1）据gigaom报道，苹果日前正式宣布将于9月30日关闭音乐社交网络Ping，这一消息并不令人意外，因为Ping问世两年以来一直没有获得多大影响力，其中最主要原因是它一开始就没有绑定Facebook服务。

death-of-apple-ping(from venturebeat.com)

但此举并不意味着苹果已经放弃社交领域，该公司已在iOS和Mac OS X中绑定Twitter服务，并在iOS 6中植入Facebook，正如其首席执行官Tim Cook在今年初所宣称的那样，苹果没有社交网站，但苹果必须具有社交性。

2）据Techcrunch报道，Facebook首席执行官Mark Zuckerberg自公司IPO以来的首次公开露面的采访结束之后，该公司股票增长8.9%，日前每股售价达21.16美元。

Facebook stock(from techcrunch)

这是Facebook股价在近一个月的最高点，收盘时售价为每股20.91美元，仍比前一天收盘时的19.43美元增长7.62%。

3）据games.com报道，King.com首席执行官Riccardo Zacconi在最近采访中表示，他认为从其他游戏中汲取灵感与公然剽窃这两种行为的性质并不相同，如果有其他公司明显模仿King.com游戏中的多数元素，那就等于是在窃取后者的创意，King.com将会诉诸行动追究剽窃者的责任，此外他还指出“新颖想法”和“持续创新”是娱乐行业的必须要求。

King.com game(from games)

4）据gamasutra报道，暴雪娱乐公司最近被曝出《魔兽世界》游戏截图含有加密的用户数据水印，但却从未向用户告知这一情况。

一些发现这些水印的用户表示，这些使用MMORPG客户端截取的图片含有“可轻易被黑客还原和解密”的信息，其中包括ID帐号、时间标记、IP地址等内容。

watermark(from gamasutra)

虽然这些水印并不包含用户密码和真实姓名等个人信息，但这些数据却可能被垃圾信息投放者盯上，暴雪有可能使用了这些信息追踪未授权服务器和监视用户是否参与被禁止的活动。

许多人批评暴雪的这项举措，因为该公司可能在2008年至2010年就开始嵌入这些水印信息，《魔兽世界》使用条款确实提到公司可能获取用户的一些信息以优化游戏和服务，但并未提到截图水印一事（游戏邦注：在最近一个月前，该公司刚被曝出有黑客攻击了暴雪Battle.net服务，获取了用户邮箱、加密密码以及其他与该公司游戏有关的信息）；目前尚不明确暴雪是否在其他游戏中也添加了这种水印。

5）在本周DAU增长最快的Facebook排行榜上，EA游戏《宝石迷阵闪电战》位居首位，新增30万DAU，增幅为4%。

Zynga最新续集游戏《FarmVille 2》排名第二，增幅达461438%（据AppData数据显示，《FarmVille 2》在9月7日发布时的DAU仅为200）。Peak Games推出的《Lost Jewel》位居第三，新增27万DAU；King.com游戏排名第四，《Candy Crush Saga》新增20万DAU，增幅仅为2%。Playtika游戏《Slotomania》位居第五，新增10万DAU，增幅达5%。Playdom游戏《Thread of Mystery》新增8万DAU，增幅达100%。

Top gainers this week-DAU(from AppData)

（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）Apple officially killing Ping social network on Sept. 30

By Erica Ogg

Apple tried, but it turns out its customers weren’t interested in forming new social connections specifically around iTunes music. So, just two years after it was introduced, Apple is officially retiring its Ping social network. The service is shutting down on Sept. 30, according to a message posted Wednesday in the Ping section of iTunes.

This is not a huge surprise. Ping never gained much traction, and was hurt by its lack of Facebook integration from the get-go.

CEO Tim Cook hinted the end was near for Ping when he spoke at the D10 conference in June, when he said, “We tried Ping, and I think the customer voted and said ‘This isn’t something that I want to put a lot of energy into.’”

This doesn’t mean Apple has given up on social. Since the Ping disaster, Apple has heavily integrated Twitter into iOS and Mac OS X, and Facebook into iOS 6. As Cook put it at the same D conference earlier this year, “Apple doesn’t have to own a social network, but does Apple have to be social? Yes.”（source:gigaom）

2）Zuckerberg’s Disrupt Talk Pushes Facebook Stock Up 8.9% To High of $21.16

Billy Gallagher

Facebook stock rose 8.9% to a high of $21.16 per share today, the first day of trading after CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s first public interview since the company’s IPO. The stock rose in after-hours trading immediately following Zuckerberg’s fireside chat at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco yesterday, and then jumped again when the market opened today.

The new high today is the highest the stock has traded at in almost a month. The stock closed at $20.91, still a 7.62% increase over yesterday’s close of $19.43.

In his talk with TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington yesterday, Zuckerberg shared details on Facebook’s mobile strategy, a major question mark for investors.

