数据取自TBG Digital观察其266个客户的3260亿次广告印象）。

facebook-cpm-increase-in-2011(from TBG Digital)

其中以Sponsored Stories这种社交广告表现最为突出，所占点击率高达46%以上。第四季度Facebook广告在美国、英国、加拿大、法国、德国的CPM平均比第三季度增长8%；尽管美国Facebook用户增速减缓，但该平台在美国CPC仍增长了10%，而英法两国的CPC则有所下降。

从全世界范围来看，Facebook广告在第四季度点击率增加7%，整个2011年增加了18%。

2）据《华尔街日报》报道，Zynga首席执行官Mark Pincus在最近媒体采访中表示，他认为与公司早期员工就股票期权进行重新谈判并非正确举措，因为这并不符合Zynga公司政策。

Mark Pincus(from games)

与此同时，他还发表了对博彩业与社交游戏相结合的看法（游戏邦注：美国司法部不久前已放宽对在线博彩业的限制），并称虚拟现实就是虚拟与现实之间的纽带，而赌博正是将虚拟与现实完美融合的一种现象，因为此时玩家手中所握筹码具有现实价值。

3）美国电视娱乐公司Starz Digital Media近日宣布将向Facebook再推一款基于美剧《斯巴达克斯》的新版社交游戏，这款名为《斯巴达克斯：复仇》的游戏由Large Animal开发，将于1月27日配合电视剧的播映正式发布。

SPARTACUS-VENGEANCE(from collider.com)

据Hollywood Reporter报道，该公司所发行的第一款该题材游戏《Spartacus:The Games》最高峰时的MAU是120万，这对Facebook影视题材社交游戏来说已经算是较为理想的成绩。

4）阿根庭社交游戏开发商MetroGames（代表作包括《Coco Girl》）前员工近日向媒体透露，公司管理层一直在向仍然在岗的员工施加，企图让后者自动离职，以免向他们支付遣散费。

coco_girl(from bbgsite.com)

有些员工已经离职，但仍有一些成员仍在抗争，现在有一些离职成员正准备向法院起诉MetroGames联合创始人Lisenberh和Harburguer，声称公司管理层至今尚未支付他们12月份应得的薪水，MetroGames目前尚未对此作出回应。

5）据games.com报道，Zynga城建游戏《CastleVille》最近向苹果iTunes Music Store推出了其中的原创音乐内容，用户可选择以每首曲子0.99美元或1.29美元的价格购买音乐，但如果购买所有10首曲子则可优惠3美元。

castleville-music(from games)

这些音乐内容包括游戏主题曲，以及Sonja、Rafael等角色组曲（由《Halo Wars》和《帝国时代》作曲者Stephen Rippy创作）。（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）Advertising Report: Facebook Now Earns 23% More Per Impression Than In Q1 2011

Josh Constine

Facebook is making significantly more money per ad now, charging 23% more per 1000 impressions than at the start of 2011. There are still cheap ad clicks to be had on Facebook — you just have to keep traffic bouncing around within the social network. Facebook appears to be incentivizing advertisers to grow their Facebook applications and Pages, with cost per click campaigns that point internally costing 29% less than those linking offsite. These figures from a new study by ad agency giant TBG Digital show strong monetization performance and potential for Facebook as it prepares for an IPO this summer.

The Q4 2011 Facebook Advertising Report form TBG Digital looked at 326 billion ad impressions ran by 266 of its clients across 205 countries. The findings are statistically sound, having been vetted by the Cambridge University Psychometrics Centre.

TBG Digital CEO Simon Mansell tells me that the CPM rise indicates that “Facebook has done a good job growing the money it makes from ads”. Sponsored Stories have been a particular success. These social ads which promote the interactions of a user’s friends with brands attract up to 46% higher click through rates. This allows Facebook to earn more money while offering a lower cost per click because it doesn’t have to show an ad as many times to get a click, and can sell that real estate elsewhere.

