1）据games.com报道，Zynga将于12月5日关闭僵尸题材新游戏《Vampire Wars》，据AppData数据显示，该游戏目前MAU为33万，DAU仅为3万。

vampire-wars(from friskymongoose.com)

与此同时，Zynga向该游戏玩家提供了可用于《CastleVille》、《ChefVille》、《FarmVille 2》、《Mafia Wars》或《YoVille》的奖励包，此举表明《Mafia Wars》和《YoVille》可能并不在Zynga的项目关闭计划表中，否则Zynga也就不会提供这两者的奖励包。

2）据serkantoto报道，Zynga日本工作室（在日本运营已有两年时间）将于12月21日关闭三款游戏，即《口袋妖怪》风格的社交RPG《Montopia》、《Mojitomo》（日语版《Words With Friends》）以及《Machitsuku》（Mixi平台上的热门城建游戏）。

Montopia(from inthelifeofanerd.wordpress.com)

观察者指出这一举措将导致Zynga日本工作室在下个月底仅剩一款卡牌战斗游戏《Ayakashi》，这一迹象很可能印证Zynga将关闭整个日本工作室的传闻。

3）据serkantoto报道，DeNA日前宣布将于下个月收购东京开发商Cygames公司（代表作是卡牌战斗游戏《Rage of Bahamut》）20.03%的股份，其交易额为9200万美元（74亿日元）。

Rage-of-Bahamut(from insidemobileapps.com)

这一数据意味着Cygames估值略高于其竞争对手gloops（游戏邦注：Nexon于上个月以4.69亿美元收购了gloops），Cygames至今年7月已收获1000万以上用户，目前用户接近1500万。

值得注意的是，Cygames目前仍是一家私人募股公司，但却是大型上市公司CyberAgent下属公司，并且CyberAgent在社交游戏领域也有自己的发展目标和计划。

CyberAgent不久前在日本推出了自己的手机社交游戏平台Ameba，与DeNA旗下的Mobage平台直接展开竞争，CyberAgent最近财报发现出众，看似并不需要出售子公司股份来筹资。

DeNA指出这项投资交易也是一种商业合作，但Cygames早在今年2月就已Mobage达成了发行《Rage of Bahamut》合作协议，因此这一举措很可能意味着DeNA有意加强对Cygames的合作，所以提供了一项CyberAgent难以拒绝的交易。

4）日本热门社交游戏《Puzzle & Dragons》（由GungHo开发，未绑定GREE、Mobage等任何社交平台）目前下载量达300万次，该游戏于今年2月登陆日本App Store，在去年9月已入驻Android平台。

Puzzle & Dragons(from joyme.com)

《Puzzle & Dragons》于7月中旬实现100万次下载量，10月20日突破200万次下载量，11月5日达到300万下载量。

5）据serkantoto报道，东京游戏开发商enish日前宣布将于11月11日在东京证券交易所创业板上市。

Boku No Restaurant 2(from asiajin)

该公司成立于2009年2月，原名为Synphonie，目前在GREE、Mobage、CyberAgnet的Ameba、Hangame、entag!平台运行8款社交游戏，其代表作是餐厅模拟游戏《Boku No Restaurant》。

enish去年销售额达25.9亿日元（3250万美元），比2010年增长6.2倍。2011年利润为5.26亿日元（660万美元），比2010年增长8.2倍；其中来自GREE平台的销售额占比78.5%。

6）在本周DAU增长最快的Facebook游戏榜单上，King.com旗下的《Candy Crush Saga》位居榜首，新增30万DAU，增幅达6%。

Top gainers this week–DAU(from AppData)

Rovio游戏《Angry Birds Friends》排名第二，新增30万DAU，增幅为13%；Wooga游戏《Bubble Island》位居第三，新增30万DAU，增幅达27%；King.com最近发布的《Pet Rescue Saga》排名第四，新增DAU为28万6000，增幅达7150%；Social Point游戏《Dragon City》排名第五，新增20万DAU，增幅为6%。（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）Vampire Wars is the next Zynga game to bite the dust on December 5

by Joe Osborne

Man, this sucks. (We’re done with the puns … scout’s honor.) It looks like Zynga has already chosen the next game on its chopping block: Vampire Wars. The undead-themed take on the iconic Mafia Wars will be no more come Dec. 5, according to an update on this Zynga support page. As of this writing, Vampire Wars has 330,000 monthly and just 30,000 daily players, according to AppData.

While the death knell has rung out for Vampire Wars, the team in charge plans to continue a stream of new content up until its last day. (Remember, remember the fifth of … December?) Just like it has for FishVille and Treasure Isle, Zynga has offered players a bonus package of goods to use in one of the following games: CastleVille, ChefVille, FarmVille 2, Mafia Wars or YoVille.

Whelp, at least we know that this means neither Mafia Wars nor YoVille will be canceled in the foreseeable future. If Zynga is handing out bonus packages in those games for Vampire Wars refugees, it’s highly unlikely that they’ll be shut down any time soon.

However, this sad news does give us an idea of which of Zynga’s games might be in trouble: perhaps Mafia Wars 2, and the larger part of its mobile games? Don’t get too down, Vampire Wars fans–there’s always The Vampire Diaries on Facebook to play. No? Wait, where are you going? Zynga provided the following statement:

This week we announced to our players that we’re closing Vampire Wars in the coming months in order to focus our efforts on creating new social games. We sincerely thank our Vampire Wars players for maintaining a passionate community, and promise to deliver them more games to enjoy. We’re currently offering special packages to help players get started in other Zynga games if they wish.（source：games）

2）Zynga Japan Shuts Down Three Games, Spares Only One [Social Games]

by Dr. Serkan Toto

Is Zynga following through on its announcement to “consider” closing the Tokyo office, after about 2 years of operation in Japan? It looks like it.

