1）据venturebeat报道，Facebook日前公布了该平台2013年最受欢迎的23款游戏名单，其中由法国独立游戏工作室Pretty Simple推出的寻物解谜游戏《Criminal Case》被评为Facebook 2013年度代表游戏（“Game of the Year 2013”）。

Facebook本年度最佳新游戏分别是:

《Farm Heroes Saga》(King)

《Heart of Vegas 》(by Product Madness/Aristocrat)

《Hit It Rich Casino Slots》 (Zynga)

《Jelly Splash 》(Wooga)

《Kitchen Scramble》(Playdom/Disney Interactive)

《Monster Legends》(Social Point)

《Smurfs & Co.: Spellbound》(Ubisoft)

《Soldiers Inc.》(Plarium)

《Solitaire Tales》 (Qublix)

《Thunder Run War of Clans》 (SpinPunch Games)

《Vikings Gone Wild》(EveryDayiPlay)。

Facebook本年度最热门游戏分别是：

《Candy Crush Saga》 (King)

《FarmVille 2》(Zynga)

《Slotomania》(Playtika/Caesar’s Interactive)

《DoubleDown Casino》(DoubleDown Interactive/IGT)

2）据gamasutra报道，美国电子游戏工作室Harmonix（游戏邦注：其代表作包括《摇滚乐队》和《Dance Central》）发言人日前出日证实Twitter传言，确认为将来项目考虑，公司进行了一系列人事变动，并裁减了一批员工（该公司目前成员超过150人）。

但该公司并未透露“将来项目”细节，目前仅知其中之一是Xbox One和Xbox 360音乐游戏《Fantasia:Music Evolved》。

3）据insidemobileapps报道，Eva Studio推出的连线消除游戏《Candy Boom》最近月活跃用户攀升至140万，其玩法机制类似于《Candy Crush Saga》和《Jewel Quest》，支持玩家与好友比拼分数，最近还发布了iOS和Android版本。

4）据pocketgamer报道，《Candy Crush Saga》开发商King日前宣布延迟在美国的IPO计划，原因是担心“过于成功的”《Candy Crush Saga》会令投资者认为King只是昙花一现的公司，但仍未公布IPO的具体时间表。

《Candy Crush Saga》自今年夏天以来一直高居iOS和Android热门游戏榜单前列，King最新手机游戏《Papa Pear Saga》发布于11月份，目前尚无法看出该游戏能否追随《Candy Crush Saga》的步伐。

5）据mobile-ent报道，由法国发行商Gameloft与环球电影合作推出的《卑鄙的我》电影衍生游戏《Despicable Me:Minion Rush》下载量突破1.5亿次，并且荣获2013年BAFTA（英国影视艺术学院奖）儿童游戏大奖。

（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）Facebook names its top games of 2013

Dean Takahashi

Facebook named 23 video games as its top titles of 2013, including hidden-object adventure game Criminal Case by Pretty Simple as Game of the Year 2013.

Gaming is one of the most popular activities on Facebook — and one of the most profitable for companies doing business with gigantic social network.

Of the games, eight are cross-platform, integrating with Facebook on the web and mobile. Ten come studios based in Europe or the Middle East. Eight come from indie game studios. Seven are midcore (meaning they hit the spot between casual games like Candy Crush Saga and more traditional game fare) or hardcore games, five are arcade games, and five are casino games.

The top game is a hidden object title from a French indie game studio. It combines crime scene investigation with engaging sharing mechanics. It features “visceral” art work that includes pretty women who have been slain in rooms filled with clues. The game grew organically in the first half of the year, and content updates and additional cases drove more growth in the second half.

The selections by Facebook’s staff are based on user ratings, Facebook implementation, growth, and overall quality.

Here’s Facebook’s other top titles, in alphabetical order, with Facebook’s own descriptions:

Bake Shop Drop

Best new games of 2013

Bake Shop Drop (by Broken Bulb Studios): An adorable match-3 game featuring delicious-looking pastries, from the developers of the Miscrits long-running Facebook game franchise. Rather than switching or line-drawing match mechanics, players drop a single pastry from the top of a display case onto pastries of the same type below.

