1）GameStop旗下网页游戏门户网站Kongregate最近调查结果显示，免费模式游戏的铁杆用户（即那些玩过50次以上含虚拟商品的游戏的玩家）通常可为整款游戏创造90%以上的收益。

coins(from golgotron.com)

Kongretage指出基于微交易模式的在线游戏实现盈利的关键是处理好游戏“结局”，或者对长期玩家来说甚为重要的公会（或者会影响PVP机制的相关元素）等内容。该公司首席运营官Emily Greer表示，许多游戏在引入盈利元素时都没有考虑到结局这一要素，导致游戏丧失对玩家的长期价值，或者无法吸引玩家深入游戏。（游戏邦注：Kongretage数据取自该平台上150多款基于虚拟商品交易的游戏，而该网站主要提供硬核社交游戏，因此其调查结果与其他平台可能存在差异。）

Kongretage观察发现早期玩家（即玩游戏少于10次的用户）也会花钱消费，在多人游戏中有30%早期玩家会购买道具，但这一群体平均仅为整款游戏创造3%的收益。

铁杆玩家数量在游戏总体用户中一般仅占比2-10%，但平均每用户收益水平却比早期玩家高3000%。

2）据insidesocialgames报道，继Wooga游戏撤出Goolge+平台之后，PopCap旗下游戏《宝石迷阵闪电战》也将于6月18日退出Google+。值得注意的是，该游戏在Facebook仍是DAU排名前25的热作，本月DAU达290万，位居第11名。

宝石迷阵闪电战(from gameyum.com)

PopCap高管Giordano Contestabile表示，该游戏撤出Google+与EA缩减业务规模无关，该游戏在过去6个月中的收益翻倍增长，《宝石迷阵》团队退出Google+的原因是，他们认为应该将资源用于能够服务于最多用户的事情上。

3）据Barrons报道，Zynga自5月1日以来已流失480万DAU，目前DAU为5420万。Zynga股票最近数周持续下挫，降幅达10%，分析公司Cowen & Co认为这种现象与该公司游戏在Facebook表现有关。

Zynga stock plummets(from theverge.com)

分析师Doug Creutz称在过去2个月中，休闲数字游戏（至少西方市场是如此）已经出现向移动平台转移，撤离社交平台的趋势。移动设备将促使大量用户转移Facebook平台，而Facebook原生应用目前尚不支持用户在移动设备玩游戏的功能，因此不少玩家就只能转向其他公司推出的游戏。

《Words with Friends》最近流失DAU达60万（目前DAU为640万），《CityVille》则流失170万DAU，《CastleVille》流失100万DAU，《Hidden Chronicles》也流失了180万DAU。

4）据GamesIndustry International报道，由于涉嫌未合理管制虚拟游戏世界中的性聊天行为，儿童社交平台《哈宝》可能将面临欧盟委员会的制裁，甚至可能被迫彻底关闭《哈宝》平台服务。该平台目前处于内部调查阶段，已经暂时停止运营，停业时间可能长达数天甚至数周。

Habbo_Hotel(from venturebeat)

《哈宝》开发商Sulake投资者Balderton Capital此前已宣布放弃在Sulake的13%股权（游戏邦注：据Guardian报道，另一家投资商3i group最近也决定放弃在Sulake持有的16％股权），而英国零售商GAME、Tesco和WH Smith在这一消息曝光后也相继在商店中撤下与《哈宝》有关的礼品卡。

5）据serkantoto报道，日本社交游戏公司DeNA最近宣布将从股东手中购回约10％的已发行股票，预计其价格为2.5亿美元（200亿日元）。该公司计划于6月15-31日购回这些股票，这是DeNA第三次回购公司股票。（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）Devoted players can account for almost all of a F2P game’s revenues — Kongregate

by Eric Caoili

Committed free-to-play gamers, or those who play a virtual goods-based title more than 50 times, often account for more than 90 percent of a game’s total revenue, according to study from GameStop-owned web game portal Kongregate.

The site argues that the key to monetizing microtransactions-based online games is to manage the “end-game” of a title, or aspects essential to long-term players, such as guilds or elements that affect player-versus-player mechanics.

“Too many titles introduce monetization elements without the end-game in mind,” says Kongregate COO Emily Greer. “Players often tune out these advances, primarily because they have little long-term value to the user or the player is not yet connected to the game.”

Kongregate reviewed more than 150 virtual goods-based games on its service as part of its study. Its results may differ from other platforms, as the site has traditionally positioned itself as one serving core social gamers, with titles targeting that audience.

The portal found that early stage players, or those who have played a title less than ten times, do make purchases. But while 30 percent of early stage players buy an item in multiplayer games, they accounted for only 3 percent of total revenue on average.

