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每日观察:关注9月份手机与社交游戏市场表现(10.9)

发布时间:2012-10-09 11:17:02 Tags:,,

1)Cowen & Company最新数据显示,移动游戏的发展可能蚕食了PC端社交/休闲游戏的市场。

在今年9月份期间,DeNA和GREE游戏在Android前20名榜单中占据30%的席位,DeNA旗下的《Rage of Bahamut》已经持续第5个月称霸Google Play游戏榜单,Cowen & Company估算该游戏在9月份同样位居iPhone营收榜单之首。

Facebook gaming apps by DAU(from AppData)

Facebook gaming apps by DAU(from AppData)

独立开发商Supercell在9月份表现出众,《Clash of Clans》在该月称雄iPad榜单,在iPhone榜单位列第二。

在PC端社交游戏领域,虽然《FarmVille 2》新增650万DAU,但《Zynga’s Slingo》、《The Ville》、《Bubble Safari》、《CastleVille》等Zynga游戏流量均呈下滑状态,而EA《The Sims Social》、《SimyCity Social》以及迪士尼《Marvel Avengers》、《Gardens of Time》均无缘进入DAU前20名游戏榜单。

前十大社交游戏发行商的DAU在9月份均表现平平,仅增长0.8%,而MAU却下滑1.8%(990万)。

2)据insidesocialgames报道,雅达利最近与Zynga合作将推出iOS和Android游戏《Super Bunny Breakout》,但尚未透露该游戏的具体发布时间。

super bunny breakout(from venturebeat.com)

super bunny breakout(from venturebeat.com)

该游戏由Curious Brain开发,采用了经典游戏《Breakout》特色元素,但植入了一只可爱的兔子角色Rodney,其首发版本提供了来自三类场景的48个关卡。

3)据USA Today报道,Rovio日前宣布将于11月8日面向iOS、Android和Windows PC平台发布新款游戏《愤怒的小鸟:星球大战》。

angry birds star wars(from joystiq.com)

angry birds star wars(from joystiq.com)

该游戏结合了《愤怒的小鸟太空版》玩法以及《星球大战》元素,据称其中的小鸟将以《星球大战》中的Jedi角色造型亮相,而小猪则将以Sith、Imperial的形象示人。

4)据mobile-ent报道,手机游戏公司Glu Mobile最近与英国手机博彩公司Probability合作,将推出一系列玩真钱的移动老虎机游戏,但仅面向Probability的管制市场(游戏邦注:主要是意大利和英国)开放服务,将由Probability接手这些游戏运营的监管责任。

5)据venturebeat报道,Facebook最近发表博文指出,Facebook App Center现在可为用户提供符合他们品味或需求的个性化应用推荐服务。

facebook-app-center(from venturebeat)

facebook-app-center(from venturebeat)

App Center目前采用一个动态推荐引擎,通过实时更新、用户反馈、应用质量以及大量算法元素来掌握用户喜好,其终极目标是让最隐晦的应用也能够在合适的时间呈现给合适的用户。

Facebook还指出,在App Center每月的2.2亿访客中,有40%以上用户会在第二天重访该应用商店。

6)据venturebeat报道,世嘉最近发表博文宣布将向手机平台推出《Sonic Jump》,但并未公布该游戏更多详情。

sonic jump(from venturebeat)

sonic jump(from venturebeat)

该公司曾于2007年向功能性手机平台发布《Sonic Jump》,其玩法与智能手机游戏《涂鸦跳跃》十分相似,玩家在游戏中需让Sonic从一个平台跳向另一个平台。

这是世嘉的机游戏部门最近几周宣布推出的第二款游戏,另一款面向iPhone和Android平台的经典街机射击游戏续集《Zaxxon Escape》也已进入开发阶段。

7)PlayFirst日前宣布将中止PC游戏开发业务,并且不再支持之前已经发行的PC游戏,打算将重心转向iOS及Android游戏市场。

该公司计划在11月12日推出一个新网站,支持原来的粉丝访问该网站下载相应程序以保存自己所爱的游戏,但也可以继续通过第三方零售商购买PlayFirst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)Mobile “eroding” demand for PC social gaming

By Matt Martin

Strong September in social for DeNA, Gree, Supercell and Electronic Arts

The growth of gaming on mobile is “eroding” demand for social and casual games experiences on the PC, according to new data.

