1）据pocketgamer报道，Halfbrick最近透露《Jetpack Joyride》在PS Vita平台的下载量已达47.5万次，在PS 3平台下载量则是79万次，这两个版本的游戏均采用免费模式（含IAP功能）。

这两个版本由Halfbrick旗下的澳大利亚团队Big Ant开发，Vita版本还将添加Twitter支持功能，以及一些用户定制选项，并提升运行性能。

2）据pocketgamer报道，EA将于2月28日正式发布《实况赛车3》，该游戏已从2月14日开始陆续试水俄罗斯、韩国、澳大利亚和新西兰市场（游戏邦注：这四国人口总数达2.18亿）。

值得注意的是，这个新版本采用免费模式（含IAP），而该系列之前两个版本最初都是付费模式。苹果目前并未推荐这款游戏，EA也尚未展开大规模的广告以及交叉推广活动。

这个新版本上线10天在俄罗斯市场表现最佳，曾晋升至iPhone热销应用榜单第2名，在新西兰榜单最高峰时是第17名，在韩国排在第18位，在澳大利亚则是第30名。

从iPad榜单情况来看，该版本在俄罗斯位居第6名，在韩国是第10名，在新西兰为第16名，在澳大利亚则仅居于第31名。

3）据venturebeat报道，摩根斯坦利分析师Katy Huberty最近预测，苹果若在中国推出售价为330美元的iPhone Mini设备（相当于联想、华为、中兴、酷派旗下售价为2000至4000人民币的旗舰产品），将有望在中国新增24亿美元的iPhone收益，并将用户规模扩大三倍，此举有可能将中国的iPhone消费者比例从10％扩大至29％。

Huberty认为即使苹果在中国市场毛利率仅为40％，iPhone用户仅占三分之一，设备出货量保持原先的发展速度，iPhone Mini也能够极大增加苹果收益及利润。

但苹果在中国最大的障碍并非售价问题，而是运营商，苹果至今未于中国移动签约合作，后者目前用户规模多达7亿。

4）据pocketgamer报道，英国开发商Brighton工作室Boss Alien最近聘请游戏行业元老Ben Board担任公司高级产品主管，负责协调《CSR Racing》这款赛车游戏的战略发展方向。

Ben Board已有15年游戏开发经验，曾为Bullfrog、Lionhead、Team Bondi、IR Gurus以及微软等公司效力。

5）据Venturebeat报道，年仅13岁的Jordan Casey在最近成立了自己的公司Casey Games，至今已发布多款游戏，目前正致力于制作新项目《My Little World》。

这个稚气未脱的少年已经在多个游戏行业大会上发表演讲，他表示自己在9岁时通过书籍、视频和在线论坛等渠道自学了编程技术，首款游戏是基于Adobe Flash的《Alien Ball》，但这只是个实践项目。他在2012年2月正式推出一款iPhone版游戏《Alien Ball vs.Humans》，该游戏曾在爱尔兰苹果iTunes商店榜单登顶。

看到游戏颇受欢迎，他又陆续推出了多个项目，随后又雇佣了另一名男孩Aidan Blackett担任《Food World》这个项目的美术人员。他自己负责多数的运营事项，父母则陪同他参加行业会议，并在他上学时帮他查收电子邮件。

6）据pocketgamer报道，芬兰开发商Rovio最近聘请4名广告领域的高管，以便加快公司从游戏开发商向“全球生活品牌”这一角色的转型。

这些受聘于Rovio的高管包括拥有MTV、Millennial Media和Ziff Davis工作背景的Betsy Flounders Novak、Matt Pfeffer，前者将担任Rovio北美广告关系团队的西部和中西部总监，后者则是东海岸广告总监。

前苹果iAd成员Todd Tran和前inMobi European销售经理Raphaelle Tripet则担任Rovio在欧洲和亚洲广告主管。（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）Vita’s not dead yet: Jetpack Joyride does 475,000 downloads

by Lisa Bisset

PS Vita has not yet been a global success, but that’s not to say there’s no addressable audience for the device, at least for core games.

