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每日观察:关注4月份Facebook热门游戏榜单(4.2)

发布时间:2013-04-02 11:09:26 Tags:,,

1)Inside Social Games日前发布的2013年4月份Facebook前25款热门游戏榜单显示,King游戏依然称冠MAU和DAU两个榜单,但Zynga游戏仍紧随其后,并且在两个榜单拥有更多席位。

King游戏《Candy Crush Saga》虽然在3月份流失29万6656名MAU,但仍以4553万MAU位列第一,另一款King游戏《Pet Rescue Saga》位居第6名,目前拥有2290万MAU(新增43万7254),《Bubble Witch Saga》当前MAU总数为1800万(新增42万2856)。

Top-25-Chart-April-MAU(from AppData)

Top-25-Chart-April-MAU(from AppData)

Zynga游戏在MAU榜单占据13个席位,其3月份收获最多MAU的游戏是《ChefVille》(于2012年8月上线),当前MAU总数为1560万(新增480万);Zynga本月最热门游戏依然是《FarmVille 2》,但流失了26万2317名用户。

另一款Zynga游戏《CoasterVille》MAU流量下滑最为严重,流失280万MAU,已经降至第5名。《Bubble Ocean Safari》和《Words With Friends》这两款Zynga游戏流量下滑也极为显著,前者流失了120万MAU,已从19名降至21名,后者流失110万MAU,位列第11名。

Top-25-Chart-April-DAU(from AppData)

Top-25-Chart-April-DAU(from AppData)

在DAU榜单上,《Candy Crush Saga》再次领先于《FarmVille 2》,两者DAU分别为1520万和820万。《CoasterVille》刚上线时在该榜单名列第五,现已流失46.9万DAU,以230万DAU降至第14名。《Texas HoldEm Poker》则流失了93万3708名DAU。

本月DAU增长最显著的当属Pretty Simple游戏《Criminal Case》,新增160万DAU。

2)Kantar Worldpanel最新报告显示,在截止2013年2月的过去三个月中,Windows Phone在美国智能手机市场份额达4.1%(去年同期为2.7%),而黑莓仅占比0.7%(去年同期为3.6%)。

而在英国市场,黑莓去年同期的智能的手机销售份额为16.8%,今年仅为5.1%。

Windows-Phone-8(from digitaltrends.com)

Windows-Phone-8(from digitaltrends.com)

谷歌Android目前在美国市场份额达51.2%(去年同期为45.4%),iOS市场份额相对持平,占比43.5%(去年同期为47%)。

三星仍是最为领先的Android设备制造商,在去年购买三星智能手机的用户中,有19%曾经是三星功能性手机用户,15%曾持有HTC智能手机,14%属于LG功能性手机用户,10%曾是三星智能手机用户,9%曾是黑莓用户。

3)据pocketgamer报道,芬兰政府日前宣布将把移动游戏行业收归国有,从4月1日开始,所有面向苹果App Store、Google Play、亚马逊Appstore、Windows Marketplace和诺基亚Ovi store(游戏邦注:但三星乐园和BlackBerry这两个应用商并不在此行列)制作和出售游戏、娱乐内容及工具的芬兰公司都将全面国有化,直接由芬兰政府管辖。

mobile game arch workshop(from mobilemondayegypt)

mobile game arch workshop(from mobilemondayegypt)

芬兰产业预分配部长Pentti Linkola表示,对于这些公司现有的股东,芬兰政府将按每1000股分配一棵云杉和一条鳕鱼的价格给予补偿。据他所称,“这些东西远比一堆废纸有用,毕竟Rovio股份不能吃也不能喝。”

有观察者指出,芬兰政府推行一举措更多是出于社会控制的角度,而非商业利益的考虑。

游戏邦注:截止本文撰稿,芬兰Rovioa等公司均未对此做出回应。

4)据venturebeat报道,苹果在上个季度的美国智能手机市场份额有所下滑,有些分析师指出iPad在今年第一个月的出货量不容乐观,目前来看最热销的iPad是售价较低的iPad Mini设备,这意味着苹果今年第二季度的收益有可能不甚理想(游戏邦注:iPhone和iPad在苹果销售额中占比72%,这意味着苹果收益对这两款产品依赖度极高。苹果将于4月23日召开投资者会议,届时将公布其最新财报)。

iPad & iPhone(from pinterest.com)

iPad & iPhone(from pinterest.com)

