1）据GamesBrief报道，日本手机社交平台GREE公布了最近收购的OpenFeint在2010年的财政情况，结果发现OpenFeint在去年的营收仅28.25万美元，全年的净亏损达到660万美元。Gree公司1.04亿美元的收购价格，相当于OpenFeint去年总营收的368倍。有观察者认为，Gree收购OpenFeint的目的就是为了在与竞争对手DeNA的角力中取得战略平衡，但OpenFeint去年营收情况实在让人大感意外。

openfeint profits

不过OpenFeint目前共有7500万以上的Android、iOS手机注册用户，并且多数用户集中于美国和欧洲地区，除此之外，该平台还与1.9万多家工作室建立了合作关系，汇集了5000多款游戏，所以观察者认为它仍然有助于GREE在西方市场建立自己的势力范围。

2）独立应用商店GetJar最近绑定了Facebook功能，支持用户通过“like”或者“dislike”按钮与他们分享应用下载信息，向好友推荐应该下载的应用，或者建议他们别下载哪些应用。GetJar平台可保存用户的下载历史，以便其好友参考这些信息下载应用。

GetJar

如果苹果App Store和谷歌Android Market也能提供类似的功能，不但有助于开发商获取用户和争取曝光率，而且可以方便用户搜索应用。但目前这两个平台的开发商都只能通过侥幸获得苹果推荐，或者下载量突然大增并攀升到应用排行榜前列来获得曝光率。

GetJar至今下载量已达15亿次，与Facebook合作关系密切，都曾获得Accel Partners的风险投资，截止去年11月份，该平台总共创造了1亿次的Facebook手机应用下载量。

3）网页游戏公司King.com最近推出了其第一款跨平台手机游戏《Miner Speed》，并首先将其投放于iOS平台。该公司原来主要通过其门户网站推出技巧类的休闲竞赛游戏，今年1月份进军Facebook游戏市场，现在正式转型为集网页、Facebook和手机游戏项目为一体的现代游戏公司。

《Miner Speed》是一款类似于《宝石迷阵》的休闲游戏，其Facebook平台和其他网站上的玩家每月体验该游戏的频率超过5000万次。这个手机版本的游戏支持玩家通过Facebook Connect与他人对决，或者在单人模式下训练自己的技能。该游戏的Android版本也将于今年夏天问世。

minder-speed

King.com每月的独立访问用户超过2500万，玩家的游戏访问量达4亿次，该公司拥有200多款含10种语言的独家游戏，主要投放于King.com、Facebook、手机平台以及雅虎、MSN、NBC、CBS、Real Networks、Orange、RTLSat 1, Endemol、MTV3、Lifetime和其他主流媒体网站。《Miner Speed》这款游戏投放Facebook仅三周时间，其MAU就原来的240万增长到了560万。King.com成立于2003年，现有120名员工，已通过IndexVentures、Apax Partners和天使投资人融资4600万美元，自2005年一直处于盈利状态。

4）webOS平台的应用商店App Catalog宣布向应用开发商推出新型促销码系统，支持他们每彻底升级一次应用程序，就生成1000个有效期长达60天的促销码（游戏邦注：苹果App Store的促销码系统每次仅可生成50个促销代码，并且有效期仅有28天）。webOS应用开发商可将这些促销码赠送给更多用户，追踪促销码的使用情况。

use promo code

5）法国游戏发行商Gameloft宣布2011年第一季度合并销售额达3950万欧元（约合5860万美元），同比去年增长20%，其中欧洲市场占总销售额的33%，北美市场占29%。但该公司表示其发展主要得益于他们在新兴市场国家销售额的不断增长。

该公司在智能手机和平板电脑平台的游戏下载量同比去年增长了56%，占总销售额的28%，并通过向社交网站、智能电视和新一代机顶盒等新型游戏设备进军，保证其业务的多元化发展。Gameloft不久前刚推出其首款iPhone版MMORPG游戏《Order & Chaos》。该游戏采用了包月付费模式，但在发布后的头三个月内免费，其后将恢复99美分的月费，但玩家也可以选择其他月费套餐——1.99美元（3个月）和2.99美元（6个月）。

Smuggle Truck

6）以偷渡移民为主题的手机游戏《Smuggle Truck》因其内容引起各界的不满，最近被苹果App Store拒之门外。虽然该游戏开发商Owlchemy Labs宣称，他们只是为了通过这款讽刺性游戏，呼吁人们关注移民问题，但有评论者认为这世上有千万种提醒公众关注移民问题的方式，这只是一个站不住脚的理由。

关于App Store应用审核的另一则消息是，PopCap Games新工作室4th & Battery处女作《Unpleasant Horse》，虽然不久前也同样因争议性内容而传出遭遇苹果“退货”的消息，但最近4th & Battery却通过Twitter宣布游戏已通过审核。

7）据siliconera消息透露，韩国游戏分级委员会日前将智能手机游戏《水果忍者》归入了体感游戏项目中，不少媒体猜测这可能就是该游戏开发商Halfbrick将把《水果忍者》投放到采用Kinect技术的Xbox 360平台的一个重要信号。目前该游戏在所有手机平台的销量是2000万份。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，转载请注明来源：游戏邦）

1）GREE bought OpenFeint for 368 times annual revenue

What exactly motivated GREE’s buyout of multiplatform gaming network OpenFeint?

