1）澳大利亚开发商Hafbrick日前宣布《水果忍者》发布两年以来已实现3亿次下载量。

据该工作室所称，《水果忍者》已民成为全球最具品牌辨识度的手机游戏之一，也是在App Store史上仅次于《愤怒的小鸟》的第二大热销游戏。全球玩家每天体验该游戏的时间累计超过100年。

2）Digital Chocolate创始人Trip Hawkins在最近采访中表示，过度关注Facebook而忽视智能手机平台是Digital Chocolate没落的原因。

据其所称，Digital Chocolate在Facebook游戏领域投入过多资源，而当Facebook开始削减平台上的游戏病毒传播渠道时，Digital Chocolate的游戏MAU和DAU也开始大幅下降。他认为游戏公司必须学会适应变化，

Digital Chocolate进军App Store市场的步伐过于缓慢，因此在这一领域落后与其他竞争对手；他还指出，平板电脑将是下一个极富发展潜力和盈利性的游戏市场。

3）Interactive Software Federation of Europe (简称ISFE)最近报告显示，《愤怒的小鸟》是英国最受欢迎的游戏系列。

2011年第一季度，37%年龄不低于6岁的英国公民自称每周都会玩游戏；6-10岁用户是最活跃的玩家群体，其中爱玩游戏的用户占比83%；在这一群体中有31%受访者每周都会玩盒装游戏、在线游戏或者游戏应用。

4）英国独立开发商Zee-3日前宣称旗下iOS游戏《Magnetic Billiards: Blueprint》的可玩时间长度超过了《上古卷轴：天际》。

据其所言，他们在这款益智游戏中添加了总体游戏时间排行榜后发现，许多玩家在游戏中投入时间达到成百上千小时。位居榜首的玩家已在游戏中投入近400个小时，相当于该游戏联合设计师John Pickford自己在《天际》、《湮灭》、《辐射3》和《辐射：新维加斯》中投入时间的总和（游戏邦注：该工作室声称一般情况下，玩家花100小时左右就能完成《天际》）。

该工作室另一名联合创始人Ste Pickford则称，排行榜中的前10名玩家在这款游戏中投入时间都在100小时左右，因此这款iOS游戏可以提供堪比PC或掌机游戏的可玩价值。

《Magnetic Billiards: Blueprint》是一款售价99美分的免费增值游戏，玩家可以购买7.99美元的IAP解琐所有游戏内容。所以如果玩家在其中投入100小时，那就相当于每小时仅需花费9美分。而如果订阅用户每天晚上玩两小时的《魔兽世界》，那就是每小时花费32美分；而如果是观看最近热映的电影《复仇者联盟》，每小时平均花费约5美元。

5）据pocketgamer报道，Square Enix在最近透露将面向智能手机平台推出RPG游戏《Final Fantasy Dimensions》，另外还将向Android和iOS发布与音乐相结合的动作游戏《Demons’ Score》。

但该公司并未确认这两款游戏的具体上线日期，仅表示将于下周的E3展会演示相关内容。

6）据9to5Mac报道，传闻中的新一代iPhone将运行苹果A5芯片，可能将采用1GB的RAM，以及S5L8950X处理器（游戏邦注：之前的iPhone 4S采用S5L8940X处理器，新iPad则采用S5L8945X处理器）。

7）据Urban Airship（该公司主要为应用开发者提供通知服务以及应用内置付费解决方案）数据显示，选择接收手机应用的推送通知服务的用户一个月之后的留存率比一般用户高26%，6个月之后则比一般用户高两倍。

Urban Airship从2011年8月开始研究了使用其服务的应用程序，发现在安装应用6个月之后，超过30%选择接受推送通知的用户仍在使用该应用，而不接受推送通知的用户这一比例不足20%。另外还发现，接受推送通知的用户总体上也更可能随着时间发展而提高应用使用率。（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）Halfbrick’s Fruit Ninja hits 300 million downloads

by Keith Andrew

Two years after it first hit the App Store, Australian studio Halfbrick has announced downloads of Fruit Ninja have passed the 300 million mark.

Said stat has been released as part of a package of numbers detailing the game’s success as it celebrates its second birthday, with the firm dubbing the release as “one of the world’s most recognisable brands in mobile gaming.”

Second the best

Indeed, mobile franchises able to boast downloads in the hundreds of millions are in a somewhat elite group, with CMO Phil Larsen revealing the firm has “more tricks up its sleeves” in the months ahead, including updates.

“We’ve been growing steadily since 2001 and achieved worldwide recognition from Fruit Ninja in 2010,” said Larsen.

“We’re showing the world how Aussie creativity can make a huge impact on games worldwide.”