Research by Cowen & Company shows that during September, DeNA and Gree cemented their positions in the top 20 grossing charts on Android platforms, while Electronic Arts gained ground on iPhone and iPad formats. Rivals Zynga and Disney fell out of iOS circles almost entirely.

DeNA and Gree have 30 per cent of the top 20 titles in the Android charts. DeNA’s Rage of Bahamut clocked its fifth consecutive month as the number one Google Play game and Cowen & Company also estimates the card-battle RPG was also the top-grossing game during September on iPhone.

Independent developer Supercell had a strong month in September, with Clash of Clans for iPad taking the top spot in its second month and moving up to number two on the iPhone.

“We continue to believe that evidence suggests demand for PC-based casual social gaming is eroding due to the increased availability of casual gaming on mobile devices,” said analyst Doug Creutz.

In the PC social gaming space, Zynga’s FarmVille 2 pulled in 6.5 million daily active users which managed to offset the declines seen elsewhere during the month.
Zynga’s Slingo, The Ville, Bubble Safari and CastleVille all saw numbers slide, while neither EA’s Sims Social and Sim City, nor Disney’s Marvel Avengers and Gardens of Time, made the top 20 games by DAUs.

Social gaming daily active users (DAUs) for the top ten publishers during September were flat, only up by 0.8 per cent, but monthly active users (MAUs) dropped by 9.9 million, or 1.8 per cent.(source:gamesindustry

2)Zynga gets its very own Breakout game (with bunnies), thanks to Atari

by Joe Osborne

In case you hadn’t noticed, Zynga has a new publishing platform. And, boy, has it taken the FarmVille house to some strange and new places. Now, Inside Social Games reports that the land of Breakout is next in line through none other than Atari. The OG of game publishers has teamed up with Zynga to bring Super Bunny Breakout on iOS and Android to the masses.

Yes, that’s a Breakout game with bunnies. Developed by Curious Brain, this take on the venerable Breakout franchise comes complete with a quirky, cute art style, an original story and realistic physics featuring objects made of different materials. Super Bunny Breakout sees a rabbit named Rodney bust out of a testing facility and free his fellow test subjects.

Based on the hands-on report by ISG, Super Bunny Breakout is a much more nuanced take on the Breakout formula, with six different animal characters acting as the balls with which the player breaks things. (Stop snickering.) These animals provide special power shots for extra destruction as well.

Each critter has varying levels of stamina that depletes as they repeatedly bump into objects, but refills over time or with a handy in-app purchase, in true free-to-play game fashion. At launch, Super Bunny Breakout offers 48 levels across three types of environments, with one in each world being a mini game. There’s no word on exactly when Super Bunny Breakout will hit the app stores, so be on the lookout.(source:games

3)Coming soon: Angry Birds Star Wars

by Mike Shaw

The Angry Birds franchise catapults into cinematic classic. Nerds everywhere burst with glee/fury

If you thought that Bad Piggies meant Rovio had moved on from Angry Birds, then you were dead wrong.

On November 8th, the Finnish company will unleash the latest installment of its world-conquering franchise.

No specific details about the game are available, but it’s likely that Angry Birds Star Wars will take elements from the first Angry Birds games and mash them with Angry Birds Space.

What is known, is that the birds will look like Jedi characters from Star Wars, while the pigs will take on the look and characteristics of Sith and Imperial forces.

If the final stage of the game doesn’t involve a Death Star lookalike, then I will dress as a bird for a week.

And there has to be a new character called the Millenium Falcon – this stuff writes itself. You’ve never heard of the Millennium Falcon? … It’s the bird that made the kestrel run in less than 12 parsecs.(source:mobile-ent

4)Glu moves into mobile slot games

by Mike Shaw

Partnership with gambling expert Probability will take advantage of existing Glu IP.

Games company Glu Mobile has started work with UK-based mobile gambling specialist Probability.

The partnership will see Glu’s existing properties used to create a suite of branded real-money mobile slot games. Glu titles like Deer Hunter and Contract Hunter already have millions of fans worldwide, but the slot games will only be distributed to audiences in Probability’s regulated markets – initially Italy and the UK.

Glu-branded casino games will be offered as part of the Probability portfolio so could be available through Probability partners like William Hill, Paddy Power and Ladbrokes.

The deal will also see Probability take charge of regulatory responsibility for the operation of the games.

Niccolo de Masi, CEO, Glu Mobile, said: “We believe that mobile gambling momentum is beginning to accelerate on a global basis, and with this deal, Glu becomes an early mover.

