1）社交游戏公司Kabam与Information Solutions Group最新调查表明，社交游戏玩家在传统掌机游戏中投入的时间和金钱都呈现出了下滑趋势（游戏邦注：调查时间是今年4月13日至5月2日，受访者是18岁以上的美国成人游戏玩家）。

这项在线调查的受访者是1412名游戏玩家，调查发现硬核社交游戏玩家数量发展迅速，这类玩家较为年轻，并主要集中于男性群体。约有82%的硬核社交游戏玩家同时也在玩掌机游戏，他们投入的游戏时间高于休闲社交游戏玩家。

social gamers & core game platform overlap(from venturebeat)

约27%也涉足其他平台的社交游戏玩家表示，他们接触社交游戏后，在其他平台玩游戏的时间已经减少。与此同时，他们在掌机等平台投入的金钱也减少了50%。Kabam游戏玩家自称他们在其他平台玩游戏的时间下降了55%，在掌机游戏中投入的时间则下降了65%。

social gamers in US(from venturebeat)

约有41%的美国网民（相当于9800万美国人）是社交游戏玩家，61%的休闲社交游戏玩家是女性用户，62%的此类玩家年龄超过了40岁。但55%的硬核社交游戏玩家是男性，年龄在40岁以下的用户比例达57%，这类用户平均年龄是37岁。

硬核社交游戏玩家不排斥同时体验多款游戏，76%受访者表示自己会同时玩一两款游戏。47%受访者同时玩的社交游戏不少于三款，28%用户同时玩的社交游戏不少于四款。

调查还发现，硬核玩家对游戏的粘性更高，回访游戏的次数更多，68%的硬核玩家每天游戏时间不低于3小时，而投入同样时间的休闲社交游戏玩家比例仅43%。

2）据gamasutra报道，Zynga向SEC提交的资料显示，公司今年第二季度利润同比去年下滑95%，从原来的2720万降至130万美元。

不过该公司的总营收仍呈较慢增长趋势，截止6月30日，Zynga第二季度的营收为2.791亿美元，比第一季度的2.429亿美元增长15%。其三月份营收比上一季度的月份增长24%。

zynga-poised-to-file-for-IPO(from fbzyngablog.wordpress.com)

Zynga将利润下滑的现象归结于大手笔开销（游戏邦注：用于招聘、收购和国际扩展战略）和重磅新产品的欠缺（今年第一季度仅在3月31日推出一款新游戏《Empires and Allies》）。

除此之外，Zynga游戏转向Facebook Credits系统也影响了公司的利润率。

据Zynga所称，最近有第三方分析人士认为Zynga进行IPO的概率是75%，比原来的80%下降了5个百分点。但与此同时，分析师也认为Zynga估值已从原来的139.8亿美元，上升到了140.5亿美元。

3）Facebook首席执行官马克·扎克伯格在近日的f8大会发言表示，Facebook下一代Open Graph平台将植入一系列有利于社交游戏的新功能。

Mark Zuckerberg(from venturebeat)

据他所言，社交游戏仍是Facebook平台最受欢迎的应用，新版本的Open Graph平台将支持多种新社交互动方式。例如，你有两个好友在Facebook玩《Words With Friends》，你就可以在屏幕右则的activity ticker中看到这一情况，点击ticker条目，系统就会弹出对话框（如下图所示）显示该好友正在填哪个词。如果你再点击这个对话框，就能以实时视角，看到整个游戏桌面。

扎克伯格称已有Zynga、EA等一系列游戏公司支持Open Graph平台，这项新功能的好处在于更方便用户在Facebook找到他人正在玩的游戏。

4）据techcrunch报道，EA首席执行官John Riccitiello在日前的US Chamber of Commerce大会上表示，《模拟人生社交版》用户已突破5300万，EA的目标是在用户数量上超越Zynga，并在未来两三年通过在线游戏创收30亿美元。

the-sims-social(from girlgamersuk.com)

5）休闲游戏公司GameHouse立志在未来6个月晋升至Facebook社交游戏开发商DAU前十强之列，并计划推出新游戏《Bayou Blast》。

GameHouse首席执行官Matt Hulett表示，在一年前加入RealNetworks旗下之后，公司已重新调整了50%员工的岗位，将业务重心转向手机和社交游戏，预计今年将会看到可观利润。

