1）据insidesocialgames报道，有匿名知情者透露Zynga下一个新项目可能是街机连线消除游戏《Ruby Blast》。从知情者提供的截图片可以看出，该游戏玩法可能与GameHouse的“Blast”系列颇为相似，图片并未标注“Zynga发行”的字样，这意味着这款游戏很可能是Zynga内部开发的产品。

Ruby Blast(from insidesocialgames)

在谷歌上搜索“Zynga Ruby Blast”可以看到一个导向Facebook的应用链接，但随后页面就会显示未找到搜索结果的字样。

Google search(from insidesocialgames)

Zynga在上月初已向Facebook和Zynga.com同时发布一款连线消除游戏《Bubble Safari》，其Facebook版本目前MAU已达1980万，DAU为690万，在Facebook App Center的热门榜单位列第129名。

Zynga上周股价大跌至5.02美元，有业内人士指出这一现象应归咎于Facebook表现不济的IPO以及Zynga未能发布与《CastleVille》或《Draw Something》表现相当的成功游戏。

2）Zynga最近向苹果App Store发布《Zynga Slots》iOS版本，这是Zynga推出的第二款支持离线运行的手机博彩游戏。

3）据serkantoto报道，日本社交游戏公司GREE除了在东京羽田机场及成田机场展示广告条幅，其机场营销活动最近还延伸到美国旧金山国际机场（游戏邦注：GREE International总部位于旧金山），有传言称GREE在美国市场营销预算高达5000万美元。

gree-international-san-francisco-airport(from serkantoto)

4）继投资Wizcorp之后，GREE近日又收购了另一家东京社交游戏开发商GeePlus公司49.2%股份，后者是数字内容公司Polygon Magic旗下部门，成立仅数天时间，目前尚未发布任何游戏。观察者称，GREE投资该公司的原因是后者拥有140名工程师，意在借其技术和人才力量推动GREE全球平台的发展。

GREE表示两家公司将合作开发社交游戏，并向GeePlus派遣董事会成员及审计员。

5）据insidesocialgames报道，韩国网游公司Nexon最近收购MMO发行商NCsoft公司14.7%股份（超过320万股票），其交易额为8040亿韩元（6.9亿美元），现已成为NCsoft最大的股东。

6）土耳其开发商Peak Games最近透露公司在今年第一季度收益同比去年增长1000%，该公司游戏在一些非英语市场获得了巨大成功，而《Lost Bubble》这款游戏过去数月在英语国家也极具人气。

lost-bubble(from bubblewitchsaga.net)

7）Double Down Interactive首席执行官Greg Enell最近入围2012年安永企业家大奖（Ernst & Young’s Entrepeneur of the Year 2012 award），在获得提名的18个企业家中，他是来自社交游戏领域的唯一代表人物。

8）据gigaom报道，Facebook首席技术官Bret Taylor近日通过Facebook Timeline宣布将于今年离职，并与好友Kevin Gibbs成立自己的新公司。

bret taylor(from webpronews.com)

Taylor是因Facebook收购FriendFeed而加入该公司，是推动Facebook平台及Facebook Connect战略发展的重要人物，拥有谷歌行业背景，在加入Facebook之前曾参与开发谷歌地图项目。（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）Ruby Blast looks like Zynga’s next new game

AJ Glasser

Arcade matching game Ruby Blast appears to be Zynga’s next new game, which would give the social game developer two arcade game launches in as many quarters for the social game giant.

Screenshots sent to ISG by an anonymous tipster don’t reveal much besides a customer service staging listing and a title page screenshot. The customer service page does not list Zynga-published titles like Pettington Park or Woodland Heroes, implying that Ruby Blast is an in-house developed title.

A Google search of “Zynga Ruby Blast” brings up a link to the app on Facebook — but following it turns up a Page Not Found result. Based on the title screen, Ruby Blast seems to be a match-3 game with a digging theme, perhaps similar to Tetris Stars where the goal of the game is to get to the bottom of a level as fast as possible by completing lines and activating explosive powerups.

Its name suggests similar gameplay to GameHouse’s Blast franchise, which is currently led on Facebook by Collapse Blast.

Zynga’s is better known for its role-playing and simulation games like FarmVille or CityVille, but in the last 12 months, the developer has turned to other genres in an attempt to broaden its audience reach. In the arcade genre, Zynga released match-3 arcade game Bubble Safari early last month both on Facebook and its own platform, Zynga.com. On the Facebook side, the game is up to 19.8 million monthly active users and 6.9 daily active users as recorded by our AppData traffic tracking service. Bubble Safari is also currently ranked No. 129 on the Top Grossing chart in Facebook’s newly-launched App Center.