Devoted players typically account for only 2 to 10 percent of a game’s total userbase, but the average revenue per user for that group is 3,000 percent higher on average compared to early stage players.

“Your committed players will provide you with the bulk of the games lifetime value,” adds Greer.（source:gamasutra）

2）PopCap shutting down Bejeweled Blitz on Google+

Mike Thompson

After developer wooga announced it was pulling its games from Google+, it turns out the social network is also going to lose EA PopCap’s Bejeweled Blitz.

The news comes straight from PopCap’s support page, which states Bejeweled Blitz on Google+ will go offline June 18. The studio’s disabled the ability to purchase coins and additional spins and is encouraging players to spend whatever coins they have left over. Any coins earned or purchased before this point in the game cannot be transferred to other versions of Bejeweled Blitz or other PopCap titles on Google+. The Facebook version of Bejeweled Blitz, meanwhile, is still one of the top 25 Facebook games in terms of daily active users; this month, it took the No. 11 spot with 2.9 million and is still holding that number.

Despite still going strong on Facebook, this is technically the third high-profile EA social game to be shut down in as many months, with Facebook titles Restaurant City in April and Dragon Age Legends in May. EA seems to be struggling with to maintain its status as a top social games developer, now that The Sims Social is winding down and no top-trafficking game has launched to replace it. The company now shifts between the No. 3 and No. 4 spots on our Facebook game developer leaderboards by DAU, often trading places with wooga. EA may be scaling back on developing social games to pursue publishing instead, as it recently announced it would publish Insomniac Games’s Outernauts on Facebook.

We’ve reached out for a comment from Google, PopCap and EA, but have yet to receive a response at the time of writing.

Update: Bejeweled Franchise Director at PopCap, Giordano Contestabile, tells us, “Our decision to pull Bejeweled Biltz from Google+ had nothing to do with EA scaling back on anything. On the contrary, Bejeweled Blitz has doubled revenue over the last 6 months and we’ve seen steady revenue growth since the EA acquisition. The Bejeweled team (not the greater PopCap, and certainly not EA) chose to scale back the Google+ offerings because, like most game teams, we want to spend our resources improving games to have the biggest impact on the most customers.

Shifting some of our resources from Google+ onto higher-impact efforts was a pretty straightforward decision.”（source:insidesocialgames）

3）Is Zynga in Facebook meltdown?

by Tim Green

Reports suggest it’s losing five million daily active users a month – and that mobile is to blame.

Zynga’s shares have been tumbling in recent weeks – down ten per cent – and city analyst Cowen & Co reckons it’s due to the firm’s Facebook performance.

A report on Barrons says Zynga has lost 4.8m DAUs since May 1st and is now at 54.2 milion DAUs.

Basically, users are going mobile and Facebook’s native apps don’t support game play so they’re playing other publisher’s games.

“We believe that mobile devices may be siphoning off an accelerating number of gamers from Facebook,” said Cowen and Co’s Doug Creutz.

“Facebook itself is increasingly being accessed by mobile devices, however it is not possible to play Facebook-native apps through Facebook on a smartphone.

“We believe that over the last two months, trends in the casual digital gaming space have swung decisively towards mobile and away from social, at least in Western markets.”

Specifically, Words with Friends lost 600,000 DAUs to 6.4m,  CityVille lost 1.7m, CastleVille lost 1m and Hidden Chronicles dropped 1.8m.（source:mobile-ent）

4）Habbo’s woes continue with threat of regulation and loss of retailer support

Evan Killham

Teen-focused online social hub Habbo now faces possible action from the European Commission (the executive division of the European Union) due to allegations of unmoderated sexual chats in the virtual game space, GamesIndustry International reported today.

The threat of regulation could lead to a complete shutdown of the service. “At the end of the day, that should be a remedy that is at stake,” said EC vice president Neelie Kroes.

Yesterday, venture capital firm Balderton Capital dropped its 13 percent stake in Finnish developer Sulake, which owns and maintains Habbo. Seemingly in response, UK retailers GAME, Tesco, and WH Smith all announced the removal gift cards for the online game from their stores.

“We have withdrawn this product from sale pending further investigation,” GAME said in a statement. “The cards have been withdrawn with immediate effect from all 339 of our stores.”（source:venturebeat）

5）For 250 Million US$: DeNA To Buy Back Own Shares [Social Games]

by Dr. Serkan Toto

DeNA not only released their financial projections for the first quarter of this fiscal year today, the Mobage operator also said it plans to buy back a good portion of its own shares – a maximum of 14 million of them.

And DeNA is ready to spend up to a quarter billion US dollars (20 billion yen) to make it happen, repurchasing around 10% of the outstanding stock.

The buyback is scheduled to take place between June 15 and July 31 this year. It’s DeNA’s third buyback so far, after one in February this year.（source:serkantoto）