The suggestion that the Japanese firm’s move was, in part, fueled by a desire to gain ground on its close rival DeNA has certainly gained credence with the news that GREE technically paid well over the odds for its target.

In fact, OpenFeint’s $104 million price tag looks to have come in at 368 times the company’s annual revenue rate.

Matter of worth

Digging into OpenFeint’s financials for 2010 – released in Japan by law as part of the deal – GamesBrief has discovered that the network made $282,500 in revenue in 2010.

The games network also posted a net loss of $6.6 million across the course of the year.

Of course, OpenFeint’s value to GREE goes far beyond its current incomings and outgoings.

With more than 75 million registered users across Android and iOS, mainly focused in the US and Europe, GREE now has a major hand in one of the most powerful mobile social gaming platforms in the west.

OpenFeint has also built up a strong relationship with the development community, with its platform utilised by 19,000 studios and counting across a total of more than 5,000 games.

Nevertheless, with the lid lifted on OpenFeint’s current financial standing, GREE’s move for the firm is unlikely to be have been sparked by a desire to make a quick buck or two.（source:pocketgamer）

2）Independent Mobile App Store GetJar Goes Social, Adds Facebook Integration

The dream of having social viral channels for app discovery is still a ways off, but that doesn’t mean unofficial app stores can’t make moves in this direction.

GetJar, an independent app store backed by Accel Partners that says it has powered 1.5 billion downloads to date, launched a Facebook integration today that lets users share their download activity and use “like” and “dislike” buttons to help friends decide what apps to install and what to ignore.

If the big platforms like Android and iOS improved social discovery of apps, it would go a long way toward helping developers acquire users.

Right now, a minority of developers get the vast bulk of downloads because of the way the iOS app store and Android Market are designed. They use rankings by installs or active usage and have curated placement. That means if you’re not one of the lucky few who has a connection at Apple to get a featured slot or gets a burst of downloads that pushes your app into the top of the charts, it is extremely difficult to get new users.

Social app discovery would ease the difference in downloads between what the long-tail of developers and the biggest companies get. In GetJar’s overhaul, users can catalogue their download history and make it accessible to others for reference.

You can browse apps that friends have (see right). You can see that GetJar board member and Accel partner Rich Wong has downloaded Rovio’s Angry Birds, where he is also an investor, and Facebook, which counts Accel as its earliest venture investor.

Facebook and GetJar have long had a close relationship. Not only do they share a venture investor, GetJar has also helped Facebook users find appropriate apps given their devices and OS.

As of last November, the company had facilitated 100 million downloads of Facebook mobile apps.（source: insidemobileapps）

3）King.com launches its first cross-platform mobile game

King.com grew up in the age of web portals, offering skill-based games for players who liked to play casual tournament games. But this is the age of disruption for games, so the company expanded into Facebook games in February and is launching its first cross-platform mobile game, Miner Speed, today on the iOS (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch).

With this launch, it will become a truly modern game company, with games across the web, Facebook, and mobile.

The popular jewel match game, a clone of Bejeweled, is already played more than 50 million times a month on Facebook and on King.com’s other platforms. Now the new mobile app lets players square off against others via Facebook Connect or improve their skills in single-player games. The iPhone version lets players compete against friends on Facebook. An Android version is coming this summer.

“We are excited to announce the first mobile game within our new cross-platform approach,” said Riccardo Zacconi, chief executive of King.com. “We want to enable our users to connect with friends and play anywhere, anytime and from any device they want. Offering games not only on King.com, but through Facebook, and on mobile and tablet devices delivers just that.”

More games are coming across the mobile and tablet devices in the coming months. Miner Speed challenges users to match jewels at a fast pace in competition with other players. Rivals include PopCap Games, which is also moving from the web the new platforms on tablets and mobile, as well as other tournament rivals such GSN.

King.com has more than 25 million unique users and 400 million games played per month. The company has more than 200 exclusive games in 10 languages. It offers the games on King.com, Facebook, mobile devices, and on a bunch of portals such as Yahoo, MSN, NBC, CBS, Real Networks, Orange, RTL, Sat 1, Endemol, MTV3, Lifetime and other leading media companies.

