1）游戏开发商Arkadium（代表作包括《Mahjongg Dimensions》）最近针对玩家购买虚拟商品的意向调查报告显示，51%玩家出于装饰及个性化原因而购买虚拟商品，44%玩家因希望获得游戏优势而购买虚拟商品。

type-of-game(from insidesocialgames)

time-before-purchase(from insidesocialgames)

The_5_Ws_of_Social_Game_Purchases(from Arkadium)

46%付费玩家购买游戏升级内容，52%玩家在游戏虚拟商品中的消费额为0-5美元。

69%付费玩家在模拟或建设类游戏中消费，79%玩家每月最多在两款游戏中消费。

67%的Facebook付费游戏玩家会在接触游戏一周后在其中消费，49%玩家表示自己在游戏中采取购买行动之后的6个月仍会持续体验游戏。

2）据games.com报道，最近有匿名知情者透露Zynga正打算收购一些小型硬核游戏开发商。这里的硬核游戏是指射击、动作角色扮演、赛车等类型，主要吸引13岁以上男性用户的游戏。

Zynga-logo(from games)

观察者认为虽然这只是匿名消息源，但Zynga若果真在拓展社交游戏市场的举动也并不令人意外，毕竟Zynga用户已经趋于饱和，Zynga有可能正在寻找吸引新玩家的出路。

3）据gamasutra报道，在Zynga即将公布第二季度财报之际，Cowen & Company分析师Doug Creutz日前指出Zynga游戏《FrontierVille》和《Mafia Wars》在DAU降至350万以下之后，其帐面价值也随之下滑。

Creutz认为350万DAU这一数据是所有社交游戏用户的重要临界值，包括《CityVille》和《FarmVille》在内的Zynga前10大热门游戏DAU都开始下滑到这个水平线之下，这意味着Zynga收益也将明显下跌。

他表示尽管人们认为Zynga.com和在线博彩项目可能有助于提升该公司的长期运营表现，但Zynga的核心Facebook游戏业务却很可能正在走下坡路。

4）据Techcrunch报道，Zynga与孩子宝公司曾在2月份进行授权合作，将推出基于Zynga游戏的实体玩具等周边产品，这两者合作的首个亮相产品是Farmville Memory这款纸牌游戏，其受众是4岁以上的用户群体。

FarmVille Memory game(from crunchdot.com)

但观察者表示，Zynga这类线下产品是否具有市场需求，其线下策略是否将成为该公司重要收益来源仍然有待观望。

5）据gamasutra报道，游戏设计师David Jones（代表作包括《侠盗猎车手》、《Crackdown》、《疯狂小旅鼠》等）在最近采访中表示，游戏行业在过去几年发生了许多变化，之前人们可能只需要不到6个月时间就决定是否要将灵光一现的想法转变为具有可玩性的产品，并快速将其制作发布以验证这个想法是否有效。但今天的设计师应该在投入宝贵的开发时间前先仔细考虑产品寿命。

david_jones(from gamezplay.org)

他称如果自己四五个月后就忘了某个游戏理念，那么他就清楚最好不要去开发这个理念。但如果两年后他仍对这个想法念念不忘并且满怀激情，那么他就知道这个想法已经成熟，可以将其转变成产品了。

6）据insidesocialgames报道，5th Planet近日成为首家与Kabam合作发行游戏的第三方开发商，并向后者门户网站推出了《Clash of the Dragons》。

Clash of the Dragon(from insidesocialgames)

该游戏于2011年12月首发于Kongregate网站，上线30天安装量达30万次。5th Planet Games从Facebook向其他平台和网站扩展业务的举措颇有斩获，今年该公司年收益有可能达到1000万美元。

7）据socialgamesobserver报道，德国社交游戏开发商Wooga日前宣布将于今年秋季推出两款手机游戏，其中一者是Wooga首款Android版手机游戏《Diamond Dash》，另一款是iOS游戏《Monster World》。

monster_world_mobile(from siliconallee.com)

《Diamond Dash》于2011年3月首发于Facebook平台，至今玩家已突破7000万，其iOS版本下载量已达2000万次；《Monster World》这款社交游戏在过去两年中则已收获4500万以上用户。

Wooga的200多名员工中现在已有半数成员致力于手机游戏业务，其他一半成员则负责处理Facebook游戏项目。（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）Why do Facebook users play games? They like to decorate

by Tim Green

Research shows that the top reason to buy virtual items is to make games look nicer.

