1）诺基亚近日宣布将充分利用Windows Marketplace的基础设施，针对诺基亚Windows Phone 7手机平台推出一个新型应用商店。该公司称现有的诺基亚Ovi Store仍将服务于Symbian手机设备，但开发商今后将可同时方便快捷地向两个应用商店投放内容。据诺基亚所称，“开发商将可通过一个开发者入口，向数百万的Windows Phone、Symbian和Series 40手机用户发布和销售应用程序。”除此之外，诺基亚还将把庞大运营商计费服务系统（游戏邦注：Ovi Store在36个市场有112种运营商计费系统）延伸至Windows Phone生态圈。

nokia_windows_phone_concept

2）据9to5 Mac消息称iPhone 5有可能植入目前运用于iPad 2的A5芯片，苹果目前已将代号为“iPhone 4S”、运行A5芯片的手机提供给特定的高质量游戏开发商，以便他们充分根据硬件设备的运行性能开发游戏。众所皆知，A5芯片的CPU速度比上一代处理器快2倍，其图形处理能力则是原来的9倍。如果这个消息为真，那就意味着iPhone游戏开发商有可能在今年9月迎来史上最强大的iPhone手机。

iphone-5-to-feature-dual-core-a5

3）位于加拿大温哥华的Silicon Sister近日推出锁定少女用户的iOS游戏《School 26》。玩家在该游戏中将扮演一位不合群的少女，并演绎她转入第26所新学校中的社交生活。Silicon Sister是一家由女性创业者运营的工作室，其创立者是Radical Entertainment前执行制作人Kristen Forbes、 Deep Fried Entertainment前首席运营官Brenda Bailey Gershkovitch。

School26_Classroom

4）在线/社交/手机游戏公司Rivet Games最近完成了第二轮融资，但并未公布具体金额。该公司迄今已融资1500万美元。其投资者包括Softbank Capital、Baseline Ventures 、Floodgate以及刚刚加入的Outpoint Capital。

这家位于旧金山的公司原名为FooMojo，其CEO是Playdom前成员Jesse Janosov，他们计划利用这笔钱进一步开拓跨平台发展业务。

5）诺基亚手机今年第一季度净销售额比预期更为乐观，从一年前的95.2亿欧元，增长至104亿欧元，净利润也达到了3.44亿欧元。但在智能手机领域，比起苹果iPhone同一时期的1870万销量，诺基亚仅收获2420万销量，其市场份额仅为29%，其净利润绝对无法与iPhone 4相提并论。据诺基亚预测，Symbian今年的市场份额可能下跌至19.2%，而Android的份额却有可能达到40%。

Xperia-Play

6）Unity公司最近宣布面向索爱Xperia Play平台推出第一批游戏产品，包括《Racer》、《Guerilla Bob》、《AirAttack HD》、《Battle Bears -1 》和《Cordy》。这些游戏充分根据Xperia Play硬件设备的特点进行了优化。

7）英国手机游戏发行商Metro Apps计划推出一个新型智能手机游戏发行项目，以将智能手机应用开发商的产品打入主流市场。Metro Apps是英国传媒公司DMGT Group旗下的分部，后者是英国《每日邮报》和《Metro》这两大英国平面媒体的发行公司。不过该公司并未透露是否发展针对英国用户的智能手机游戏本土化业务。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，转载请注明来源：游戏邦）

1）Nokia to launch a new app store based on Windows Marketplace

One of the unknowns of the Nokia-Microsoft strategic agreement had been how the companies would integrate their existing app stores.

Now Nokia has made clear it will launch a new store when its first Windows Phone 7 devices become available.

The company said it will be “opening a new Nokia-branded global application store that leverages the Windows Marketplace infrastructure.”

Give and take

Not specified, it’s assumed its existing Ovi Store will be maintained for legacy Symbian devices, but developers will able to submit content to both easily.

“Developers will be able to publish and distribute applications through a single developer portal to hundreds of millions of consumers that use Windows Phone, Symbian and Series 40 devices,” Nokia commented.

In addition, to this integration, Nokia will extend its operator billing system – the widest in the mobile space with 112 operators in 36 markets – to the Windows Phone ecosystem.（source:pocketgamer）

2）Apple Seeding iPhone ’4S’ Prototype With A5 Chip To Game Developers?

It is widely believed now that the iPhone 5 will be touching down this September, with recent evidence suggesting the device to be a GSM/CDMA world phone, and to run on the speedy A5 chip currently found in the iPad 2. But now, an additional source from 9to5 Mac further supports the A5 claim and also suggests some awesome gaming power to come with the iPhone 5.

The source claims that an iPhone prototype dubbed ’4S’ sporting an A5 chip has been seeded to certain high level game developers. It is common for companies to hand out prototypes to developers early on to ensure that apps or games are optimized, take full advantage of the hardware capabilities, and ready by the launch of the device. The prototype appears to be a modified iPhone 4 with an

A5 chip and still runs the same iOS 4, but slightly tweaked to work with the new processor.

