1）据gamasutra报道，Zynga首席执行官Mark Pincus最近在Twitter转发了一篇建议Zynga放弃上市企业身份转为私人募股公司的文章，有观察者认为这一举动很可能关系到Zynga未来走向。

Zynga-logo(from ibtimes.co.uk)

Zynga究竟是否会采纳这一建议目前尚无定论，但如果Zynga真放弃上市公司身份，无异于承认Zynga无力在上市环境中参与竞争，这势必严重损害该公司名誉（从而降低其对潜在合作伙伴吸引力）；此外，转为私人募股公司还可能让Zynga遭遇大量认为自己受到欺骗的投资者起诉。

而采用这种策略的好处甚少，唯一可能的原因就是Zynga作为上市公司会面临很多风险，而Pincus已经无法面对那些看到自己的投入资金一去不返的愤怒股东。Zynga现在似乎已经处于“进退两难”的境地，甚至有分析师称Zynga游戏业务已经“毫无价值”。

尽管如此，Zynga目前仍然没有回购部分股票的计划（游戏邦注：采取这一行动就意味着Zynga承认公司已经贬值），Zynga现在虽然有大量资金可回购所有的流通股以让公司重返私人募股状态，但这明显是一招险棋，因为这会让耗尽资金的Zynga更容易彻底崩溃。

2）据gamasutra报道，Capcom消费者游戏开发总经理Kazunori Sugiura在最近采访中指出了制作主机游戏与社交游戏的区别，并表示开发在线及社交游戏在许多方面很像制作电视节目，而开发主机游戏则像是制作电影。

Kazunori Sugiura(from capcom.co.jp)

他称团队经常提醒成员记住，“数字是具有生命力和会吸引的有机体”，最重要的是游戏数据可以反映玩家习惯和态度，因此他们会把数字视为优先考虑的元素。他们就像关注电视观众收视率一样重视游戏的日常数据，每天早晨上班时首先要做的就是查看前一天的数据。如果某个数据下滑，他们就会探讨提升数据的多种方法，例如展开活动或添加内容等。

他还指出，公司管理层有时候甚至重视数据甚于团队成员的想法。

3）据insidesocialgames报道，Zynga日前宣布与本田汽车合作展开其首个基于奖励形式的移动广告活动，将通过Zynga游戏《Scramble With Friends》进行推广，支持用户通过与广告互动而赢取游戏积分和非指定虚拟商品。

Words-With-Friends(from insidesocialgames)

玩家需要在标有本田品牌的游戏面板上填写与之相关的文字，如果填出了“Accord”、“luxury”和“new”的文字，就可以赢取奖励；而Zynga于10月6日在《Words With Friends》推出的“Word of the Day”营销活动中，玩家若填写出“new”、“tech”或者“you”的文字就可以获得一些游戏攻略。

4）据insidesocialgames报道，Zynga最近起诉《CityVille》前总经理Alan Patmore“窃取”商业机密一案已取得了第一阶段的胜利，法官已向被告发出禁令，要求后者不得使用、讨论或复制其掌握的Zynga文件资料，也暂时不可参与任何可能用到Zynga商业机密的在线游戏开发活动。

zynga(from cnet.com.au)

Zynga法律总顾问Jay Monahan表示，Patmore现在并没有反驳自己拿走763份文件，并将这些文件移交给其现任雇主Kixeye公司这一说法，Zynga将继续保护自己公司员工的游戏理念及资产。

（游戏邦注：据venturebeat报道，Kixeye首席执行官Will Harbin针对此案回应称，“Zynga目前正流失大量顶尖人才，但他们却并不是着眼于创造更好的工作环境和更棒的产品，而是诉诸于依靠该公司唯一能够盈利的法务部门来解决问题，这只是Zynga采取报复性手段困扰前雇员的又一个案例。”）

5）据gamezebo报道，Zynga在今年初曾起诉社交游戏开发商Kobojo旗下游戏《PyramidVille》、《PyramidVille Adventures》名称侵犯其“Ville”版权，因此Kobojo最近将游戏名称分别更改为《PyramidVille》、《PyramidValley Adventures》，但并未透露这两家公司的官司是否已经结束。

