1）据pocketgamer报道，日本通信应用LINE全球注册用户已达3亿，预计这一数据在2014年底将突破5亿。

该公司总裁Akira Morikawa表示将令LINE由一个“纯通信工具”扩展成为一个社交游戏平台，并打算在印度尼西亚开设销售LINE周边产品的实体店（该国LINE活跃用户达1400万）。

2）Strategy Analytics最近调查结果显示，32%的活跃应用开发者表示明年将针对Windows Phone平台开发内容，这一比例是今年的两倍左右。

调查指出，Android和iOS是传统意义上的两大顶尖平台，支持率分别达84%和68%。HTML5是开发者的第三大选择，今年的支持率为33%，预计2014年底这一比例将增长至43%。

超过三分之一开发者使用HTML5面向其他平台开发内容。

3）据mobile-ent报道，俄罗斯是全球手机游戏发展最迅速的市场之一，其地位仅次于美国和中国。预计2013至2016年间，该国应用市场将持续扩大，其平板电脑应用增幅将达109%，远超全球平均增幅86%。

其中手机游戏增长最为明显，增幅将达71%，其玩家数量将从3800万增长至6500万左右。

由于iPad设备在iOS游戏下载量中占比达40%，俄罗斯已经成为iPad开发者最看好的市场之一。

iPad平台的移动网络增幅达2.6%，在iPhone和Android平台的增幅为5.7%，整体移动网络普及率增幅为55%。

俄罗斯移动视频用户从原来的200万增长至2000万，而同一时期美国的同类用户却仅增加了2.5倍。

超过50%的俄罗斯移动用户每天都会玩游戏，观看移动视频，访问移动网络，60%用户会在移动设备上使用社交媒体。

4）Distimo最新报告指出，目前前100大全球品牌已经有92个入驻苹果App Store，有75个进入Google Play，有28个在亚马逊Appstore现身，有91%的大型品牌至少进入了一家应用商店。

在这些大型品牌中，长期占据美国下载榜单的公司包括苹果、迪士尼、Facebook、谷歌和易趣。

索尼和迪士尼均进入苹果App Store、Google Play和亚马逊Appstore这三个平台发布应用最多的五大公司之列，索尼目前在苹果发布了287款应用，在Google Play发布216款，在亚马逊有21款应用，迪士尼在苹果有251款应用，在Google Play有54款应用，在亚马逊有23款应用。

5）据mobile-ent报道，《愤怒的小鸟：星球大战》目前登陆PlayStation 4，该版本由动视负责发行，包含原手机版本的200个关卡，以及20个专属主机游戏的额外关卡，此外还推出了多人玩法模式。

该游戏还推出了Xbox One、Xbox 360、PlayStation 3、PlayStation Vita、任天堂Wii、Wii U和3DS版本。

EA旗下的PopCap游戏《植物大战僵尸》也在最近宣布将分别于2014年2月18日、20日进入美国和欧洲的Xbox、Xbox 360平台。该游戏的Xbox One版本售价39.99美元，Xbox 360版本售价29.99美元，含有10个地图的不同模式，其中包括12 vs 12的多人选项以及4人合作模式。

6）NDP最新数据预测，上季度智能手机比例仅超过50%，但预计到2017年，智能手机销量将占比82%，其中有30%销量来自中国。

智能手机销量年复合增长率达21%，而功能性手机每年则将下降16%。

三分之一的新智能手机屏幕将超过5英寸，其中多数介于4英寸至4.9英寸之间。

7）据venturebeat报道，Spil Games最近引用comScore数据指出，目前全球游戏玩家已经超过12亿，其中有7亿人是网络游戏玩家，占全球网民的44%。

Spil Games首席营销官Oscar Diele认为，游戏已经成为人们网络活动的重要组成部分，是一种跨年龄和性别的主流网络行为。

其数据显示，女性玩家占比46%，男性占比54%。男性玩家最青睐的是赛车、体育和动作游戏，女性玩家最欢迎的则是解谜、问答、文字、匹配和麻将游戏，少女玩家最喜欢的则是烹饪、打扮和宠物类游戏。