He explained that Facebook acknowledged it had misjudged HTML5 and refocused on its own apps. The social network saw users’ consumption of news feed stories double following the launch of its new iOS app. That’s a simple but astounding statistic. Double the content consumed. Double the advertising opportunity.（source:techcrunch）

3）Bubble Witch Saga maker seems A-OK with a bit of copycatting

by Joe Osborne

UPDATE: King.com has provided the following statement regarding Zacconi comments to Gamasutra:

“There is a big difference between being inspired and just making a rip-off of another game. King.com takes great pride in the originality and innovativeness of our games. All of our games are created in-house by our great developers. We recognize that the inspiration for great games can come from a lot of sources, but there is a big difference between being inspired to create something new, different and better compared to just copying what is special about a game and pretending it’s your own work. When companies blatantly copy most of the elements of one of our games to present a game with the same look and feel, they are stealing our creativity and calling it their own – that’s bad for the game world because it rewards the copyists at the expense of the creators. A creator takes the risk that a game will be a success or a flop, a copyist ripping off a great game takes none of that risk but a lot of the benefit. We want other games developers to be clear, when companies ‘cross the line’ into blatantly copying our games and their original and unique IP, we will take action.”

Everyone knows that copycatting (cloning, whatever) is nothing new to video games, but the industry-wide issue was exacerbated when social and mobile games hit their stride in recent years.

Now, CEO of Bubble Witch Saga creator King.com Riccardo Zacconi makes it known that he doesn’t have that much of a problem with fast followers on Facebook and mobile.

“I think that we’ve seen more and more copies or more and more games in the same genre, and now we’re bringing what I would call ‘color’,'” Zacconi told Gamasutra.”I think the player who likes to play one game actually likes to play other versions of a similar game. So I think from that perspective it’s a larger market, and it’s very interesting.”

Zacconi also said that “fresh ideas” and “constant innovation” are necessary in the entertainment. But, as Gamasutra points out, King.com’s recent releases on Facebook aren’t exactly new to gaming, but were new to the Facebook game fans. Based on the CEO’s comments, he seems to be well aware that games like Bubble Witch Saga (and later Zynga’s Bubble Safari) owe a great deal to the classics, such as Bust a Move by Taito. See? This whole copycatting thing goes way, way back.（source:games）

4）World of Warcraft secretly embedding user data in screenshots – report

By Eric Caoili

Blizzard Entertainment has reportedly been watermarking screenshots taken inside World of Warcraft with encrypted user data for years, though it never notified players that their information is shared in the images.

According to users who discovered the watermarks, each screenshot taken by players with the MMORPG client contains information that “can be easily recovered and decrypted by hackers,” including account IDs, timestamps, and the IP address of the realm.

Though the watermarks do not contain account passwords or personal information (e.g. real names), the data shared could be used to help scammers target players. Blizzard could also potentially use the information to track down unauthorized servers and people engaging in prohibited activities.

Many are criticizing the practice due to user privacy concerns and Blizzard’s decision to not explicitly inform players about the watermarks since it began embedding them some time between 2008 and 2010.

World of Warcraft’s terms of use does mention that the company may obtain identification information about users’ computers “for purposes of improving the game and/or the service, and to police and enforce” the MMORPG’s rules, but it makes no mention of the screenshot watermarks.

This news comes just a month after hackers compromised Blizzard’s Battle.net service, accessing user emails, encrypted passwords, and other information used to play games the company’s games, including World of Warcraft and Diablo III.

It’s unclear if Blizzard has employed the same watermarking practice in its other titles. Gamasutra has reached out to the company for a comment on the watermarks, but has yet to hear back as of press time.（source:gamasutra）

5）Players are getting Bejeweled on this week’s fastest-growing Facebook games by DAU

Kassi Murray

Electronic Art’s Bejeweled Blitz made a comeback and took the No. 1 slot on our list of fastest-growing Facebook games. It gained 300,000 daily active users and grew 4 percent in DAU.

Zynga’s recently published sequel, FarmVille 2, came in at the No. 2 spot with a 461,438 percent gain. According to AppData, on Sept. 7 FarmVille 2 was only at 200 DAU which would explain the extreme percentage gain. Lost Jewel by Peak Games gained 270,000 DAU taking the No. 3 spot. King.com’s Candy Crush Saga only had a 2 percent gain but gained 200,000 DAU, giving it the No. 4 slot. Playtika’s Slotomania was in the No. 5 spot with a 5 percent gain and a gain of 100,000 DAU.

Only two other games reached over 100 percent DAU gain. Playdom’s Thread of Mystery gained 100 percent DAU with a 80,000 gain of DAU making its total DAU 160,000. Mynet’s Mynet Canak ihaleli Batak gained 100 percent DAU making its total DAU 40,000 and giving it a 20,000 DAU gain.（source:insidesocialgames）