The big story last week was Zynga’s falling stock, which dropped all the way to $5.02 at its lowest ebb. Pundits blame the decline both on Facebook’s lackluster IPO and disappointed investors and on Zynga’s own failure to release another high profile game on the order of CastleVille or Draw Something. In its Q1 2012 earnings report, the developer announced higher-than-ever bookings and an outlook of $1.425 billion to $1.5 billion in total bookings for the year. Zynga’s second quarter ends on the final day of this month.

We’ve reached out to Zynga for comment and will update this story when we hear back.（source:insidesocialgames）

2）Zynga rolls out Zynga Slots for iOS [Launch] — Looks like we were right about Zynga’s next mobile game. The company just launched Zynga Slots on Apple’s App Store, providing players with a mobile slots game experience for fans of  Zynga Casino. This is the second mobile casino game from Zynga and comes with an offline mode.（source:insidemobileapps）

3）GREE Starts Marketing Campaign At San Francisco Airport [Social Games]

by Dr. Serkan Toto

I don’t know what it is with GREE and airports, but following the Haneda and Narita airports in Tokyo, GREE decided to install promotional banners in the US, too.

Pictured below is a set of banners currently being used at the international airport in San Francisco (where GREE International has its HQ, too).

GREE is rumored to have set aside marketing budget of up to US$50 million for the American market alone (for the launch of their global platform), and after that appearance at E3, here is how some of that money is spent.（source:serkantoto）

4）GREE Invests In Tokyo-Based Social Game Maker GeePlus [Social Games]

by Dr. Serkan Toto

Just a few weeks after investing in Wizcorp, GREE acquired a stake in another Tokyo-based social game maker. GREE has invested an undisclosed sum to buy 49.2% of GeePlus, recently spun off of digital content company Polygon Magic.

As GeePlus was formally established just a few days ago, the startup hasn’t released any titles yet. What GREE is going after here are the 140 engineers the startup has: a crucial asset, given the current talent crunch in the industry in Japan and the recent launch of GREE’s global platform.

GREE says GeePlus will be co-developing social games with them and dispatched board directors and an auditor to their new partner.（source:serkantoto）

5）Nexon buys almost 15 percent of NCsoft — Free-to-play game giant Nexon purchased a little over 3.2 million shares — 14.7 percent — of MMO publisher NCsoft. Nexon paid KRW 804 billion ($690 million) and is now the largest shareholder of NCsoft.（source:insidesocialgames）

6）Peak Games announces record revenues — Developer Peak Games had a pretty spectacular first quarter. The company revealed its 2012 Q1 revenue increased 1,000 percent year-over year. Peak has seen a great deal of success in non-English markets over the past year, but its recent bubble shooter Lost Bubble has gained significant traffic over the past couple of months in English territories.（source:insidesocialgames）

7）Double Down CEO is Entrepeneur of the Year finalist —  Double Down Interactive CEO Greg Enell is being considered as a finalist for Ernst & Young’s Entrepeneur of the Year 2012 award. Out of 18 finalists Enell is the only member of the social games industry being considered for the award.（source:insidesocialgames）

8）Facebook CTO Bret Taylor to leave, will start a new company

By Om Malik

Facebook chief technology officer Bret Taylor is going to leave the company later this year, he announced via his Facebook Timeline today. He is leaving Facebook to start a new company, he said on his timeline.

I wanted to let you all know that I’ll be leaving Facebook later this summer. I’m sad to be leaving, but I’m excited to be starting a company with my friend Kevin Gibbs.

While a transition like this is never easy, I’m extremely confident in the teams and leadership we have in place. I’m very proud of our recent accomplishments in our platform and mobile products, from Open Graph and App Center to Facebook Camera and our iOS integration. I’m even more excited for the world to see all the amazing things these teams have coming.

I’ve learned more than I ever imagined in my time at Facebook. I’m also extremely grateful for my relationship with all of the amazing people I’ve worked with here.

I want to give a special thanks to Mark Zuckerberg. You’ve not only been my boss for the past three years, but my mentor and one of my closest friends.
Taylor, who is widely respected in the developer community arrived at Facebook via the acqusition of FriendFeed, a groundbreaking information aggregation platform. Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg in a statement said:

“I’ve really enjoyed working with Bret and getting to know him as a friend and teammate. I’m grateful for all he has done for Facebook and I’m proud of what he and his teams have built. I’m also proud that we have a culture where great entrepreneurs like Bret join us and have such a big impact.”

Taylor’s contribution to Facebook is often lost in the hype and noise around Zuckerberg. Taylor has been a key executive and has helped the company figure out its platform and Facebook Connect strategy. Taylor, who in a past life worked for Google, was involved with Google Maps before coming over to Facebook.

Taylor isn’t the first or the last of Facebook’s senior staff to leave the company. However, his exit is indeed is a bit of a shocker. I saw Taylor at the WWDC where he was representing Facebook.

He didn’t even hint as much that he was leaving. Regardless, now we wait to see what he comes up with next.（source:gigaom）