1）据EA日前的财报电话会议数据显示，该公司收购澳大利亚工作室Firemint的交易额低于2500万美元，但并未透露具体金额。

ea-firemint

该公司表示，这笔成交金额是Firemint工作室在不计利息、税收、折旧和摊销收益的4倍左右，后者的热门手机游戏《Flight Control》的下载量已达450万次，《实况赛车》销量则是200万份。

EA首席执行官John Riccitiello表示，公司将继续在纯数字游戏领域展开小规模收购交易，并计划在Facebook平台推出更多“数字内容项目”。

EA's FY11 revenues

2）EA公司2011财年（截止2011年3月31日）第四季度的财报显示，该公司的iOS游戏营收比上一财年同期增长了两倍，手机游戏营收在该季度总体上比上一年增长了27%。不过该公司并未指出iOS游戏的具体收益数据，也没有公布手机游戏业务的净收益。

EA digital revenue by type

值得关注的是，该公司在手机和任天堂DS平台的收益不断增长，但在索尼PSP平台上的收益却呈现下滑趋势。有人认为，这是手机游戏正在蚕食传统掌上设备游戏的一种迹象。

该公司预计整个移动及掌上设备游戏行业在今年底的收益将达39亿美元，到2013年有可能达到48亿美元。

3）最近有一名新西兰网络安全专家表示，手机社交游戏平台OpenFeint用户存在个人信息安全隐患，因为他发现自己可以更改OpenFeint用户的手机ID号码，并获取用户在Facebook平台的真实个人信息。（游戏邦注：每部iPhone、iPod和iPad都有一个特定的ID号码，当用户运行应用程序时，该应用开发者就有可能在用户不知情条件下将其号码发送至他们的服务器，或者第三方广告网络，这也就是《华尔街日报》曾公开报道并引起众议的手机应用泄露用户隐私的问题。）

据该专家所称，他使用OpenFeint API和自己的手机ID号码，就可以追踪到自己上一次玩过的游戏，自己所在地理位置、帐户名称和Facebook资料图片URL，并由此获得用户在Facebook平台上公开分享的信息，甚至包括其好友列表以及“Likes”内容。尽管OpenFeint已得知这一情况，并修补了其中一些漏洞，但人们还是可以通过这种方式访问一些用户个人信息。

Android OS versions

4）据谷歌Android的统计数据显示，尽管Android 2.3 Gingerbread已经问世将近5个月，但目前仅有4%的Android用户使用的是Gingerbread版本的手机操作系统。现在使用Android 2.3.3版本的用户仅占3%，还有1%使用的是2.3版本。

使用Android 2.2的用户最多，其比例高达65.9%，而Eclair版本（Android 2.1）的用户占24.5%，还有5.3%用户仍停留在Doughnut版本，甚至是更低级的Android操作系统。仅有0.3%用户采用的是Honeycomb版本。

Kebab Manager

5）手机游戏开发商Softgames最近向iPhone平台推出了一款烤肉题材的游戏《Kebab Manager》，鼓励玩家“打造自己的烤肉串帝国，向世界推广自己的美食”，玩家在游戏中可以创建自己的餐厅，采购优质的食材，聘请手艺高超的员工，为顾客提供最佳服务。该游戏已经在沃达丰、T-Mobile和O2应用商店中位居榜首，最近正在苹果App Store进行大规模的宣传推广。

6）手机及网络电视应用商店三星乐园宣布面向欧亚主要国家开放运营商计费服务，从4月28日起，三星用户就可通过手机购买应用，并通过每月话费结帐。三星乐园的这一支付模式首次在欧洲的英国、德国、奥地利、丹麦、芬兰、挪威、瑞典和乌克兰登陆，在亚洲的首轮开放服务市场包括越南、泰国、印度尼西亚和印度，并将在年底前针对更多国家和地区提供运营商计费服务。

7）手机游戏公司Glu Mobile日前宣布与Blammo Games合作，在今后12个月中协助发行后者的两款游戏。Blammo Games这家新兴公司创始人是游戏行业元老Christopher Locke，他之前曾是Capcom Interactive加拿大产品开发高级总监，两家公司表示将通过这项合作推出更多高质量内容，强化用户的游戏体验。

children-mobile-users

8）据英国网站GoodMobilePhones最近针对1876名家长的调查显示，21%的受访者家中的16岁以下子女拥有智能手机。在这些少儿用户中，29%使用的是iPhone，43%拥有Android手机，还有11%是黑莓手机用户。至于让子女使用智能手机的原因，有56%的家长表示他们将手机作为礼物送给子女，27%用户称他们只是把自己原来的手机过继给孩子，还有9%受访者回答这是出于防止子女在校受欺负的考虑。