Figures from Halfbrick reveal that Vita owners have downloaded 475,000 copies of its endless run-and-gunner Jetpack Joyride.

That compared to 790,000 downloads on the rather more numerous PlayStation 3.

In both cases, the initial download is free, with additional content unlocked via IAP.

Gunning for more

The versions were developed by Halfbrick’s fellow Australian outfit Big Ant, and the Vita version will get a further support with an update adding Twitter support, performance upgrades and a host of user customisation options.

“It’s been another incredible month for Jetpack Joyride,” said Phil Larsen, Halfbrick’s chief marketing officer. “Player support has been sensational, proving without a doubt that Barry Steakfries is a perfect match for the PS3 and Vita.”

“We want to extend a massive thanks to the dedicated team at Big Ant for bringing Jetpack Joyride to Sony’s passionate and thriving online community. Our amazing fans continue to exceed expectations, paving the way for more exciting releases further down the line.” （source：pocketgamer）

2）The Charticle: Real Racing 3′s soft launch proves its monetisation but EA’s going to have to tweak further

by Jon Jordan

Real Racing 3 isn’t officially released until 28 February, but EA’s soft-launch for its game has been extensive – and with good reason.

It’s been available on iOS in Russia (population 143 million), South Korea (49 million), Australia (22 million) and New Zealand (4 million) since 14 February.

Clearly, this is a much bigger audience – six times bigger – than the 34 million Canadians who are typically used as a test-case market.

But that headline figure of 218 million aside, it’s a very smart choice of countries in terms of their behaviour when it comes to free-to-play games.

Genie back in the bottle

This is a big issue for EA given that the first two games in the series were premium purchases (even if the second release included IAP).

As I argued last week, free-to-play racers can be very successful – think CSR Racing – but it’s not an obviously model for the genre. And it’s particularly difficult to introduce into a franchise that already has a strong fanbase of millions of hardcore gamers who like Real Racing just as it was.

That’s why EA has chosen to soft-launch in Australia and New Zealand.

These markets are similar to Europe and North America in being broadly ambivalent to F2P, and also have particular interest in the Real Racing games as they’re developed in Australia.

In contrast, Russia and Korea are strong free-to-play markets, where the business model has been used for years in PC games to overcome piracy.

Compare and contrast

By launching in these two different market sets, EA can gauge the initial reaction, as well as the response to the tweaks it’s introducing during the soft launch period.

We can get a glimpse of this by checking out Real Racing 3′s performance in the iOS charts.

It’s performed best in Russia, hitting the #2 spot on the top grossing iPhone chart for apps; while in New Zealand it peaked at #17, and #18 in South Korea. Australia has been less welcoming – its peak to-date has been #30.（source：pocketgamer）

3）Morgan Stanley: Apple could triple China market share with ‘iPhone Mini’

John Koetsier

First the iPad Mini, then the iPhone Mini?

It makes some sense linguistically, but it could also make some sense financially, at least according to Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty. She estimates that Apple would add $2.4 billion in iPhone revenue and triple the number of customers it would appeal to in China alone with an iPhone Mini priced at $330.

That’s in line with flagship models from Lenovo, Huawei, ZTE, and Coolpad, Huberty said, ranging from 2,000 RMB to 4,000 RMB, and that would expand the number of Chinese citizens who could afford an iPhone from 10 percent of the phone-buying public to 29 percent.

Apple has said — most recently via Tim Cook at a Goldman Sachs conference — that “we’ll never … make a crappy product.” But Apple has never said that it won’t reduce prices aggressively. In fact, that’s exactly what it did do by bringing out the iPad in place of the laptop and the iPod Shuffle in place of the iPod Touch, Cook said.

What about Apple’s well-known fat profit margins on a lower-cost iPhone?

“Even in a scenario of low 40 percent gross margin and one-third iPhone cannibalization rate, flattening legacy iPhone shipment growth, which we view as conservative, the iPhone Mini adds incremental revenue and gross profit dollars,” Huberty said.

