1）据gamasutra报道，前EA Mobile主管及风险投资者Mitch Lasky日前表示，Facebook平台的高额用户获取成本导致Kabam、Kixeye、Zynga等大型发行商相继撤离这个社交网站，转向移动和开放网页平台。

cost(from corporate-eye.com)

Lasky认为Facebook对独立工作室而言仍是一个可行平台，但Crowdstar等主流社交游戏公司并不愿意在这一平台投入大量广告费用以获取用户，再加上Facebook要从该平台所有游戏收益中抽成30%，开发者很可能因高额的成本而丧失半数收益。

2）据insidesocialgames报道，EA首席运营官Peter Moore曾在本周接受采访时表示，公司就《The Ville》侵权起诉Zynga一案是“EA代表整个行业”向Zynga宣战。EA Maxis Label总经理Lucy Bradshaw也指出，公司希望通过将Zynga送上法庭一事，产生一种让其他（无力保护自身权益的）工作室获得法律保护的继发效应。

the sims social vs the ville(from kotaku.com)

但观察者认为，EA没有意识到此举可能打开了一个潘朵拉之匣，给整个电子游戏行业造成损害，如果游戏机制从此也进入法律保护范围，那么许多开发者则更容易以此为由起诉他人，从此游戏开发领域将再无宁日。

如果说《模拟城市》就是城建游戏机制的鼻祖，那么EA下一步就可能起诉其他开发城建游戏的公司；而Taito也可以着手起诉King.com和Peak Games等推出泡泡射击游戏的开发商。按照这种逻辑，雅达利几乎可以将任何游戏公司告上法庭。

3）据AllThingsD报道，苹果可能将于10月份发布新版iPad（游戏邦注：之前已有传闻称苹果可能会分别举办iPhone 5和iPad Mini发布会，其中iPhone 5将在9月12日亮相），如果这一消息成真，那就意味着iPad Mini很可能与新iPod同时发布。

ipad-mini(from venturebeat)

日本博客Macotakara报道则宣布iPad Mini就是新iPad正式名称，据称该设备外观类似于规格更大的iPod Touch，将支持Wi-Fi网络。

4）据insidemobileapps报道，Konami日本热门手机游戏《Dragon’s Collection》日前进军北美市场，已在加拿大App Store上线。据行业观察者Serkan Toto所称，这款卡牌战斗游戏是GREE平台头号第三方游戏热作。

dragon-collection-gree(from serkantoto.com)

5）日本游戏发行商Square Enix日前将旗下的2008任天DS角色扮演游戏《The World Ends with You》移植到iOS平台，该游戏将首先发布日语版本，但其后也可能推出英语版本。

The World End with You(from joystiq.com)

（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）Are Facebook’s costs driving away developers?

by Eric Caoili

“Companies with aspirations to be larger publishers — Kabam, Kixeye, even Zynga — are moving aggressively off the Facebook platform to mobile and the open Web. Publishers aren’t convinced that the costs of being on Facebook are worth it.”

- Former EA Mobile head and venture investor Mitch Lasky argues that the high costs of player acquisition on Facebook are driving away some of the biggest publishers and developers from the platform.

Lasky believes Facebook is still a viable platform for independent studios, but he told the Los Angeles Times that major companies like Crowdstar dislike spending so much money on ads to acquire players for their free-to-play titles.

Add those marketing expenses to the 30 percent toll Facebook takes from all in-game sales generated through its platform, and developers can potentially lose half of their revenues to these costs.

Over the last year, many major Facebook developers have sought to diversify their offerings by launching their own platforms separate from the site, or focusing more on bringing their games to mobile devices.

Are these costs really to blame for developers placing more emphasis on non-Facebook platforms? And have Facebook’s recent efforts to drive game discovery had any affect on alleviating those player acquisition costs? （source:gamasutra）

2）No, EA, you are not “standing up for the industry” by suing Zynga

Mike Thompson

Earlier this week Electronic Arts COO Peter Moore talked to Eurogamer about his company’s lawsuit against Zynga over The Ville. One of Moore’s biggest points — which has made a lot of headlines since — is that EA is “standing up for the industry” by taking Zynga to court.

Moore’s statement mirrors an earlier claim by GM of EA’s Maxis Label Lucy Bradshaw, when she said, “By calling Zynga out on this illegal practice, we hope to have a secondary effect of protecting the rights of other creative studios who don’t have the resources to protect themselves.”

