1）据mobile-ent报道，摩根大通分析师Doug Anmuth最近表示不看好Zynga股市行情，并称该公司已经“没有多少价值”（游戏邦注：Zynga股价曾一度跌至2.19美元的历史最低点，后来略微回升至2.35美元）。

Zynga Stock drops(from kotaku.com)

他表示Zynga第四季度发展前景将远低于人们预期，由于该公司正处于逆境，这一颓势还将延续到未来几个季度。

2）据日经新闻报道，日本电信运营商Docomo最近确认了即将推出社交游戏平台的这一消息。

该平台名为dgame，对应该公司所推出的Android应用商店dmarket，它将成为dmarket系统中的一个部分。

dgame-docomo-games(from serkantoto.com)

Docomo计划于11月底发布这一平台，首航合作伙伴包括Namco Bandai、Square Enix、Voltage、世嘉、KLab、D2C和Konami，其中虚拟货币为dcoin，用户可通过运营商计费系统付费。

dgame将面向智能手机、平板电脑和功能性手机平台开放服务，但不会提供“会诱惑用户的强制性内容或游戏设计”（游戏邦注：这意味着该平台不含gacha机制），有可能推出原创游戏（即第一方游戏产品）。

3）据insidesocialgames报道，Zynga日前透露《Zynga Slingo》上个月用户流量明显提升，有三分之二玩家来自北美之外的地区，80%用户是女性，她们平均每天游戏时长超过80分钟。

zynga-slingo-facebook-game-(from social-games-list.com)

4）据gamasutra报道，Riot Games旗下热门免费增值PC游戏《英雄联盟》已有1200万日活跃用户，这一数据超过了《使命召唤：现代战争3》、《魔兽世界》以及任何Facebook社交游戏。

lol_infographic（from gamasutra)

根据AppData数据，Facebook平台目前最热门社交游戏《FarmVille 2》的日活跃用户也仅为800万；《魔兽世界》目前日常用户仅略超过1000万，而《现代战争3》最高峰时的日常用户也仅为330万。

《英雄联盟》在去年11月份的日常用户仅为420万，当时的月活跃用户为1150万，但现在已增长至3200万。

据Roit所称，该游戏所有玩家每月游戏时长总计达10亿小时左右，《英雄联盟》已是“世界上活跃度最高的电子游戏”（游戏邦注：据Ngmoco总经理及免费游戏专家Ben Cousins所推测，该游戏每日收益可能达到500万-1000万美元）。

5）据games.com报道，Zynga设计师Mike Perry最近针对《魔兽世界》引入农场机制的情况表示，他很乐见这一现象的出现。“农场机制是一种普遍元素，我在Maxis任职时制作的第一款游戏是《Sim Farm》，因此我很高兴看到农场游戏机制出现在其他作品中，我想这是玩家所欢迎的内容，你无需向他人解释为何你要种植庄稼，人人都知道你种植作物是为了让它成长和收割庄稼。”

tillers watering crops(from games)

6）据games.com报道，PopCap Games高管在日前的GDC Online大会上分享了《Solitaire Blitz》从构思到发布的发展过程。该游戏原先名为《Pearl Diver》，经历了数次设计和美术迭代过程。

solitaire blitz(from games)

该游戏首席设计师Jason Mai及制作人Jared Neuss原先认为这款游戏会一炮走红，因为它完工但尚未发布时曾令PopCap总部整个五楼的成员为之着迷，游戏发布虽然小有收获，但并不如预期那般成功。据Neuss所称，该游戏未采用“同时与多位好友分享”或“选择邀请多位好友”的设置，这个疏忽可能就是它未能大获成功的原因之一。（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）Zynga shares “worthless”

by Mike Shaw

As Zynga’s stock continues to plummet, a leading analyst puts the boot in.

Last week, Zynga’s share price fell to an all-time low of $2.19, and although it has since recovered slightly to sit at $2.35, it’s not enough, with one JP Morgan analyst labelling the company “worthless”.