The company tries to differentiate itself from the hordes of casual game makers by focusing on tournament play and creating games with its own game studio, which has built eight of the top ten games on King.com. On Facebook, the launch has gone well, growing from 2.4 million monthly active users to 5.6 million in three weeks. That’s still a lot smaller than Zynga, which has 259 million monthly active users, but it’s not bad. King.com was founded in 2003 and has 120 employees. It has raised $46 million to date from from Index Ventures, Apax Partners and angels. It has been profitable since 2005.（source: venturebeat）

4）webOS Developers Rejoice! The App Catalog Gets A Promo Code System

If you’re an app developer in the mobile world, promo codes (that is, one-time use codes redeemable for a free copy of your app) are amongst the most important tools you can have in your marketing handbag. Want an app review site to give your app a spin? They’ll probably want a promo code. Want to give away 50 copies of your app on Facebook to kickstart word-of-mouth?

Unless you’re going to eat the cost of all 50 installs, you’ll need 50 promo codes.

Alas, most mobile platforms to date haven’t bothered to give developers any sort of promo code system. Android Market? Nope. WP7 Marketplace? Nuh uh. The webOS App Catalog? Nada — until today. webOS’ new promo code system has one glaring fault, though…

First, the details on how it works: with each major update to an application, developers can generate up to 1,000 promo codes that expire after 60 days (By comparison, Apple’s App Store promo code system generates up to 50 promo codes per build, which expire after 28 days.) Developers can give these codes out as they please, then use the campaign manager to track which codes have been used, revoke codes, and browse through their code history.（source:mobilecrunch）

5）Gameloft sales hit €39.5 million in Q1 2011, up 20% year-on-year

Touting its strong performance on both smartphones and tablets, Gameloft has announced consolidated sales of €39.5 million ($58.6 million) in Q1 2011.

The figure is up 20 percent from the same period last year, with Europe accounting for 33 percent of all sales made across the quarter.

Percentage play

That puts the region narrowly ahead of North America on 29 percent, though Gameloft noted that sales in emerging countries were a major factor in its recent growth.

“Recent and future releases of high-performance smartphones and tablets, from such companies as Apple, Google, Samsung, Nokia, LG, Sony-Ericsson should continue sustaining Gameloft’s growth in the upcoming quarters,” the firm said, delivering the figures.

Game downloads on all smartphones and tablets grew by 56 percent year-on-year, representing 28 percent of total consolidated sales.

“Additionally, the release of new gaming platforms, such as social networks, smart TVs and next generation set top boxes allows Gameloft to continue its diversification on other devices and provides the company with strong growth opportunities.”

Price wars

As a result, Gameloft sees continued growth for the rest of the year, with the publisher pinning much of its hopes on the performance of the Facebook version of N.O.V.A. Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance: Elite.

Building on its existing trait for experimenting with pricing models, the publisher has also just launched its first iPhone MMORPG Order & Chaos, employing a monthly subscription model.

Order & Chaos will be subscription free for the first three months, before reverting to a 99c per month, $1.99 for three months and $2.99 for six months pricing structure.（source:pocketgamer）

6）Apple rejects ‘Smuggle Truck’ game about smuggling illegal immigrants

Some questionable apps have passed through Apple’s filtering process in the past, like that weird baby-shaking application, but luckily the folks in Cupertino are often on their toes.

Smuggle Truck, a highly offensive game where a user’s objective is to drive a truck load of immigrants safely across the desert without getting them thrown out, was just rejected for approval by Apple.

The first question that pops into mind is – what was the developer thinking? According to USA Today:

Although Owlchemy Labs drew fire from immigrant advocates when it announced plans to create Smuggle Truck: Operation Immigration, developer Alex Schwartz insists that he wanted to bring attention to immigration issues, the AP says.

It would be dishonest of me to sit here without expressing what I really think this is — bullshit. There are a million other ways to get a nation’s attention to immigration issues; exploiting it by creating a game – with the possibility of raising money from it – just seems pretty low.（source:intomobile）

PopCap’s ‘Unpleasant Horse’ approved by Apple

‘Unpleasant Horse,’ the first game developed under PopCap Games’ experimental label 4th & Battery is now available in the App Store.

The game had initially been rejected by Apple for its mature content. The game features a red-eyed, winged horse who bounces on the backs of other, more pleasant horses, sending them to the ground to be destroyed by meat grinders.

Via Twitter, 4th & Battery said that the full, unedited version is available for free from Apple’s App Store.（source:techflash）

7）Fruit Ninja heading for Kinect?

A Kinect-enabled version of Fruit Ninja is on its way to Xbox 360, if a new ratings board listing is to be believed.

As spotted by Siliconera, Korea’s Game Ratings Board has classified something called Fruit Ninja Kinect.

For those unfamiliar with the original game, it’s a simple smartphone title that focusses on slicing up fruit by swiping across the touch screen.

Despite receiving a bit of a hammering from Eurogamer’s Kristan Reed when it was released last year, the Halfbrick-developed title has been a massive success, selling 20 million units across all mobile platforms. （source:eurogamer）