GoodMobilePhones总经理Mark Owen表示，这种结果并不令人意外，现在的青少年对科技产品了如指掌，而且很关注最新的手机资讯。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，转载请注明来源：游戏邦）

1）Firemint’s Acquisition Price Was Less Than $25 Million, EA Says

Australian developer Firemint was acquired for less than $25 million by Electronic Arts, according to the company’s earnings call today. The news came out yesterday, but the amount wasn’t disclosed. EA chief executive John Riccitiello shared a few more details today.

EA said the acquisition price was around four times Firemint’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. Firemint had sold 4.5 million copies of Flight Control and 2 million copies of Real Racing.

“We just picked up a company we feel great about with Firemint and we did so at a vastly lower price than has been reported publicly,” Riccitiello said. “They’re extremely talented developers with a couple of blockbusters.”

EA said it will continue to look at smaller scale acquisitions that are purely digital. The company is trying to bolster its mobile strategy as revenues on iOS pick up: EA’s mobile revenues rose by 27 percent year-over-year to $70 million in the last quarter. iOS revenues doubled. The company is also planning more “digital service” games on the Facebook platform.

“One of the things we enjoy about acquisitions is the speculation that we spent five times more than we did, which is what happened with Chillingo,” he added. Game publisher Chillingo, which has distributed Cut The Rope and Rovio’s Angry Birds, was reportedly acquired for less than $20 million, according to Reuters.（source:insidemobileapps）

2）EA Says iOS Revenues Doubled in The Fourth Quarter From a Year Earlier

Electronic Arts’ says its revenues on iOS have doubled from the same quarter a year ago. Overall mobile revenues rose by 27 percent from a year ago to $70 million in this last quarter, the company said in its earnings call today. EA did not break out exact figures for iOS revenues and did not reveal net income for its mobile segment.

What’s notable is how far revenues on both mobile devices and Nintendo’s DS have risen, while revenues on Sony’s PlayStation Portable have plummeted by more than half in the last year. It’s a distinct trend we’ve pointed out before: mobile gaming is cannibalizing gaming on other handheld devices.

EA’s other big talking point was that it held 15 of the top 25 paid games on the iPhone during Easter Weekend, but it didn’t mention that this was mostly because the company slashed prices by 90 percent on virtually all of its games.

The company expects industrywide mobile and handheld gaming revenues to grow to $3.9 billion by the end of the year and to reach $4.8 billion by 2013.

3）Security Specialist Says He Was Able to De-Anonymize Device IDs of OpenFeint Users

A New Zealand-based security specialist says he was able to de-anonymize device ID numbers of OpenFeint users and connect them to their real names on Facebook. OpenFeint is a mobile-social gaming network that says it serves 75 million users and is used in 5,000 apps. It was recently acquired by Japan’s GREE for $104 million.

Every iPhone, iPod and iPad has a unique ID number, often called a UDID. Developers can access this when users open their apps and it’s not uncommon for them to send this number back to their own servers or to third-party ad networks — a practice that has been very publicly criticized by The Wall Street Journal and has triggered a number of lawsuits seeking class action status.

With his UDID and OpenFeint’s API, Cortesi was able to pull up data including the last game he played, his location, his account name and Facebook profile picture URL.

Contained in the Facebook profile picture URL is the user’s ID number for the social network, which would then allow someone to capture their name and other publicly shared information like their friend list and “likes” or connections. According to AppData, OpenFeint has 163,405 monthly active users on the Facebook platform, which is likely a fraction of the total number of users who have ever connected the mobile-social gaming network to Facebook.

Just to stress this, OpenFeint has made a number of fixes including the hole connecting UDIDs to a user’s location. However, some personal information is still accessible.（source:insidemobileapps）

4）Only 4 percent of Android users have Gingerbread

We’ve been raving about Android 2.3 Gingerbread for months now but chances are you haven’t had a chance to play with it yet. According to Google’s monthly Android stats, only 4 percent of Android users are on the Gingerbread version of the platform. That’s sad.

Android 2.3 Gingerbread launched nearly five months ago on the Samsung Nexus S and it brought an improved keyboard, better web performance and an overall boost in across-the-board performances.