Estimize投资者预计苹果收益将达435亿美元(高于去年同期时的392亿美元),而华尔街舆论则预测苹果这一季度收益仅为425亿美元。

日前苹果股票已下跌14美元,跌至428.91美元,其2012年10月最高峰时期股价高达702美元。

5)据gamasutra报道,育碧多伦多总经理、《刺客信条》系列制作人Jade Raymond在最近采访中发表了她对AAA游戏未来走向的看法。她认为未来的游戏应该包含更多用户内容,但这并不意味着所有游戏都该植入一个关卡创造器,因为并非人人都喜欢制作关卡。

Jade Raymond(from techcn.com)

Jade Raymond(from techcn.com)

Raymond指出育碧今后推出的游戏将越来越关注玩家,并充许玩家以新方式进行互动和创造内容。最重要的是,游戏开发者不可将电子游戏视为自我表达的工具,应该愉人愉己,要为他人创造有趣的内容并取悦自己。(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 Top 25 Facebook games of April 2013

Emanuel Maiberg

It’s time to look at the Top 25 Facebook games for April 2013.

Starting this month, Inside Social Games will report on the top 25 Facebook games using AppData’s estimated monthly active users (MAU_E) and estimated daily active users (DAU_E). MAU_E and DAU_E are estimated MAU and DAU values based on current performance data from Facebook and our six-year-old database of historical Facebook application metrics. By analyzing trends in our database of almost 400 million measurements of how MAU and DAU function and move over time, our data scientists have been able to develop algorithms for estimating MAU and DAU values for Facebook applications.

Both of April’s lists saw King, which recently rebranded from King.com, continue to hold the top spots, though Zynga is still close behind and with more titles in the top 25 lists overall.

Taking a look at game rankings based on MAU, which is the best measure of a title’s overall reach on the social network, King’s Candy Crush Saga is still on top despite losing an estimated 296,656 MAU in March. King’s only other titles in the top 25 are its Diamond Dash-style gem-matching game Pet Rescue Saga, which came in at the No. 6 spot with an estimated 22.9 million MAU after a gain of 437,254, and bubble-popping puzzler Bubble Witch Saga, which gained 422,856 for a total of 18 million MAU.

Meanwhile, Zynga titles still make up nearly half of the list, taking up 13 spots. Zynga’s biggest gainer and the biggest gainer of the month overall is ChefVille, which added an estimated 4.8 million new MAU for a total of 15.6 million. ChefVille first came out in August 2012. Back then we recommended that players wait before they jumped in. Zynga’s most popular game this month is still FarmVille 2, despite losing 262,317 users.

Zynga’s CoasterVille saw a big loss in MAU, shedding 2.8 million users and dropping down one spot to No. 5. The two big losers for the past month are also Zynga titles: Bubble Ocean Safari and Words With Friends. Bubble Safari Ocean dropped from the No. 19 spot to the No. 21 spot, losing 1.2 estimated MAU, and Words With Friends managed to hold the No. 11 spot after loosing
1.1 million estimated MAU.

Now it’s time to turn to DAU, which is the best representative of a game’s core audience. Here too King’s Candy Crush Sage pulled ahead of Zynga’s FarmVille 2, with an estimated 15.2 million DAU and 8.2 million DAU respectively. Zynga’s CoasterVille, which debuted on the Top 25 list at the No. 5 position, holding the position for a few months, saw a sizable loss of 469,000 estimated DAU, dropping it to the No. 14 spot with 2.3 million DAU. Zynga’s Texas HoldEm Poker saw a much greater drop in DAU than it did in MAU, loosing 933,708 users.

The most significant gainer on the list goes to Pretty Simple’s Criminal Case, which added 1.6 million DAU. We recently talked to Pretty Simple about its formula for success of simply allowing a talented team to produce quality content, an approach which has clearly paid off.(source:insidesocialgames

2)Android up 13%, iOS down 7%, BlackBerry down 81% … and Windows Phone up a massive 52%

John Koetsier

The mobile operating system market share numbers are in for Kantar Worldpanel’s last quarter, and the numbers are shocking.

Not the Android and iOS numbers: Steady but unspectacular growth for Android and gradual but not catastrophic drops for Apple are pretty much in line with expectations.

But the BlackBerry and Windows Phone numbers are dramatic changes from the same quarter a year ago. Windows Phone looks to be finally taking off, with 52 percent growth December, January, and February of this year compared to the same three months in 2012. And BlackBerry is falling of a sales cliff, with an 81 percent plunge in sales.

Source: Kantar WorldPanel

Smartphone sales by operating system – U.S.

