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每日观察:关注GREE以2.1亿美元收购Funzio(5.2)

发布时间:2012-05-02 12:02:45 Tags:,,

1)据《纽约时报》报道,在大众融资网站Kickstarter上线三年以来,虽然在2.5万个成功融资的项目中游戏仅占857个席位(游戏邦注:音乐项目有7545个,影视项目有7135个),但游戏项目平均融资额却高达2万6190美元,其他突破2万美元融资额的只有设计项目(平均2万9409美元)和科技项目(平均2万7677美元)。

double-fine-adventure(from digitaltrends.com)

double-fine-adventure(from digitaltrends.com)

所有成功及不成功的游戏项目平均融资额为1万2759美元,《Double Fine’s Adventure》仅次于Pebble智能手表,成为该平台第二大最成功的融资项目。

2)据Inside Social Games报道,初创团队Row Sham Bow推出的《Woodland Heroes》最近成为首款获得Zynga.com交叉推广支持的第三方游戏,用户现在可通过Zynga在Facebook游戏中的zBar工具条看到《Woodland Heroes》图标。

zBar(from insidesocialgames)

zBar(from insidesocialgames)

Zynga发行合作主管Rob Dyer表示,Zynga将通过这次初级测试检验这项交叉推广服务对Zynga网络的整体影响,以及Zynga网络对单款游戏的作用。

《Woodland Heroes》是Row Sham Bow首款Facebook游戏,发布于2011年10月份,据AppData数据显示,该游戏最高峰时的MAU为19万,DAU为2万。

3)在5月份的Facebook游戏MAU及DAU前25榜单上,King.com旗下的《Candy Crush Saga》成为DAU增幅最大的游戏,收获130万DAU。Playdom游戏《Marvel: Avengers Alliance》位居其次,新增62万DAU;《愤怒的小鸟》则获得40万DAU。King.com另一款游戏《Bubble Witch Saga》虽未如观察者预料那样跻身第三名,但仍以10万新增DAU位列第四名。

Top-25-Chart-Template-DAU(from AppData)

Top-25-Chart-Template-DAU(from AppData)

而位居榜单第三的《CityVille》则流失140万DAU,第六名《Hidden Chronicles》也流失120万DAU。

在MAU榜单上,《CityVille》以超过《Texas HoldEm Poker》400万的MAU居于首位,而《Hidden Chronicles》却损失严重,流失了470万MAU,从原先的第三名下滑至第五名。

Top-25-Chart-Template-MAU(from AppData)

Top-25-Chart-Template-MAU(from AppData)

MAU收获最大的是《Zynga Slingo》,新增430万MAU;其次是《愤怒的小鸟》,新增410万MAU;《Bubble Witch Saga》以新增290万的MAU位列第三名,《Marvel: Avengers Alliance》在DAU和MAU榜单虽然屈居第25名,但新增了210万MAU。

4)日本手机社交游戏平台GREE日前宣收以2.1亿美元收购社交游戏开发商Funzio(游戏邦注:代表作包括《Crime City》、《Kingdom Age》和《Modern War》)。

gree-funzio(from techinasia.com)

gree-funzio(from techinasia.com)

Funzio首席执行官Ken Chiu及首席运营官Anil Dharni将加入GREE担任公司高级副总裁,其首席技术官Ram Gudavalli及工程副总裁Andy Keidel将任GREE副总裁。

这是GREE自2011年4月份以来投入最大的一笔收购交易,该公司之前曾以1.04亿美元收购北美手机社交游戏平台OpenFeint。

5)Playfish近日通过论坛宣布,《Restaurant City》的Facebook及iOS版本将于6月29日停止运营,但玩家可以将这款游戏中的虚拟货币兑换成可在《模拟人生社交版》中使用的货币。

《Restaurant City》曾是2009年Facebook最热门的餐厅模拟游戏之一,在2010年EA收购Playfish之后也一度保持其增长势头,今年4月份在Facebook上线已满3周年,但用户规模已从最高峰时的520万DAU和1800万MAU下降至如今的31万DAU和180万MAU。

Restaurant City-DAU(from AppData)

Restaurant City-DAU(from AppData)

该游戏留存率(DAU与MAU比值)在2011年9月已降至20以下,其iOS版本《Restaurant City: Gourmet Edition》发布后情况有所缓和,但在2012年初留存率再次下滑,iOS版本也跌出了热门应用榜单行列。

EA目前DAU已下滑至Facebook游戏开发商第四名,在MAU上的第二名也即将被Wooga所超越。在手机游戏领域,EA今年也在App Store移除了两款运行性能不佳的游戏;在过去12个月中有大量人才流向竞争对手Zynga,最近还有传闻称该公司将展开一轮裁员(但EA否认了这一说法)。