PyramidValley(from gamezebo)

6）在本周DAU增长最迅速的Facebook榜单上，《FarmVille 2》仍高居榜首，新增80万DAU，增幅达10%。

ArcadeMonk游戏《Bubble Pirates》位居第二，新增19万DAU，增幅为633%。Twiitch游戏《KartWorld》排名第三，新增14万DAU，增幅高达1400%。Ooblada游戏《Bubble Bunny》位列第四，新增12万DAU，增幅达300%；FreshPlanet游戏《SongPop》排名第五，新增10万DAU，增幅为3%。

Top gainers this week–DAU(from AppData)

基于美剧《行尸走肉》的RockYou游戏《The Walking Dead Social Game》新增10万DAU，增幅为167%，但DAU总量仍未重返最高峰时的23万DAU。（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）Opinion: Is Zynga ready to throw in the towel on Wall St? Exclusive

By Chris Morris

Mark Pincus has never been someone who follows the same path as the rest of the video game industry, but his latest divergence is a particularly interesting one.

A little over a week ago, Zynga CEO Pincus retweeted an analysis piece suggesting the company should abandon its efforts as a publicly traded entity and consider going private. The suggestion comes less than a year after Zynga’s highly publicized IPO.

While there’s certainly nothing controversial about a retweet, it’s a curious move from the high profile CEO of a company that is, to put it kindly, floundering – and it’s one some observers and investors could read as a hint about future moves.

Could Zynga be mulling that option? It’s impossible to say, but it certainly raises some interesting questions. Specifically, what benefits would such a move have – and what penalties?

Let’s look at those in reverse order.

Certainly, reversing the decision to take Zynga public would be a public relations disaster. It would be tantamount to admitting that the company is unable to compete in the public space and could cause fundamental damage to the company’s reputation (which could hurt its chances of luring corporate partners).

Of course, Zynga is the eye of the hurricane when it comes to PR disasters these days. Executives are jumping ship faster than people can keep track. Users are leaving at an even faster rate. And, because of that, its earnings continue to shrink.

Going private so quickly would also almost certainly open the floodgates for a series of lawsuits from investors, who would feel scammed.

Advantages? Those seem few and far between. The story Pincus pointed to notes that the opportunities available to Zynga are too risky for a public company, especially since the social and mobile spaces have so much unexplored territory. Perhaps, but investors realized they were, in some ways, investing in the Wild West when they signed on board (or, at least, they should have). It was never going to be a smooth ride to easy street.

Largely, it seems that the chief argument for a once-again-private Zynga would be that Pincus no longer has to deal with the angry mobs that have seen their investments all-but-disappear.

Pincus (and Zynga) have always seemed to have a limited amount of respect for investors in the publicly traded space. The IPO didn’t give shareholders a majority vote in the company’s operations (Pincus retained those). And Pincus has continued to run the company in much the same way as he did in its early days – with the power concentrated around him.

Zynga, frankly, is in something of a no-win situation right now and it’s going to be hard to find a way out. Analysts note the company’s games business is essentially without any value – with the stock trading below the per-share value of the company’s cash, securities and real estate assets.

And, while he’s certainly a competitive person, some recent actions have raised questions about Pincus’ level of interest in saving the company.

Despite the troubles of the last few months, Zynga has not given any indication it plans to buy back a limited percentage of shares (a common move to signal to investors it thinks the company is undervalued). For that matter, Pincus himself hasn’t shown an inclination to buy back any shares personally (maybe that recent purchase of a $16 million, 11,500 square foot home has his funds tied up).

Zynga also hasn’t made an honest assessment of its own expenses and course-corrected internally (many observers have pointed out the company is staff-heavy, given its operations). At the same time, it needs to find a way to stop the bleed of key talent (like the loss of Words With Friends creators Paul and David Bettner).

Despite all the problems, Zynga does still have a significant cash warchest – enough that it could afford to repurchase all outstanding shares and, in fact, take the company private. But with revenues drying up and no turnaround on the immediate (or even mid-term) horizon, that would be an incredibly risky move, one that leaves the company vulnerable to a complete collapse.