The big kahuna, of course, is Android.

Google’s Android now owns more than half of U.S. smartphone sales, with 51.2 percent market share. That’s up from 45.4 percent in the quarter a year ago. Meanwhile, iOS is holding fairly steady at number two, with 43.5 percent, down slightly from last year’s 47 percent.

What’s interesting about the Windows numbers, even though they are on a much smaller installed base, is that Windows Phone is currently the fastest-growing mobile phone platform. At 4.1 percent of mobile operating system market share, Microsoft still has a very long ways to go, and growth rates could start to slow as it piles up share. But the numbers have to be encouraging for Redmond as it is finally gaining traction in a market that it once appeared to have completely lost.

And the international numbers contain pockets of even more good news, such as Italy, where Windows Phone now makes up 13.1 percent of new phone sales.

Apple’s mobile offerings are strongest with the two largest U.S. carriers, AT&T and Verizon. Both sell a majority of iOS smartphones, with AT&T selling 68.4 percent iOS versus 20.8 percent

Android, and Verizon selling 55.1 percent iOS versus 43.4 percent Android.

Meanwhile, Samsung is continuing to expand its Android leadership, taking away market share from competitors LG and HTC:

“Of those who changed their phone over the last year to a Samsung smartphone, 19 percent had previously owned a Samsung feature phone, 15 percent owned a HTC smartphone, 14 percent owned an LG feature phone, 10 percent owned a Samsung smartphone, and 9 percent owned a BlackBerry,” said Kantar Worldpanel analyst Mary-Ann Parlato. “It’s apparent that Samsung is successful at capturing users from across the competitor set and not just gaining from their own loyalists.”

Kantar Worldpanel is the largest continuous consumer research mobile phone panel in the world, and conducts more than 240,000 interviews per year in the U.S. alone to determine what consumers are buying and using.(source:venturebeat

3)Breaking news: Finland nationalises its mobile games industry

by Normal Mainer

In a shock move, the Finnish government has announced it has nationalised its mobile game industry.

As of midnight 1st April, Helsinki time, all companies making and selling games, entertainment content and tools for distribution through the Apple App Store, Google Play, Amazon Appstore
for Amazon, Windows Marketplace and Nokia Ovi store are now fully owned by the Finnish government.

BlackBerry World and Samsung Apps weren’t included on the prescribed list, however.

“We didn’t even know they still existed,” an astonished insider commented.

As for compensation for existing shareholders, Minister for Industrial Predistribution, Pentti Linkola said they would each receive a spruce tree and a burbot fish for every 1,000 company shares they previously held.

“We’ve got loads of fish and trees, and they’re much more useful than pieces of paper,” Linkola said.

“You can’t eat a Rovio share.”

The Nokia way

While surprising, the Finnish government’s decision follows a wave of nationalisation around the globe, notably of strategic assets such as banks, and natural resource companies like oil and precious metal producers.

It’s believed the dozens of Finnish companies, ranging from global players such as Rovio, Supercell, and Ubisoft’s RedLynx, to smaller boutiques like Grand Cru, Applifer, Mountain Sheep and

Housemarque will now be run by under an umbrella organisation headed by Olli-Pekka Kallasvu, previously Nokia CEO.

“I learned a lot over 20 years of building up Nokia before driving it into the dust,” Kallasvu explained.

“I reckon I can take down the Finnish mobile games industry in about 18 months.”

The long view

It’s comments like this which have some suggesting the government’s real thinking behind the move is less about business and more about social control.

There are fears that Finns’ brains just aren’t psychologically wired for global success on a longterm basis.

“With Rovio and Supercell alone now worth billions of dollars, any more success has a high probability of shaking the quiet, stoic nature that Finns have nurtured for hundreds of years,
often by sitting silently in saunas and consuming vast amounts of vodka,” Linkola pondered quietly.

“We can’t just throw away such a national level of commitment to sweaty navel gazing for another measly 500 million downloads from China.”

Use it, or lose it

Another view on the situation came from an anonymous poster on the Finnish government website, who commented the real trigger to the move was jealousy from other business leaders.

“These mobile guys are making stacks of cash, and they all still walk about in branded hoddies and sneakers,” it said.

“Where are the Rolexes, diamond-encrusted ear rings, not to mention the Baby Bentleys and private jets?

“If they’re not going to spent it in frivolous ways, we’ll redistribute it into our wallets.”

As PocketGamer.biz went to press, there were unconfirmed reports that the Mighty Eagle was thinking of setting up a smoked fish business.

