1）据gamasutra报道，EA日前宣布因公司专注于其他工作室的手机游戏开发业务，将关闭旗下工作室Mythic Entertainment（游戏邦注：代表作包括MMO游戏《Dark Age of Camelot》，在开发《战锤Online》期间被EA收购）。

目前尚不可知其裁员数量，该工作室不久前曾为EA开发包括《Ultima Forever》和《Dungeon Keeper》（该游戏备受争议）等手机游戏作品。EA发言人表示《Dungeon Keeper》的维护工作将移交给其他团队。

dark age of camelot(from sports.eastday)

2）据venturebeat报道，《摇滚乐队》开发商Harmonix最近进行裁员并更换新首席执行官。

这家音乐游戏公司因业务重组而裁员37人，前联合创始人Alex Rigopulos也降职为首席创意官，并由前发行和业务运营主管Steve Janiak接任CEO一职。值得注意的是，公司数天前才刚通过众筹渠道融资85万美元，以便重制其原创经典游戏《Amplitude》。

Rock Band(from verycd.com)

尽管进行了裁员，该公司仍在针对主机、手机和PC平台开发一系列新游戏。

3）据gamezebo报道，开发商Cie Games日前向Android平台发布了iPhone热门游戏《Racing Rivals》（原版问世于2001年），支持跨平台同步体验和免费下载，以及英语、法语、德语、西班牙语、韩语、日语、西班牙语、葡萄牙语和俄语。

4）据venturebeat报道，移动分析公司App Annie最近通过其投资者筹得1700万美元，并收购了一家竞争对手Distimo。

这两家公司都提供用户使用手机应用和移动网络的相关数据，App Annie在提供游戏应用数据方面享有较高知名度，而Distimo则更侧重于非游戏应用的分析。

App Annie(from baidu.com)

App Annie成立于北京，目前总部位于旧金山，Distimo则位于荷兰，从此将更名为App Annie Netherlands，将成为公司的欧洲研发中心，其位于伦敦和旧金山的销售办公室也将并入App Annie的相关工作室，合并后两家公司成员将达240人。

5）据venturebeat报道，俄罗斯手机游戏发行商Game Insight最近将其总部从莫斯科迁往立陶宛首都维尔纽斯，但并未公开迁移的真正原因，仅表示这是公司全球发展战略的重要一步。

Game Insight声称其欧洲玩家超过公司全球用户的26%以上，其欧洲收益也占比超过28%（游戏邦注：App Anni数据显示，欧洲手机游戏玩家在全球用户中占比约22%）。

观察者称，乌克兰危机后，俄乌两国大量游戏公司遭到损失或者受到影响（乌克兰拥有包括《坦克世界》开发商Wargaming.net在内的许多大型工作室），Gamne Insight本次迁移总部也可能与此相关。曾多年在乌克兰首都基辅举办的Casual Connect Eastern Europe大会最近也因此迁移到了贝尔格莱德。（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）EA shuts down Mythic Entertainment

By Christian Nutt

Today, EA announced that it has shuttered Mythic Entertainment. The studio originally created the MMO Dark Age of Camelot before being acquired by EA during development of Warhammer Online. Most recently, it developed the controversial Dungeon Keeper reboot for smartphones.

EA provided this statement to Gamasutra regarding the studio’s closure:

“We are closing the EA Mythic location in Fairfax, Virginia, as we concentrate mobile development in our other studio locations. We are working with all impacted employees to provide assistance in finding new opportunities, either within EA or with other companies via an upcoming job fair.”

It is unclear how many staffers were affected. EA’s spokesperson said it is company policy not to disclose headcount for studios or teams.

Mythic Entertainment released the late 1990s MMO hit Dark Age of Camelot; EA acquired the studio in 2006, as it worked on Warhammer Online. That game shut down late last year.

Most recently, the studio had developed mobile titles for EA, including Ultima Forever and Dungeon Keeper — the latter of which was highly controversial.

As well as Dark Age of Camelot, Mythic had also shepherded Ultima Online after EA shuttered its original developer, Origin. Those games’ maintenance was passed on to Mythic co-founder Rob Denton’s Broadsword Online Games this February. Service for Dungeon Keeper will be transitioning to another team, EA’s spokesperson confirmed.（source：gamasutra）

2）Music-game developer Harmonix lays off 37 and replaces CEO

Jeffrey Grubb

Rock Band developer Harmonix is cutting staff and getting a new chief executive.