Zynga Japan will shut down a total of three games on December 21 this year, namely its Pokemon-type social RPG Montopia, Mojitomo (Words With Friends in Japanese), and Machitsuku (a popular city-building game with a big following on Mixi).

The sun-setting, announced on the company’s site, already started:

•IAP has been made impossible within Montopia’s iOS and Android versions yesterday (Tuesday Japanese time) already.

•Zynga Japan has removed the Japanese smartphone versions of Word For Friends from the App Store and Google Play yesterday, too.

•The company has announced that IAP will be made impossible within Machitsuku on November 14.

•Montopia players who paid for virtual items will be offered a special code that can be used to acquire items in Ayakashi on November 21.

The company ended support for games in Japan before, but the problem in this case (apart from the announcement mentioned above) is that the Zynga Japan “catalogue” will consist of one title at the end of next month: card battle game Ayakashi.

It’s certainly not too speculative to assume that this radical move marks the end of Zynga’s entire Tokyo office – anything else would be a big surprise at this point.（source：serkantoto）

3）DeNA Buys 20% Of Rage Of Bahamut Maker Cygames For US$92 Million [Social Games]

by Dr. Serkan Toto

Surprise in Japan’s social gaming industry today: DeNA announced it plans to acquire a 20.03% stake in Tokyo-based Cygames, the company behind card battle game mega hit Rage Of Bahamut.

The deal is scheduled to close next month. Mobage operator DeNA is ready to pay a whopping US$92 million (7.4 billion yen) for the stake.

For perspective, the amount means that Cygames’ valuation is slightly higher than that of competitor gloops, which Nexon acquired for US$469 million just last month. No wonder: in July this year, Cygames boasted over 10 million users worldwide, and the number is probably closer to 15 million today.

What I find noteworthy about the deal, apart from the size, is that Cygames isn’t a private company but a wholly owned subsidiary of CyberAgent, a listed (and large-cap) company with its own ambitious goals in social gaming.

CyberAgent runs its own, Ameba-powered, mobile social gaming platform in Japan- in other words, a direct Mobage competitor. CyberAgent has just reported handsome financial results, so it doesn’t appear to need the money either.

DeNA points out that this isn’t just an investment deal but a business partnership, but Cygames became a partner in February this year already, when the company chose to distribute Rage Of Bahamut on Mobage (DeNA points that out, too).

It looks like DeNA wanted to tighten the grip on Cygames and offered a deal CyberAgent couldn’t say no to. US$92 million seems to be the price to keep Cygames “chained” to Mobage.

CyberAgent launched Cygames as a wholly owned subsidiary in June 2011, which shows how fast things move in social games in Japan. It’s one of the company’s nine mobile app/game subsidiaries.（source：serkantoto）

4）Puzzle & Dragons Passes 3 Million Downloads, Gets Second TV Spot [Social Games]

by Dr. Serkan Toto

That was quick: about three weeks after reaching 2 million downloads, Japan’s most successful platform-free social game Puzzle & Dragons crossed the 3 million mark.

Puzzle & Dragons was released in the Japanese App Store in February this year and on Android in late September.

The title hit 1 million downloads in mid-July, 2 million on October 20, and maker GungHo says the 3 million milestone was achieved on November 5 (260 days after the first version was pushed out on the App Store).

There can be no doubt that the TV commercials GungHo started airing in mid-October contributed to the growth.（source：serkantoto）

5）Tokyo-Based Social Game Maker enish To Get Listed Next Month [Social Games]

by Dr. Serkan Toto

DeNA, GREE, KLab, Voltage, Index, A-team, Crooz… the list of publicly traded social gaming companies in Japan is about to get longer.

Tokyo-based enish has announced it filed with the Tokyo Stock Exchange to go public at the Mothers section for startups on December 11 (ticker: 3667).

The company was established under the name Synphonie in February 2009 and currently runs a total of eight social games on GREE, Mobage, CyberAgent‘s Ameba, Hangame, entag!, and Mixi. It is especially successful with restaurant management sim “Boku No Restaurant” (My Restaurant) and its second part.

enish says that last year, sales reached 2.59 billion yen (US$32.5 million), 6.2 times more than in 2010. Profit in 2011 stood at 526 million yen (US$6.6 million), 8.2 times more than in 2010.

The company also disclosed that 78.5% of sales came from GREE, the company it has a partnership with.（source：serkantoto）

6）Candy Crush saga retakes the lead among fastest-growing Facebook games by DAU

Mike Thompson

King.com’s Candy Crush Saga returned to the top spot on this week’s list of fastest-growing Facebook games by daily active users with 300,000 DAU for a 6 percent gain.

Rovio’s Angry Birds Friends came in at No. 2, also up by 300,000 DAU for a 13 percent gain. Wooga’s Bubble Island was the third game this week to bring in 300,000 DAU, the 27 percent increase let the game take the No. 3 spot. King.com’s recently-launched Pet Rescue Saga placed at No. 4 with 286,000 DAU, a 7,150 percent gain. Finally, Social Point’s Dragon City was up by 200,000 DAU, a 6 percent uptick that allowed it to take the No. 5 position.

This week’s list saw another new game debut: Zynga’s CityVille 2. The game is already bringing in substantial numbers of players even though it looks like Zynga hasn’t fully turned cross-promotion on yet. As of this week, the game’s up by 140,000 for a 1,400 percent gain.（source：insidesocialgames）