1）继收购荷兰工作室Rough Cookie，并通过美国子公司Ngmoco建立瑞典工作室后，日本社交游戏巨头DeNA日前在新加坡设立新工作室DeNA Asia Pacific Holding。

DeNA-logo(from games.enet.com.cn)

该工作室业务包括与东南亚、南亚开发商合作推出智能手机社交游戏，并对一些Mobage平台游戏进行本土化处理，同时寻找潜在的开发收购对象。DeNA的亚洲业务开发融总裁Tetsuya Mori将任DeNA亚洲总经理，负责统领新工作室业务。

2）育碧最近发布的Facebook游戏《The Smurfs & Co.》初次亮相市场反映不俗，据其数字发行副总裁Chris Early所称，该游戏最近的MAU为440万，DAU是120万，并且没有投入任何广告费用。他认为这种现象表明，只要选对了开发商，品牌授权作品仍可在Facebook游戏领域绽放异彩。

The Smurfs & Co.(from insidesocialgames)

他称品牌是游戏成功的因素之一，但并非他们成功的关键原因。育碧于去年推出的Facebook游戏《CSI: Crime City》最近的MAU是170万，DAU为26万左右。公司即将根据原有品牌推出的下一款Facebook游戏是《Ghost Recon Commander》，该游戏将同时与Xbox 360和PS3盒装游戏《Ghost Recon: Future Soldier》、PC和任天堂Wii平台的网游《Ghost Recon Online》绑定，但Early并不透露这款新游戏的具体细节，只称公司已经从过去不甚成功的《刺客信条：兄弟会》Facebook衍生游戏中汲取了教训。

Early还表示，除了Facebook之外，公司还有意将现有品牌和原创作品推向其他新平台，虽然Capcom Mobile已经在iOS平台推出同个品牌的《蓝精灵村庄》，但他不认为育碧不可再开发与Facebook绑定的同款《The Smurfs & Co.》手机游戏。他称由于育碧CEO与手机游戏公司Gameloft CEO是兄弟，两家公司之前已签订协议，所以公司有可能通过后者开发手机游戏。

3）新加坡初创企业LandShark Games日前推出其首款所谓的“中度硬核”游戏《Aviator》，这款以30年代为背景的历险/策略游戏于上周登陆Facebook，据AppData数据显示，该游戏最近的MAU是946，DAU是148。

Aviator(from insidesocialgames)

玩家在游戏中要扮演具有事业心的空中飞人，在全球不同城市间往返运输乘客、货物和商品。每个城市都有可影响玩家交易的动态经济系统，所以玩家得找到商品批发价最低的城市，将低价产品转卖到市场需求量更大的地区。游戏中的社交元素包括向好友提供汽油或抢修服务，向好友求助等。

4）德国社交游戏开发商Wooga于近日荣获The 2011 European Games Award的欧洲最佳发行商大奖，旗下社交游戏《Diamond Dash》也摘走欧洲最佳社交游戏桂冠。该奖项共有23种类型、69家游戏公司获得提名。

The 2011 European Games Award(from insidesocialgames)

5）法国发行商育碧日前将《Castle & Co》推向韩国市场，该游戏将以《마법의 성》(意为魔法城堡)的名称登陆该国最大社交网络及门户网站Naver。

6）在本周MAU增长最快的Facebook游戏榜单上，Wooga最新游戏《Magic Land》晋升榜首；但本榜单表现最出众的当属体育题材游戏，以及老虎机模拟游戏，例如排名第二的《SlotSpot – Best Free Slot Machines》，第三名《ESPN Sports Bar & Grill》，第四名《Premier League Fantasy Football》。

Top Gainers This Week-Games(from AppData)

值得注意的是第七名《胡莱三国》，该游戏原先在中国社交网络QQ Zone获得成功后，与6waves Lolapps合作发布了Facebook版本，在Facebook平台最近的MAU是57万4887。

7）Bime Analytics最新调查数据显示（详见下图），Google+问世两个月后虽然获得极高曝光度和用户增长率，但实际上多数帐号属于僵尸用户（游戏邦注：该调查截取了1000多万Google+用户做样本）。

调查发现，高达83%的Google+用户是“沉默的大多数”群体，仅有一小撮经常发言的活跃用户。不过调查指出其他社交网络也存在同样情况，有80%的Twitter用户发贴篇幅不足10行文字，40%的用户从来没有发过任何贴子。

在今年8月中旬，多数Google+用户是“学生”群体，而在一个月之前，该网站用户主力军却是更高端的“工程师”。

Google+仍是男性唱主角的社交网络，女性用户仅占30%，仅比一个月前的28%增长了2个百分点。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Google+ users survey(from Bime Analytics)

1）DeNA adds to Chinese and Korean operations, setting up DeNA Asia in Singapore

by Jon Jordan

It’s recently bought Dutch studio Rough Cookie and set up a Swedish office via US subsidiary ngmoco in Europe, and now Japanese mobile social network DeNA is expanding deeper into Asia.