The music-game company is laying off 37 employees as it restructures for future development. The developer also confirmed today that chief executive officer and cofounder Alex Rigopulos will step aside into a new role as chief creative officer. The team’s head of publishing and business operations, Steve Janiak, will take over as CEO. This comes only six days after the company raised $850,000 in crowdfunding to remake one of its original classics, the rhythm game Amplitude.

“Harmonix is in the process of restructuring our organization to bring it into alignment with our current and future product development plans,” a Harmonix spokesperson said in a statement provided to GamesBeat. “Unfortunately, this means making the difficult decision to reduce the number of full-time staff. We sincerely appreciate the work of each and every one of these employees. Harmonix is working to ensure that those affected are well taken care of as we make this change.”

While Harmonix is reducing its staff, the company is still working on a number of upcoming games for console, mobile, and PC. These include the Kinect-controlled Fantasia: Music Evolved for Xbox 360 and Xbox One based on the Walt Disney classic, along with Amplitude. The company also has a music-based shooter called Chroma that is in the early-testing stage for PC. For mobile, the company recently released the music-based running game Record Run, which has players dodging obstacles while listening to their own music.（source：venturebeat）

3）iPhone hit Racing Rivals is launched on Android

Developer Cie Games has released popular iPhone title Racing Rivals onto Android.

Available to download for free, the game includes cross platform live sync play across iOS and Android devices.

Cie Games have made racing titles since 2001, with Racing Rivals beings its 4th entry in the genre.

You can even compete in weekly competitions to control cities, earn gems, and bonuses with other players – including exclusive cars no other user can buy.

Licensed models included in the game include cars from McLaren, Subaru, Dodge, Mitsubishi, Ford, RWB, Scion, BMW, Acura and SRT – with more promised.

The following languages are also supported in-game: English, French, German, Spanish, Korean, Japanese, Latin American Spanish, Portuguese, and Russian.（source：gamezebo）

4）Mobile analytics company App Annie acquires Distimo, raises $17M

Dylan Tweney

How can you leverage mobile to increase profitability for your company? Find out at MobileBeat, VentureBeat’s 7th annual event on the future of mobile, on July 8-9 in San Francisco. Register now and save $400!

In a sign of the growing importance of mobile analytics, App Annie has raised another $17 million from its existing investors and is acquiring one of its competitors, Distimo.

Both companies provide data on how people are using mobile apps and mobile websites. App Annie has built a strong reputation in the mobile gaming world for providing data on the game apps it tracks, while Distimo has focused more on non-gaming apps. (VentureBeat has frequently referred to data from both companies in our coverage of apps and games: see App Annie news and Distimo news on VB.)

App Annie started in Beijing and is now headquartered in San Francisco, while Distimo is based in the Netherlands. Distimo will be renamed App Annie Netherlands and will serve as the company’s European R&D center, while its sales offices in London and San Francisco will be merged with App Annie’s offices in those cities, so the merger seems quite complementary in many ways.

“At the end of the day it was not so much for the differences as for the fact that we have a shared vision for where we want to bring the companies,” App Annie chief executive Bertrand Schmitt told VentureBeat.

“Mobile business is going to be big. It’s not just about mobile apps, but about digital content at large, including books, music, and video,” he said.

Indeed, App Annie has already started collecting data on e-book sales and usage on Amazon’s Kindle platform as well as Apple’s iBookstore. Tracking data on song downloads and video streaming is next, Schmitt indicated.

“We plan to extend this step by step,” he said.

If App Annie wants to track music and video usage in the iTunes Store and Google Play store, that will require a very high degree of cooperation from Apple and Google. Schmitt said that the company can pull it off, thanks to its excellent existing relationships with the two companies. Because it has established itself as a credible, neutral source of data, Schmitt said, App Annie is in a good position to work with both vendors.

In fact, Schmitt said, in Apple’s most recent quarterly earnings call, Apple used App Annie data to provide comparisons with Google. Meanwhile, Google is also an App Annie customer.

After the acquisition, App Annie will have nearly 600,000 apps relying on its analytics tools, representing 270,000 business users, an increase of about 130,000 apps and 50,000 users.

The combined company will have 240 employees.（source：venturebeat）