All in the numbers

So high are the downloads that Halfbrick claims Fruit Ninja is the second highest selling game on the App Store of all time, presumably behind Angry Birds – though it’s not clear whether the 300 million figure refers directly to the App Store, or is platform-wide.

Other stats released as part of package include the news that 50 billion combos have been sliced in play, with more than 1.5 trillion pieces of fruit chopped.

In all, the company claims that more than 100 years worth of Fruit Ninja is played by users around the world every day. （source:pocketgamer）

2）Digital Chocolate’s Facebook focus left it lagging behind in smartphone race, says Trip Hawkins

by James Nouch

Digital Chocolate founder Trip Hawkins has spoken openly about the mobile publisher for the first time since his departure, claiming the firm focused far too heavily on Facebook.

Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, Hawkins – who also founded EA and the now defunct 3DO Company – said Digital Chocolate invested more heavily in Facebook than its rivals, which left the firm in trouble when the social network began to cut down on ‘game spam’.

Fading Facebook

It’s a decision that hit Digital Chocolate’s efforts to promote games virally, which cut both its games’ rate of monthly active users and, in turn, daily active users.

“A change in viral is going to reduce your MAU, and a change in the return rate is going to reduce your DAU; if you reduce the DAU you’re going to reduce revenue,” said Hawkins.

“And then if you take 30 percent off the top of that, you’re going to completely reduce the revenue.”

Hawkins claimed said changes were ones “games companies had to absorb”, but they happened to come about just as the App Store was taking off – the timing of which meant Digital Chocolalte was “lagging behind” from the off.

“I do think Digital Chocolate’s going to do a much better job; it already is doing a better job on the mobile side this year, but it’s just late,” he added.

Future focus

On the publisher’s future, Hawkins claimed those in the mobile market now need to focus on improving “integration with a virtual goods economy, and how to use good principles of merchandising and promotion in that economy, and get customers excited about spending more money.”

“I honestly believe that the customers that spend a lot of money on virtual goods are very satisfied customers, because they’re basically king of the world,” Hawkins added.

“Somebody who’s even spending as little as a thousand dollars in a game is going to get an incredible dominant feeling about how well they’re doing in that game.”

And since the rush to new platforms has prompted a massive rise in the cost of user acquisition, developers need to adjust their focus, he added.

Acquisition costs must be met by effective monetisation, and “you can’t just think about ‘Oh, the game is fun, great’ or ‘Oh, the game retains’ – that’s not sufficient.”

Perfect storm

As a parting shot, Hawkins was asked which area of the market he saw as offering the biggest opportunity going forward.

“No question, it would be tablets. I think tablets are the perfect storm,” Hawkins replied.

“It’s going to be the fastest-growing device in history, and it’s being used by every segment of the population

“Everybody likes tablets and everybody has started to consume content and spend money. So that just looks like it’s going to be an enormous, enormous market.”

Hawkins’ interview comes days after reports hit the web suggesting Digital Chocolate is to let 180 members of staff go as part of a streamlining exercise.（source:pocketgamer）

3）Bigger than Mario, Angry Birds generates 10% of gaming volume in UK

by Keith Andrew

Evidence of the reach of the biggest mobile franchises, numbers released by new data tracking survey GameTrack has proclaimed Angry Birds the most popular game series in the UK.

Rovio’s monster topped its sweep of the market in Q1 2012, boasting a 10 percent share of ‘gaming volume’ across the country.

Game on

To put that figure in some context, that means Angry Birds is now technically more ‘popular’ with consumers than older, more established franchises such as Mario, Call of Duty and FIFA according to GameTrack’s numbers.

As detailed by GamesIndustry.biz, in all 37 percent of UK citizens aged 6 and above claim to play games in some form a week, though the most active gamers are aged between 6 and 10, with 83 percent taking to gaming.

In that group, 31 percent claim to play packaged games, online titles or apps every week.

Top track

The stats are the first to be released by GameTrack, launched as a new data tracking tool by the Interactive Software Federation of Europe, or ISFE.

The project will be run by Ipsos MediaCT, with ISFE managing director Simon Little claiming the venture had been “instigated by games publishers.”

“It has been scoped and developed with the assistance of the biggest names in the industry, with a clear eye on commercial relevance and the long term aim of becoming a standard reference,” he concluded.

GameTrack will generate its findings from 2,000 surveys each every month – half of which will be face to face interviews, the other half filled in online – to provide quarterly analysis based on data pooled from a total of 6,000 surveys.

The initiative is currently focused on the UK, France, Germany and Spain, though the ISFE claims it will “add further markets in the near future.”（source:pocketgamer）

4）Pickford Brothers claim Magnetic Billiards is ‘officially’ longer than Skyrim

by James Nouch

John and Ste Pickford, the sibling developers who comprise UK-indie Zee-3, have announced their iOS title Magnetic Billiards: Blueprint is ‘officially longer than Skyrim’.

