有关世界末日的传闻并未兑现，所以2012真的将接近尾声了。而Inside Social Games也将在此回顾这一年来社交/手机游戏产业中一些最引人注目的传闻与争议。

我们认为这并不是投资者和开发商门想要看到的内容，但是说实话，这类情境出现的频率总是多于成功的故事。尽管本文中的某些内容还未得到证实，但是我们可以根据一些可靠的信息去明确某些细节内容。

6waves的衰败——部分得到证实

Yeti-Town（from gamelook）

2012年对于像6waves Lolapps等刚刚起步的公司来说并不是顺利的一年。该公司在发行《Yeti Town》时遭受到了公众的质疑，并被Spry Fox指控复制了他们面向Facebook发行的《Triple Town》。3月份，当该公司裁掉了一半以上的员工并决定从游戏开发转向游戏发行时，他们再次遭遇了挫折。根据多方面的信息，我们知道该公司的上司将裁员信息刊登在他们的谷歌日程表上，从而引起公司内部的恐慌。他们在5月份发行了《Ravenshire Castle》，并迅速遭遇了失败（游戏邦注：上升到5万的日活跃用户后便迅速跌至现在的400）。随后，6waves从社交游戏转向了手机游戏。据称与Kixeye的合作能够“拯救这家公司”，但是后者首席执行官Will Harbin却因备受争议的《Yeti Town》而取消了合作。几个月后，该公司裁掉了更多员工，并以放弃《Yeti Town》的所有权解决了与Spry Fox的诉讼案件（因为法院拒绝了6waves撤销案件的请求），同时还从手机游戏再次转回社交游戏的发行。我们还听说，6waves的开发者们对其游戏推广方式并不满意。

Rocket Ninja尝试转变，并裁掉了大量员工——得到了证实

去年该公司因为将2D动作游戏《Wrestler: Unstoppable》转变成3D而“荣登”争议列表（有些忠实玩家仍然在抱怨着这点），而今年他们又一次出现了。前不久，该公司公开了从游戏转向3D“轻级约会”系统Be3D的决定，我们也听说他们因此裁掉了许多员工。根据相关信息，在几个月后他们仍将进行一次大规模的裁员。据说该公司首席执行官Oded Pelled独自决定离开游戏领域，但因为遭到了所有员工的反对而作罢，他们抗议自己是为了制作游戏才进入该公司。同时，因为Rocket Ninja所谓的雇佣规则，许多员工甚至拿不到失业补贴。

迪士尼授权游戏的承包项目令开发者捉襟见肘——部分得到证实

尽管迪士尼已经凭借一些第一方社交和手机游戏获得了巨大的优势，但仍有许多致力于授权项目的开发者遭遇着各种挫折。根据秘密情报，Gazillion Entertainment在创造《奇迹英雄MMO》时只拥有极低的资金支持；尽管投资者手上还有大量的资金能够推动开发商门在新一年的发展，但是事实总是不如想象中那般美好，我们甚至听说许多公司难以满足求职者的薪资要求。除此之外，Marvel关于承包商的授权游戏条款虽然具有一定的声望，但大多都只是“对授权方有利”。

Kabam所面对的形势并不是那么乐观——部分得到证实

尽管根据有关报道，Kabam能够通过Facebook上赚取大量的利益，但事实上他们也面临了不少问题。有消息称，该公司因为找不到投资者而打算于来年进行公开募股，但是因为看到Facebook和Zynga所遭遇的问题，他们决定改变计划。据说该公司希望能在明年将股份出售给上市游戏公司，如华纳兄弟，动视或艺电。还有一点需要注意的便是：最近华纳兄弟的投资并未进入Kabam的荷包，而是用于购买二次发行股。同时，Kabam也仍致力于收购一些小型开发商，最近还试着去收购手机工作室Phoenix Age，据说这次的收购额达到了9位数，并且双方已经签订了协议，只等Kabam董事进行最后敲定。