“We anticipate that as additional markets around the world open up to real-money mobile gaming, we will expand our investment in the subsector.

“We view real-money mobile gaming as an opportunity to extend the reach of our successful original IP to new demographics, as well as deepen engagement and rewards for our players.”

Charles Cohen, CEO, Probability, said: “We are delighted to be partnering with a pioneer and leader in the freemium mobile gaming industry.

“We look forward to deepening our relationship with Glu as we seek to expand our regulatory reach to new markets worldwide.”(source:mobile-ent

5)How Facebook makes recommendations for App Center’s 220M users

Jennifer Van Grove

Think Facebook is showing you an arbitrary or editorially driven selection of applications in its App Center? Think again.

The social network, as described in a comprehensive blog post, goes to great lengths to ensure that the now 220 million people who visit its new application hub, launched in waves over the summer, find items tailored specifically to their tastes and immediate wants.

“The goal is for curation of the App Center to be driven by quality and personalization, instead of editorialization,” Facebook engineers explained today. “Just as with news feed, personalization in App Center will improve over time as people and their friends engage with more apps.”

The App Center runs atop a dynamic recommendation engine that looks at aggregated data, real-time updates, user feedback, application quality, and a number of algorithmic elements designed to learn about a person’s preferences. The ultimate aim is to make even the most obscure applications visible to the right people at the right time.

On the quality-control front, Facebook considers user ratings and positive or negative signals for each application. The social network randomly surveys app users to get their ratings and ties the average rating of an app to that of its daily active user base. “We settled on a formula for app quality that is primarily a function of its average rating as well as average daily active users,” the engineers wrote.

When it comes to learning more about you for the sake of better recommendations, Facebook, in laymen’s terms, considers your demographic details, friends’ activities, and your “likes.”

The method by which the company uses this data to make recommendations is far more complex, however.

Facebook, for instance, considers “select items related to objects liked or interacted with” by you in the past. The company refers to these elements as “learned latent features” and uses them in a matrix to fill in the blanks about other qualities you may not have overtly expressed.

Here’s a detailed explanation for those who speak engineer:

The basic problem is to find out the values of missing entries for the user object response matrix. The idea is to approximate the response matrix using the product of two low-rank matrices. Each row of matrix U is the latent representation of a user and captures the intrinsic taste of a user. Each column of matrix O is the latent representation of an object. It reflects the flavor of that object. The dot product between these two vectors is the predicted response from the user to the object.

The complex process appears to be paying off for Facebook; more than 40 percent of the 220 million people who vist the App Center each month are likely to return on a following day.(source:venturebeat

6)Sega announces new Sonic game

Jeffrey Grubb

Sega is going to make a new Sonic game for your mobile phone.

The publisher posted a blog on its official website with an image for Sonic Jump along with the words:

New Sonic Jump coming to mobile soon.

The blog featured no other details. We’re contacting Sega to get more information about the new game.

A previous Sonic Jump game does exist. The developer released it around 2007 for mobile feature phones (the dumber cousins of smartphones). It played a lot like the popular smartphone game Doodle Jump, where players bounce a wildly jumping Sonic from platform to platform in an attempt to travel as high as possible.

Again, the blog contains no details, but the “new Sonic Jump” wording suggests that this is a sequel to that previous mobile release.

Sega is in a transitional period. It drastically pulled back its American operations in March. It canceled all games that weren’t Sonic the Hedgehog, Aliens: Colonial Marines, Total War, or Football Manager.

But recently, Sega’s mobile-game division has become more active. This is the second game announcement in as many weeks, with Zaxxon Escape, a sequel to the classic arcade shooter, also in the works for iPhone and Android.(source:venturebeat

7)PlayFirst discontinues PC/Mac development

By Dant Rambo

PlayFirst, the company behind the massively popular Dash line of games, has announced they’re ceasing development of PC games, and discontinuing support of those they’ve already released. It’s not all bad news, though, as the company intends to continue development of iOS titles, and enter the Android market sometime in the near future. Could this be a sign of the times?

We speculated back in November of last year that something like this was on the horizon, as a member of the company stated on their message boards that they had no “PC/Mac download games in the pipeline for development.” Given the prolific nature of PlayFirst in the past, it was a pretty massive warning sign.

The company intends to launch a new website on November 12, and those who wish to keep their games are encouraged to visit this page now and download the installer files/unlock keys for each of them. For those wanting to pick up any of their games in the future, third-party retailers will continue to sell them.(source:gamezebo


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