Farm Heroes Saga (by King): A farm-themed match-3 game from the makers of the wildly successful Candy Crush Saga. The bright colors and rounded edges of the art style distinguish Farm Heroes Saga both from other match-3 games and from King’s previous successes in the genre.

Heart of Vegas (by Product Madness/Aristocrat): This slots game is the first from this developer since its acquisition late last year by land-based casino company Aristocrat. The high quality graphics and sound speak to the developer’s skill with the category.

Hit It Rich Casino Slots (by Zynga): This beautifully designed slots simulation from the FarmVille developer features slot machines based on characters and themes from movies, television and comic books.

Jelly Splash (by Wooga): A richly animated line-drawing match-3 game from the developers of popular Facebook game Diamond Dash. Jelly Splash launched first on mobile before going cross-platform on Facebook canvas in summer of this year.

Kitchen Scramble (by Playdom/Disney Interactive): This cooking-themed time management sim from longtime Facebook game developer Playdom puts players in a food truck and sends them to various food-themed “countries” to serve local cuisine. This is the first original IP developer for Facebook that feels like a Disney production, right down to the animated mixing bowl loading screen.

Monster Legends (by Social Point): From the Barcelona-based developers of hit game Dragon City, Monster Legends lets players collect, raise and battle monsters of all kinds against each other. The “Pandalf” panda-wizard monster is an office favorite.

Smurfs & Co.: Spellbound (by Ubisoft): A sequel to 2011’s The Smurfs & Co, French game developer Ubisoft follows up with a more personalized village-building experience featuring the lovable blue Belgian comic characters. Spellbound proves that recognizable brands still carry a lot of weight with players on our platform.

Soldiers Inc. (by Plarium): A real-time strategy game from an Israeli indie developer. This gritty war epic grew rapidly over the summer and still continues to draw a large audience of hardcore players.

Solitaire Tales (by Qublix): From a Toronto indie studio, Tales is steampunk-themed solitaire game that treats players with familiar gameplay in a rich fantasy setting.

Thunder Run War of Clans (by SpinPunch Games): Another hardcore strategy game, this indie studio was founded out of a Stanford University dorm room just last year.

Vikings Gone Wild (by EveryDayiPlay): A hardcore strategy game from a Polish indie studio built with the Unity 3D engine. Players build armies of Viking warriors to pillage one another’s homesteads for spoils of gold and beer.

Double U Casino

Staff Favorites (based on what Facebook staffers play the most)

DoubleU Casino (by AFewGoodSoft): This high quality casino game comes from a South Korean indie that launched in mid 2012 and rapidly grew to a 40-person company on the success of this game alone.

Game of Thrones: Ascent (by Disruptor Beam): – A role-playing simulation based both on the megahit A Song of Ice and Fire book series and its HBO miniseries Game of Thrones.

King’s Bounty: Legions (by Nival): A complex turn-based strategy game that has grown on a few of our staff over the last year.

Panda Jam (by SGN): A cross-platform casual game where players collapse cubes of matching colors to free trapped baby pandas.

Wartune (by Road7/Proficient City): This is the English language version of a popular strategy massively multiplayer online game. Since its launch on Facebook in spring of 2012 by publisher Proficient City, the game has grown rapidly in size and is one of the most successful core games on the platform to date.

War Commander (by Kixeye): One of the earliest real-time strategy titles on Facebook lets players build up armies, attack each other and compete for resources. It’s still played regularly by Facebook staff two years after leaving beta.

King’s Candy Crush Saga.

2013 Hall of Fame (games introduced before 2013 but still popular)

Candy Crush Saga (by King): The King match-3 game has been a phenomenal success this year entertaining audiences onFacebook.com and mobile devices alike.

FarmVille 2 (by Zynga): Sequel to one of Facebook’s earliest farm simulation games, FarmVille 2 features some of the slickest graphics on our platform. Exciting new content keeps players coming back and contributes to this game’s remarkable performance.

Slotomania (by Playtika/Caesar’s Interactive): Always fresh and fun, this slots game keeps delighting web and mobile users with its creative categories and engaging graphics.

DoubleDown Casino (by DoubleDown Interactive/IGT): With a suite of engrossing casino games, DoubleDown keeps players hooked with lively themes and opportunities to compete with others.

