1）据serkantoto报道，继今年夏季日本政府宣布取缔社交游戏中的kompu gacha机制之后，DeNA与GREE两大社交游戏公司开始试行新型盈利理念，DeNA将这一新机制称为“box gacha”，而GREE则将其定义为“package gacha”。

尽管该机制在两个平台游戏中的名称不同，但运作方式并无差异，其基本理念是（以卡牌战斗游戏为例），开发者在游戏中植入固定数量的稀有（R），极稀缺（SR），以及超级罕见（SSR）的特定卡牌，但会公开其分配情况。例如，GREE展开数天的package gacha活动，在《Doliland》中推出含有不同稀缺程度的110张卡牌（11张SSR卡牌，16张SR卡牌，83张R卡牌）。

box-gacha-package-gacha-campaign(from serkantoto)

这一理念的最大好处在于，玩家每回赢得一张卡牌，之后获得SR/SSR卡牌的机率就会更高，因为package gacha机器中的卡牌数量是固定的，玩家可以自主决定是否继续花钱直到赢得自己所需的卡牌为止。

2）据gamasutra报道，旧金山初创企业Betable（运营针对社交游戏的博彩平台）最近与4家开发商合作，支持后者在无需处理法律或授权问题的情况下，通过其平台推出含有真钱博彩机制的游戏。

big fish casino(from genyhub.com)

这4家合作伙伴分别是Big Fish Games，Digital Chocolate、Slingo（游戏邦注：曾与Zynga合作开发《Zynga Slingo》，该游戏目前是Facebook第五大热门游戏）以及Murka（据称拥有至少2000万每月用户的社交博彩游戏开发商）。

3）据gamasutra报道，EA最近更新其数字平台Origin数据，指出该平台注册用户已超过3000万，其中有1300万来自移动设备（该公司首席运营商Peter Moore曾在8月份宣布其注册用户为2100万，来自移动平台的用户为900万）。

origin_logo(from incgamers.com)

该平台在5月份时用户刚超过1200万，可见这一平台用户增长相对较快。在这3000万注册用户中，有440万曾通过Origin购买内容，平均消费额为64美元。

Origin的最大竞争对手（Valve公司的Steam平台）目前注册用户超过5000万，支持用户购买PC和Mac平台的游戏，而Origin平台则提供了来自EA及第三方发行商的PC、移动和主机游戏。

4）在本周DAU增长最快的Facebook游戏榜单上，Zynga游戏《Ruby Blast Adventures》（原名为《Ruby Blast》位居榜首，新增103万DAU，增幅达181%。

Top gainers this week–DAU(from AppData)

Social Point游戏《Dragon City》位居第二，新增30万DAU，增幅为6%；CookApps游戏《Buggle 》排名第三，新增10万DAU，增幅为6%；King.com游戏《Pyramid Solitaire》新增10万DAU，增幅为6%；FunPlus Games游戏《المزرعة السعيدة》排名第五，新增10万DAU，增幅为5%。（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）Box Gacha: GREE And DeNA Found A Replacement For Kompu Gacha [Social Games]

by Dr. Serkan Toto

It’s no exaggeration to say that the kompu gacha shock from May this year was the single biggest drawback in the history of the Japanese social gaming industry.

There is a new concept to make money in Japanese social games in town, but I think it makes sense to look back at the usage of the gacha mechanism so far first.

As you may recall, kompu gacha (complete gacha) was a sub-form of gacha, a mystery box-like game mechanic that requires players pay money to win (or not win) virtual items – based on, well, let’s call it luck.

There is a reason for my snark: when paying for these gacha/mystery boxes, Japanese players were absolutely left in the dark about a) how many and what kind of items were actually in the gacha machine, b) at which points in time items were changed/added/removed, c) how the distribution of these items was (number of rare vs. normal items, for example), and d) how high or low the chances of winning individual items were.

Theoretically, makers could set the probability of winning items to zero at anytime they wanted without any kind of transparency, as there was absolutely no control, guideline or supervision – by anyone (the government, platform providers, industry organizations, etc.). Unbelievable, but true.

Kompu gacha was a perversion of this concept, as it required users to win a several (specified) items first in order to win a big prize (usually an item that was impossible to obtain otherwise) at the end. In other words, gacha players were required to have several “mini wins” in order to complete a set of items before getting the “jackpot”.

The items necessary to complete the set were laid out in a grid, with those that are still missing grayed out: that was essentially a bingo mechanic.

So now wonder that, following a flood of reports in local media, the Japanese government decided to crack down on kompu gacha (here is my chronology of the kompu gacha shock).

Gacha Used In Japanese Social Games Today

But gacha in its pure form, the concept of paid electronic draws to win virtual items, was left untouched – mainly because the industry was clever enough to introduce a set of self-regulatory measures to push down the element of luck and uncertainty when playing gacha.

These measures included banning several kompu gacha- and bingo-like gacha mechanisms. There was actually a whole list.

I would estimate that gacha machines can still be found in 8 out of 10 social games in Japan: the mechanic is just making too much money. I know of games where gacha contributes 50% (and more) of the entire revenue.

