1）据AppData数据显示，King旗下游戏《Pet Rescue Saga》iOS版本日前在苹果免费应用榜单位居第三。该游戏iOS版本最初发布于6月12日，曾在7月23日一度跌至免费应用榜单第106名，之后一路飙升至当前水平。

该游戏原先于2012年秋季登陆Facebook，玩家在其中任务就是连线消除方格，从而赢取积分。

pet-rescue-saga(from insidesocialgames)

2）据mobile-ent报道，法国发行商Gameloft在2013年第二季度销售额为5520万欧元，同比上年增长10%；IAP和广告收益在其所有智能手机业务收益中占比80%。

在过去一个月中，有1.25亿用户在智能手机和平板电脑玩该公司的免费游戏。从各地区情况来看，该季度EMEA地区（欧洲、中东和非洲）收益占比33%，北美占比25%，拉美占比22%，亚太地区占比20%。

2013上半年Gameloft销售额高达1.094亿欧元，同比上年增长15%，上半年EMEA地区收益占比32%，拉美占比23%。上半年智能手机和平板电脑业务销售额同比上年增长45%，在Gameloft所有销售额中占比61%（2012上半年时占比48%）。

Despicable-Me-Minion-Rush(from pinoytechblog)

基于动画电影《卑鄙的我》的手机游戏《Despicable Me: Minion Rush》自6月份以来已收获6500万次下载量，上周就创造了5000万次下载量。

Gameloft预计全年销售额介于2.35亿至2.4亿欧元。

3）据The Verge报道，Ouya首席执行官Julie Uhrman在最近采访中表示，仅有27%的Ouya主机用户曾购买该系统的付费游戏，其余用户仍然选择了免费（或盗版）游戏。

目前Ouya平台的热卖游戏是Matt Thorson的《TowerFall》，至今收益已将近2.1万美元（游戏邦注：已扣除Ouya的30%抽成），其他热销游戏还包括Adam Spragg的《Hidden in Plain Sight》，收益仅为4381美元。

towerfall(from pocketgamer)

她认为对于一个问世仅有30天的平台来说，27%的付费用户，顶级盈利游戏8%的留存率，已经算是很健康的数据，相信随着这一平台用户的增长，这些数据仍将再度上升。

4）据pocketgamer报道，黑莓位于加拿大安大略省滑铁卢办公室裁员250人，以便“提高效率”，帮助黑莓正确地应对新发展机遇。

去年黑莓也曾裁员5000人，以便重整公司的全球业务。最近微软Windows Phone已经成为黑莓在全球智能手机市场中争夺第三名席位的最大威胁，Windows Phone设备与BlackBerry 10的销量几乎是3：1。

layoff(from timeusaweek)

5）据venturebeat报道，动视暴雪日前宣布从母公司Vivendi购回价值58.3亿美元股票（将近4.29亿股）的消息之后（游戏邦注：动视首席执行官Bobby Kotick和联合主席Brian Kelly将以23.4亿美元从Vivendi购回1.72亿股；Vivendi仍将保留8300万股，在所有动视股票中占比12%）其股票在周五上升15%，而社交游戏公司Zynga在日前财报公布之后，股票下跌14%。单从这组数据来看，似乎像是投资者抛售了Zynga股票而购买了动视股票。

stock(from money.msn)

摩根史坦利分析师Scott Devit对此表示，Zynga已经不再是美国网页社交游戏领头羊，虽然该公司仍有3900万日活跃用户，但已经明显失势。

6）据venturebeat报道，GungHo Online日前向iOS和Android发布新款免费游戏《Freak Tower》，这款城建模拟游戏结合了资源管理机制与塔防游戏玩法，含有一系列角色，和来自经典电影的怪物敌人。

Freak Tower(from itunes.apple.com)

玩家在其中要扮演城主角色，在击退怪物进攻的同时不断扩大地盘。GungHo之前推出的热作《Puzzle & Dragons》在5月份日常收益达375万美元，目前在日本用1700万用户，在日本总人口中比例超过10%。