Game developer Arkadium, which is best known for Mahjongg Dimensions, asked players about the items they are likely to purchase and the genre of games that are most likely to monetise.

Here are the key stats on why they purchase:

* 51% purchase to decorate and personalise

* 44% purchase to gain an edge

Stats on what players purchase:

* 46% of purchasers buy game upgrades

* 52% typically stay in the $0-$5 range for in-game purchases

Where do players purchase?

* 69% are purchasing in Sim or building games

* 79% spend in two or fewer games per month

When do players purchase?

* 67% of buyers wait more than a week before they are convinced to purchase in a Facebook game

* 49% of buyers report they are still playing all of the games in which they have purchased after six months（source:mobile-ent）

2）FarmVille-maker Zynga takes aim at ‘dude’ games next [Rumor]

by Beau Hindman

Anonymous sources have reached out to Inside Social Games, indicating that Zynga might be looking to buy a few smaller core gaming developers. What is core gaming? Shooters, action role-players, racing games — games that generally appeal to males, ages 13 and up. Think Halo, Gears of War and Call of Duty. While core games do not have the same number of players as social games, Zynga may have reached a saturation point, and the studio is looking for new styles of games to attract new players. Does this mean we might soon see a ShooterVille or a real, persistent version of FarmVille?

All of this talk is based on rumors from anonymous sources, but it isn’t hard to imagine Zynga branching out of the social market, at least in more limited ways at first. While Facebook gamers still make up the vast majority of Zynga’s customers, is it possible that the game maker is trying to increase the number of visitors to its newly launched Zynga.com?

Or is this just a case of a large company trying to learn about different genres from smaller companies that know better? Time will tell.（source:games）

3）’Zynga’s core Facebook game business is likely in decline’ – analyst

by Mike Rose

Analyst firm Cowen and Company warns that, as social games giant Zynga gears up to report its second quarter earnings this week, a number of the company’s key titles are about to hit negative inflection points.

Using the previous declines of FrontierVille and Mafia Wars as a case in point, Cowen analyst Doug Creutz noted that both games saw a decline in book value after they had dropped below 3.5 million daily active users — a figure that Creutz claims has proven to be “a critical threshold” for overall social gaming users.

Worryingly for the company, eight of its top ten grossing titles, including CityVille and FarmVille, have dropped below this figure, meaning that Zynga may well soon experience notable revenue declines as a result.

Creutz also noted, “While we do think that initiatives like Zynga.com and online gambling have the potential to drive long-term upside, that view is balanced off by our belief that Zynga’s core Facebook game business is likely in decline.” Zynga will report its second quarter earnings on July 25. （source:gamasutra）

4）Spotted: Hasbro And Zynga’s First Physical Title, A Farmville Memory Game For Ages 4 And Up

Rip Empson

Zynga became a public company with $3.75 billion dollar market cap in part by taking existing physical games and introducing them to your browser and social graph. Poker and Scrabble are just two that immediately come to mind. But, lately we’ve seen Zynga flipping its model, turning to the offline world in an attempt to find new life beyond browsers and smartphones. As Eric reported in February, the company has been forging deals with toy companies and retailers, including, most notably, a big licensing deal with gaming giant, Hasbro.

Through the new partnership, Hasbro and Zynga have been developing a series of titles that look to narrow the gap between digital and offline gaming, and today (via tip) we have our first glimpse of how the first of these will look. It’s called Farmville Memory, and it’s a card game for ages four and up.

