1）据pocketgamer报道，日本手机游戏开发商GungHo Online Entertainment日前宣布《Puzzle & Dragons》在韩国用户已突破100万。

该游戏于2012年12月登陆韩国Android平台，并在今年1月进入当地iOS市场，这意味着该游戏平均每月在韩国新增16万用户（游戏邦注：它在日本每三周都会新增100万用户）。

韩国人口为5000万，这一数据表明GungHo的这款游戏相当于虏获了2%左右的韩国人口。

Puzzle & Dragons(from padpadblog)

但GungHo至今未公布这款游戏在美国的用户数据。该游戏目前在美国App Store营收榜单位居第32名。

2）据日经新闻报道，日本社交游戏公司DeNA今年4月至6月在美国销售额达9000万美元，同比上年增长600%（游戏邦注：DeNA尚未回应并确认这一消息）。

日经新闻在昨天的报道指出，该公司竞争对手GREE销售额及利润均低于上一季度水平。

3）据venturebeat报道，移动安全公司Bluebox最近报告指出，Android设备在过去四年中最易受到黑客攻击，Android用户数据、密码等信息常被第三方窃取，用户短信、电话，以及摄像机内容也常被泄露。

sad-android(from venturebeat)

报告称出现这一情况的原因在于，Android设备的分裂性特点，以及许多Android用户并没有及时更新最新操作系统的习惯。

4）据pocketgamer报道，韩国通信应用Kakao Talk日前宣布其用户已达1亿，而Line也在5月突破1.5亿用户。

腾讯手机通信应用微信在1月份宣布用户达3亿，最近则宣布其海外用户已达7000万。

这对手机游戏开发者来说是一个重要消息，因为微信也即将开放其游戏平台，将在未来数月向中国市场推出该项服务。

Wechat(from techmtaa.com)

微信在东南亚（泰国、印度、印度尼西亚、菲律宾和新加坡）已经拥有强大的市场基础，而Kakao最近才面向越南、印度尼西亚这两个海外市场开放服务。

Line在日本表现强劲，在泰国和台湾也有较大用户规模。

值得注意的是，Line和Kakao Talk最近都将进军西班牙市场，而微信则有意进入墨西哥和南美地区，并同阿根庭球员Lionel Messi签约合作，向该地区推广其品牌。

5）据gamasutra报道，澳大利亚开发商Halfbrick游戏《Jetpack Joyride》最近更新内容添加了一个名为“The Wave Rider”的汽车，售价为4.99美元，该公司称这项道具推出的限时免费活动令游戏在当周的收益增加了4倍。

jetpack-joyride(from pocketgamer.co.uk)

该工作室打算分析在促销期间的玩家行为，看看究竟是什么原因让这种“限时免费”的DLC内容需求突然增长，并指出其最新iOS游戏《Fish out of Water》也很快将推出一些“新内容”。

6）4399《三国小镇》现已登陆App Store，这款移植自PC端的手游提供了3个角色——刘备、关羽、和张飞——供玩家选择。3个角色各有自己的技能和大招。该围绕着三国的历史故事，从黄巾之乱开始到斩杀董卓，分割成十个主线关卡。每一关又以难度分为士兵、中郎将、大将军三个级别，玩家可以挑战不同动力的敌人，丰富闯关玩法。

三国小镇

（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）Puzzle & Dragons tops 1 million users in Korea, but US growth remains a mystery

by Keith Andrew

Coupled with news that its player base in Japan has now surpassed 16 million, Puzzle & Dragons developer GungHo Online Entertainment has revealed the game now boasts 1 million users in south Korea.

Puzzle & Dragons launched in the region initially on Android in December 2012, rolling out on iOS the following month, meaning the game is gaining around 160,000 users in South Korea every month.

With a population of 50 million, it also means GungHo’s game has attracted an audience equal to around 2 percent of the nation’s total population.

Eye on US

GungHo has been less willing to talk about Puzzle & Dragons’ performance in the US, however – one of just four nations, including Canada, where the game is currently available.

A quick scan of the App Store’s top grossing charts in the US places the game in the #32 spot, with King’s Candy Crush Saga and Supercell’s Clash of Clans leading the way.

In its home territory of Japan, however, Puzzle & Dragons continues to add users at a rate of around 1 million every three weeks.（source：pocketgamer）

2）Report: DeNA Saw Sales In The US Between April-June Grow To $90 Million, Plans To Introduce Mobile News And Video In The US

by Dr. Serkan Toto

The Nikkei has just reported online that things are starting to look better overseas for DeNA (2432): according to the Japanese business daily, the Mobage operator has seen sales in the US grow 600% year-on-year to US$90 million in the April-June quarter.

Note: this number hasn’t been confirmed by DeNA yet and probably means the company’s overall international sales, not only in the US.

The plan is now to turn Mobage overseas into a profitable business – on a monthly basis – “by the end of 2013″.

What’s interesting is that DeNA is reportedly planning to do this not only by continuing to offer games but expanding its products to other mobile content like news and video.

Without going into further details, the Nikkei says that the company will use its existing American Mobage platform for distribution (and not some other channel).

The paper has also learned that competitor GREE (3632) is trying to bolster its international operations as well, especially in Europe.

GREE is said to be ready to translate several English-language games into French, German, Italian and Spanish. In addition, the company will send personnel from its office in San Francisco to Europe.

