1）据gamasutra报道，美国专利商标局日前接受King公司要求放弃“candy”商标注册的申请，此举表明King公司已经悄悄放弃了其备受争议的品牌保护战略。

去年2月份King提交了关于一系列（从浴帽至电脑游戏等）广泛商品的“candy”商标注册申请，今年1月份则获得了美国专利商标局的批准，并向社会公布了这一情况，允许第三方提出异议。

candy crush saga(from gamezebo)

但奇怪的是King法律代表近日取消了这一商标注册申请，其发言人表示，King只是撤销了在美国的“candy”商标应用，但此举并不影响在欧洲等其他市场的“candy”商标应用。

（游戏邦注：在此之前独立开发者Albert Ransom曾发表致King的公开信，反对后者通过收购发布于2009年的游戏《Candy Crusher》来作为注册“candy”商标的凭据，因为此举会影响Ransom先于《Candy Crush Saga》但后于《Candy Crusher》发布的游戏《CandySwipe》。

2）美国社交手机游戏平台PlayPhone最近针对1000名美国手机游戏玩家的调查结果发现，这些受访者中的女性数量占优，男女比例为32：68。

在那些每天至少玩一小时游戏的女性用户中，62%是已婚妇女，46%年龄介于40到64岁，36%年龄介于40-54岁。

mobile games(from 3dguy.tv)

64%年龄介于25至39岁的玩家曾在游戏中投入超过10美元，其中有48%的付费玩家年龄介于30-39岁。

72%受访者并不太放心在应用中输入自己的信用卡信息，47%受访者更可能因为移动信息的邀请而下载一款游戏。

半数每周游戏时间超过3小时的受访者承认，自己曾因移动信息的邀请而进入游戏。

3）据pocketgamer报道，英国工作室Rebellion日前宣布旗下游戏在不到一年的时间中在Windows Phone和Windows 8平台下载量突破了350万次。

rebellion-logo(from rebellion.co.uk)

该工作室高级制作人James Valls表示，正确地营销推广游戏是Rebellion在这些平台取得成功的关键，但游戏本身也要有足够吸引玩家的亮点。另外他还建议开发者针对Windows应用商店优化关键字，让游戏主动获得玩家的关注和分享。

4）据gamasutra报道，微软于去年9月份收购诺基亚移动业务，并令诺基亚首席执行官Stephen Elop担任公司设备服务部门（负责处理Xbox等其他设备的业务）执行副总裁，日前该部门主管Julie Larson-Green宣布自己将离职，让Elop接替自己的岗位。

Stephen Elop(from yle.fi)

5）据gamasutra报道，Mojang创始人Markus Persson日前通过Twitter发贴宣布原PC版《Minecraft》（目前在美国售价为26.95美元）注册用户已突破1亿，这还不包括该游戏主机和移动版本的用户数量。此外PC游戏玩家的付费转化率达14.3%。

Minecraft(from wall88.com)

2013年12月，Persson曾表示该游戏PC版销量为1300万份，当时其Xbox 360版本销量也达到了1000万份。（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）King files to abandon ‘candy’ trademark in the U.S.

By Alex Wawro

Yesterday the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office received a request for express abandonment of King’s trademark on the term “candy”, suggesting the maker of Candy Crush Saga may have quietly decided to abandon its controversial brand protection strategy.

Last February King filed an application to trademark the word “candy” across a broad variety of products, from shower caps to computer games. In January of this year King got a step closer to owning that trademark, as the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office approved it for publication.

The office finally went ahead and published King’s trademark on “candy” today for legal opposition, which allows other parties to contest and potentially prevent the trademark from being registered.

It’s an odd coincidence in light of the fact that someone purporting to be King or its legal representative filed to cancel the trademark yesterday; King legally opposed Stoic’s attempt to trademark “The Banner Saga” last month, and now it seems the company has filed to abandon one of its own trademarks before it can be opposed.

UPDATE: When reached for comment, a King representative gave the following statement to Gamasutra:

“King has withdrawn its trademark application for “candy” in the U.S., which we applied for in February 2013 before we acquired the early rights to Candy Crusher. Each market that King operates in is different with regard to IP. We feel that having the rights to Candy Crusher is the best option for protecting Candy Crush in the U.S. market. This does not affect our E.U. trademark for “candy” and we continue to take all appropriate steps to protect our IP.”