It already has offices in Korea (DeNA Seoul) and China (DeNA China) so it’s setting up DeNA Asia Pacific Holdings, which will be based in Singapore. This will work with southeast and south Asian developers to bring social mobile games to smartphone users worldwide.

Other activities are expected to include localising the global version of its Mobage platform, and looking for developers to acquire.

All systems go

The office will be headed by vice president, Asia business development, Tetsuya Mori, who become MD of DeNA Asia, and have an initial capitalisation of 500,000 Singapore dollars (US$410,000).

“Mobage is a truly global platform for social games and entertainment and we’re excited to expand our game development capability in the Asia-Pacific region with DeNA Asia,” said Mori.

“Southeast and south Asia are full of entrepreneurial talent and has huge growth potential. DeNA Asia will serve as local developers’ gateway to the global market and bring unprecedented monetisation opportunities by enabling them to deliver social games across borders and devices.”（source:pocketgamer）

2）Ubisoft Looking to Build on Brands, Original IP With Ghost Recon Commander, Smurfs, More

By AJ Glasser

Ubisoft is preparing to expand its Facebook offerings in the coming months using a mix of original and licensed intellectual property, as well as multiplatform integration with its other games.

The French video game company recently launched The Smurfs & Co. on Facebook to very positive early results. According to Chris Early, Ubisoft’s VP of Digital Publishing, the game reached its current traffic levels of 4.4 million monthly active users and 1.2 million daily active users without ad spend. This proves, he says, that branded IP can succeed on Facebook as standalone social game experiences — when handled by the right developer.

“The brand isn’t the end-all, be-all,” Early says. “I can remember the early days of mobile [games] where somebody just stuck a brand name on a title and it had nothing to do with the brand at all. As a consumer, I was massively disappointed. Brand is an element of our success, not the reason for our success.”

Ubisoft has experience working with brand license-holders both in traditional video games as well as social games. Early tells ISG that its 2010 Facebook game, CSI: Crime City, still performs well — and could be getting an update as Ubisoft increases its attention to the social/mobile games space. That title currently enjoys 1.7 million MAU and just over 260,000 DAU.

But where the most interesting social game activity is likely to occur with Ubisoft is in its traditional video game brands, starting with the upcoming installments in the Ghost Recon video game series. Ghost Recon: Future Soldier will be available as a disc-based retail product on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, while Ghost Recon Online will come to PC and later to the Nintendo’s Wii successor, the Wii U console, as a free-to-play game. Tying these two together is a Facebook game, Ghost Recon Commander, which will feature integration with both titles.

Ubisoft is not ready to discuss the Ghost Recon Facebook integrations in detail, but Early says it will be based on lessons learned from a previous Facebook integration with Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed franchise. That particular companion game, Project Legacy, tied into Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood on several levels. First, gameplay progression in one game was tracked in the other game — meaning that Brotherhood players could unlock new areas in Project Legacy and vice-versa. Second, playing Project Legacy earned Brotherhood players money, experience points, and items. Lastly, Brotherhood players could “send” their assassin characters into Project Legacy for training, which could then be taken back into the Brotherhood game.

Beyond Facebook, Ubisoft is looking to expand its brands and licensed IP — and their integrations — onto new platforms. Though Capcom Mobile already runs a licensed Smurfs game on iOS devices, Early says he knows of no reason why Ubisoft couldn’t develop a Smurfs mobile game to tie into The Smurfs & Co. on Facebook.