Just yesterday, The Nikkei reported that GREE is likely to announce that sales and profit for the company as a whole have gone down last quarter.（source：serkantoto）

3）Massive Android flaw lets hackers ‘take over’ and ‘control’ 99% of Android devices (updated)

John Koetsier

Mobile security company Bluebox said today that it recently discovered a vulnerability in Android that makes any Android device released in the last four years vulnerable to hackers who can read your data, get your passwords, and control any function of your phone, including sending texts, making phone calls, or turning on the camera.

That’s almost 900 million Android devices globally.

“A Trojan application … has the ability to read arbitrary application data on the device (email, SMS messages, documents, etc.), retrieve all stored account & service passwords,” Bluebox

CTO Jeff Forristal posted. “It can essentially take over the normal functioning of the phone and control any function.”

Bluebox modifed an Android device manufacturer’s application to obtain access to all permissions on the device.

The vulnerability is due to “discrepancies” in how Android apps are approved and verified, Bluebox says, allowing hackers to tamper with application code without changing the app’s cryptographic signatures. That means that an app — any app — that looks perfectly safe and legitimate to an app store, a device, an engineer, or a user actually could actually have malicious code embedded within it.

Forristal said the details of the bug were disclosed to Google back in February and that Google has “notified their device partners.”

The problem, however, is that because of Android’s fragmented nature and the fact that device manufacturers and mobile carriers release Android updates sporadically if at all, many Android devices are not running the latest software and cannot be user-updated.

Forristal puts it diplomatically:

“The availability of these updates will widely vary depending upon the manufacturer and model in question.”

If an attacker successfully gains control of an Android device — and Bluebox will be revealing technical details of the vulnerability at hacker conference Black Hat USA 2013 in late July — the hacker essentially gains control of all permissions on the phone or tablet.

That’s a disaster for users, because many Android users, particularly those in Asian and Eastern countries, use the 500+ independent Android app stores that have little or no authentication or verification procedures to ensure passing through their services are legit, forming a perfect opportunity for unscrupulous and technically-inclined thieves and spies to gain control of your phone.

I asked Google for comment and received a this terse response from a Google representative:

We aren’t commenting.

I’m not sure exactly how to interpret that, but I suspect that Google wants this to get as little press as possible while the company scrambles to get as many Android devices updated as possible before the end of July. A source who cannot be identified, however, did say that Google fixed the vulnerability in February and sent the patch to its partners at the beginning of March.

That’s a challenge, because many carriers have installed franken-versions of Android on devices sold two or three years ago with custom user interfaces and crapware pre-installed apps, and may not be able to turn out new, updated versions of their customized Android version quickly … or have a way to distribute them economically.

Users who are unsure of their phone’s update status or who are unable to update should be extremely cautious when installing apps, Bluebox says, and be sure to identify the publisher of the app before installing it. In addition, it’s a good idea to only install apps from Google Play, where Google has at least some ability to verify and validate apps — although that does not provide for perfect safety, Forristal said.

“People should look to upgrade their Android devices and inquire with their device manufacturer to see if they are tackling this issue,” Forristal told me via email. “Enterprises need to invest in comprehensive mobile security solutions that protect the integrity of their data against these kind of vulnerabilities.”（source：venturebeat）

4）Walking the Line: WeChat announces 70 million international users

by Jon Jordan

KakaoTalk has just revealed it has 100 million users.

Meanwhile Line hit 150 million users in May.

Tencent’s mobile messaging app WeChat announced it had 300 million users in January, but today’s news is all about its international reach.

Up from 50 million users in May, it now has 70 million users outside of China.

Going global

This is important for mobile game developers because WeChat is about to open up its network to games.

Both Line and KakaoTalk have proved to be massive drivers of audience and revenue with games integrating their services riding high in the top grossing Google Play charts in Japan and Korea respectively.

WeChat is expected to provide a similar opportunity in China in the coming months, but it’s the international expansion of these social networks within Asia, and more widely, that is now being closely watched.

A city near you

WeChat is already strong in Southeast Asia – Thailand, India, Indonesia, Philippines and Singapore – while Kakao has recently added Vietnam and Indonesia to its Korean heartland.

Line is strongest in Japan, but also has large audiences in Thailand and Taiwan.

Interestingly both Line and KakaoTalk are find a growing market in recession-hit Spain, while Tencent says that WeChat is picking up users in Mexico and South America.

Indeed, it’s just signed a deal with Argentinian footballer, and world player of the year, Lionel Messi to further push its brand in the region.（source：pocketgamer）

5）Jetpack Joyride revenue jumped 4x with ‘timed-to-free’ DLC

By Mike Rose

Jetpack Joyride’s latest DLC, which asked people to pay for an item yet told them it was going to be free later in the week, has turned out to be “a big success” for developer Halfbrick.

Last week, an update to Jetpack Joyride added a vehicle called ‘The Wave Rider’ which costed $4.99 to download. However, that was deemed an ‘Early Bird Offer’, and users were told that they could instead wait for four days, and then receive the item for free thereafter.

While Halfbrick’s Phil Larsen wasn’t willing to divulge specific sale numbers for the experimental DLC, he told Gamasutra that the inclusion of the Wave Rider increased Jetpack Joyride revenue by over 4 times the usual amount last week.

The studio now plans to analyse exactly what happened during the sale period, see what the fans made of the move, and subsequently make plans for more of this sort of ‘timed-to-free’ DLC.

Larsen noted that when it comes to playing around with monetization strategies, Jetpack Joyride is a huge focus for his company right now, and we can expect to see more of this sort of thing in the immediate future. He also noted that Halfbrick’s latest game, Fish out of Water on iOS, will soon see “a few new things happening.”（source：gamasutra）