1）Business Insider Intelligence最近预测，美国社交游戏（包括智能手机游戏）2012年市场规模将达20亿美元，2015年增长至55亿美元。

social-gaming-revenue(from business insider intelligence)

目前社交游戏主力军仍是35-55岁女性用户，但未来将有更多年轻、硬核游戏玩家加入这一阵营；随着微交易功能的简化和普及，用户付费购买虚拟商品的意愿也将日益提升，而社交游戏广告收益的增长空间更为宽广。

2）据英国《卫报》报道，Facebook最近在欧洲成立社交游戏团队，旨在助欧洲、中东和非洲地区的开发者创造不同于Zynga、EA游戏的产品。Facebook在该地区业务发展主管Christian Hernandez表示，行业目前正经历第三次游戏平台变革，城建类、社交/休闲游戏开始出现合并趋势，Facebook在欧洲将重点关注手机社交游戏市场。

3）eMarketer最新数据显示，谷歌在线广告业务表现优于Facebook在线广告。

display ad revenue(from eMarketer)

Facebook在2011年在线广告销售额高达17.3亿美元，但仅比谷歌多2亿美元，预计2012年Facebook在线广告收益将达25.8亿美元，而谷歌则是25.4亿美元。

growth rate(from eMarketer)

但在2013和2014年，Facebook广告收益将开始下滑，而谷歌广告在这一时期将分别实现近50%和近30%的增长率。

4）法国公司育碧最近将旗下《疯狂兔子》这一热门游戏品牌引进Facebook，这款名为《Rabbids Invasion》的社交游戏提供了标准的城建游戏玩法，但玩家不需要建设城市，而是让兔子“攻占”这些建筑。

Rabbids Invasion(from insidesocialgames)

如果攻占了一个农场，该农场外观就会变成一个巨大的奶牛，如果攻占小木屋，后者就会燃烧成一堆篝火。玩家可付费购买更多兔子以攻占大量建筑，从而获得更多收益和经验值。该游戏目前MAU为1万，DAU为400。

5）据insidesocialgames报道，在所有Facebook运动类游戏中，足球游戏人气最旺，在该平台前40名最热门运动类游戏中占据一半以上席位。而其中表现最突出者则是塞尔维亚开发商Nordeus（游戏邦注：该公司由三名前微软成员创办）旗下游戏《Top Eleven – Be a Football Manager》，该游戏目前有360万MAU和120万DAU，远超过竞争对手、EA游戏《FIFA Superstars》（MAU为190万，DAU为30万）。

top eleven(from insidesocialgames)

值得注意的是，该游戏不同于一般Facebook游戏（后者一般在发布头6个月实现用户增长），它问世21个月后的用户数量仍在持续增长，自2010年5月上线已来，已推出iOS和Android版本。（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）Social Gaming Market Will Grow To $5 Billion+ By 2015

Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry

This market is a disruptive force that will continue to grow rapidly over the next several years.

We forecast that the US social gaming market, including smartphone games, will grow to $5.5 billion by 2011, from $2 billion in 2011.

Why are we forecasting such growth? In a nutshell:

•We think social games will go more mainstream. Right now, social gaming is mostly confined to a specific demographic–women aged 35-55 with a lot of time on their hands–but this is already changing.  We believe new kinds of gamers, including males, especially young people and hardcore gamers, will start to use new types of social games.

•We think monetization will improve dramatically. We are still in the early days of monetization. Micropayments are getting easier, and users are becoming more accustomed to paying for virtual goods. In advertising, the scope for improvement is even bigger: right now, most of the advertising revenue comes from bargain-rate banner ads. As forms of advertising like interstitial ads and branded virtual goods grow, so will revenue per user. （source:business insider）

2）Facebook wants to work with European social game developers, too

by Joe Osborne

U.S. game makers like Zynga, PopCap and Playdom aren’t the only pioneers in the social games world, you know. There are plenty of social game creators in Europe and abroad that give American

Facebook games a run for their money … literally. And Facebook doesn’t want to merely recognize top 10 social game makers like Wooga, King.com and Nordeus.

