1）据Business Insider报道，有匿名知情者最近透露Playfish中国团队已停止其他项目，“全力开发Facebook版本的《模拟城市》”。

sim-city-2000(from webdesignerdepot)

据称这款《模拟城市》游戏开发已超过一年，在此期间Zynga游戏《CityVille》横空出世，EA别无选择只能继续投入开发这款游戏。

知情者还称Playfish的挪威、旧金山团队正开发新款EA游戏。

2）据AppData数据显示，Zynga新游戏《CastleVille》面世仅22天就收获810万DAU，超越《FarmVille》、《模拟人生社交版》和《Zynga Poker》，成为DAU排名第二的Facebook游戏。该游戏MAU目前居于第5名，共达2760万。

castleville-zynga(from medievalists.net)

Zynga第一大游戏《CityVille》曾以更短的时间收获与《CastleVille》相同的MAU，但在DAU的增长上则比后者更慢。从DAU这个最能判断用户粘性的数值上看，《CastleVille》发展势头比《CityVille》更为强劲。

当然Zynga已经有2亿多用户，《CastleVille》用户发展也主要得益于Zynga游戏之间的交叉推广，因此出现这种结果并不令人意外。

3）社交游戏开发商Kabam最近与Google+平台合作，向后者独家发布新款社交游戏《The Godfather: Five Families》（为期45天）。

教父(from insidesocialgames)

该游戏是Kabam首次推出的授权游戏（以派拉蒙电影《教父》为题材），将继续在Kabam.com进行游戏测试。Google+目前已有30款游戏，在今年10月份Google+用户已达4000万。

4）日本社交平台GREE曾在11月21日宣布起诉竞争对手DeNA，声称后者向第三方社交游戏施压（禁止他们向GREE投放游戏）一事给GREE造成损失，并要求DeNA赔偿至少1300万美元。

DeNA近日则回应称已收到法院文件，但他们认为GREE首席执行官Yoshikazu Tanaka所提出的诉讼毫无根据，并打算诉诸法律手段回击GREE。

5）据Eurogamer报道，将于2012年问世的PS3游戏《The Last Guardian》执行制作人Yoshifusa Hayama最近加入英国社交游戏工作室Bossa Studios。

the last guardian(from games)

Hayama曾参与开发《最终幻想》等著名游戏系列，现将担任Bossa Studios创意总监，负责开发该公司首款3D版Facebook游戏。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

1）EA, Playfish developing ‘the hell out of SimCity’ for Facebook [Report]

by Joe Osborne

Hey, if The Sims Social struck gold, it only makes sense at this point. Business Insider reports, citing nameless sources, that a China-based Playfish team has suspended all other projects to “develop the hell out of SimCity” for Facebook. Of course, the idea is that the second place developer is doing so to go toe-to-toe directly with CityVille, the number one game on Facebook.

Zynga’s city-builder has held the top spot on Facebook for over a year, and EA is reportedly doing everything in its power to dethrone the king of social games. According to Business Insider, multiple sources within the company say that SimCity has been in development for over a year, around the same time that Zynga started work on CityVile. But when the game broke every record in the book over the past year, EA had no choice but to ramp up work on SimCity.

At the time, Zynga had more time and resources to pour into CityVille than EA did with SimCity, which had “doubled down” on The Sims Social. Since the game has now proven itself, putting a dent into Zynga’s then spotless lineup, the veteran games publisher has placed a laser focus on the social iteration of game designer Will Wright’s masterpiece.

According to the news outlet, Playfish’s Norway and San Francisco teams are working on entirely new games for EA. And yes, it’s OK to be more excited by that rumor than yet another city-builder. This better be good.（source:games）

2）CastleVille is the second most played Facebook game daily in 22 days

by Joe Osborne

If there’s one takeaway from this, it’s that ‘Ville games still got it. Zynga’s CastleVille has surpassed the likes of FarmVille, The Sims Social and Zynga Poker to become the second most played game daily on Facebook with 8.1 million returning every day. The game is now in the top five for monthly players, with 27.6 million, according to AppData. And it did it in just 22 days.

As a result, CastleVille is both faster and slower than CityVille was a year. The latter reached nearly as many monthly players in almost half the time, but didn’t amass as many daily players as Zynga Dallas’s new hotness did last month. For what it’s worth, CastleVille is far stronger out of the gate where it counts: daily players, the best measure of how gripping a Facebook game is.