You may remember that indie developer Albert Ransom recently published an open letter to King admonishing the company for buying up the rights to Candy Crusher, a game published in 2009, for what Ransom believed to be the express purpose of cancelling Ransom’s trademark on his game CandySwipe.

Ransom had been attempting to contest King’s trademark on “Candy Crush Saga” because it could be confused with his game CandySwipe, which was published before Candy Crush Saga but after Candy Crusher.（source：gamasutra）

2）Middle-aged women play but Generation Y pays

by Jon Jordan

US social mobile gaming network PlayPhone has been investigating the breakdown of the mobile gaming market.

It’s surveyed 1,000 American mobile gamer as part of its Mobile Gaming Chronicles, to get an idea about challenges and opportunities.

Interestingly, it found the overall gender split was 68:32 in favour of women.

Of those women who played for at least one hour a day, 62 percent were married, with 46 percent aged between 40 to 64 and 36 percent aged between 40 and 54.

Gen Y spenders

However, looking at who was prepared to spend more than $10 on mobile games, 64 percent were aged between 25 to 39; a completely different group.

More specifically, 48 percent of such spenders were aged 30 to 39.

Perhaps this situation is related to the finding that 72 percent of the survey weren’t comfortable about entering their credit card details into an app.

More generally – and related to PlayPhone’s announcement that it’s hooking up with Tango – was the news that 47 percent of the survey said that they were likely to download a game if they received an invite via a mobile messaging service.

And as we already know, gamers are social. Half of mobile gamers who played for more than three hours per week said they had been invited to play a game via a messaging invite.（source：pocketgamer）

3）UK dev Rebellion hits 3.5 million downloads across Windows devices in less than a year

by Chris Kerr

Rebellion has revealed that combined downloads of its games library across Windows Phone and Windows 8 have hit 3.5 million in less than 12 months.

Senior producer James Valls said the firm – which has released Judge Dredd vs. Zombies, Zombie HQ and Guns 4 Hire on Microsoft’s platforms – has managed to find sustained success on Windows, despite criticism from outside that it has nothing to offer developers.

Games that market themselves

Valls explained that marketing the firm’s games correctly was crucial to the level of success Rebellion has witnessed. However, he also stressed that a game should be able to sell itself to consumers.

“It sounds cliché, but marketing starts with the game itself. Players have to like it from the beginning,” suggested Valls.

“‘Marketing apps’ means many things these days. When possible, we A-B test important artwork such as icons and key art to catch a player’s eye, but sometimes – like with Zombie HQ – you just come up with an icon that is hugely successful, and you can’t quite explain why.

Zombie HQ

“We would suggest you optimise copy and keywords for the Store too, [but] the game itself has to get players talking and sharing it with friends.

“Windows Phone is a relatively young platform with lots of evangelists, so we’ve found that word of mouth has been incredibly beneficial.”（source：pocketgamer）

4）Former Nokia boss Stephen Elop now in charge of Xbox

By Mike Rose

Newsbrief: When Microsoft acquired Nokia’s mobile business back in September, the company put Nokia CEO Stephen Elop into the executive vice president role at its Devices & Services division — the portion of the company that handles Xbox, amongst other devices.

Today, Devices & Services boss Julie Larson-Green announced in an internal Microsoft memo, as reported by TechCrunch, that she will be changing roles and leaving Elop in charge of the division.

This latest shake-up comes just weeks after Microsoft named Satya Nadella as its new CEO, a man who has spearheaded strategy and technical shifts at Microsoft, including the company’s development of its grand-scale cloud infrastructure, which currently supports the Xbox services.（source：gamasutra）

5）Minecraft hits 100 million users, over 14 million sales on PC

By Christian Nutt

Newsbrief: Today, Mojang founder Markus “Notch” Persson tweeted that the original PC version of Minecraft has hit 100 million registered users — which would exclude players of the hugely popular console and mobile versions of the game. He also said that the company has hit a 14.3 percent conversion rate to paid accounts on those registrations.

In December 2013, Persson tweeted that the PC version of the game had sold 13 million copies. At that time, the Xbox 360 version of the game had also sold 10 million copies.

The game currently sells for $26.95 in U.S. dollars and can only be purchased directly from Mojang.（source：gamasutra）