GameHouse--MAU & DAU(from AppData)

据AppData数据显示，GameHouse刚进军Facebook时的情况并不理想，直到发布了《Collapse Blas》和《Adventure Slots》才开始在最近三个月获得稳定的DAU和MAU。GameHouse最近在Facebook的18款应用的MAU是460万，DAU是65万7847；在MAU排行榜位列第31名，在DAU排行榜则是第33名。

该公司将在10月底发布《Bayou Blast》，并计划推出一款以Fremantle Media电视节目《Let’s Make a Deal》为题材的游戏。Matt Hulett拒绝透露公司的手机游戏项目计划，仅表示GameHouse已涉足该市场，并获得了《涂鸦跳跃》等游戏的非iOS版本授权项目。

6）据AppData数据显示，Zynga新作《Adventure World》通过交叉推广方式，仅在5天内就收获了800多万用户。需要指出的是，该游戏发布一周后的用户甚至不足50万。

cross promotion(from games.com)

该游戏在Facebook露面第一周时，除了旗帜广告之外，几乎与任何其他Zynga游戏不相往来，但现在已通过《Mafia Wars》等游戏进行推广。《Mafia Wars》玩家须在9月30日前在《Adventure World》晋升至第5级，然后获取一个特殊的《Mafia Wars》道具Ancient Hammer。该道具对《Mafia Wars》铁杆玩家来说并无多大意义，但对搜集者有一定价值。

观察者认为，此举实际上是一招险棋，有可能引起一些玩家的不快，因为他们已经厌倦屡次通过新游戏获取道具的这种做法。Zynga已呈现出过于依赖原有玩家的倾向，该公司需想出更高的妙招留住新玩家，并促使他们体验新游戏，否则就可能面临失去这些用户的风险。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

1）Study shows social gamers spend less time and money on console games

Dean Takahashi

Social game players are spending less time and money on traditional console games, according to a survey sponsored by social game firm Kabam and conducted by Information Solutions Group.

The online survey of 1,412 gamers defy the conventional stereotype of social network gamers being middle-aged women. The survey showed that one of the rapidly growing segments on social platforms is the hardcore social gamer, who plays titles such as strategy, role-playing, or other hardcore games. The survey is very self-serving, but it points to little-known facts that show why Kabam, which focuses on hardcore gamers, has a real business on Facebook.

The nationally representative research survey found that these hardcore social gamers are younger and mostly male, very much in line with traditional gamer demographics. By contrast, many of Zynga’s players on Facebook are casual female players with little playing experience.

About 82 percent of the hardcore social gamers also play console games. These hardcore social gamers also play for a longer period of time than casual social gamers. As the games get better on Facebook, social games (such as Kabam’s Glory of Rome, pictured) are disrupting play on the traditional consoles.

One figure shows how social gaming growth is resulting in less time and money spent on other game platforms. About 27 percent of social game players who played games on other platforms say that they are spending less time on those platforms. They are also spending about 50 percent less money on console gamers. Kabam’s own customers report a 55 percent decline in their game play on other platforms. Those Kabam players spend 65 percent less on console games.

“Gamers are migrating their playing time and the dollars they spend to social games at the expense of console and other traditional gaming platforms,” said Chris Carvalho, chief operating officer of Kabam.

About 41 percent of U.S. internet users have played social games. That amounts to 98 million people in the U.S. The data shows that 61 percent of casual social gamers are women and 62 percent are over 40 years old. But 55 percent of hardcore social gamers are male and 57 percent are under 40, with an average age of 37. Both Kabam and Kixeye are targeting hardcore gamers on Facebook.

Hardcore social gamers play multiple games simultaneously, with 76 percent playing two or more at once. In fact, 47 percent of hardcore social gamers play three or more social games, while 28 percent play four or more games concurrently. Hardcore gamers also exhibit more engagement, or time spent per session. The research says 68 percent of hardcore gamers play three or more hours per day of a game. Only 43 percent of casual social gamers spend three or more hours a day on a game.