The multibillion-dollar social network wants to make sure it continues to be smooth sailing for them. The Guardian reports that Facebook has started a social games team in Europe designed to represent the EMEA region (Europe, the Middle East and Africa). The move to create a team that mirrors the U.S. was spurred by the visible success of companies like Wooga and King,com reached by creating games that are somewhat different from what your Zynga’s and EA’s offer.

“We’re in the third evolution of the gaming platform, as the world-building and social/casual space has begun to consolidate,” Facebook’s EMEA director of business development and partnerships

Christian Hernandez told The Guardian. “Newer players are coming into untapped areas and satisfying new types of users, who don’t want to play FarmVille but might want to play strategy or shooter games, or free games around jackpot, slots or blackjack. This is the fastest growing and most interesting area.”

According to The Guardian, Hernandez thinks that Europe is “the most interesting region in terms of the innovation” when it comes to Facebook games. Mobile social games will be a large focus for Facebook Europe, so don’t be surprised to see more mobile games come from the Diamond Dash and Bubble Witch Saga houses.（source:games）

3）Google’s Diversifying Display Ad Business Could Pass Facebook’s, eMarketer Guesses

Eric Eldon

Research firm eMarketer has put together a few interesting data points that show Google doing better in display ads than you might have realized. That is, by growing this business across properties and networks that it at some point acquired — YouTube, DoubleClick, and mobile (AdMob) — it’s set to pass Facebook’s own display business.

The social network had the highest online ad sales of any company in the U.S. last year, at $1.73 billion. But that was a mere $200 million or so above Google. This year, eMarketer expects a similar story, with Facebook bringing in $2.58 billion versus Google’s $2.54 billion. Things change in 2013 and 2014, further off from what the data can tell us accurately.

The firm thinks Facebook’s growth rate is going to plummet after this year, down to 13 percent in 2014, while Google’s is going to continue at nearly 50 percent through 2013 and still at nearly 30 percent in 2014.（source:techcrunch）

4） Ubisoft brings the Rabbids’ insanity to Facebook

Pete Davison

Ubisoft’s Rabbids series — originally a spinoff from the company’s Rayman franchise — is well-known for its irreverent, lavatorial humor and has invaded a wide variety of platforms over the course of the last few years. The small, insane, rabbit-like creatures have finally hit Facebook this month in the form of Rabbids Invasion.

Rabbids Invasion offers a twist on standard citybuilding gameplay: the city is already there. However, the city in question was built by humans and as such, the Rabbids are unable to avail themselves of all its facilities. In order to do so, the Rabbids must “invade” the existing buildings and take them over. In doing so, the drab, brown art becomes wildly colorful and often takes on humorous, surreal characteristics. Invading a house, for example, might cover it in toilet paper. Invading a farmhouse might redesign it to look like a giant cow. And invading a log cabin simply burns it down and turns it into an enormous bonfire.

Rabbids Invasion currently has 10,000 monthly active users and 5,000 daily active users, but has only been available for less than a week at the time of writing. The Rabbids series is a well known brand among casual gamers, and Ubisoft is likely counting on this to assist with user acquisition, along with the game’s frictionless wall posting facility for virality. To follow the game’s progress, check out AppData, our traffic tracking application for social games and developers.（source:insidesocialgames）

5）How bootstrapped Serbian startup Nordeus beat EA’s FIFA at its own Facebook game

Kathleen De Vere

Of all the sports games on Facebook, soccer-themed games reign supreme, accounting for more than half of the 40 most popular sports games on the platform.

The leader of the pack is Nordeus — a bootstrapped Serbian developer founded by three former Microsoft employees. Its game, Top Eleven – Be a Football Manager is a detailed football management

sim, and despite its complexity, has 3.6 million monthly active users and 1.2 million daily active users, far above its closest competitor, the officially licensed title EA’s FIFA Superstars which currently has 1.9 million MAU and 300,000 DAU according to AppData.

However, what may be most interesting about Top Eleven is the game’s slow burn. Unlike the average Facebook game, which typically sees most of its growth in the first six months, Top Eleven is still adding players 21 months in and is the most popular its ever been. Since the game’s launch in May 2010, Nordeus has taken Top Eleven cross-platform to iOS and to Android and introduced a raft of new features and updates, but has so far been silent about upcoming projects.（source:insidesocialgames）