Q4 2011 was a particularly strong quarter. CPM rates increased an average of 8% from Q3 across major markets including the US, UK, Canada, France, and Germany. CPC went up 10% in the US, showing high demand from advertisers despite plateauing user growth in Facebook’s most important market. A CPC dip in the UK and France was likely due to the more recent adoption of Sponsored Stories in those countries, whereas other countries were already using them.

Worldwide, ad click through rates increased 7% in Q4 and 18% in 2011, showing that more advertisers are mastering social ad types, targeting and creative. Educating the long-tail of small and local businesses on how to use its ads products is a big focus for Facebook in 2012. The company recently struck partnerships with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and National Federation of Independent Businesses to provide training sessions to their members.

Ads were particularly expensive this holiday season, with CPCs up a massive 55.7% in the US from November 21st and December 17th. Businesses not specifically trying to reach holiday shoppers should probably pause their campaigns during this season to avoid increased costs due to skyrocketing demand.

Financial institutions are navigating strict industry regulations and growing their Facebook spend. TBG clients such as HSBC and Capital One pushed the industry’s share of total Facebook ad impressions from 12% to 18% in Q4. However, these businesses often pay a lot for their ads since the primarily send traffic offsite.

To reduce their costs, financial institutions should consider driving traffic to their Facebook Pages. Internally pointed ads cost 29% less, and ads that specifically ask users to become a fan of a Page cost 45% less than those linking offsite. Why does Facebook offer this incentive? Because internally pointed ads keep users on the site where they can continue to be exposed to ads.

Mansell expects CPC and the amount Facebook earns on ads to continue to increase in 2012, despite user growth slowing as Facebook hits high penetration in 1st world markets. Eventually, CPC growth may slow if advertisers think they’re paying too much. Facebook also needs to watch out for competitors. If Twitter grows aggressively, advertisers demand could shift there.（source:techcrunch）

2）Zynga CEO: Staff stock renegotiation ‘probably wasn’t a good idea’

by Joe Osborne

You gotta’ love how hindsight is 20/20. During a telling interview with The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), Zynga CEO and founder Mark Pincus reflected on one of the most turbulent times in the company’s history: the months before its initial public offering (IPO). While Pincus stands firm behind the results of the IPO, the proverbial founder of FarmVille did express some regrets.

“I realize that that wasn’t a model that had been done in Silicon Valley, and we’re always as a company trying to invent new models, and not all of them are worth keeping and repeating,” Pincus told WSJ in response to whether renegotiating stock compensation offers with early employees was the right move. “That’s never been a policy at our company, and probably I’d say in retrospect, given how much that blew up, and questioned traditions in the Valley, I think probably wasn’t a good idea.”

Pincus’s ultimate decision might have resulted in the end of two long-time employee’s careers with Zynga, based on the CEO’s words. But we imagine Pincus is already looking forward. In fact, Zynga may have already changed its opinions slightly on real-money gambling within social games, a hot topic now that the Department of Justice has shifted its stance on the issue.

“We’re watching it with interest,” Pincus said to WSJ. “Virtual reality is about the connection between the virtual and the real, and there’s just such a close and perfect connection between the virtual and the real when you’re gambling, because these chips have real world value.”（source:games）

3）Spartacus gets its Vengeance on Facebook for new season on Starz

by Joe Osborne

Starz wants to take another stab at Facebook gaming. (Sorry, we just couldn’t resist.) The entertainment company announced that it will launch a brand new Spartacus social game to coincide with the Jan. 27 season premiere of the show on Starz. Titled Spartacus: Vengeance and created by Large Animal, the Facebook battler will launch on the same day as the season premiere.

Starz Digital Media is handling the publishing of the game, which will capitalize on the success of the first, Spartacus: Gods of the Arena. According to Hollywood Reporter, that first game enjoyed 1.2 million monthly players at its peak. While that peak didn’t last for much longer beyond the 2011 Spartacus season’s run, those are impressive numbers for a branded social game. And New York-based social game maker Large Animal looks to improve upon its winning formula.