Information Solutions Group ran the survey from April 13 to May 2. It canvassed a group of people who play games and were 18 years old or over. （source:venturebeat）

2）Zynga Profits, Users Decline Ahead Of Proposed $1B IPO

by Frank Cifaldi

CityVille and FarmVille developer Zynga’s growth finally slowed down during its June quarter, the company revealed Thursday.

Ahead of an estimated $1B initial public offering (which is being delayed due to “rocky stock markets”), the company revealed its financial performance for the quarter in an SEC filing, showing that its year-on-year profits declined around 95 percent, from $27.2M to $1.3M.

The company’s revenues continued to grow, though at a slower pace: the $279.1M it generated in its quarter ending June 30 was 15 percent higher than the $242.9M it saw in its March quarter. By comparison, March revenues were up 24 percent from those in the previous quarter.

One important metric for Zynga is its “bookings,” the term used to define revenues from both microtransactions and ads if measured immediately at the time of sale before any adjustments — such as the 30 percent Facebook Credits take — are made. This is, in a sense, the company’s measurement of virtual goods sales.

Bookings for the quarter were down for the first time in company history. The $274.7M it reported is a 4 percent drop from the $286.6M in the prior quarter.

That 4 percent drop could easily be explained by a decline daily active users during the period: quarter-to-quarter, DAUs dropped from 62M to 59M, or roughly 4 percent, due to a more competitive market than in prior quarters.

Zynga attributes its profit decline to two major factors: the company did not launch any new games in the first half of 2011 until Empires and Allies on March 31, and the company spent more than it traditionally had on hiring, acquisitions, and its international growth.

Its transition to the Facebook Credits system also hurt profits, the company said.

As part of today’s filings, the company said that recently-conducted third-party analysis puts the probability of its IPO at 75 percent, down from 80.

However, that same analysis increased the company’s valuation, from $13.98B to $14.05B. （source:gamasutra）

3）Facebook enables new real-time social interactions for games

Dean Takahashi

Facebook’s next-generation Open Graph platform will deliver a bounty of new features for social games, chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said today at the company’s f8 event.

“Social games are killing it on Facebook,” Zuckerberg said, explaining that games are still the most popular apps on Facebook.

The updates to the Open Graph platform will enable new kinds of social game interaction. For instance, if two of your friends are playing the Zynga game Words With Friends on Facebook, you can see that happening in an activity ticker related to games on the right side of the screen. If you click on the ticker item about your friends, you get a small pop-up (pictured above) that shows exactly what word someone is playing. If you further click on the pop-up, you can see the entire game board and watch as it’s being played in real-time.

That’s the sort of thing that is possible with the update for Facebook’s Open Graph platform, Zuckerberg said during his keynote speech. Zuckerberg showed a long list of game publishers that are supporting the new Open Graph capabilities, from Zynga to Electronic Arts.

The cool thing about the new feature is that it will make it much easier to discover games in real-time on Facebook. Discovery is always one of the hardest things for game developers, who have to launch their new games into a sea filled with thousands of other competitors.（source:venturebeat）

4）EA CEO Riccitiello: We’re Taking Dead Aim At Zynga

Devin Coldewey

EA CEO John Riccitiello is speaking at a US Chamber of Commerce event today, and prefaced his talk by mentioning some big wins by the company in the social space. Their Sims Social game has over 53 million users, and their total user base is approaching 100 million. Sure, that’s less than half of Zynga’s, but considering how poor EA was doing in this market just a year ago, it’s definitely worth celebrating. Tripling your user base over a quarter? You better believe there was champagne involved.

Their goal, naturally, is to surpass Zynga in users, and Riccitiello has set a $3 billion goal for online revenue. They have a head start on Zynga there, as the move to further monetize their major franchises through subscriptions and DLC is only just starting to really take hold. They are already making over a billion a year in online sales, but the ways in which EA and Zynga earn that money are totally different. Whether EA will imitate Zynga or take its own path isn’t easy to foresee, but it seems to me that the hard part is yet to come. Repackaging The Sims for a social setting was a cakewalk. Successfully repackaging Battlefield and their sports franchises is another task altogether. At least they’ve got Popcap now. At all events, it’s better than Activision’s approach of sticking their heads in the sand.（source:techcrunch）

5）GameHouse Aims Blast at Facebook’s Top 10 Social Game Developers by DAU

By AJ Glasser

Casual game developer GameHouse wants to break into the top 10 social game developers ranked by daily active users on Facebook in the next six months. The company plans to accomplish this goal with its franchise of “Blast” social games, beginning with Collapse Blast and continuing with the upcoming Bayou Blast.