The A5 chip has twice the CPU speed of the previous generation processor and has up to 9 times faster graphics. This is definitely a lot of extra processing power that game developers can harness to create some high-performance games on the next-gen iPhone. If most of the speculation is true, and you can go here for a good roundup, the iPhone 5 will be quite the beast come this September. （source:slashgear）

3）First iOS game for girls by girls

Vancouver based Silicon Sisters, the first female owned and run video game studio, will release School 26 today, an iOS game especially for girls.

Did you think girls don’t game? 40% of gamers are female, and not only do they make their presence felt but also win matches at events like Quake Con or World Cyber Games.

School 26 is built around teenage angst and the social difficulties of high school. The user takes on the role of a young girl who finds it hard to maintain relationships. As she switches to her 26th school, she strikes a deal with her parents: if she manages to make friends in this institute, they will stay put. The user must control the character to do just that.

This isn’t your everyday run and gun game and certainly not aimed at hard core gamers. This is the kind of game that will attract a casual crowd that like a bit of interactivity and fun on mobile devices. Silicon Sisters plans to make more games for the casual crowd but want to keep the theme of its games focused at building social skills and interaction also known as “social engineering”.

Silicon Sisters is run by former Radical Entertainment executive producer Kristen Forbes and Brenda Bailey Gershkovitch, formerly COO of Deep Fried Entertainment.（source:gadgets）

4）Rivet Raises Funds to Publish Web, Social, Mobile Games

San Francisco – Rivet Games, a publisher of online, social and mobile games, has raised an undisclosed sum of second round financing, which brings the total amount raised by the company to $15 million.

New investor Outpoint Capital joined previous backers Softbank Capital, Baseline Ventures and Floodgate.

San Francisco-based Rivet, formerly known as FooMojo, says it plans in the future to deliver core games to core gamers across a variety of platforms.

Former Playdom executive Jesse Janosov joined the company as CEO in August. （source:dmwmedia）

5）Nokia’s smartphone market share tumbles to 29 per cent

Dramatic fall from 41 per cent a year ago.

Nokia’s Q1 numbers were actually better than expected given the general level of doom around the company.

Net sales beat expectations to rise to 10.4 billion euros from 9.52 billion euros a year earlier. Net profit was also ahead of forecasts at 344 million euros.

But the smartphone space was, unsurprisingly, of little cheer.

The glory days of the N95 are a distant memory now. Apple sold 18.7 million iPhones in the first quarter compared with Nokia’s 24.2 million, but the profit on a 5800 can’t compare to an iPhone 4.

Nokia believes Symbian may fall to a 19.2 per cent market share this year. Android is expected to touch 40 per cent.（source: mobile-ent）

6）Battle Bears -1 and Cordy join first wave of Unity titles for Xperia Play

Having announced its support for Xperia Play during Mobile World Congress in February, Unity has lifted the lid on the first batch of titles to launch on the device.

Joining already announced titles Racer by Luma Arcade, Angry Mob Studios’ Guerilla Bob and AirAttack HD by Art in Games are SkyVu Pictures’ Battle Bears -1 and Cordy by Silver Tree Studios.

Play on

Delivered via the firm’s new business unit Union, which helps developers support hardware not officially handled by the Unity engine, the line-up has been specifically optimised for the device.

“We’re proud to see this first wave of games reach gamers on the Xperia Play through Union,” said Union general manger Brett Seyler.

“We’re expecting big things for the gaming ecosystem on this device and for future Sony Ericsson devices as well.”

The games should receive a major push on the Xperia Play store. Sony Ericsson previously committed to giving Unity’s titles pride of place on the platform when the alliance was initially announced. （source:pocketgamer）

7）Metro Apps Launches Smarter Smartphone Publishing Program in UK, EU

The comScore 2010 Mobile Year in Review includes a few factoids about which mobile users are smarter: according to the report, in the US, smartphone adoption reached roughly 1 in 4 mobile subscribers (27%). In Europe, however, that number was closer to 1 in 3 (31%). So, why are the rates for app usage higher in the US?

It’s a question that UK-based Metro Apps is looking to address with their new Smartphone Games publishing program — a system geared towards helping smartphone app developers reach a more mainstream market. Metro Apps happens to be an arm of the FTSE 250 British media conglomerate DMGT Group, which also publishes both the Daily Mail and Metro newspapers, two of the largest traditional publications in the UK. Needless to say, they plan to start putting a few choice developers into the public eye.

No word on whether they will be localizing Smartphone games for a British audience. I would enjoy playing a round of “Quite Cross Birds” or “Words with Chums.”（source:friskymongoose）