在15-24岁的女性用户中，游戏玩家比例为47%，同一年龄段的男性玩家则占比54%。而在超过45岁的群体中，女性玩家占比41%，男性占比37%。

多数人是在沙发上玩游戏，其比例达69%；57%在家中的床上玩游戏，41%在电视机前玩游戏，34%在厕所玩游戏，55%在等待约会的过程中玩游戏，63%在坐汽车、火车等交通公具的途中玩游戏。

土耳其游戏玩家在该国所有网民中所占达70%，巴西游戏玩家在网民中的比例则是53%，阿根庭则是62%，波兰为54%。

8）YouGov与Random House最近联合发布的美国智能手机游戏报告显示，半数美国智能手机用户每天投入手机游戏的时间将接近于200小时（游戏邦注：其调查样本是1150名美国成人）。

报告发现最受欢迎的是基于脑力和物理类的益智游戏，该类游戏在受访者中的支持率达28%。博彩和纸牌游戏排名第二，支持率为10%，休闲和街机/动作游戏分别占比7%。

女性用户玩智能手机游戏的比例更高，有69%的女性受访者属于此类玩家，而男性智能手机游戏玩家仅占比56%。

84%受访者表示经常在家玩智能手机游戏，22%在上下班途中玩游戏，21%在上班时玩游戏，25%与子女一同玩游戏。

（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）Chat happy: LINE passes 300 million global users

Firm wants 500 million in 2014

by Chris Kerr

Japanese messaging app LINE has amassed a total of 300 million registered users across the globe according to the company’s internal figures.

The firm, which had previously announced that it hoped to reach 300 million users by the end of 2013, is now looking to hit 500 million by the end of 2014.

Indonesian expansion

Reacting to the news, company president Akira Morikawa attributed the growth to the firm’s decision to expand LINE beyond a ‘mere communication tool’ into a social gaming platform.

Indeed, LINE has also cited recent success in Indonesia, with 14 million active users across the country now on board.

LINE’S global growth

In order to build on that success, LINE hopes to open a physical store in the country with the intention of selling Line merchandise and accessories in time for Christmas.

The move will also provide a crucial marketing boost as the company looks to set itself apart from the stiff competition it faces in Indonesia from rivals such as WhatsApp, and WeChat.（source：pocketgamer）

2）App developers for Windows Phone set to double to 32 per cent

by Phil Tottman

Android and iOS are favourite platforms for all app developers.

32 per cent of active app developers have said that they will support the Windows Phone platform by next year, reports Strategy Analytics.

The figure is double that of this year, during which Android and iOS were the most popular platforms for developers to use, currently use and plan on using in the future.

David MacQueen, executive director, apps and media research for Strategy Analytics, said: “Naturally Android and iOS were the top platforms, with 84 per cent and 68 per cent respectively of developers targeting those platforms.”

HTML5 ranked third in terms of developer support, with 33 per cent of developers creating for it this year. This is expected to rise to 43 per cent by the end of 2014. Although, more than a third actually use HTML5 as a tool to develop for other platforms.

Firefox is on its way up, showing the biggest rise with more than triple the developers planning on supporting the platform next year.

This is largely due to the launch of handsets in Latin America – who’s economy gained $211 billion thanks to mobile this year – Spain and a few other markets around Europe.（source：mobile-ent）

3）Russian tablet app downloads to grow 109 per cent by 2016

by Phil Tottman

That is even more than the 86 per cent global expectation.

Russia is one of the fastest growing markets in the mobile gaming industry, beaten only by the US and China, reveals the Live Mobile! Congress.

The country’s application market is expected to continue its expansion, with tablet apps projected to grow 109 per cent between now and 2016. This is compared to a predicted global growth of 86 per cent.

Mobile gaming will see the biggest change, shooting up by 71 per cent in the same time period, from 38 million players to around 65 million.

Russia is becoming one of the most desirable countries for iPad developers, as 40 per cent of all iOS games downloaded there were for Apple’s tablet computer.

Mobile Internet grew by 2.6 per cent on iPad and 5.7 per cent on iPhone and Android, and overall mobile Internet penetration increased by 55 per cent.

