1）在7月份的Facebook游戏前25强榜单上，DAU增势最强者当属《Bubble Safari》，从原来的578万增长至670万；King.com游戏《Candy Crush Saga》新增90万DAU，FreshPlanet游戏《SongPop》和Peak Games游戏《Lost Bubble》分别新增178万DAU和71万DAU。

Top-25-Chart-Template-DAU(from AppData)

Zynga游戏《CityVille》和《Hidden Chronicles》DAU下滑最为严重，前者流失220万DAU，后者DAU也下降120万。

从MAU情况来看，《Bubble Safari》仍是最大赢家，新增2560万MAU，《Hidden Chronicles》新增500万MAU，Peak Games游戏《Lost Bubble》新增480万MAU。

Top-25-Chart-Template-MAU(from AppData)

用户流失最明显的是Zynga游戏《CityVille》，MAU下滑610万；Rovio游戏《Angry Birds Friends》MAU也下滑420万。

2）NPD最近报告显示，2012年第一季度游戏玩家在实体盒装及数字游戏中投入达34亿美元，其中PC及主机游戏占据15亿美元，二手及出租游戏占据5.25亿美元，数字游戏（游戏邦注：包括可下载内容，订阅游戏、手机游戏及社交游戏）占据13.8亿美元。

multiplayer-final(from venturebeat)

NPD分析师Anita Frazier指出，同比2011年第一季度，实体盒装游戏、二手及出租游戏销量下滑5%，而数字内容销量则增长10%，但数字内容销量增长并不足以弥补实体游戏销量下滑的缺口。

第一季度英国、法国、德国用户在二手及出租游戏中的投入为3亿美元，在数字游戏中的投入达9.59亿美元。比起美国市场，这欧洲三大国的手机游戏市场仍处于发展状态，但完整版游戏、额外数字下载内容及订阅游戏市场发展较为成熟。

3）据美联社报道，Zynga创始人及首席执行官Mark Pincus在最近采访中表示，他认为整个游戏行业及媒体领域都将走向免费、社交及易用性，但我们正处于这个时代的初级阶段，总有一天这种短时间的游戏体验方式会取代短信，成为人们保持联络的一种通用方式。

words-with-friends-hd1(from games)

但他也指出Zynga可以提供比手机游戏更有深度和吸引力的PC游戏体验，但这两种游戏可以相互借鉴长处，并不意味着一方会是另一方的终结者。

4）King.com日前宣布聘请Digital Chocolate前副总裁及总经理Manel Sort任公司在巴塞罗那新工作室的主管。Sort拥有12年的电子游戏行业背景，曾领导多个平台上的60多款游戏的项目开发。King.com巴塞罗那工作室计划再招聘40多名开发手机及社交游戏的成员。

manel_sort(from forbes.com)

这是继Playfish成员Catharina Mallet加入公司英国工作室之后，King.com在最近数月中的第二个重大人事任命决定。

5）在本周MAU增长最快Facebook游戏排行榜上，《Bubble Safari》新增260万MAU，增幅达10%。

top gainers this week-MAU(from AppData)

Social Point游戏《Dragon City》位居第二，新增50万MAU，增幅为23%；Peak Games游戏《Lost Bubble》新增30万MAU，增幅为4%；Cookapps游戏《Buggle》位居第四，新增30万MAU，增幅为5%；而PlayQ游戏《Bubble Blitz》则新增30万MAU。

本榜单另外两款增幅超过20%的游戏分别是SGN推出的《Panda Jam》，新增18万MAU，增幅为86%；以及Qublix游戏《Jewel Kingdom》，新增12万MAU，增幅为41%。（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）Top 25 Facebook games of July 2012

Mike Thompson

June was a lot more active than May, based on the Top 25 Facebook games of July. Although both lists saw more declines than gains, there were more titles with increased traffic than last month and there also were a few new games debuting.

We’ll start by looking at the list of top 25 titles by daily active users, the best way to evaluate a title’s core audience. Four games showed gains over the past month, and five more showed no changes. The largest gain belonged to Bubble Safari, up 5.78 million DAU to 6.7 million. King.com’s Candy Crush Saga is still climbing the charts, up 900,000 DAU. FreshPlanet’s SongPop and Peak Games’s Lost Bubble debuted on the list with gains of 1.78 million DAU and 710,000, respectively.

Zynga’s CityVille and Hidden Chronicles still show the two biggest losses on the list. CityVille was down by 2.2 million DAU, while Hidden Chronicles dropped 1.2 million.

It’s now time to turn our attention to monthly active users, the measure of a game’s overall reach on Facebook. Bubble Safari was again the big winner, gaining 25.6 million MAU and nearly unseating CityVille for the No. 2 spot. Hidden Chronicles also showed significant gains, up by 5 million MAU. Peak Games’s Lost Bubble also debuted on the list, gaining 4.8 million MAU.