The news comes on the heels of a lackluster second quarter earnings report yesterday, in which Hasbro failed to meet analyst expectations as its Q2 profit dropped 25 percent thanks to declining sales across most of its major categories. Sales were down 8 percent for games in particular, yet even so, Hasbro’s leadership remained optimistic about the company’s outlook for the year — based on partnerships like the one it’s struck with Zynga that will see it more aggressively moving to merge “digital and analog play.”

For both companies, the partnership is an opportunity to plug up leaky areas. For Hasbro, its digital partnerships represent a shot at revitalizing, at soaking up a little of that digital/social mojo, while for Zynga, Hasbro represents a serious shot at realizing its merchandizing dreams with a big national toy distributor. It remains to be seen just how much demand there is for Zynga offline, whether or not these offline plays can become a significant source of revenue. Though it certainly seems to be a well-worn page in the gaming playbook.（source:techcrunch）

5）How to know when your game idea is good enough to make

by Frank Cifaldi

“If I forget about an idea after 4 or 5 months I know it was a good thing we never started it, but if after two years it’s still there and you’re still excited by it, then that’s the time to start thinking about putting it into production.”

- Game designer David Jones (Grand Theft Auto, Crackdown, Lemmings) shares his internal test for whether a game idea is good enough in a video interview for the Critical Path documentary.

A lot has changed over the years: as David points out, in the old days games could be turned around in under six months, with sparks of inspiration turned into playable products and quickly put onto store shelves to see if they worked. Today’s designers have to think about the longevity of a product before committing valuable development time to it.

This raises an interesting question: are commercial games better now that the ideas behind them have to be so carefully scrutinized, or does real innovation come from throwing ideas at the wall and seeing which ones stick? （source:gamasutra）

6）Kabam gets in on the publishing game with 5th Planet’s Clash of the Dragons

Mike Thompson

5th Planet is the first third-party developer to publish a game with Kabam, having just launched Clash of the Dragons on the company’s web portal.

Clash of the Dragons launched on Kongregate in December 2011, with the developer reporting 300,000 installs within 30 days. This is the second CCG 5th Planet’s put out within the past month, having launched Legacy of Heroes on Kongregate’s portal on July 9. 5th Planet Games is finding great success as it expands from Facebook to other platforms and game networks; this year the developer is on track to bring in $10 million in annual revenue.（source:insidesocialgames）

7）After HTML5 and Google+ Withdrawal: Wooga Goes Android

By Sebastian Sujka

Berlin’s biggest social gaming developer Wooga has announced two new mobile titles, including its first title on Android. Wooga’s mobile strategy will see Wooga bring its most successful Facebook games to mobile and develop new IPs designed especially for mobile. 12 months ago Wooga announced its first mobile game with Diamond Dash and successfully launched the title on iOS. In the last year Wooga performed some experiments with HTML5 and Google Plus. Both approached failed, ending with the withdrawal from the technology as well as from Google’s social networking platform#mce_temp_url#. Now, half of Wooga’s over 200 employees is working on mobile titles and the other half on native flash titles for Facebook.

Mobile players who connect with friends via Facebook eight times more likely to spend money

The idea of the mobile strategy is to connect players across platforms. According to Wooga, Diamond Dash mobile players who choose to connect with friends via Facebook are eight times more likely to spend money and significantly more engaged than users who play without logging in – highlighting the importance of Facebook and the Social Graph in Wooga’s mobile strategy.

Diamond Dash first game on Android platform

Diamond Dash for Android and Monster World for iPhone and iPad will lead the strategy, with Diamond Dash being the first game on Google’s Android platform. Over 70 million people have played Diamond Dash since it was first released on Facebook in March 2011, with 20 million of those players downloading the game on the iPhone and iPad.

Wooga to double game portfolio of Facebook and mobile games by early-2013

One of Wooga’s first games and a social gaming classic, Monster World garnered over 45 million players in two years. Now Wooga is bringing the game to mobile. Wooga also shared it will double its current game portfolio of Facebook and mobile games by early-2013. Diamond Dash for Android and Monster World for iOS will arrive this Autumn.（source:socialgamesobserver）