Russian mobile video audiences have grown ten fold from two million to a huge 20 million, compared to the US who – even though it still has a bigger audience – only grew 2.5 times.

More than 50 per cent of Russian mobile users play games daily, watch mobile video daily, and access mobile Internet daily, and 60 per cent user social media on a mobile device.

If these trends are to continue, it won’t belong before Russia will dominate the industry.

Alisa Chumachenko, founder and CEO of Game Insight, commented on Live Mobile! “Considering the growth rates of the mobile market, such events are very important for the development of the industry. They are essential, because we all need to be aware of the current changes and to share our experiences with each other.”（source：mobile-ent）

4）REPORT: Disney and Sony dominate the app stores

by Phil Tottman

92 of the top 100 best global brands are present in Apple’s App Store, 75 in Google Play, and 28 in Amazon Appstore.

Major brands are increasingly realising the importance of the mobile platform, with 91 per cent of the biggest brands in the world having a presence on at least one app store, reports Distimo.

Of those brands, those who are really dominating the download charts in the US are Apple, Disney, Facebook, Google and eBay.

Sony and Disney make an appearance in the Apple Appstore, Google Play and Amazon Appstore in the top five companies with the most apps on each platform

Sony currently has 287 on Apple, 216 on Google Play, and 21 on Amazon, whilst Disney has 251 on Apple, 54 on Google Play and 23 on Amazon.

However of the top ten most downloaded apps on the App Store, Google takes the crown, as YouTube leads the charts, with Google Maps coming in third, and Google Search fourth, Gmail took eighth pleace followed by Chrome at ninth.

Whilst Facebook was second in this chart, Apple had the second most apps with Find My Phone in at fifth, Garageband seventh and iBooks tenth.

Facebook took first and second place  on Google Play with the social media app and Facebook Messenger, but Google once again owned the who chart with Google Translate at fourth, Google Earth at seventh, YouTube taking eighth place and Chrome ninth.

When it come to revenue generating apps, Apple sure know how to rake in the cash on their own App Store, taking six positions with Pages, iMovie, Keynote, Numbers, Garageband and iPhoto, and Disney took the rest with Disney Junior Appisodes, Seven Dwarfs: The Queens Return, Hidden Objects: Gardens of Time and Alice in Wonderland: A New Champion.

Google didn’t even appear in their own top ten revenue-generating apps. Disney once again took up the majority of the chart, along with Samsung and Adobe.（source：mobile-ent）

5）Angry Birds Stars Wars, Plants vs Zombies join PlayStation 4, Xbox One

by Zen Terrelonge

Popular mobile game franchises hit the new consoles from Sony and Microsoft – a trend which used to be the other way around.

Discontent with breaking mobile records by topping the App Store downloads chart in just two and a half hours, Angry Birds Star Wars is now available for PlayStation 4.

Activision is responsible for publishing the game from Rovio and Lucasfilm, including the original 200 levels featured on mobile and 20 console-only bonus levels. There’s also the option to play multiplayer as a team or as opponents.

The PS4 version utilises consoles features for the game including the touchpad on the control and PlayStation Move motion controls.

Angry Birds Star Wars is also available for Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, Nintendo Wii, Wii U and 3DS.

Meanwhile, EA-owned PopCap’s Plants vs Zombies franchise, which hit PCs before becoming a mobile success, has been confirmed for Xbox One and Xbox 360 and will arrive on February 18th and 20th in the US and Europe respectively.

Plants vs Zombies Garden Warfare, which is priced at $39.99 for One and $29.99 for 360, comprises ten maps and different modes including 12 vs 12 competitive multiplayer and four-player cooperative.

As with the PS4 utilising specific features for Star Wars, Xbox One will offer Kinect compatibility for Garden Warfare.

Plants vs Zombies 2 was recently named EA’s most successful mobile game launch after securing 16m downloads in five days.

It’s a sign of the times when mobile games are now being adapted for consoles, given it used to be mobile users waiting for console games to reach their devices.（source：mobile-ent）

6）Global smartphone shipments to reach 1.8B in 4 years, with 82% of market

John Koetsier

Smartphones just passed the 50 percent mark this past quarter, finally edging out feature phones. But by 2017, 82 percent of all phones sold will be smartphones, according to market researcher NDP.