The largest loss belonged to Zynga’s CityVille, which dropped 6.1 million MAU. Rovio’s Angry Birds Friends showed the next largest loss, down by 4.2 million MAU.（source:insidesocialgames）

2）Gamers spend $3.4B on all types of games in Q1

Dean Takahashi

Gamers spent $3.4 billion on both physical and digital games in the first quarter, according to market researcher NPD Group.

Consumers spent nearly half of that amount, $1.5 billion, on PC and console games in physical stores. Meanwhile, they spent $525 million on used and rental games and $1.38 billion on digital games, including content downloads, subscriptions, mobile games, and social network games. The numbers show that digital games are very close to exceeding physical retail game sales.

“The declines in the physical market for new physical software are well documented,” said Anita Frazier, an industry analyst for The NPD Group. “But a broader view of the games industry shows that other physical content sales, the combination of used and rental, declined by just 5 percent and digital format content sales grew by 10 percent as compared to Q1 2011. While the growth in digital format sales does not yet offset the declines in physical format sales, clearly the changes occurring within the industry are reflected in the trends we are seeing in the research.”

Research in the United Kingdom, France, and Germany shows that consumers spent $300 million on used and rental games and $959 million on digital games in the first quarter.

“Relative to the spend in the U.S., we find that the consumer spend on mobile games is still developing in the three European countries we are covering, while the spend on full game and add-on content digital downloads and subscriptions is more highly developed,” said Frazier.（source:venturebeat）

3）In Zynga founder Mark Pincus’ world, games will replace text messages

by Joe Osborne

You’re reading this website right now, so chances are you send and/or receive at least one text message every day. More likely, that number is way, way bigger. But have you ever made plans for the weekend with a friend within Words With Friends? If Mark Pincus, founder and CEO of Zynga, has his way, Words With Friends will be the new text message.

“The overall tectonic shifts that are going on in games and more broadly in media are that everything is moving to becoming free, social and accessible. But we’re just at the beginning of that,” Pincus told The Associated Press. “We can get to a day where short-session play can enhance, if not replace text messaging as a way to stay in touch with people.”

It’s a trend that’s already growing not only within Zynga, but within the gaming community. A recent New York Times piece details a woman that keeps in touch with friends almost solely through Words With Friends. And the deluge of “With Friends” games shows no signs of stopping, with Matching With Friends next in line to absorb our free time like a sponge. But does this mark a shift within the company to mobile? Not exactly.

“I still believe that we can offer you a much deeper, more engaging, more compelling play experience on a PC than we can on a mobile device, but one can enhance the other and one can expand the other,” Pincus explained to The AP. “I don’t think they necessarily will compete with each other, just like how we find a place for movies in our lives, and TV and radio.”

It might be true that profits and growth are the bulls-eye for Zynga, but it’s clear that its leader is capable of big-picture-thinking. Now it’s time to see whether his company can and will execute on the dream.（source:games）

4）Former Digital Chocolate Vice President Manel Sort to head King.com’s new Barcelona studio

Emanuel Maiberg

King.com today announced it hired former Digital Chocolate Vice President and General manager Manel Sort to head a new game development studio the company is establishing in Barcelona.

Sort has over 12 years of experience in the video game industry and led development on more than 60 titles across several platforms. Most recently he was working out of Digital Chocolate’s Barcelona office, where he led development on iOS titles such as Galaxy Life Pocket Adventures, MMA Pro Fighter and Millionaire City. King.com plans to staff their new Barcelona studio with more than 40 employees who’ll work on mobile and social game titles.

Riccardo Zacconi, co-founder and CEO of King.com said that they’ve been aggressively hiring the best talent in the industry as they grow into the mobile games sector, and that Sort is a perfect fit to lead their new studio. Recently, Zacconi told us his company is planning to double its workforce by the end of this year.

King.com is hiring aggressively as Zacconi said – Sort is King.com’s second high-profile hire in the past couple of months, with Catharina Mallet of Playfish coming on board to head the company’s new development studio in London.（source:insidesocialgames）

5）Bubble Safari leads this week’s fastest-growing Facebook games by MAU

Mike Thompson

Zynga’s Bubble Safari once again leads this week’s list of fastest-growing Facebook games by monthly active user, taking the No. 1 spot with 2.6 million MAU for a 10 percent gain.

The top five games on the list were dominated by bubble shooters. Social Point’s Dragon City took the No. 2 spot with 500,000 MAU, up 23 percent. Peak Games’s Lost Bubble gained 4 percent, taking the No. 3 position with 300,000 MAU. Cookapps’s Buggle came in at No. 4 with 300,000 MAu, a 5 percent increase. Finally, PlayQ’s Bubble Blitz took the No. 5 spot with 300,000 MAU.

Only two other games on this week’s list had gains greater than 20 percent. First was SGN’s Panda Jam, up by 180,000 MAU for an 86 percent gain. Second was Qublix’s Jewel Kingdom, which took in 120,000 MAU for a 41 percent increase.（source:insidesocialgames）