Spins usually cost 100 Yen, while “premium gacha machines” charge 300 Yen (but offer a higher probability of winning rare items).
Box Gacha (Package Gacha) As A Replacement For Kompu Gacha

In summer this year, right after the kompu gacha shock, Mobage operator DeNA and GREE started experimenting with new concepts, one of which seems to be especially popular right now.

DeNA calls the machanic “box gacha” in their games, while GREE labels it as “package gacha”. It’s the same thing on both platforms and separated from normal gacha (where users pay once, spin, win – or don’t win- a valuable item, and repeat).

The box gacha concept is relatively simple: in the case of a card battle game, for example, the maker can “fill” a special gacha machine with a fixed number of rare (R), super-rare (SR), and super-special rare (SSR) cards.

The distribution is disclosed. For example, GREE ran a package gacha event a few days ago with 110 cards with different levels of rarity in the machine (SSR=11, SR=16, R=83, no “normal” cards) in their bread-and-butter game Doliland:

The difference to normal gacha is that in box gacha, users are supposed to “pull out” one card after the other out of the machine until they get the one they want. The game makers say that the cards come out randomly.

The big bullet point here is that each time a user plays gacha and wins a card, the possibility for winning one of those valuable SR/SSR cards gets higher, as the package gacha machine gets “emptier”.

In other words, box gacha is supposed to make people keep coming back to the machine and spend money until they get the card they want:

In order to boost usage in the Doliland example, there are some unusually rare cards that are only available during the period of the campaign: users can’t get certain cards anymore once the campaign is over (usually these events run over a few days).

The difference to concepts like kompu gacha, where there are documented cases in which people paid millions of yen and still didn’t get the big prize, is that box gacha gives users the chance to calculate a maximum prize for the card they want.

In the example above, one spin costs 300 yen and there are 110 cards in the box, which makes it possible for users to do the math and play with a sense of maximum damage in mind.（source：serkantoto）

2）Digital Chocolate, other big social devs jump into real-money gambling

By Eric Caoili

Four more high-profile social game studios are jumping into the real-money gambling space with the hope of securing an early mover advantage, including Digital Chocolate and Big Fish.

Several major developers have rushed to enter the market ever since Facebook began allowing real-money gambling games on its UK site three months ago — mobile game publisher Glu Mobile has announced multiple gambling titles planned for release, and Zynga intends to launch its first gambling initiative in the first half of 2013.

And now Betable, a San Francisco-based start-up that operates a self-titled gambling platform for social game developers, has partnered with four developers to help them bring their titles to the space. Its private beta platform enables developers to release their games that employ real-money betting without having to deal with legal or licensing issues.

One of Betable’s newly announced partners, Big Fish, has just released Big Fish Casino UK (pictured) for iOS devices. The free-to-play gambling game has already picked up over 1 million monthly active players, and has become one of the top-grossing mobile titles on the UK App Store.

The other three Betable licensees include big social game studios like Digital Chocolate, Slingo (which partnered with Zynga to produce Zynga Slingo, currently the fifth most popular games on Facebook), and Murka (a social casino game-focused developer claiming more than 20 million monthly users for its titles). （source：gamasutra）

3）Origin continues to creep up on Steam with 30M registered users

By Mike Rose

Electronic Arts has updated its user figures for the Origin digital game distribution service, noting that over 30 million users are now registered, including 13 million on mobile devices.

EA’s COO Peter Moore revealed the figure as part of the company’s latest earnings call, up from 21 million registered users (including 9 million mobile users) in August.

In May, the platform had just over 12 million registered users, suggesting that its player base is ramping up at a considerable pace, no doubt in part thanks to the success of EA’s mobile endeavours and console games that have Origin built in.

Discussing monetization on the platform, Moore noted that around 4.4 million of these 30 million registered users have actually purchased content via Origin, with the average sale totalling $64.

In comparison, Valve’s Steam platform — Origin’s biggest competitor — currently has over 50 million registered users worldwide. Steam users are able to purchase games for PC and Mac platforms, while Origin users cover PC, mobile and console games from EA and other select third-party publishers.（source：gamasutra）

4）Ruby Blast Adventures on top of this week’s fastest-growing Facebook games by DAU

Mike Thompson

Zynga’s Ruby Blast Adventures (formerly Ruby Blast) took the top spot on this week’s list of fastest-growing Facebook games by daily active users with 1.03 million DAU for a 181 percent gain.

Social Point’s Dragon City is continuing to show strong growth, taking the No. 2 spot with a 6 percent gain and 300,000 DAU. CookApps’ Buggle came in at No. 3 with 100,000 DAU for a 6 percent increase. King.com’s Pyramid Solitaire Saga took in 100,000 DAU, a 6 percent gain that let it take the No. 4 spot. Finally, FunPlus Game’s المزرعة السعيدة (“Happy Farm”) reappears on our gainer list after a long absence at No. 5 with 100,000 DAU for a 5 percent gain.

Only two games on this week’s list had traffic gain percentages of 30 percent or greater. THX Games’ trivia title Saif Almarifa brought in 90,000 DAU for a 30 percent gain. Kingnet’s Chinese-language 神馬三國 (which doesn’t seem to translate via Google) took in 70,000 DAU for a 100 percent gain.（source：insidesocialgames）