1）据Techcrunch报道，EA Playfish前执行制作人Catharina Lavers Mallet日前加入King.com团队，将负责监管后者即将在伦敦成立的40人工作室。

the-sims-social(from games)

Mallet此前曾负责监管EA重磅Facebook游戏《模拟人生社交版》，据其所称，她看好King.com及其休闲社交游戏发展前景。与King.com形成对比的是，EA在过去一年中流失大量高端人才，并在最近宣布关闭四款Facebook和Google+社交游戏。

2）波士顿开发商Disruptor Beam日前宣布与美国有线电视联播网HBO合作，推出基于后者旗下热播美剧《权力的游戏》（Game of Thrones）Facebook游戏。

Game of Thrones Ascent(from insidesocialgames)

这款名为《Game of Thrones Ascent》的游戏目前处于封测阶段（但尚未公布正式上线时间），玩家将在其中扮演陷入权力之争的Westeros贵族角色，其核心玩法将包括策略和资源管理元素，支持玩家与好友建立同盟，将引入PvP玩法。

3）据Polygon报道，Silicon Knights与Epic Games之间将近5年的官司终于在近日开庭（游戏邦注：这两者的争端始于2007年中期，前者起诉后者Unreal Engine 3的技术问题导致其遭遇损失），据法院最新资料显示，即使Slicon Knights胜诉，它也只能获得1美元的损失赔偿。

Silicon Knights曾在去年的分析证据中声称，Unreal Engine的授权及功能问题导致Silicon Knights导致了5800万美元，但当时被法院驳回了。在今年5月7日判决中，法官James Dever III指出Silicon Knights从未提供详细的损失证据，因此只能依从法院的评估获得赔偿。

4）在本周的MAU增长最快Facebook游戏榜单上，King.com最新游戏《Candy Crush Saga》再度顶登，新增170万MAU，增幅达28%。位于第二名的是《Pyramid Solitaire Saga》，新增128万MAU，增幅为156%。

Top gainers this week-MAU(from AppData)

Cookapps游戏《Buggle》位居第三，新增MAU为110万，增幅为79%；迪士尼Playdom游戏《Marvel: Avengers Alliance》名列第四，新增110万MAU，增幅为15%。Peak Games最新英文版游戏《Lost Bubble》位居第五，新增98万MAU，增幅为817%。另一款迪士尼Playdom游戏《Armies of Magic》新增51万MAU，增幅为57%。Zynga游戏《Bubble Safari》新增31万MAU，增幅为388%。育碧游戏《House M.D. — Critical Cases》新增13万MAU，增幅为42%。（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）The Sims Social maker loses key player to Bubble Witch Saga creator

by Joe Osborne

As Bubble Witch Saga, Candy Crush Saga (and, well, everything “Saga”) maker King.com opts to build a 40-man games studio in London, another London-based game developer loses an important staff member. As it turns out, that staff member–former Playfish executive producer Catharina Lavers Mallet–will head the very studio that King.com is constructing.

The King.com studio will be led by Mallet, who most recently oversaw development of Playfish’s, and EA’s by extension, most important Facebook game, The Sims Social. This new studio will, of course, focus on social games development, which seems to have been a winner for the company so far.

“I am thrilled to be setting up a new studio for King.com. I am excited by the company’s vision to be number one in the casual social games category, and have been very impressed by the team and the original IP they have built,” Mallet said in a release. “I am completely addicted to their latest game, Candy Crush Saga, and am looking forward to helping further build on the company’s momentum.”

Mallet joins a number of EA (or EA-owned) employees that have flew the coop in the past year for competing social games companies. This news also comes just as EA has opted to close not one, but four of its underperforming social games on both Facebook and Google+. Talk about brilliant timing.（source:games）

2）Winter is coming to Facebook: Disruptor Beam and HBO announce Game of Thrones Ascent

Mike Thompson

Boston-based developer Disruptor Beam today announced a partnership with HBO to bring the channel’s popular Game of Thrones television series to Facebook as a social game. Game of Thrones Ascent is now accepting closed beta signups.

In Ascent, players assume the role of a noble in the land of Westeros who has to swear allegiance to one of the great houses vying for control of the country. At the same time, the player is responsible for building up their own power base. Details beyond those are currently unavailable, but it sounds as though the core gameplay loop will be a combination of strategy and resource management, where players will have to manage their land and reputation while sending agents out on quests. We’re also told that players can form alliances with friends, but Disruptor Beam has yet to confirm if this means the game will include a player-versus-player mode.