“He’s got a lot of fish and trees now,” a Rovio insider commented. (source:pocketgamer

4)Apple earnings in three weeks: Everything depends on iPhone and iPad sales

John Koetsier

Earnings season is back upon us, and one of the most anticipated earnings conference calls has got to be Apple’s. The company announced its next investor call today on its investor website: Tuesday April 23, at 2 p.m. Pacific time.

Revenue will definitely be down from the company’s traditionally big holiday quarter, but the big question will be how Apple’s Q2 2013 will compare to Q2 2012.

With two product lines — iPhone and iPad — making up 72 percent of Apple sales, Apple’s quarter — and its sagging stock price — will hang on those two products.

But the limited amount of data we’ve seen lately on iPhone and iPad sales has not been great. Apple lost some U.S. smartphone market share this past quarter, and with some analysts saying that iPad shipments collapsed in the first month of this year, it’s likely we’ll see minimal growth at best. To make matters worse, it looks like Apple’s best-selling iPad model is the cheaper, lower-margin iPad Mini, meaning that even with good unit sales, revenue and margin could be problems.

Investors at Estimize are projecting revenues of $43.5 billion, up slightly from the year-ago quarter of $39.2 billion, but the Wall Street consensus is only $42.5 billion. In early 2012, when Apple stock was in the middle of its incredible growth phase, its Q2 numbers were down 15 percent from the holiday Q1. This year, if Apple hits the Street consensus, it will be down 22
percent from first-quarter numbers.

Either direction, this quarter will be one that confirms the nay-sayers’ opinion that Apple is slumping, or if the company can pull some magic with a spectacular quarter, one that reaffirms the believers.

Apple stock is down almost $14 dollars today to $428.91. At its height in October 2012, Apple stock hit $702.(source:venturebeat

5)Jade Raymond’s been thinking about the future of AAA games

By Kris Graft

Jade Raymond has worked on some of the biggest “triple-A” video game franchises, most famously as a producer on the Assassin’s Creed series. Now the managing director of 300-person Ubisoft Toronto, she’s working on a brand with similar weight in Splinter Cell Blacklist.

But as the costs for such huge games continues to grow, what’s the future for triple-A? Is it all just about making games that are infinitely bigger and more expensive?

“No, no. It’s got to stop,” Raymond told us at GDC 2013. “To give you an overly-simplified answer, I do think games and franchises need to include more user content. And by user content, I don’t mean that all of a sudden, every game is going to have a level builder, because not everyone wants to sit down and build a level. That’s too complicated.

“But by user content, you can think of Dark Souls, and how your game is affected by other people who are playing,” she added. “In what ways can the user impact the experience? I think that’s what’s going to drive hits, but also at the extreme end, it’s going to enable us to continue to create interesting content without always having such huge costs associated with it. To me, that’s the key. What I think people want is their own custom experience, in anything.”

Enabling users to create content is a trend across all kinds of industries, from news sites that run user-contributed articles to services like Yelp that rely on user ratings and commentary.

In the game industry, Valve has been one of the most outspoken proponents of user-generated content, letting players make their own virtual items, sell them on a digital storefront and giving the creators a cut of the sales. Valve boss Gabe Newell also recently said that Steam storefronts should be user-generated content, and that there are plans to allow players to create and curate their own storefronts.

“I love a lot of the stuff they’re doing over at Valve in terms of user-generated content. It seems to be a smart way to go about it,” said Raymond. “With virtual hats — who would’ve thought. It’s a smart way to have your community engaged. And those people are spending more money, but they don’t feel that they’re being milked.

“That’s really the key — that when you’re considering business models for your game, that you’re adding value.”

Raymond suggested that Ubisoft’s own upcoming games will increasingly focus on the players and allow them to interact and create in new ways. “Some of those ideas, we’re fitting into Splinter Cell Black List, which we’re working on now,” she said. “I think that ability to have your ideas spread and for you to see other peoples’ experiences and have an effect other peoples’ play styles [is important].

“If we do it intelligently, we could have a lot more content with what other people are creating. They’re making [the game] more interesting for each other, and also gratifying themselves.”

The bottom line is that game developers shouldn’t be the only ones who are expressing themselves with video games.

“It’s nice to hear a game developer’s idea of a grand vision, but I honestly don’t think it’s about our creative vision so much,” Raymond said. “It’s about the gamer’s vision. It has to be more about how I’m allowing this to become the player’s brand.” (source:gamasutra


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