7）据venturebeat报道，开发商Capybara Games日前发布信息图表显示，公司旗下游戏《Sword & Sworcery》至今销量为150万份，其中iOS平台销量虽然仅为55万（占三分之一），但其销售额在该游戏总收益中占比达55%。

Sword & Sworcery(from thatgamerhub)

Google Play销售额仅占比5左右，还有4%收益来自Humble Android Bundles捆绑促销活动。16%收益来自Humble Bundle 5，Steam平台是继iOS之后，该游戏销售最理想的平台。

但需要指出的是，Capybara在2011年3月推出该游戏iPad版本，并在同年4月推出iPhone版本，但在2012年4月才推出Steam版本，并在2012年11月登陆Android平台，与其最初版本发布相隔了20个月之久。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转裁请联系：游戏邦）

1）King’s Pet Rescue Saga rockets to #3 on the free iOS charts

Brandy Shaul

King’s Pet Rescue Saga is the company’s latest puzzle game to take off with phenomenal growth, as the iOS version of the game has skyrocketed to #3 on the Top Free Apps chart, according to our app tracking service AppData.

First released on iOS on June 12, Pet Rescue Saga had fallen as low as 106 on the top free apps chart on iTunes, as of July 23. The game then began skyrocketing towards its current position. We’ve reached out to King for more details regarding the trigger for the game’s sudden growth, and will update this space when we learn more.

Pet Rescue Saga was first released on Facebook in Fall 2012. The game asks players to click on groups of two or more matching tiles to lower pets to the bottom of the game board, where they are collected and points are earned.（source：insidesocialgames）

2）In-app items and ads make 80 per cent of Gameloft’s smartphone revenue

by Zen Terrelonge

Freemium fiend generates sales of €55.2m in Q2 2013; €109.4m in H1.

It’s financials season in the mobile business, with Apple, Facebook and Huawei among the firms dishing out the details on the contents of their bank accounts.

Digital games publisher Gameloft now touts sales of €55.2 million in Q2 2013, which is a ten per cent climb year-on-year.

In particular, the company says its freemium approach is responsible for growth, with in-app items and advertising accounting for a huge 80 per cent of smartphone revenues.

The model keeps games fresh according to the company, with 125 million people playing a freemium title on smartphones and tablets in the past month.

Of the quarter’s sales, EMEA accounted for 33 per cent, North America 25 per cent, Latin America 22 per cent and Asia Pacific on 20 per cent.

When analysed over the first half of 2013′s six-month period, Gameloft hit sales of €109.4m, which is up 15 per cent year-on-year. Of the H1 sales, the regional breakdown was pretty much the same as the Q2 split, just with EMEA on 32 per cent and LatAm on 23 per cent.

The business is largely powered by smartphones and tablets, with H1 sales up 45 per cent year-on-year to represent 61 per cent of all group sales compared to 48 per cent in H1 2012.

Despicable Me: Minion Rush has been a recent success for Gameloft, generating 65 million downloads since June – not bad considering it was sitting at 50m downloads last week.

The company expects full-year sales of between €235 million and €240 million for 2013.（source：mobile-ent）

3）73 percent of Ouya owners haven’t bought a thing

By Kris Ligman

In an interview with The Verge yesterday, Ouya CEO Julie Uhrman reported that only 27 percent of Ouya console owners have bought games for the system. The rest have stuck with free (or pirated) titles.

“Monetization on Ouya is so far better than we expected,” Uhrman assured The Verge. “It takes time to build what traditional consoles have had decades to build.”

The topselling title on Ouya is presently Matt Thorson’s TowerFall, which has brought in approximately $21,000 to date, after Ouya’s 30 percent cut. The console’s other leading title, Adam Spragg’s Hidden in Plain Sight, has brought in a mere $4,381.

“To say developers can’t make money on Ouya — I take offense to that,” says Uhrman. “I’m sure the creators of TowerFall and Hidden in Plain Sight would take offense to that. The console has only been out for a month, and developers have only had access to the hardware for about six months.”