This explosive growth can be chalked up to a few factors, but one stands out the most: the Zynga fan base. CastleVille released to a pool of over 200 million able-handed social gamers practically twitching at the thought of a new game to play. Of course, Zynga took great advantage of this, employing several cross promotions across its existing stable of successful games. “Reach Level 5 in CastleVille and get a free Cow” … or something like that.

That easily explains the burst of growth, but what is it about CastleVille that’s drawing more players in than nearly all of Zynga’s games? While the game is certainly the most robust, full-featured and gorgeous ‘Ville game to date, it’s still a ‘Ville game. Could it simply be that it’s new and shinier than the rest, or is the ‘Ville formula really still the best way to approach social games?（source:games）

3）Kabam Launches The Godfather on Google+ in 45-Day Exclusive

AJ Glasser

Kabam’s newest strategy role-playing social game, The Godfather: Five Families, comes out today on Google+ for a 45-day exclusive launch period.

The Godfather marks a couple of firsts for Kabam: It’s the developer’s first licensed game, developed with Paramount Pictures’ digital entertainment branch. It’s also the first time we’ve seen Kabam launch a game on a social network other than Facebook, where the developer originally got its start (as Watercooler Inc.) with social applications and later with hardcore massively-multiplayer combat titles like 2009’s Kingdoms of Camelot. Based on our early look at the game, The Godfather builds on Kingdoms of Camelot’s combat and citybuilding gameplay mechanics with more emphasis on narrative, art quality and shifting player rankings.

The decision to launch the game on G+ before all other platforms seems like a vote of confidence in G+ social games. To date, Google hasn’t released much information about the growth of its social network and even less data is available on the health of the social games platform, which is segregated from the rest of the social network. We don’t know much about how games are selected for the G+ platform; but we’ve heard that it’s a more intimate and competitive submissions process than what developers experience on Facebook’s games platform.

Speaking to Inside Social Games, a Google spokesperson stresses that at five months in, it’s still early days for the social network. An announcement made at the Web 2.0 conference in October claims that G+has 40 million users. While we’re sure not all of those people are playing games on G+, Google tells us that rapid game launches from major developers like Kabam, Digital Chocolate and Zynga are validation of the market.

Currently, G+ offers 30 titles in its Games tab — many of which are ports of existing Facebook and mobile games. The Godfather: Five Families has been in beta testing on Kabam.com since the fall.（source:insidesocialgames）

4）DeNA Thinks About Sueing GREE Back [Social Games]

by Dr. Serkan Toto

GREE announced it filed a lawsuit against its rival DeNA, seeking damages of at least US$13 million. The claim: DeNA is pressuring third-party game developers into offering social games on Mobage only, leaving GREE out (background).

DeNA now announced it has received papers from the court yesterday, and according to the company, the accusations GREE CEO Yoshikazu Tanaka is making in the lawsuit are groundless.

As a consequence, DeNA is currently investigating the possibility of taking legal action against GREE (I wouldn’t be surprised if they really did).

What’s noteworthy here is that compared to the US (but also to other regions like Europe), lawsuits between individuals or companies are extremely rare, making the DeNA vs. GREE case stand out in Japan’s business world as a whole.（source:serkantoto）

5）Producer on anticipated PS3 game ditches Sony for Facebook games

by Joe Osborne

One the most anticipated PS3 games of 2012, The Last Guardian (pictured), just lost its executive producer to Facebook games. And in other news, the sky is falling. Jokes aside, former Sony Computer Entertainment president and executive producer on The Last Guardian Yoshifusa Hayama has left Sony for UK-based social games studio Bossa Studios, Eurogamer reports.

Hayama, who previously worked on the popular Final Fantasy series and cult classic Ico, will serve as creative director at Monstermind creator Bossa and work to bring the studio’s first 3D Facebook game to life. The game is set to launch this year, according to Eurogamer, which we imagine means within the next 365 days. Hayama sounds exceedingly confident (refreshingly so even) in 3D Facebook games.

“The future of gaming is definitely online and thanks to recent developments with Flash 11, there is no reason why a social game can no longer be as visually stunning and as compelling as the big console titles,” Hayama told Eurogamer. “Together at Bossa we have plans to bring a plethora of games to Facebook and eventually other appropriate social media channels, which include 3D elements and can be enjoyed by all age and interest groups.”

Not only does this news follow the unfortunate reports of Ico creator Fumito Ueda had left Sony, but the increasing rate at which big time Japanese game creators are hopping on the social games bandwagon. This year alone saw the folks behind Mega Man, Sonic the Hedgehog and games like No More Heroes break onto the scene. At least where “compelling” social games are concerned, let’s hope they’re all onto something.（source:games）