Apple’s big problem is China is not just price. It’s that China’s biggest mobile carrier, China Mobile, has yet to cut a deal with the iPhone maker despite Cook’s recent trips to the country. China Mobile has a staggering 700 million subscribers, and while those are being whittled away by other, more nimble competitors who do offer the iPhone, 700 million potential iPhone buyers — or whatever fraction of those 700 million who can afford an iPhone — is a big chunk of customers to ignore.

Apple and China Mobile have been in on-again, off-again talks with each other since 2009, but so far the two companies have not been able to reach an agreement.

One other thought: A cheap iPhone would have greater potential than just in mainland China. Frankly, there might well be room in the U.S. and other mature markets for a lower-cost iPhone, and the rest of Asia and Africa are massive markets for new smartphones.

An iPhone Mini could help open those emerging markets for Apple as well as have immediate impact in China.（source：venturebeat）

4）Boss Alien’s accelerating CSR brand, hires Xbox veteran Ben Board

by Jon Jordan

It would be impolite to say Ben Board has been around the block.

Still, when it comes to his 15 years in game development, he’s certainly worked for plenty of topnotch developers, including Bullfrog, Lionhead, Team Bondi and IR Gurus.

Since 2008, he’s been working at Microsoft as part of its European Xbox developer relations team, but now he’s heading back to the coalface of game development.

Smoking tyres

Joining up with Brighton-based outfit Boss Alien, Board takes up the title of senior product lead for the CSR Racing developer.

Indeed, his new role is to co-ordinate the strategic direction of the massively successful drag racing game.

“CSR Racing was the first free-to-play game I really loved, and has deserved its gigantic success to date,” Board commented.

“To have the chance to be part of the talented team at Boss Alien and NaturalMotion and help lead development on the game is stupefyingly awesome.”

“Ben is a fantastic hire for the company, and his wealth of experience and knowledge of triple-A development will be invaluable for developing the CSR brand in the future”, added Jason Avent, Boss Alien’s MD. （source：pocketgamer）

5）This 13-year-old boy runs his own mobile game startup

Dean Takahashi

Talk about starting early. Jordan Casey made his first game a couple of years ago, and he’s only 13. He isn’t old enough to formally incorporate his business, Casey Games, yet. But he has published multiple titles and is hard at work on his next big release, My Little World.

To all of you overachievers in the video game industry out there — Jordan has got you beat. By the time he’s your age, he’ll probably be running a gaming empire. He is already on the publicity circuit, giving talks at game events and at one of the prestigious TedX conferences. The baby-faced resident of Waterford, Ireland, gets help from his parents, who are the directors in his company and the ones who incorporated it.

Most other kids his age are playing games, but Jordan thinks that making them is more fun.

“I love when people enjoy playing my games,” he said. “I love when I see people playing the games and just enjoying the experience.”

I had dinner alongside Jordan at the Casual Connect Europe event in Hamburg, Germany, where he gave a talk on his business. He has a high voice and a thick Irish accent, but he was quite

comfortable as the only kid at the dinner. He answered questions and politely listened to unsolicited advice about game development.

Jordan taught himself programming four years ago when he was nine. He read books, watched videos, and checked out online forums to learn. A couple of years ago, he did the same, so that he could figure out how to make games.

His first title was the Adobe Flash-based Alien Ball, but that was just practice. In February 2012, he made an iPhone version of the game, dubbed Alien Ball vs. Humans. It was his first commercially released offering, and it remains his most popular. It also got him a lot of attention because it went to the top of the Apple iTunes store in Ireland.

He followed that up with a seasonal version, Alien Ball vs Humans 2. He also created Greenboy Touch, a puzzle-adventure game about a boy lost in a forest. And he created Save the Day, in collaboration with the South American ad agency Fabrica, as the official game of National Children’s Day in Brazil.