What Moore (and the rest of EA) isn’t willing to address is just how potentially damaging this lawsuit could be to video game industry at large if it actually sees the inside of a courtroom. While EA claims Zynga copied exclusive elements from The Sims Social when it created The Ville, the complaint also alleges Zynga copied things like the game’s customizable skin tones and isometric camera perspective. Mechanics like these are present in more games than can be counted, so what happens if they’re considered evidence in this suit?

In a worst case scenario, this could open a legal Pandora’s Box. If legal precedent is established that lets companies claim ownership of mechanics, it could very easily lead to developers taking each other to court in order to engage in patent trolling. Maybe the next step would be EA going after developers who’ve created city-builders, since SimCity pretty much created the game type. Or perhaps Taito will start filing lawsuits against groups like King.com and Peak Games over their success with bubble shooter games after Puzzle Bobble popularized the genre.

Based on this train of logic, Atari could probably be able to take everybody to the wall. It also bears noting that EA is already on the receiving end of similar legal trouble as one of the named defendants in Gametek’s recently-filed patent lawsuit over virtual currency and goods.

It’s no surprise EA was unhappy when The Ville launched, as the similarities between it and The Sims Social were immediately obvious. Of course, this isn’t the first time Zynga has been accused of cloning (or “fast-following”) a successful social title, and even when the company’s been publicly called out for the behavior in the past it’s showed no remorse. However, this is the first time that Zynga poked a proverbial bear as large as Electronic Arts, which has to prove to both the public and its shareholders that it will fight to protect its intellectual property.

Based on public reaction, one would think that EA taking Zynga to task for its shenanigans was so delicious that it just had to be fattening. EA’s been continuing to win the general public over by making the company seem like the kid on the playground who finally stands up to the bully stealing everyone’s lunch money. It’s certainly a smart tactic: Lots of mainstream gamers and developers we’ve talked to are rooting for someone to take Zynga to the cleaners and make it much more difficult for them to continue their fast-follow practices in the future.

It’s a brilliant piece of spin, but let’s address the gorilla in the room. EA isn’t standing up for the little guy. EA is standing up for EA, and EA’s interests just happen to run parallel to those other companies who feel they’ve been wronged by Zynga in the past. We know it, and EA knows we know it.

The problem is that EA doesn’t seem to realize — or perhaps care about — is how it’s making game developers much more tempting targets for patent warfare. If that happens, we all lose.（source:insidesocialgames）

3）IPad Mini now expected for October (plus, that name seems more legit)

Devindra Hardawar

Just yesterday we reported on a compelling argument for why Apple would separate its iPhone 5 and iPad Mini events, and now it looks like Apple will indeed debut its long-rumored smaller iPad in October, sources tell AllThingsD.

If true, the report means that the iPad Mini will likely debut alongside new iPod models. It would also give Apple a month to devote to hype for the iPhone 5, which is expected to be announced at a September 12 event.

While we’ve been using iPad Mini name as a placeholder for the new smaller tablet, Japanese blog Macotakara claims that will indeed be the name. That wouldn’t be too surprising, since it would harken back to Apple’s popular iPod Mini line.

Moving the iPad Mini event to Apple’s typical media event is somewhat telling — after all, when was the last you were truly excited by a new iPod? Apple could end up pitching the new iPad as more of a portable media device than the 10-inch iPad. We’ve heard that the smaller iPad could look a lot like a bigger iPod Touch as well (which is particularly funny, since that was a common criticism of the first iPad).

Macotakara also reports that the revamped iPod Nano could get Wi-Fi, which would make it ready for a future cloud-based iTunes service. At this point, I wouldn’t be too surprised if that prediction came true. The iPod Nano is still a strong seller, and Apple would want to keep it compatible with its new services.（source:venturebeat）

4）Dragon Collection comes to Canadian app store – Konami’s top grossing Japanese hit Dragon’s Collection is heading to North America, and is already live on the Canadian App Store. As industry watcher Dr. Serkan Toto notes, the card-battle game is the top-grossing third party game on GREE’s platform.（source:insidemobileapps）

5）Square Enix ports The World Ends with You – Square Enix is bringing its 2008 Nintendo DS role-playing game The World Ends with You to iOS. The company’s teaser countdown references the Japanese version of the game, but it is likely the game will come to iOS in English as well.（source:insidemobileapps）