6)据Mashable报道,Spil Ganes旗下的青少年游戏网站GirlsgoGames最近执行的一项调查显示,有50%年龄介于8-12岁的女孩每月玩38分钟至1小时18分钟的时间玩游戏(该调查执行于2011年至2012年第一季度之间,调查样本为GirlsgoGames平台的760万美国玩家),这些女孩尤其青睐含有社交元素的在线游戏。

girl-playing-ds-ubisoft(from games)

girl-playing-ds-ubisoft(from games)

GirlsgoGames还引用尼尔森最新报告指出,在8-12岁的美国女孩中,智能手机用户占比35%,其中最受欢迎的移动设备是iPhone和iPad。

这些女孩倾向于选择烹饪、穿衣打扮、测试类型,以及化妆美容和动物题材的游戏。(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)Over $20M pledged to Kickstarter game projects

by Mike Rose

In the three years that crowd-funding website Kickstarter has been available, game projects have seen one of the highest average financing totals for successful projects, with over $20 million pledged.

While only 857 of the around 25,000 successful Kickstarter projects were for games, compared to 7,545 music projects and 7,135 film and video projects, the average financing for successful game projects was $26,910, with only design projects ($29,409) and technology projects ($27,677) topping that figure, according to data from the New York Times.

The average financing for all game projects — both successful and unsuccessful — came in at $12,759. Double Fine’s Adventure is the second most funded project on the website to date, beaten out only by the Pebble watch. (source:gamasutra

2)Zynga turns on Facebook cross-promotion for partner game Woodland Heroes

AJ Glasser

Zynga takes the first step in promoting games published through its partner programs today by adding Row Sham Bow’s Woodland Heroes to the Facebook cross-promotion bar that appears above Zynga games.

Adding a game to the zBar, as Zynga called the tool, seems like a small thing compared to what Zynga wants to accomplish in publishing third party games on Zynga.com. Cross-promotion bars have been thoroughly explored by 6waves, Applifier and Tapjoy (which acquired AppStrip) on both social and mobile — and 6waves has a sizable head start on Facebook games publishing. But Zynga has two features that other cross-promotion networks lack: brand recognition and size (65 million daily active users and 292 million monthly active users on both social and mobile as of Q1 2012). Both of those are key factors driving interest from smaller developers in the Zynga publishing platform.

As detailed on Zynga’s blog today, publishing partner head Rob Dyer says that Zynga intends to drive traffic and test promotions during this early beta phase to see what impact it has on Zynga’s network as a whole — and what impact Zynga’s network will have on an individual game.

“Driving players to try out new social games is one thing, but the trick is making sure they stick around,” Dyer’s post reads. “That’s where some of our upcoming tools to increase social engagement come in.”

The Zynga partner program is still a mystery to outsiders. We do know that the revenue share between publisher and developer is the traditional 30/70 percent split — after Facebook takes its 30 percent cut of Credits transactions. We also know that of the companies Zynga has announced so far — Row Sham Bow, Mob Science, Sava Transmedia, Konami, Rebellion and Playdemic —two have long term experience with the Facebook platform and two do not currently have any Facebook games announced.

Here’s what we don’t know: Will the publishing platform create sustainable games on Facebook and mobile, or will it serve as a hunting ground for Zynga’s next acquisition prospects? We can infer from Dyer’s blog post that Zynga will take a hands-on approach to helping publishing partners refine their games, not unlike what RockYou once did for Playdemic. We’re also reasonably sure Zynga will extend its publishing operations to mobile at some point in the future — but it’s unclear if that will operate through a mobile version of its Zynga.com platform.

Woodland Heroes is Intersouth Partners-backed Row Sham Bow’s first Facebook game. It launched in October 2011 and peaked at 190,000 monthly active users and 20,000 daily active users in that same month, according to our AppData traffic tracking service.(source:insidesocialgames

3)Top 25 Facebook games of May 2012

Mike Thompsoon

Both lists for May’s top 25 Facebook games saw two big debuts: The recently-launched Candy Crush Saga is already tearing its way up the charts while Marvel: Avengers Alliance just managed to break in thanks to some impressive user gains.

We start with the list of top 25 games by daily active users, which is the best way to evaluate a title’s core audience. Twelve games were up from last month, with the largest gain going to King.com’s Candy Crush Saga with 1.3 million DAU. Disney Playdom’s Marvel: Avengers Alliance has been steadily climbing the charts and had the second-highest gain of the month with 620,000 DAU. Rovio’s Angry Birds had the third-highest gain with 400,000 DAU. King.com’s Bubble Witch Saga didn’t quite make it into the No. 3 spot like we thought it might, but it still managed to gain 100,000 DAU and move into the No. 4 position.

