1）据gamasutra报道，英国政府将从2013年4月起针对游戏开发者推出一项减税政策，但只有“以英国文化为主题的电子游戏”开发者才有资格申请这项资质。

虽然究竟哪类游戏符合其判定的标准仍然不甚明确，但英国财政部门已经在本周二公布了其“文化测试”的详情，只有通过该测试的开发者方可申请减税。这项测试中最主要的一点是开发者所申请游戏必须以“英国或其他欧洲经济区国家为背景”，游戏主角是英国人，游戏描述的是“英国故事”，其中的对话是以英语为主。

Tax-relief(from pawnmaster.com)

因此，开发者制作的游戏若不符合这一地理背景，或者缺乏人物角色和故事元素，可能就难以达到这个要求。

2）据serkantoto报道，日本社交游戏开发商enish最近在东京证券交易所创业板上市，其股票售价已从800日元上升至1360日元，公司市值达33亿日元。

其他最近上市的日本社交游戏公司市值如下：

*Voltage：5500万美元

*Drecom：1.15亿美元

*Crooz：1.45亿美元

*KLab：1.87亿美元

*Ateam：3.64亿美元

除此之外，报道称另一家东京手机游戏开发商Colopl也将在本周四上市。

3）据insidesocialgames报道，华纳兄弟娱乐及米高梅日前宣布向社交游戏开发商Kabam投资，但并未公布具体投资情况（游戏邦注：Kabam其他投资者包括谷歌、英特尔和红点投资），华纳兄弟家庭娱乐公司总裁Keven Tsujihara以及米高梅首席执行官Gary Barber将加入Kabam董事会。

Kabam Hobbit Games(from nocookie)

Kabam与华纳兄弟不久前还合作向移动平台发布了《The Hobbit：Kingdoms of Middel-Earth》，该游戏虽未获得堪比Kabam主打手机游戏《Kingdoms of Camelot: Battle for the North》那种成绩，但跻身了Google Play应用营收榜单第13名，以及iTunes游戏营收榜单第25名。除此之外，Kabam还将在明年初推出另一款游戏《The Hobbit:Armies of the Third Age》。

华纳兄弟最近在社交游戏市场表现活跃，除了与Kabam合作之外，还与Spooky Cool Labs推出了基于《绿野仙踪》电影的同名社交游戏。

4）据venturebeat报道，PopRox Entertainment董事长Mike Gramling及其团队最近推出新游戏《Race 4 My Place》，支持玩家与他人竞争创建模拟城市并赢取奖励，其中包含一项价值为20万美元的按揭奖励（或者兑换成10万美元现金奖励）。

race 4 my place(from forbes)

Gramling在十年前曾是一个房地产投资商和住宅开发商，2006年房地产市场崩溃时，他手中有两套房产价值下跌了一半左右。于是他想出了一个主意，即创造一款基于技能的网络游戏，支持人们合法赢取现金奖励。

到2011年他正式成立了自己的游戏公司，并全力开发这款游戏。《Race 4 My Place》是一类似于《模拟城市》或《CityVille》的资源管理游戏，除了价值20万美元的大奖外，玩家还有机会赢得iPad等其他较小的奖品。该游戏将在4月19日颁发超级大奖，目前已在无任何推广活动的情况下收获1万名粉丝，已兑现价值为4000美元的奖励。

5）据日经新闻报道，韩国网游公司Nexon最近报告预计公司在2013年手机游戏收益将达3600万美元，本财年总销售额将达1.27亿-1.3亿美元。

Nexon_Logo(from alphaipad)

在2011年以前，Nexon来自PC端的收益占比高达99%，如果该公司手机游戏收益成功达标，那么这一业务在其总收益中所占比例将增长至25%左右。（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）The UK is offering tax relief, but only if your game is really British

By Frank Cifaldi

The British government will begin a tax relief program for game developers starting this April, but unless your game has a British theme, you might have a hard time qualifying for it.

As we previously reported, the UK’s finance ministry is set to offer one of the most generous tax reliefs for game development in the world for what it’s calling “culturally British video games.”

Exactly what that meant was unclear at the time, but on Tuesday the ministry unveiled the specifics of its “cultural test,” which developers must pass in order to qualify.

Essentially, games are deemed “British” based on a points scale determined by a simple test. Of the 16 points required to pass, the biggest points are awarded if a game “is set in the United Kingdom or another EEA state,” whether the lead characters in a game are British, if the game depicts “a British story,” and if the majority of in-game dialogue is recorded in English.

Developers hoping to make games that don’t necessarily have a clear geographical setting or, indeed, games without characters and story, may have a hard time meeting the requirements.（source：gamasutra）

2）enish Goes IPO At The Tokyo Stock Exchange, Reaches US$40 Million Market Cap

by Dr. Serkan Toto

Tokyo-based social game maker enish got listed at the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s Mothers section for startups today (ticker: 3667), as announced last month.