Speaking to ISG, GameHouse CEO Matt Hulett explains that the developer is in the process of shifting its business model from casual game downloads to freemium social and mobile games. Since joining the RealNetworks-owned company a little over a year ago, he’s shuffled about 50% of the staff, broken out mobile and social game development from the download segment and says that this year the company will be profitable thanks to taking out some operating costs. The next goal, he says, is getting into the top 10 developers ranked by DAU in the next six months.

Compared to the existing top 10 social game developers on Facebook by DAU recorded by our AppData traffic tracking service, GameHouse got off to a much slower start on the platform with a mix of casual titles, arcade games and licensed properties like Uno and Uno Boost. It wasn’t until the recent releases of Collapse Blast and Adventure Slots that the developer really started to see a sustained lift in DAU (and monthly active users) for the past three months. GameHouse currently enjoys 4.6 million MAU and 657,847 DAU across all 18 of its apps on Facbeook — making it No. 31 in MAU and No. 33 in DAU among social game developers on the platform.

In other words, GameHouse still has a long way to go to get past even mid-market developers like 6waves Lolapps or 50 Cubes to break into the top 10. The road to there from here is paved with new game releases from the developer across both social and mobile platforms with licensed and original IP. At present, Hulett says that GameHouse has about 20 million users spread across a network of three GameHouse-owned sites off Facebook. Migrating that audience to Facebook while also attracting new users on the platform will set the stage for GameHouse to dial up its mobile development with standalone games that leverage Facebook.

Bayou Blast launches on Facebook toward the end of October. After that, GameHouse plans to release a game based on Fremantle Media’s Lets Make a Deal game show. Hulett declined to detail the developer’s current release schedule for mobile games, but he did remind us that GameHouse already has experience in the market and licensing deals with games like Doodle Jump for non-iOS devices.（source：insidesocialgames）

6）Adventure World rockets to over 9 million players, thanks to promotions

by Joe Osborne

And it did so in just under five days. According to Appdata, Zynga’s newest release, Adventure World, has finally found its second wind, gaining over 8 million players in almost five days. If you remember, Zynga Boston’s debut game sat stagnant at under 500,000 players for over a week after its release. This wild growth is likely thanks to one thing: cross promotions.

Zynga has finally taken advantage of (some of) its 267 million players to give Adventure World some much needed exposure. During its first week on Facebook, the game enjoyed little to no cross promotion between the company’s existing games aside from banner ads and the like. But now, Adventure World can be found in games like Mafia Wars through special promotions.

In this particular case, Mafia Wars players have until Sept. 30 to reach Level 5 in Adventure World and receive a special item for their digital mafia don, an Ancient Hammer. While the item won’t exactly wow veteran Mafia Wars players, it at least has value to collectors. Before that, we saw hints of Adventure World being advertised within FarmVille, which has yet to happen.

So, you can only imagine how far Adventure World would go if such involved promotions were featured in FarmVille, CityVille, Pioneer Trail and Empires & Allies. However, we were under the impression that this type of cross promotion was through with the release of RewardVille, Zynga’s cross-game achievement system that rewards players for using all of its games daily.

Unfortunately, it seems as if the developer can’t avoid such arguably invasive practices if it wants all of its games to succeed. And that could ultimately rekindle the ire of its players, many of which are already fed up with resurgent demands to enter new games for items within their favorite games. (Hence the creation of RewardVille.)

Zynga looks like it’s more dependent than ever on its swath of existing players, but the developer might want to cook up a more elegant solution of getting those players to play its new games. If not, Zynga might run the risk of losing its most powerful method of growth: the players it already has.（source:games）