2）Layoffs hit Harmonix

By Kris Graft

Newsbrief: Harmonix, the Massachusetts video game studio best known for Rock Band and Dance Central, laid off a number of employees today.

“We can confirm that a small number of Harmonix employees were let go today,” a spokesperson told us, confirming Twitter reports. “This decision was made due to shifting staffing priorities for Harmonix’s multiple future projects.”

The “future projects” were not specified, though we know one of them is Fantasia: Music Evolved, an upcoming music game for Xbox One and Xbox 360.

On Twitter, reports said layoffs included cuts to the studio’s art department.

Harmonix currently has over 150 employees, according to the spokesperson.（source：gamasutra）

3）Eva Studio’s Candy Boom on Facebook is over 1 million strong and climbing

Brandy Shaul

Image via Eva Studio

Candy Boom from Eva Studio is on the rise on Facebook, with the match-three game climbing to over 1.4 million monthly active players, according to our app tracking service AppData. The game provides a repeatable match-three level and the ability to compare scores against friends, but without the additional challenge of games like Candy Crush Saga.

Each level in Candy Boom is the same, and asks players to clear all of the white squares from the board within a certain number of moves. Like gold tiles in Jewel Quest or jelly tiles in Candy Crush Saga, these white squares are removed by making a match of three or more like-colored candies on top of them.

As players make matches of four or more like candies, or special T or L shaped matches, the board fills with power-ups and bombs which may clear whole rows or columns of white tiles from the board, or simply destroy a few squares in a confined area.

Image via Eva Studio

Each play in Candy Boom costs a life, but players can purchase these and additional power-ups with real money. For instance, one power-up clears the entire bottom row of white squares, while another destroys 27 candies at once. Players are also given a few of these items for free as they complete games, earn experience points and eventually level-up.

If players manage to clear all of the white tiles from the board before their moves run out, they’ll activate a bonus game consisting of a reset board, a reset move count, and the ability to earn even more points without spending another life. The more points earned in a single game, the higher players climb on the in-game leaderboard.

Candy Boom is now available to play for free on Facebook, and was recently released on iOS and Android as “Candy Booms” and “Candy Boom,” respectively. Both mobile apps are available to download for free. Check back soon to follow Candy Boom on AppData, our tracking service for mobile and social apps and developers.（source：insidesocialgames）

4）’One hit wonder’ concerns force King to delay IPO

by Matthew Diener

Candy Crush Saga developer King – née King.com – has reportedly delayed its initial public offering (IPO) in the United States.

This decision comes as a result of UK-based King voicing concerns that Candy Crush was ‘too successful’ and might lead potential investors to view the company as a ‘one hit wonder’.

After gearing up for a potential $5bn (£3bn) flotation on the NASDAQ, King initially contemplated a launch of the IPO in 2013. No timetable has been provided for when King plans to launch the IPO moving forward.

More on the way

King has seen unprecedented success with Candy Crush Saga, which has hovered at the happy end of the Top Grossing games charts for both iOS and Android since the summer.

King’s latest mobile offering Papa Pear Saga launched in November, though the picture is currently unclear as to whether it will be able to follow in Candy Crush’s rather formidable footsteps longterm.

Papa Pear Saga

Recently, King has turned to aggressively promoting Candy Crush Saga in foreign markets – including a pair of television commercials in Japan.（source：pocketgamer）

5）Despicable Me: Minion Rush hits 150 million downloads

by Phil Tottman

We know a good game when we see one. That is why we made Despicable Me: Minion Rush app of the day, and followed the progress the app.

Hitting yet another milestone, the Gameloft – ME Award winner – and Universal production has reached 150 million downloads.

If that wasn’t enough, it also also awarded the game of the year in the 2013 BAFTA Kids.

Gonzague De Vallois, VP of publishing at Gameloft, said: “Despicable Me: Minion Rush was warmly received upon its release, which was already a fantastic reward in itself for all the teams who worked on this project at Gameloft, Universal and Illumination Entertainment.”

A fifth update to the game is on the horizon, allowing players to inject some festive spirit into their Minion rushing with more costumes, quests, plus much more.（source：mobile-ent）