Update: Disruptor Beam has confirmed PvP  will be a part of Game of Thrones Ascent.

Disruptor Beam recently launched 50 Cent’s Blackjack on Facebook and announced seed funding of less than $1 million to work on ”story-oriented” games based on popular books and television shows.

Game of Thrones is an immense property to bring into social games right now: The show airs in over 150 countries, almost 9 million people watch each episode and HBO already greenlit production for the series’s third season. A social game launching in the off season makes a certain amount of sense, since it will help keep the IP in the public eye even while fans impatiently await Season Two’s eventual DVD release. Previously, the official HBO Game of Thrones Facebook page offered a lightweight social game available as a tab application.

As a genre, TV show social game adaptations are very attractive for developers on Facebook because they tap into preexisting fanbases and provide game developers with a certain amount of stability.

Broadcast television titles also lend some on-air promotion for social games, fueling growth in titles like Spartacus: Gods of the Arena, House M.D. — Critical Cases, and the now-defunct Jersey Shore Facebook game. If done right, like with 2010′s CSI: Crime City, a tie-in social game can last for years on Facebook. Game of Thrones Ascent may have a tougher time finding an audience, however, as HBO is a premium channel that’s subscribed to by fewer than 10 percent of the U.S. population.

No release date has been announced for Game of Thrones Ascent, but Disruptor Beam is encouraging people to visit its official website if they’re interested in signing up for the game’s upcoming beta.（source:insidesocialgames）

3） Silicon Knights only entitled to $1 in damages in suit against Epic Games

by Tom Curtis

After almost five years of legal turmoil, the ongoing lawsuit between Silicon Knights and Epic Games has finally gone to court, but it seems the stakes aren’t quite as high as previously thought.

New court documents reveal that even if Silicon Knights wins in its case to prove that Epic failed to provide a functional version of Unreal Engine 3, it would only be entitled to $1 in damages, reports Polygon.

In a May 7 ruling, Judge James Dever III said that Silicon Knights never provided a detailed breakdown of the damages it sought from the case, and Polygon reports that the court had to assign a value of its own.

This new assessment of the damages likely arose thanks to a setback Silicon Knights suffered late last year, when a judge dismissed the reports and testimony of an analyst that was key to the developer’s case. The analyst had argued that problems with the Unreal Engine’s licensing and functionality cost Silicon Knights some $58 million in damages.

While this new amount seems insignificant at best, Silicon Knights could still appeal to dispute how the damages were assessed, or even pursue further recourse against Epic Games. In addition to the $1 in damages, the studio will also receive reimbursement for its lawyer’s fees should it win the case.

The conflict between Silicon Knights and Epic first arose in mid-2007, when the Too Human developer sued Epic over qualms with its Unreal Engine 3 technology.

Silicon Knights, which used the engine to develop Too Human, claimed that Epic was using and licensing the Unreal Engine to benefit the launch of Gears of War, while “sabotaging efforts by Silicon Knights and others to develop their own video games.” （source:gamasutra）

4）King.com still on dominating fastest-growing Facebook games by MAU

Mike Thompson

King.com’s newest “Saga” games continue to dominate our list of fastest-growing Facebook games by monthly active user. Candy Crush Saga took the No. 1 spot on our list of fastest-growing games by monthly active users with 1.7 million MAU for a 28 percent gain, while Pyramid Solitaire Saga took the No. 2 spot with 1.28 million MAU for a 156 percent increase.

Cookapps’s Buggle snagged the No. 3 position with 1.1 million MAU, growing by 79 percent. Disney Playdom’s Marvel: Avengers Alliance came in at No. 4, up by 1.1 million MAU for a 15 percent increase. Peak Games’s new English-language bubble shooter Lost Bubble is rounds out the top five games on our list, up by 980,000 MAU for an 817 percent increase.

Five other games on the list showed gains greater than 40 percent. Gamehouse’s Mystic Ice Blast is up by 600,000 MAU for a 43 percent boost. Disney Playdom’s Armies of Magic summoned up 510,000 MAU for a 57 percent increase. Soft Reklam’s Super Texas Holdem Poker took in 320,000 MAU for a 356 percent gain. Zynga’s Bubble Safari was up by 310,000 MAU for a 388 percent increase. Finally, Ubisoft’s House M.D. — Critical Cases is starting to gain some traction on Facebook with a gain of 130,000 MAU for an increase of 42 percent.（source:insidesocialgames）