Share prices have now fallen so low that the company is no longer worth as much as its securities, which combined represent value of around $2.46 per share.

JP Morgan analyst Doug Anmuth said: “The outlook for [the fourth quarter] is significantly lower than our expectations, which assumed some growth from newer titles launched this summer.

“We expect fundamentals to remain weak over the next few quarters as the company faces several headwinds.”

Other analysts are now predicting large-scale redundancies at the firm, which has already lost senior members of staff in recent months. （source：mobile-ent）

2）dgame: Docomo Confirms Its Social Gaming Platform Is Coming [Social Games]

by Dr. Serkan Toto

The Nikkei caused a big splash two weeks ago when the business daily broke the news that Japan’s biggest mobile carrier NTT Docomo (around 60 million subscribers) is planning to enter the social gaming business.

The information available back then was relatively thin, but Docomo just confirmed the plan (and almost all the points leaked by the Nikkei).

In a nutshell, the company is preparing a cross-device, cross-carrier, and eventually even a cross-country social gaming platform.

Here are the key facts:

the platform will be called “dgame”, which is consistent with the company’s “dmarket” brand name for its customized Android store (that is pre-installed on every Android handset

Docomo sells in Japan)

it will be a section inside the dmarket (where Docomo also sells other content like video)

Docomo will continue to link to Mobage

Docomo plans to launch the platform in “late November”

third-party game providers at the start include Namco Bandai, Square Enix, Sega, Voltage, KLab, D2C, and Konami

users can expect a total of 15 different social games initially

users can pay for virtual items with “dcoin”, Docomo’s own virtual currency

Docomo subscribers can pay via carrier billing (using dgame itself is free)

So far, so good, but Docomo cleared up a few other things, too.

And here are the points that are particularly interesting:

the platform won’t offer “compulsive-style content or games designed to tempt users” (this may mean there will be no gacha)

users can play games on smartphones, tablets, and feature phones (this includes the iPhone, meaning dgame will offer browser-based gaming)

dgame will be a cross-carrier platform, just like Mobage and GREE (already leaked by The Nikkei)

Docomo seems to not only offer a platform but also plan to offer “original” games (first-party titles)

and now it comes: Docomo plans to establish dgame “on a global basis”, too

These are quite a few pointers, but some key details remain unclear, for example if the platform will offer games embedded in a full-fledged social network (like Mobage and GREE) or if it will be more of a portal filled with content (like KDDI’s Smartpass). Docomo itself uses the term “platform”, which indicates dgame will be more similar to the former.

Again, I don’t think that dgame will be able to compete with Mobage and GREE “at eye level”, but this platform will attract users (and subsequently money) away from the established companies. However, the initial batch of games isn’t really compelling/already available on existing platforms, so Docomo has some work to do.

And dgame already provides the 400+ social game providers in Japan with an attractive alternative and additional leverage with regards to the duopolists.

For Mobage and GREE, this isn’t a “competition is good for the business” type of situation: Docomo launching dgame will not help them in any way, it’s just bad news, a disturbance.

As a side note: I am really, really doubting Docomo can successfully export dgame – as a platform – to other markets. Take that as a tactical or “political” statement.（source：serkantoto）

3）Over two-thirds of Zynga Slingo’s players are outside the U.S. — Zynga Slingo saw a huge surge in traffic last month in terms of monthly active users. Slingo, Inc. revealed that two-thirds of the game’s players come from outside of North America, 80 percent of whom are women who play an average of over 80 minutes per day.（source：insidesocialgames）

4）League of Legends draws more daily players than Zynga’s biggest hits

By Eric Caoili

How popular is Riot Games free-to-play PC game League of Legends? It has 12 million daily active players — that’s more than Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, World of Warcraft, or any social game on Facebook.