CityVille and Hidden Chronicles had the largest losses on the list; CityVille was down by 1.4 million DAU, while Hidden Chronicles dropped 1.2 million DAU.

Now it’s time to check out monthly active users, which measures a game’s overall reach on Facebook. CityVille continues to hold the No. 1 spot on the list, with slightly more than 4 million MAU over Texas HoldEm Poker in the No. 2 position. Zynga’s Hidden Chronicles had the largest drop this month, down by 4.7 million MAU, and subsequently dropped from the No. 3 spot to No. 5.

The largest gain belonged to Zynga Slingo with 4.3 million MAU, followed closely by Angry Birds with 4.1 million MAU. Bubble Witch Saga continues to grow, taking third place for gains this month with 2.9 million MAU. Although it debuted on our Top 25 list in the No. 25 spot, Disney Playdom’s Marvel: Avengers Alliance had the fourth-highest gain of the month with 2.1 million MAU.(source:insidesocialgames

4)GREE buys Crime City developer Funzio for $210 million

Kathleen De Vere

Japanese mobile social game network GREE has bought Funzio, the developer behind the popular mid-core mobile and social games Crime City, Kingdom Age and Modern War. According to a GREE spokesperson, the deal was worth $210 million.

As part of the deal Funzio’s CEO Ken Chiu and COO Anil Dharni will join GREE as senior vice presidents. Funzio’s CTO Ram Gudavalli and VP of engineering Andy Keidel will become vice presidents at GREE.

The acquisition is GREE’s biggest since April 2011, when the company bought OpenFeint for $104 million in order to bring its lucrative mobile social gaming network to North America.(source:insidemobileapps

5)EA shutting down Restaurant City on Facebook, iOS

AJ Glasser

Restaurant City will be taken offline from both Facebook and the App Store on June 29, according to a Wall Photo added to the game’s album today. Players are being encouraged to move to The Sims Social both with a virtual currency bonus and the ability to convert existing Restaurant City premium currency to Sims Social premium currency.

Playfish’s Restaurant City was one of the top restaurant simulation games on Facebook in 2009; it maintained that momentum through 2010 after EA acquired the developer. The game recently marked its third birthday on Facebook in April — having shrunk by more than 90% in size from its peak numbers of 5.2 million daily active users and 18 million monthly active users to today’s 310,000 DAU and 1.8 million MAU, according to our AppData traffic tracking service. The real problem seemed to come for the game around September 2011 when retention (which we can measure by taking DAU as a percentage of MAU) dropped below 20 percent. Restaurant City rallied in October around the time its iOS version, Restaurant City: Gourmet Edition, received a major update — but retention dropped again in early 2012 and Gourmet Edition fell off the top apps lists.

As a genre, restaurant sims still show some growth on Facebook and mobile when they first launch. The games lack staying power, however — we still see Restaurant City as the second-largest game in the category on Facebook after Zynga’s Café World, which is also in decline.

As a company, EA is apparently struggling to maintain its position as a top developer in social and mobile. It’s slipped to the No. 4 position of top developers on Facebook by DAU and wooga is about to overtake it for the No. 2 position on MAU. On mobile, the developer pulled two titles from the App Store for poor performance in as many months this year. EA has also lost a lot of its staff to Zynga in the last 12 months and is now rumored to be facing layoffs, though the company has denied it. EA reports its Q1 2012 results next week.(source:insidesocialgames

6)2012: Rise of the tween girl gamer? Survey gives emphatic ‘yes’

by Joe Osborne

Are eight to 12-year-old girls dropping the Barbies and picking up Bejeweled? According to a survey conducted by GirlsgoGames, that’s exactly the case. The survey found that 50 percent of girls in that age bracket turn to the Internet for a gaming fix. Better yet, these tweens spend anywhere from 38 minutes to 1 hour and 18 minutes a month playing said games.

However, it’s important to keep in mind that not only is GirlsgoGames is a Spil Games-owned tween gaming website, but that the survey was conducted with the platform’s 7.6 million U.S. players between 2011 and the first quarter of 2012, according to Mashable. GirlsgoGames claims that tween girl gamers are especially into the social aspects of online gaming.

And boy, are these tween girl gamers spoiled: GirlsgoGames cited a recent Nielsen report in saying that 35 percent of girls between eight and 12 years old own a smartphone. (Of course, iPhones and iPads were the most popular type of mobile devices among tweens.)

Unsurprisingly, these tween girl game fans are into cooking, dressing up and quiz games, as well as make-up or makeover and animal games. But what is surprising is that they could be surging at all. Maybe CrowdStar is onto something after all? Hey if it means more Bejeweled Blitz fodder to crush like vermin, we’re game.(source:games


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