And while Pincus would surely like to get the investor and analytical communities to quit second-guessing him and his company’s every decision, it’s not likely he’s willing to make that sort of a gamble to achieve that goal.（source：gamasutra）

2）Capcom comes to grips with player metrics

By Mike Rose

“We often remind our staff that ‘figures are living and breathing organisms’… The bottom line is that we think game data is a genuine reflection of gamer habits and attitudes, and thus needs to be given top priority and examined directly.”

- Kazunori Sugiura, general manager of consumer game development at Capcom, discusses the differences between making home console games, and creating social games.

With the company gradually moving into the social games space, Sugiura and his team have been getting to grips with how social game development differs from the usual development methods, and how player data helps to drive decisions.

“In many ways, the development of online and social games is a lot like producing a TV program, while developing games for home consoles is more like making a movie,” he adds.

“We always keep a close watch and place a high value on daily data, which is just like TV viewer ratings. When we arrive at work in the morning, the first thing we do is to check the previous day’s data. If there has been a drop in the figures, we discuss various ways to bring them back up, such as running events or when to put out added content.”

In fact, Sugiura notes that at times the management has even gone against the wishes of the staff and prioritized past data results over employee ideas, such is the company’s level of faith in its player data.（source：gamasutra）

3）Zynga partners with Honda for reward-based mobile ad campaign

Mike Thompson

Zynga announced today it’s joining forces with Honda to launch the developer’s first reward-based mobile ad campaign. The new campaign is focused on the 2013 Honda Accord “It Starts With You” program.

This new mobile campaign will take place in Zynga’s Scramble With Friends, allowing users to earn things like in-game credits and unspecified virtual goods when they interact with the ads.

In this case, interacting with the Honda brand means players will have to play on a branded game board and locate the words “Accord,” “luxury” and “new” to earn their rewards.

Today marks the official launch of the rewards program but Honda’s partnership with Zynga actually kicked off on Oct. 6, with a “Word of the Day” promo in Words With Friends. When players played the words “new,” “tech” or “you,” they would receive gameplay tips.（source：insidesocialgames）

4）Zynga scores court victory in lawsuit against Alan Patmore

Mike Thompson

Zynga’s won the first round in its case against former studio GM Alan Patmore, allowing the suit to continue forward and granting further requests from the developer’s legal counsel.

Zynga filed the suit on Friday, when a judge granted a temporary restraining order that prevented Patmore from using, discussing or copying the info in the documents Zynga alleges he stole from his work computer before he left the company this summer. Patmore was also prevented from engaging in any activity that has anything to do with developing online games that would use Zynga’s trade secrets.

The judge presiding over the case also ordered more categories of relief in Zynga’s favor. Now, there will be an expedited deposition of Patmore (who wasn’t present in court today and was instead represented by an attorney) as well as forensic examinations of Patmore’s work and personal computers, iPhone and personal Dropbox account.

According to a statement by Zynga Deputy General Counsel Jay Monahan, “Patmore does not dispute that he took 763 files from Zynga, which contained confidential game designs from teams around the company, and that he transferred those files to his computer at Kixeye where he’s currently the VP of Product. We are pleased with the judge’s decision and will continue to work to protect the ideas and assets of our employees.”（source：insidesocialgames）

Zynga lawsuit against former CityVille GM moves forward, Kixeye responds

by Joe Osborne

The next legal battle for Zynga is one that it started, and it looks like it could go all the way to court, based on a statement released by the CityVille maker. Zynga has filed suit
against Alan Patmore, a former general manager for CityVille who left to serve as War Commander creator Kixeye’s VP of product, but allegedly took numerous trade secrets with him. Here’s Zynga deputy general counsel Jay Monahan’s statement:

Today, the Court ruled in our favor by continuing the temporary restraining order against Mr. Patmore, including anyone acting in concert with him. The Court also ordered three additional categories of relief in favor of Zynga ordering (1) expedited deposition of Patmore, (2) forensics of Patmore’s work issued computer, personal computer and iPhone and (3) forensics of Patmore’s personal Dropbox account. Patmore does not dispute that he took 763 files from Zynga, which contained confidential game designs from teams around the company, and that he transferred those files to his computer at Kixeye where he’s currently the VP of Product. We are pleased with the judge’s decision and will continue to work to protect the ideas and assets of our employees.