The stock price went up from 800 Yen to 1,360 Yen, helping the company to reach a 3.3 billion yen (US$40 million) market cap. In other words, enish’s IPO was relatively small.

To put the number into perspective, here are the current market caps for other listed social game providers in Japan:

•Voltage: US$55 million

•Drecom: US$115 million

•Crooz: US$145 million

•KLab: US$187 million

•Ateam: US$364 million

enish is a close GREE partner. US tech blog VentureBeat recently mentioned the company’s IPO in a detailed article on mobile gaming in Japan.

Another Tokyo-based mobile game maker, Colopl, will get listed on Thursday.（source：serkantoto）

3）Warner Bros. and MGM invest in Kabam

Mike Thompson

Warner Bros. Entertainment and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios today revealed that they have partnered to make an investment in social mobile game developer Kabam, joining other investors like like Google, Intel and Redpoint Ventures.

Details about the investment haven’t been revealed, but Warner Bros. Home Entertainment President Keven Tsujihara and MGM CEO Gary Barber will join Kabam’s board of directors as (respectively) a member and observer.

The investment adds yet another layer to the relationship between Kabam and Warner Bros. Recently, the two groups announced a partnership to release The Hobbit: Kingdoms of Middle-Earth for mobile devices. The title hasn’t achieved the same success as Kabam’s flagship mobile title Kingdoms of Camelot: Battle for the North, but it is the No. 13 top-grossing mobile app on Google Play and one of the Top 25 grossing games in iTunes. Meanwhile, Kabam is releasing The Hobbit: Armies of the Third Age on the web early next year.

Warner Bros. has been starting to step up and show an active interest in the social games market. Aside from partnering with Kabam, the company entered a licensing agreement with Spooky Cool Labs for its Wizard of Oz game and other unspecified titles. Until now, Warner Bros. hasn’t had much to show amongst social/mobile games for the past couple of years (despite deciding to focus Warner Bros. Montreal on those kinds of titles). This latest move shows the company is becoming increasingly focused on these types of games.（source：insidesocialgames）

4）PopRox Entertainment’s social game might let you pay off your mortgage

Dean Takahashi

Mike Gramling, the chief executive of PopRox Entertainment, knows what it’s like to have a house “under water,” where it is worth less than the mortgage owed on it. That’s why he built his startups and his new game, Race 4 My Place, which debuts today. The effort allows you to compete with others to create a simulated city and win prizes, including $200,000 that a winner can use to pay off a mortgage.

The Austin, Texas-based company believes the free, Facebook- and Web-based title will draw interest from people who want to play a fun, casual game that also gives them a chance to get a significant reward in real life.

“Gaming can be more than just earning another virtual plow,” Gramling said in an interview with GamesBeat.

A decade ago, Gramling was a real-estate investor and home builder. In 2006, when real estate crashed, he had two properties that were worth half the value that he bought them at. He thought about creating a skill-based online game that would allow people to legally compete for cash prizes. During that time of experimentation, he heard from other people about what a crushing burden it is to have a mortgage you cannot pay off. By 2009, he decided to create the social experience. By 2011, he formally incorporated his company and began full development this year. He planned on creating a game with the grand prize of paying off a mortgage, up to $200,000, or giving away $100,000 in cash instead.

“We wanted to give people tangible, real-world prizes that could impact their lives,” he said. “We want to do something that is socially responsible.”

The company plans to make money through branded sponsorships. Deals are pending. Race 4 My Place is a resource-management title, sort of like SimCity or CityVille. In the game, you build up your city and have to erect the Hollywood sign. PopRox will award the grand prize on April 19. In the meantime, players have received other smaller prizes such as iPads. The game has gained 10,000 fans without any promotion and has awarded $4,000.

PopRox has fewer than 50 employees, and it is working with development teams in Poland, Australia, and the United Kingdom. Rivals include Zynga, Electronic Arts, and other makers of city-building social games. The firm has not disclosed its funding.（source：venturebeat）

5）Nexon Wants To Triple Mobile Gaming Revenue In 2013

by Dr. Serkan Toto

Nexon, the Korean online gaming powerhouse that’s listed in Tokyo, is aiming to triple sales coming from mobile games next year.

According to Japanese business daily The Nikkei, Nexon plans to land at about US$36 million in that segment in 2013. To put this into perspective, the company forecasts sales to hit US$127-130 million this fiscal year.

The paper also says that the company wants to use expertise gained in Japan, i.e. through the acquisition of Tokyo-based mobile social game maker gloops (and InBlue earlier this year, too), especially for expansion on mobile in emerging markets.

The obvious bullet point here is that we have yet another game maker shifting its focus to mobile here.

In the case of Nexon, sales coming from the PC amounted to a whopping 99% until 2011. If the company hits its mobile gaming sales target revenue next year, that figure will jump to around 25%.（source：serkantoto）