Uhrman contends that for a free-to-play console, 27 percent of users purchasing content — at an attach rate of 8 percent for the majority of top-grossing titles — is actually quite healthy. “I think there are a lot of social and mobile app developers that would kill for an 8 percent attach rate on a platform that’s only 30 days old,” she argues. “These numbers will grow as more gamers pick up consoles.”

“I believe that by the end of the year, we’ll see a few developers telling us theyv’e made more than a million dollars on Ouya.”（source：gamasutra）

4）Dire times continue at BlackBerry as giant lays off 250 employees to ‘increase efficiency’

by Matthew Diener

BlackBerry has reportedly laid off 250 employees from its Waterloo, Ontario office in Canada.

The company claims said employees – who worked in the new product testing facility, supporting its manufacturing and research and development efforts – have been culled in order to “increase efficiency”, and to help BlackBerry scale “correctly” for new opportunities.

Off its game?

Earlier this month at BlackBerry’s general meeting, CEO Thorsten Heins told shareholders that BlackBerry is “still in the midst of a major, complex transition of this company, and like most of these transformations ….progress can be volatile”.

The layoffs, however, are nothing new. Last year, BlackBerry let close to 5,000 employees go as part of widescale restructuring at the Canadian company, which is attempting to reclaim a substantial stake in the smartphone market.

Recently, Microsoft has presented stiff competition to BlackBerry’s third-place position in the global smartphone race – with Windows Phone devices allegedly outselling the BlackBerry 10 almost 3 to 1.（source：pocketgamer）

5）Activision Blizzard stock soars 15%, Zynga’s falls 14% — what does it mean for games?

Dean Takahashi

Two big events caused a flurry of trading in game stocks today. Game publisher Activision Blizzard’s announcement of its $8.2 billion Vivendi buyout drove the company’s stock up 15 percent on Friday, while social-games maker Zynga fell 14 percent after its loss report and its decision to withdraw from making online gambling games for the U.S. market. That may verywell mean that shareholders sold Zynga and bought Activision.（source：venturebeat）

6）Puzzle & Dragons developer releases new game Freak Tower

Jeffrey Grubb

GungHo Online is looking to follow up its massive hit Puzzle & Dragons with another free-to-play mobile game for iOS and Android.

The game is Freak Tower, a building sim that combines management mechanics with tower-defense gameplay. The title features a cast of strange characters, a colorful setting, and enemy monsters out of classic films.

Players take on the role of the building’s landlord and must improve the real estate while occasionally fighting off waves of monsters. The tower’s tenants and floors are completelycustomizable. Players can pick clothing, weapons, and items to equip their freaks with.

GungHo’s last game, Puzzle & Dragons, is one of the most profitable titles ever realized on mobile platforms. In May, the game was making $3.75 million every day. It currently has 17 million users in Japan, according to industry analyst Serkan Toto. That’s more than 10 percent of the population.（source：venturebeat）

7）55% of Sword & Sworcery’s revenue came from iOS, less than 10% from Android

Jeffrey Grubb

Capybara Games, the studio responsible for Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP, revealed today that it made the bulk of its money through the iOS App Store.

The developer posted an infographic that digs deep into the financial performance of the pixel-art adventure game. Sword & Sworcery sold 1.5 million units in total. Over a third of those sales, 550,000 units, were on iOS. Despite only making up around a third of the sales, iOS actually accounted for 55 percent of the total revenue that the game generated.

Android is a much different story. The game only produced around 5 percent of its sales through Android’s Google Play marketplace. An additional 4 percent of its revenue came through the

Humble Android Bundles that packaged the game with other titles for Android devices under a pay-what-you-want system.

Superbrothers actually made a lot more money with the Humble Bundle 5 that introduced the game for PC. Sword & Sworcery made 16 percent of its total revenue with the fifth Humble Bundle,but after iOS, the game’s best platform is the Steam digital-distribution store.

Of course, it’s not a fair comparison. Capybara first released Sword & Sworcery only on iPad in March 2011. It then quickly followed on iPhone in April 2011. The game didn’t hit Steam until April 2012. It finally made it to Android in November 2012, 20 months after its initial release.（source：venturebeat）