5th Planet成了炙手可热的公司——得到了证实

5th Planet Games已经在Facebook上取得了巨大的成功，并且有许多巨头公司争着要收购这家公司。像Zynga，GameStop，艺电和Kabam等都有这种想法，并提出了各自的报价（最高达到3千万美元），但是似乎该公司对这价钱还不是很满意。

Nexon对Backflip Studios非常感兴趣——得到了证实

说到被收购的开发商，《龙之谷》的创造者Backflip Studios便进入了Nexon的收购列表中。据年初有关报道称，Nexon是收购艺电的潜在买主。

艺电将注意力从社交游戏转向了手机游戏——得到了证实

艺电非常不满意旗下非PopCap开发的社交游戏（游戏邦注：像《模拟城市社交版》和《Outernauts》）的表现，并计划将其它工作室转向手机领域。该发行商已经舍弃了一些由
ClickNation开发的基于浏览器的内容，并让更多团队去开发手机游戏。

动视也将走向手机领域——未证实

有消息称，动视正准备进军手机领域。根据行业人士透露，之前该公司决定推迟三年进入手机市场，而到今年为止刚好三年期满。据说动视与Flurry的合作并不顺利。许多产业人士都认为Flurry还处于迷茫状态，他们计划发行的几款游戏也都不能有效地运行于Flurry的后端。我们甚至听说，动视之所以选择与该公司进行合作只是为了让世人看到自己正在接触手机市场，其实他们仍然在制定着真正的作战计划。

Zynga与艺电在《Respawnables》上出现了摩擦——未证实

Respawnables（from 9game）

Zynga最近宣称将与Digital Legends Entertainment合作推出新手机游戏《Respawnables》——许多人对此报以极大的期待，但是艺电并非如此。Digital Legends曾致力于开发多款艺电授权的手机游戏，如《战地：叛逆连队2》，据称艺电认Digital Legends 的这款与Zynga合作的新游戏中可能含有《战地》代码。

（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）

2012′s biggest rumors and controversies in social and mobile games

2012 is coming to a close without any end-of-the-world shenanigans so it’s time for Inside Social Games to look back at the biggest rumors and controversies in the social/mobile games industry.

We realize these aren’t always the most popular things for investors and developers to read, but the stories herein are often repeated within the industry even more than the success stories. Some of the things listed below couldn’t be verified at the time or didn’t have enough substance to warrant a full news post. In some cases, however, we were able to confirm certain details from reliable sources. In keeping with tradition and out of consideration for these sources, we’ve chosen to keep them anonymous.

6waves’ spectacular flame-out – partially confirmed

2012 wasn’t a good year for the company that started off as 6waves Lolapps. The company received a huge amount of public criticism when it launched Yeti Town and was accused of cloning by Spry Fox after the two developers had signed NDAs to distribute Triple Town on Facebook. The company then lost the second part of its name in March when it jettisoned over half of its workforce and pivoted from game development to publishing. We’re told by multiple sources that the layoffs were actually noted on the company’s Google calendar by the company higher-ups, leading to a high-stress environment before they were officially announced. Ravenshire Castle launched in May and subsequently flopped (it peaked at 50,000 daily active users and currently has 400). Following this, 6waves started to focus more on mobile games than social. Supposedly there was a deal with Kixeye in the works that “would have saved the company” but CEO Will Harbin personally killed it over the controversy surrounding Yeti Town. Then, a few months ago, the company underwent more layoffs, settled the lawsuit Spry Fox had against it in a pretty spectacular concession that included giving up ownership of Yeti Town (this was, of course, only after the court denied 6waves’ petition to dismiss the case) and suddenly switched back to publishing social games instead of mobile titles. We also heard from multiple sources that developers who worked with 6waves weren’t happy with the way their games were distributed.