“Spartacus: The Game helped change the landscape for branded Facebook games based on media properties and was very successful,” Large Animal CEO Wade Tinney told Hollywood Reporter. (We kinda dug the first game, too, for what it was.) “With Spartacus: Vengeance Game, we intend to amp up all of the things our players and the show’s fans love.”

When Spartacus” Vengeance hits later this month, players will fill the role of–surprise–an escaped slave that builds an army of makeshift warriors to get payback on his slavers. Players will work with and against characters from the show to reach this goal, which includes an expansion of the battle system in the first into a six-on-six melee. To get a better idea of what to expect from Spartacus: Vengeance on Jan. 27, check out the game trailer below.（source:games）

4）Ex-MetroGames staffers plan legal action against studio management

by Kris Graft

Former staffers with struggling Argentina-based social game studio and Coco Girl developer MetroGames told Gamasutra late last week that their fight against management is continuing into the new year.

Employees with the studio last month accused management of “extortion,” alleging that company heads were “pressuring” employees to quit, as opposed to firing them, so that workers would be ineligible for severance pay that is required by labor laws.

Some employees quit, while others waited for management to fire them. Now, former staff are planning to start legal action next month. “The group of employees which didn’t give in to the extortion perpetrated by both [studio owners Julian] Lisenberg and [Damian] Harburguer, were fired without compensation,” employees said in a statement sent to Gamasutra.

“Until this day, we haven’t received our salary corresponding to the month of December, our bonuses and our compensation for sudden layoff,” the statement continued.

“The stipulated date for them to pay this sum is long overdue, but we have to wait until February to begin legal action against MetroGames, because of the judicial recess that takes place in January here in Argentina. Many of the former MetroGames’ employees have been left in a dire situation: without money, job and in debt.”

The former staffers also accused studio co-owners Lisenberg and Harburguer of “shady maneuvers” during the course of the layoffs. Lisenberg told Gamasutra in late December that the studio is “facing serious financial problems, and have had to make several layoffs.” Prior to the layoffs, the studio employed around 80 workers.

Ex-staff also claimed in the new statement that management is keeping a small staff on board in order to maintain operations of the games Coco Girl and Texas Grand Poker, despite, according to former employees, telling workers that the studio would close down. Lisenberg also told Gamasutra last month, “Our games remain online, and our operations will continue as usual.”

Lisenberg and Harburguer did not immediately reply to a request for comment from Gamasutra.

MetroGames’ move towards layoffs last month was surprising, as Coco Girl had previously seen an upward trend in monthly active users, and the studio received a $5 million funding injection from Disney-owned Playdom less than two years prior. （source:gamasutra）

5）Take your love of CastleVille everywhere by downloading its soundtrack on iTunes

by Brandy Shaul

While this isn’t the first time we’ve seen a social / casual game soundtrack released for purchase (Bejeweled’s soundtracks are already available, for instance), it doesn’t make this news any less… interesting. If you’re a huge fan of Zynga’s kingdom-building Facebook game CastleVille, you can now show off your love of the game by downloading its “original soundtrack EP” from the iTunes Music Store. The price? Just $2.99 US.

As with other music on iTunes, you can purchase each song individually for either $0.99 or $1.29, depending on the song, but if you purchase them all in bulk, it will only set you back the three bucks. You’ll receive 10 songs with your purchase, including the Main Theme and Character Suites for some of the game’s major characters: Sonja, Rafael and so on (composed by Stephen Rippy of Halo Wars and Age of Empires fame). These are songs you’ll likely recall hearing being played while you’re actually playing the game on Facebook, so they are true to the game’s “experience.”

You never know – if this one goes over well, perhaps we’ll see other official releases of social game soundtracks, from Zynga or otherwise. We’ll leave it up to you to decide whether or not that’s a good thing.（source:games）