Despite the case heading to trial, according to VentureBeat, Kixeye CEO Will Harbin (who recently had to deal with some internal trouble of his own) still had some things to say–some harsh things at that. “Zynga is burning to the ground and bleeding top talent and instead of trying to fix the problems-better work environment and better products-they are resorting to the only profit center that has ever really worked for them: their legal department,” Harbin told VentureBeat. “It is simply another case of Zynga vindictively persecuting a former employee as an individual.”

Harbin went on the mention the supposed vast differences between Zynga and Kixeye in terms of gameplay mechanisms and how much revenue their respective games bring in. But considering the company has gone on the record with its intent on focusing more on player versus player games in the future, it will be interesting to see the specifics that come out of this case, if any.（source：games）

5）PyramidVille gets a new name after Zynga lawsuit

By Jim Squires

For all of the allegations lobbed their ways about cloning and copying, Zynga sure knows how to be protective when it comes to their own material.  Take the ‘Ville branding, for example.  You can dispute and debate all you want when it comes to how many “influences” went in to making games like FarmVille and CityVille – but there’s no questioning that the ‘Ville branding is distinctly Zynga’s own.

With that in mind, it should come as no surprise that Zynga took competing social games developer Kobojo to court earlier this year over the use of the term in their PyramidVille and PyramidVille Adventures.  Now, a mere five months later, PyramidVille has undergone an inevitable rebranding.

Say hello to PyramidValley.

No specifics have surfaced on whether or not the legal battle between Zynga and Kobojo has come to an end, though it would seem that Kobojo probably wouldn’t have gone ahead with a name change unless it was part of a settlement agreement or a judge ordered them to.

Regardless of how they got here, Kobojo seems to be taking this in stride.  In an effort to put a positive spin on the change, they’re going with the “new name and new content!” approach.  In addition to the name change, players of the mobile version – PyramidValley Adventures – will now be able to build a home in Ancient Greece.  Once they reach level 18, they can build a brand new village on the Mediterranean coast.

Note to Kobojo: don’t call it ParthenonVille.（source：gamezebo）

6）FarmVille 2 still on top of this week’s list of fastest-growing Facebook games by DAU

Mike Thompson

Zynga’s FarmVille 2 is still going strong this week, taking the No. 1 spot on our list of fastest-growing Facebook games by daily active users with a 10 percent gain of 800,000 DAU.

ArcadeMonk’s Bubble Pirates is at No. 2 with 190,000 DAU, a 633 percent increase. Twiitch’s KartWorld came in at No. 3 with 140,000 DAU, up a whopping 1,400 percent. Ooblada’s Bubble Bunny brought in 120,000 DAU for a 300 percent gain that let it snag the No. 4 spot. Finally, FreshPlanet’s SongPop rounded out our top five games on the list, going up by 100,000 DAU for a 3 percent increase.

This week saw some major traffic games throughout the list, with six more titles experiencing traffic growth above 100 percent. RockYou’s The Walking Dead Social Game was up by 100,000 DAU for a 167 percent gain, most likely due to The Walking Dead’s third season premiering on television over the weekend. The Walking Dead Social Game’s still not back at the peak traffic level of 230,000 DAU it saw during its launch, but this is the highest number it’s seen in a while.

Meanwhile, Social Point’s Bubble Paradise grew by 70,000 DAU, a 233 percent increase. Sneaky Games’ Syfy Monster Island was up by 50,000 DAU for a 500 percent gain. iEvoGames’ Gold Slots snagged 50,000 DAU, though this was a 167 percent increase. iZ’s Paradise Club also grabbed 50,000 DAU for a 133 percent increase. Finally, Idle Games’ Idle Worship is back on our list, growing 400 percent with 40,000 DAU.（source：insidesocialgames）