The most popular game on Facebook, Zynga’s FarmVille 2, draws only 8 million daily users, according to AppData. World of Warcraft currently has a little over 10 million subscribers, while Modern Warfare 3, one of the biggest console releases ever, at its peak hit 3.3 million daily players.

And thanks to microtransactions for purchasing playable characters and items, League of Legends is also likely generating a lot of revenue from those players — Ngmoco GM and free-to-play expert Ben Cousins estimates that the core-targeted game grosses $5-10 million every day.

Unlike most free-to-play social or casual games, League of Legends is still growing rapidly three years after its launch, too. The game’s daily user count was just 4.2 million last November, and its monthly active player numbers also increased from 11.5 million back then to now 32 million.

That’s nearing the number of paid subscribers to Xbox Live, which is about 40 million. Riot, a U.S.-based subsidiary of China’s Tencent Holdings, also claims that when looking at total hours played per month (1 billion per month on average) by all users, League of Legends is “the most played video game in the world.”（source：gamasutra）

5）Zynga designer on farming in World of Warcraft: ‘I’m glad to see it’

by Joe Osborne

When the farming feature in the latest World of Warcraft (WoW) expansion, Mists of Pandaria, was revealed, most media (us included) asked, “What will the players think?” But soon after, another question cropped up: “What will Zynga think?”

The house that built FarmVille surely feels some type of way about the largest pay-to-play online game around encroaching on its territory. (That’s not to say that Zynga invented the method, of course. But it’s safe to say that Zynga has a stranglehold on the play style as far as online gaming is concerned.)

Zynga has several times pointed to the fact that hardcore gamers, too, spend hours plucking digital crops. So, does the social gaming giant feel threatened by WoW creator Blizzard Entertainment riffing on its cash cow? Not quite, at least according to FarmVille designer Mike Perry.

“Farming mechanics are universal. The first game I made at Maxis was Sim Farm, so I love seeing the farming game mechanic in everything. It’s something that I think players really identify with,” Perry points out after his session at GDC Online 2012 in Austin, Tex. “You don’t have to explain anything to anybody what happens when you plant a crop. Everybody knows you have to farm it, fertilize it to make it grow and harvest it. I’m glad to see it.”（source：games）

6）Why Solitaire Blitz wasn’t the next Words With Friends

by Joe Osborne

The first Facebook game in PopCap Games’s successful lineup of “Blitz” releases based on an original idea and intellectual property, the studio expected Solitaire Blitz to go out like gangbusters. But things didn’t exactly go off without a hitch.

Solitaire Blitz is no doubt a success. But it’s not the breakout chart-topper that lead designer Jason Mai and producer Jared Neuss had envisioned when the entire fifth floor of PopCap headquarters was hooked on the game before it was even finished. During a session at GDC Online 2012 in Austin, Tex., Mai and Neuss told he story of Solitaire Blitz from conception to launch and where it is today.

First known as Pearl Diver, Solitaire Blitz went through several design and art iterations before it evolved into the game you (hopefully-it’s pretty fantastic) play today. For instance, things as seemingly innocuous as the look and placement of the “Play” button went through numerous revisions after play testing to get it just right.

The same goes for character design, such as the mermaid players are greeted by upon every login. (Seen above, PopCap could have gone in many directions with the look of its characters.) However, seemingly insignificant omissions, like a multi-friend selector for sharing with or inviting friends, ensured that Solitaire Blitz wouldn’t see astronomical success, according to Neuss. (But it sure is there now.)

On the flip side, the social take on solitaire saw several ideas hit the cutting room floor, worked to its benefit. For instance, Mai and his team had brewed up over 20 boosts, which were cut to a more manageable 14 and were cycled through five at a time randomly each week.

Many players are likely puzzled when a game they wholeheartedly enjoy isn’t the ubiquitous time sink that everyone is talking about. Perhaps something as simple (and dry) as a multi-friend selector can mean the difference between an addictive, inventive Facebook game and what sparks the next miniature zeitgeist.（source：games）