“We’re not prevented from doing something on mobile,” he says. “Part of our background is that our CEO and the CEO of [mobile game developer] Gameloft are brothers and they made a deal years ago where all of our IP in mobile development is done through Gameloft. That goes on until April or so of next year. I think our approach as we start to look at what we will be doing come next April is [to ask] ‘How can we get our brands in front of our players so they can engage wherever they are?’ We know that’s not going to be the same high-def console experience when you’re sitting at a bus stop. So the question is, how are we going to bring you that experience in a meaningful way with that IP all of the time?”（source:insidesocialgames）

3）‘Mid-Core’ Aviator from LandShark Takes Flight on Facebook

By Randy Nelson

Singapore start-up LandShark Games is hoping to “upgrade” Facebook gamers from casual to what it calls “mid-core” experience with its first title, Aviator. This 1930s-themed adventure/strategy game went live last week.

According to our traffic tracking service AppData, Aviator currently has 946 monthly active users and 148 daily active users.

In Aviator, players assume the role of an enterprising fly boy (or girl) who’s using their piloting skills to ferry passengers, cargo and goods from city to city around the globe. The story-driven adventure begins in Africa and eventually leads to other continents. Each location features several cities to travel between, the flight paths to which must be purchased using a combination of in-game cash and certificates. Players pick up passengers at a hotel, cargo at a depot, and goods at a marketplace. Each area’s marketplace has a dynamic economy that affects players’ purchasing decisions — like searching for cities where prices are low and then ferrying the goods to cities where the goods are in high demand. Flying between cities requires gasoline, which must be purchased with in-game cash, and aircraft repairs, which regenerate over time or can be sped up using a repair kit item.

Social components include helping friends when they’re low on gas or repairs, or requesting help when the player finds themselves in the same situation. Occasionally, the in-game depot will present players with special packages destined for their friends in various cities, with bonuses awarded for delivering them. It’s also possible to visit friends in order to see their current status, progress in the game and send them in-game messages.（source:insidesocialgames）

4）Wooga Wins Best Publisher & Best Social Game – The 2011 European Games Award was given out earlier this week. Of the 69 nominated companies across 23 categories, social developer wooga walked away as the best European publisher and host of the best social game, Diamond Dash.（source:insidesocialgames）

5）Castle & Co Launches on Naver — Ubisoft is expanding Castle & Co to Korea. Under the name of 마법의 성 (Magic Castle), the title is now live on Korea’s largest social network and portal, Naver.（source:insidesocialgames）

6）Slot Machines and Sports See Growth on This Week’s List of Emerging Facebook Games

By AJ Glasser

Wooga’s newly-launched Magic Land leads this week’s list of emerging Facebook games, but it’s a combination of sports-themed games and slot machine sims that make the strongest showing.

We’ve previously discussed how sports-themed titles like ESPN Sports Bar & Grill and Premier League Fantasy Football (plus all its international versions) are likely getting lifts in monthly active and daily active users as a result of England’s Premier League season opening this month. The sudden spike in slot machine sims with SlotSpot, JackpotJoy, and GameShow is less easily explained, but nobody can deny the overall popularity of the genre on Facebook.

At No.7 is 胡萊三國 (Hoolai Sanguo), a hybrid strategy role-playing game with citybuilding elements set in China’s Three Kingdoms era. The game saw enough success on Chinese social network QQ Zone that the developers decided to bring it to Facebook — where many Chinese-language apps are finding audiences, despite Facebook still being banned in mainland China. Developer Hoolai Social Game Ltd partnered with 6waves Lolapps to publish the Facebook version.（source:insidesocialgames）

7）83 percent of Google+ users are inactive [INFOGRAPHIC]

By Colleen Taylor

Tweet inShare44Now closing on its second month, the Google+ social networking platform has seen rapid growth — and lots of attention — in its short lifetime. But new research indicates that the lion’s share of Google+ users do not actually pitch in on the site very often, if at all.

Here are some interesting tidbits from data compiled by Bime Analytics, which polled a voluntary sample of more than 10 million Google+ users:

A silent majority exists — in a big way. The study found that a whopping 83 percent of Google+ users are currently classed as inactive. It bears mention, though, that other social networks have the same issue: A small portion of very active users, and a large silent majority of lurkers or just plain inactive accounts. For example, research indicates that 80 percent of Twitter users have Tweeted fewer than 10 lines, and 40 percent of users have never sent a single Tweet.
Students are taking over. As of mid-August, the dominant occupation for Google+ users was “student.” That’s a big shift from the month prior, when the dominant occupation was “engineer.”

It’s still a man’s world. The percentage of female users was 30 percent, a slight increase from the month prior when women made up 28 percent of Google+’s user base. （source:gigaom）