And 30 percent of them will be sold in China.

“Smartphone market growth is being fueled by entry-level smartphones from international brands and white-box vendors in emerging markets,” said Tina Teng, an analyst at NPD DisplaySearch.

“We expect aggressive pricing moves to continue, prompting first-time smartphone buyers to upgrade earlier.”

That’s a compound annual growth rate of 21 percent, while feature phones will decline at about 16 percent annually. Smartphones just reached the 250 million mark in a single quarter for the first time, and just recently passed the 50 percent market share.

A third of those new smartphones will have screens of more than 5″ in size, while most will be between 4″ and 4.9″. And 43 percent of those 1.8 billion smartphones will feature full high-def screens, while phones with quad-HD — also known as ultra high definition — will make up 16 percent of the smartphone market.（source：venturebeat）

7）More than 1.2 billion people are playing games

Dean Takahashi

More than 1.2 billion people are playing games worldwide, according to a state of the industry report by Spil Games.

Of those, about 700 million play online games. That amounts to 44 percent of the world’s online population, according to comScore data cited by Spil Games.

“Many people don’t know how big gaming is,” said Oscar Diele, chief marketing officer at Spil Games, a maker of online and mobile games that are mostly targeted at girls. “Gaming is a huge part of people’s online activities. It’s really mainstream, crossing age and gender boundaries.”

Netherlands-based Spil Games collected research from a variety of sources, including Newzoo, World Population Clock, comScore, eMarketer, Goo Technologies, PopCap, Cisco, SpotXchange, Brightroll, and Akamai. It mashed the data together in a 17-page report.

Spil Games itself reaches lots of girls, an untapped market, through its websites. The company reaches more than 50 million girls. It makes both online games based on Adobe’s Flash format as well as multiplatform mobile titles based on HTML5.

Diele said in an interview with GamesBeat that developers should make their offerings like TV shows, with cliffhanger moments that keep the audience engaged. He also said that advertisers should start to spend more on video ads within games.

“Not a lot of data is available, and that’s why advertisers don’t spend as much as they should targeting gamers,” Diele said. The majority of Spil Games’ revenue comes from ads.

The data shows that 46 percent of gamers are women and 54 percent are men. The top categories for boys and men are racing, sports, and action games. The top categories for women are puzzle, quiz, word, matching, and mahjong games. The top categories for girls are cooking, dress-up, and pet care games.

About 47 percent of females ages 15 to 24 play games, while 54 percent of males do. On the upper end, 41 percent of females and 37 percent of males over age 45 play games.

The most common place people play games is on the couch, and 69 percent said they do that. Fifty-seven percent play at home in bed. Forty-one percent play in front of the TV. Thirty-four percent play on the toilet. Fifty-five percent play waiting for an appointment. And sixty-three percent play as a passenger in a bus, train, or car. We’re glad they don’t play while they’re driving.

In terms of territories, gaming has spread the world over. Seventy percent of the online population in Turkey plays games. Fifty-three percent of Brazil’s online population and 62 percent of Argentina’s plays games. And 54 percent of Poland’s population plays online games, according to comScore.（source：venturebeat）

8）Smashing Ideas: 50% of smartphone users spend close to 200 hours per year playing games

Brandy Shaul

Random House’s Smashing Ideas division has today released its American Smartphone Gaming Report, revealing that half of American smartphone owners will spend close to 200 hours per year playing mobile games, whether at home or on the go.

In association with YouGov, data was collected from more than 1,150 US adults to determine their mobile gaming habits. The study found that brain and physics-based puzzle games are the most popular, with 28 percent of respondents choosing that genre as their top choice. Casino and card games came in second with 10 percent, and casual and arcade / action games were tied at 7 percent each.

The study also found women to be more likely to play smartphone games, with 69 percent of female respondents confirming they play games. in relation to 56 percent of men.

As expected, the majority of respondents, 84 percent, said they are most likely to play smartphone games at home, while 22 percent and 21 percent said they play on their commute or at work, respectively. In addition, 25 percent of respondents said they play smartphone games with their children.（source：insidemobileapps）