Still, only 3 percent of users are on Android 2.3.3 while 1 percent are on 2.3.

The vast majority of uses are using Froyo, as 65.9 percent of consumers are on Android 2.2. The Froyo platform is still highly capable but it’s disappointing to see the lack of updates. Eclair, or 2.1, accounts for 24.5 percent, while 5.3 percent are still on Doughnut or lower.

Even worse, only 0.3 percent of users are on the Android Honeycomb platform, which doesn’t portend well for the Motorola Xoom sales. Still, we should see a variety of Honeycomb tablets in the near future, so expect that number to rise rapidly.（source:intomobile）

5）Kebab Manager? Yes indeed, there IS an app for that

As a rule, kebabs and iPhones shouldn’t generally mix. Dried chilli sauce on your touchscreen is never fun the morning after. However, developer Softgames is hoping for a more positive respnse to its new Kebab Manager game.

That’s right: Kebab Manager. A game that encourages players to “raise your own Doner Kebab Empire and spread the most delicious fastfood around the world”. It’s already been a chart-topper on Vodafone, T-Mobile and O2 apparently.

“Conquer Pizza, Burger, Sandwich, Sushi, Hot Dogs and Donut stores, acquire their angry costumers and become the ultimate fast food chain around the globe!” explains the App Store blurb.

“Build up your restaurant, combine the right ingredients, hire skilled staff and satisfy the needs of your customers. What are you waiting for: Get your apron, sharpen your knives and fire up the grill! Praise the doner kebab with playing the Kebab Manager!”（source:mobile-ent）

6）Samsung Apps unveils carrier billing across Europe and Asia

Samsung has announced that its mobile and TV based marketplace, Samsung Apps, now supports carrier billing in key territories across Europe and Asia.

Officially rolled out on April 28th, users can now pay for apps downloaded on the platform either via their phone bill or their pay-as-you-go balance.

Big billing

The new payment model launched first in Europe, targeting the UK, Germany, Austria, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden and Ukraine.

Asian markets, including Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia and India, are also some of the first to benefit, with further countries to be added before the end of the year.

“At Samsung Apps we’re committed to doing all we can to provide our customers with an enhanced user experience” said senior VP of Samsung’s media solution center, Kang-Hyun Kwon.

“The new payment method offers flexibility, choice and ultimately a simpler purchase journey.”

To mark its launch, Samsung has also launched a ‘Buy Hot Apps, Get Cool Gadgets!’ promotion.

Samsung Wave owners who make a purchase between May 17 and June 20 will automatically be entered into a competition to win an unnamed bevy of prizes.（source:pocketgamer）

7）Glu Mobile enters into publishing partnership with Blammo Games

With the ink barely dry on its deal with best-selling author James Frey to ‘bring to life’ a series of novels on smartphones and tablets across a two-year period, social game publisher Glu has entered into another multi-title partnership.

This time, however, San Francisco-headquartered Glu has agreed to act as publisher on two games over the next twelve months from Blammo Games, a new company established by industry veteran Christopher Locke.

Capcon Interactive?

Most recently, Locke served as senior director, product development, at Capcom Interactive Canada, the studio responsible for controversial iOS freemium titles Smurfs’ Village and Zombie Cafe.

“I am excited to collaborate with Glu on their upcoming titles. Glu has asserted itself as innovators in high-quality, freemium gaming and a leading contributor to the iOS and Android ecosystem,” Locke said.

“Blammo Games’s collaboration with Glu will undoubtedly produce unique, captivating gaming experiences for consumers.”

Both of these contracted ‘gaming experiences’ will integrate Glu’s existing tools and technology, and will plug into the publisher’s Glu Games Network.（source:pocketgamer）

8）One fifth of UK kids own a smartphone

They’re mostly running OpenOffice and diarising sales meetings, innit.

Mobile phone comparison website GoodMobilePhones.co.uk polled 1,876 parents and found 21 of them had children under 16 with smartphones.

Among them, 29 per cent have an iPhone, 43 per cent own an Android phone, and 11 per cent have a Blackberry.

When asked the reason for them owning one, 56 per cent of parents said it was a present, 27 per cent said it was a hand-me-down and nine per cent to prevent bullying.

Mark Owen, MD of GoodMobilePhones.co.uk, said: “I can’t say it’s all that surprising. Teens tend to be extremely tech-savvy, with many wanting to keep up with the latest handset releases.（source:mobile-ent）