Rocket Ninja tries to re-invent itself, lays off staff in the process – confirmed and not surprising

Following last year’s controversial move to give the 2D action game Wrestler: Unstoppable a 3D makeover (something the game’s very loyal fanbase is still griping about), developer Rocket Ninja once again appears on our list. Shortly before the developer publicly revealed its plans to shift away from games to a 3D “lightweight dating” system called Be3D, we heard reports that the company underwent a series of layoffs. Then, immediately after our article went live, we heard reports of further layoffs that were only confirmed months later. According to our sources, CEO Oded Pelled made the decision to move away from games on his own but was forced out because “he had the entire workforce against him. After all, we were there to make games.” We also heard that multiple people were denied unemployment benefits because of “legal mumbo jumbo” on behalf of Rocket Ninja’s employment practices.

Disney’s contracts for licensed games leave devs strapped for cash – partially confirmed

Although Disney’s been killing it with first-party social and mobile titles, we’ve been hearing stories about devs working on licensed projects aren’t doing as well. The grapevine is currently saying Gazillion Entertainment is getting pretty low on funds while it works on its Marvel Heroes MMO; although there’s still some cash on hand from investors to get the developer into the new year, things don’t look good and we’ve heard the company isn’t able to meet some job seekers’ salary requests. Meanwhile, another source says that Marvel’s terms for contractors to work on licensed titles come with a lot of prestige from the property but are so one-sided that “calling it ‘financial rape’ is an understatement.”

Things aren’t as rosy for Kabam as they’d like us to think – partially confirmed

Even though Kabam is reportedly making money hand over fist off of Facebook, we’ve heard the company is having some issues. The company was reportedly thinking about doing an IPO this coming year because it couldn’t find a buyer, but it recently backpedaled on that plan following the issues surrounding Facebook and Zynga. Reportedly, the developer’s hoping to sell to a public game company next year like Warner Bros., Activision or EA. On that note: The recent Warner Bros. investment didn’t actually infuse any cash in Kabam, instead it was a secondary shares swap. Meanwhile, Kabam is still looking to acquire smaller developers and recently tried to pick up mobile studio Phoenix Age; that deal was almost for nine figures, paperwork was signed and then unapproved on the final day by Kabam’s board of directors.

Everybody wants a piece of 5th Planet – confirmed

5th Planet Games has been enjoying a lot of success off of Facebook and some of the big players have become very interested in acquiring them. We’ve heard stories of Zynga, GameStop, EA and Kabam kicking the company’s tires and/or putting offers on the table (to the tune of around $30 million), but clearly that hasn’t been enough for them to sell.

Nexon has its eyes on Backflip Studios – confirmed

Speaking of developers being acquired, Dragonvale creator Backflip Studios is being eyed pretty seriously by Nexon. You remember Nexon, right? It’s the company that reportedly put in an offer to buy EA earlier this year.

EA shifting away from social, focusing on mobile – confirmed

EA is reportedly pretty unhappy with how its non-PopCap social games (like SimCity Social and Outernauts) are performing and is shifting its other studios over to mobile. The publisher has already scrapped everything browser-based that ClickNation was working on and moved the various teams to mobile.

Get ready to see Activision on mobile – unconfirmed

Activision’s reportedly getting ready to make a big entry into the mobile games scene. We’ve heard from industry insiders that the company decided to hold off on entering the market for three years and it’s now year three. On that note, the deal between Flurry and Activision reportedly isn’t working out. A lot of insiders are saying Flurry can’t make a decision on what it’s going to do, and most of the games the company is looking to publish have never been pushed live with Flurry’s backend in place. Our sources tell us the only reason Activision’s talking to them is to make it look like they’re involved in the mobile market while they’re still formulating a battle plan.

Zynga continues to anger EA with Respawnables – unconfirmed

Zynga’s recently-announced partnership with Digital Legends Entertainment left a lot of folks excited about the upcoming mobile game, but EA wasn’t one of those groups. Digital Legends worked on several EA-licensed mobile titles like Battlefield: Bad Company 2, and EA reportedly believes their code for Battlefield was taken and used in the game. （source：insidesocialgames）