Since Zee-3 added a total playtime leaderboard to the Bafta-nominated puzzler, it’s become clear that many players are racking up hundreds of hours in the game.

“The top player on the leaderboard has currently played the game for almost 400 hours, which is probably the total amount of time I’ve spent on Bethesda RPGs Skyrim, Oblivion, Fallout 3 and New Vegas combined,” explained the game’s co-designer John Pickford.

Typically, you ‘can’ finish Skyrim in around 100 hours, although some take far longer.

Hall of fame

“The top 10 players have all clocked up around 100 hours or more, and the total playtimes drop off very slowly as you go down the leaderboard, so it isn’t down to one or two freak players,” added Ste Pickford.

He continued, “Magnetic Billiards: Blueprint is a deep and rewarding game which seems very obvious at first, but only reveals all of its subtleties slowly, through many short play sessions over days and weeks.”

“At such a low price we think it offers way better value than any console or PC game.”

Valuation

To prove their point, the Pickford brothers have produced a not entirely serious ‘value table’ which compares the cost per hour of a number of popular leisure activities.

Magnetic Billiards costs 99c to download and a $7.99 IAP unlocks all in-game content. So, if you played for 100 hours, Magnetic Billiards would cost roughly 9c per hour.

In comparison, a World of Warcraft subscription if played two hours per night costs 32c per hour, and the recently-released Avengers movie costs $5 per hour, and a Starbucks coffee costs $1 per hour (at least when measured in terms of caffeine buzz).（source:pocketgamer）

5）Final Fantasy Dimensions and Demons’ Score heading to iOS and Android in the summer

by Will Wilson

Square Enix has rather quietly slipped in a mention of Final Fantasy Dimensions in its pre-E3 press release.

What’s more, this new entry in the RPG series isn’t heading for the 3DS or home consoles, but is, in fact, bound for smartphones only.

Final Fantasy Dimensions is described as having “beautiful 2D pixel art, job-driven character growth, additional scenarios in which to inherit the jobs of your adventuring companions”, and, rather bizarrely, a “classic story of light, darkness, and crystals”.

Bring me their souls

Another interesting-sounding title that Squeenix has just confirmed is heading to Android and iOS in the near future is Demons’ Score – a “breakbeat action game” that blends fighting in with music.

Sounds very much like the upcoming 3DS title Theatrhythm on paper, then, but Demons’ Score is powered by the Unreal Engine, so expect a lot of rather natty graphical flourishes.

Release dates haven’t been confirmed for either game just yet, but hopefully we’ll be able to steal a glimpse at the two titles next week at E3.（source:pocketgamer）

6）Rumour: Details on new 4-inch iPhone surface

by Matthew Diener

More information regarding Apple’s new iPhone has come to light and the rumoured larger Retina display is just the beginning of the changes.

Poking around under the hood of iOS 6 (the OS is obviously designed for the new hardware so you can deconstruct the code to gain clues), 9to5Mac thinks that the new iPhone will be running on a variant of Apple’s A5 chip.

More interestingly, it will have 1GB of RAM, which is double the amount found in the iPhone 4 and 4S.

Processing power

Jumping back to the processor – which is based on an dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 – the new iPhone has a S5L8950X processor compared to a S5L8940X on the iPhone 4S and the S5L8945X found in the new iPad.

What this actually means, no one knows at the moment, but it seems that it could be a low power variant.

Of further interest is the new iPhone’s graphic processing unit: the chip is identified as SGX543RC*. This compares to the PowerVR SGX543MP2 that currently powers the A5 chip used in iPhone 4S. The new iPad uses a quad-core version.

What’s most interesting, however, is whether the new resolution and aspect ratio of the screen will pose a hurdle for game developers to overcome, and what implications it will have for running old games and apps.

We expect to find out more at WWDC, starting 11th June.（source:pocketgamer）

7）How to double user retention with push notifications: Urban Airship shares best practices

Kathleen De Vere

Mobile app users that opt in to push notifications have a 26 percent higher retention rate after one month and double the retention rate after six months compared to users that don’t, according to Urban Airship.

The company, which provides notification and in-app purchase solutions to mobile app developers, reported the figures today as part of its new Good Push Index. Starting in August 2011, Urban Airship studied apps using its service that had at least 10,000 opens in order to track the engagement and retention of users that opted into its notification service.

The study revealed that six months after the initial download, over 30 percent of users that received push notifications were still using an app. By comparison, less than 20 percent of non-notified users still used the same app after six months. Urban Airship also found that push notifications users were overall far more likely to increase their use of an app over time.（source:insidemobileapps）