In addition, Casey created Food World, an online multiplayer game for kids. He came up with that idea in early 2011, but he put it on hold. The title is currently in its pre-beta stage. And he is working on the aforementioned adventure-puzzle game, My Little World, about a tiny creature who lives in a backyard and is the only one of his kind. The creature wants to know what the big world is beyond the backyard, and he sets out on an adventure to make his way there.

“I have a good feeling about this one,” he said. “I’m putting a lot of time and effort into it to make it perfect.”

He hopes to finish that project by June.

Jordan even hired his first employee, a boy named Aidan Blackett, as his lead artist for Food World.

“I do most of the business stuff,” he said. “My parents come to conferences with me, and my mom checks my emails while I’m at school.”

Louise Casey, Jordan’s mother, said, “At the moment I suppose its fun, but we try to keep the balance with his age and the fact he’s still at school…. But generally once school work is done, we are happy for him to have fun … during the evenings and weekends to do his business thing.”

She added, “Jordan works hard in school and does after school study, so I feel he can have the time to work on his games and coding. As long as it does not affect his school work, I’m generally OK with it. We help him out with emails and events as much as we can, but he does most of the business stuff himself. He wanted to be a businessman from an early age, so this is all exciting for him. And he really enjoys it. He has attended some amazing events and met great people, so this in itself is life learning.”

He has spoken at the Cannes Lions Festival, TedX@NewDelhi, Gamecity 7, BETT 2013, the Smartphone and Tablet Games Summit, and the Casual Connect Europe event. That speaking circuit has made him famous, and publications have featured him such as Silicon Republic, Adobe’s blog, The Irish Examiner, and The Pioneer in India. And he has been on television on TV3 and RTÉ in Ireland. He got the business for Save the Day after a Brazilian representative of Fabrica saw his talk.

Jordan said he is staying in school.

But he said, “It can be difficult, considering I go to conferences regularly. After school I go to the study hall in school and take a two-hour study course, to catch up on homework, exams, etc. Then, when I get home, I can do some work or watch TV.”

And he is giving some of his proceeds to charity.

For the long-term, Jordan said, “As I’m still young and can’t really get an office, I want to stay small and indie. But, when I’m older I would like to get an office and expand. My goal is to create the most fun and high-quality games out there.”（source：venturebeat）

6）Rovio staffs up to become ‘direct media partner’ for the world’s biggest brands

by James Nouch

Angry Birds creator Rovio has hired a number of advertising executives in order to accelerate its transformation from game developer to ‘global lifestyle brand.’

The Finnish studio says that its four senior hires will enable Rovio to act as “a direct media partner to the largest brands in the world.”

“In a time when many companies delight in millions of app downloads, Angry Birds’ cross-platform media continuously reaches hundreds of millions of fans in a fun and engaging way,” explained Rovio’s EVP of strategic partnerships Andrew Stalbow.

“With this incredible reach we are fast becoming one of the most important digital advertising destinations for global brands.”

Stateside

To this end, Rovio has taken on Betsy Flounders Novak and Matt Pfeffer in the US, who boast experience at companies such as MTV, Millennial Media and Ziff Davis.

Novak will join Rovio’s North American ad partnership team as director of west and midwest, while Pfeffer will act as director of the east coast.

“Our new Brand Advertising Partnership Team in the US will enable us to now partner directly with other lifestyle brands,” said Rovio’s head of North American brand advertising partnerships Michele Tobin.

“The model of simply placing standard display ads in online and mobile properties is not necessarily strategic for the majority of tier one brands, and that model was in need of disruption.

“Rovio’s fan-first approach and engaged audience creates more native, integrated advertising experiences that more closely align to brands’ overall marketing goals.”

Tier one

In Europe and Asia, meanwhile, Rovio has added former Apple iAd man Todd Tran and inMobi European sales manager Raphaelle Tripet to its team.

“Brands and agencies in Europe and Asia want to work directly with scalable, next generation media companies, in unique ways,” said Tran, who is now head of Rovio’s EMEA & APAC brand advertising partnership team.

“As a media platform, we have now achieved tier-one global reach and we have an opportunity to really pioneer true integrated cross platform brand experiences.”（source：pocketgamer）