1）据serkantoto报道，EA Japan日前宣布今年8月份在日本推出的新游戏《Tetris Monsters》上线18天注册用户已达120万（截止9月9日），目前该游戏仅支持日本iOS平台。

但值得注意的是，该游戏并未出现在日本iOS应用收益榜单前列，观察者认为出现这一情况的最大原因可能是这款游戏对于休闲玩家来说过于困难/复杂。

tetris-monsters(from muzhigame.com)

2）据insidemobileapps报道，迪士尼日前正式宣布向移动平台推出《Where’s My Water?2》，集合了该游戏系列的三个主要角色，支持玩家以Swampy、Allie和Cranky这三者体验新关卡。

wheres-my-water-2(from insidemobileapps)

这款续作包括100多个关卡和挑战，含有三个游戏内置场景，支持在iOS和Windows Phone平台的免费下载，并即将推出Google Play和亚马逊App Store版本。

3）据gamasutra报道，Zynga之前状告前《CityVille》总经理Alan Patmore离职加入Kixeye时窃取了Zynga商业机密一案日前出现新进展，Zynga与Kixeye两家公司发表联合声明达成合解，Patmore则发表个人声明承认自己拿走了Zynga的机密文件，表示愿意就此承担责任，但却并没有在声明中提到“商业机密”一词。

Kixeye vs Zynga(from mdgames.net)

他在声明中表示，自己愿意因为错误拷贝Zynga机密信息而承担责任，也清楚自己行为的后果，并诚恳地向Zynga和之前的同事道歉。

4）据gamasutra报道，《868-HACK》开发者Michael Brough在最近采访中表示，自己在数周前向iOS发布的《868-HACK》售价5.99美元，尽管其远高于一般1-3美元的App Store游戏，但收益却甚为可观。

868-hack(from edge-online)

他称自己的第一款iOS游戏《Glitch Tank》售价1.99美元，但却几乎没有收获；之后又听取同行的意见，将下一款游戏《Zaga-33》定价为1美元，最后实现了数千份销量。在投入大量时间开发《868-HACK》之后，他决定设置更高的定价（即5.99美元），结果游戏销量将近3000份。

Brough承认现在很难把握游戏售价对销量的影响，但更高的定价确实可以让自己赚到继续开发游戏的资金。他认为低价策略短期来看有利于用户获得廉价商品，并让开发者迅速获得销量，但从长期来看却会限制开发者所创造的游戏类型和积极性。

5）据gamasutra报道，英国游戏公司Blitz Games Studios（由行业元老Philip和Andrew Oliver创立，至今已成立23年）日前宣布关闭工作室，遣散175名员工。该工作室成立于1990年，旗下部门包括Blitz Games、Blitz Arcade和Volatile Games，主要开发基于影视题材的作品。

blitz-games-studios(from ghostvolta.com)

值得注意的是，该公司将有50名成员成立一家新工作室，继续开发公司的两个未完成的项目。其首席执行官Philip Oliver表示，“与客户之间的纠纷、全球经济不景气，以及糟糕的运气”是公司不得不关门歇业的原因。

6）蜗牛手游官方微博近日宣布，在9月11号进行测试的蜗牛首款手游《龙战》首日导入用户留存率的确达到62.18%，付费比例达到5.43%。产品已在苹果和谷歌商店提交审核中，即将全面上线。

蜗牛手游官方微博

（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）EA Japan’s Tetris Monsters Hits 1.2 Million Users In 18 Days

by Dr. Serkan Toto

Supercell, King, Game Insight, Social Quantum, Goodgame, Tencent, WeMade, Kabam, Pocket Gems: the list of foreign mobile game companies with an interest in Japan is getting longer and longer.

Among the ones that are already here, EA Japan has caused the biggest splash in recent months in the industry with the launch of Tetris Monsters in August.

The company today said the puzzle/RPG hybrid racked up an impressive 1.2 million registered users by September 9 – or 18 days after release. As a reminder, Tetris Monsters is only available in Japan and on iOS so far.

To celebrate the milestone, EA Japan is offering special gacha for 75% off between September 12 and 19.

The company sure wrestled their way to the top of the free download rankings on iOS with a lot of marketing yen, but that’s standard procedure for most high-profile launches of mobile games in Japan nowadays. (As far as I could see, the only real extravaganza EA Japan afforded was to hire local girl band Puffy at the Tetris Monsters launch event in Tokyo last month.)

As a side note, the game has not been doing as well in the top grossing ranking so far – I myself like Tetris Monsters but think the biggest reason for that is that it’s simply too
difficult/complex to play for light users and takes long time to really get into.

EA has yet to announce an international version, but considering the success in Japan and the recognizable Tetris brand, that should come very soon.（source：serkantoto）

2）Disney launches Where’s My Water? 2 on mobile devices

Brandy Shaul

Following a suspicious tweet by game creator Tim FitzRandolph, Disney has officially unveiled and released Where’s My Water? 2 on mobile devices. The true sequel to the original Where’s My Water? brings all three of the game’s main characters to the forefront of the experience, giving players new levels to complete with Swampy, Allie and Cranky.

Where’s My Water? 2 contains over 100 levels and challenges across three in-game locations (the swamp, soap factory and beach), and is now available to download for free on iOS and Windows Phone. The app will launch on Google Play and the Amazon App Store soon. The game offers cloud storage of saves, allowing users to save and access their progress across all devices.（source：insidemobileapps）

3）Ex-Zynga exec accepts responsibility in alleged trade secret theft

By Kris Ligman

Zynga has reached a settlement with Kixeye and former Zynga general manager Alan Patmore concerning the alleged theft of trade secrets following Patmore’s departure from the company last year.

In 2012, Alan Patmore left his position as general manager of Zynga’s Cityville to join rival social game developer Kixeye as its new vice president of product. In October of the same year, Zynga sued its former employee, alleging that in his departure Patmore had shared a Dropbox full of confidential financial and design documents with Kixeye.

Kixeye, which was subsequently added as a defendant to the suit, wrote off the allegations. The company contended that the suit was in fact a smokescreen by which Zynga was attempting to access its company secrets. It requested that the court dismiss the suit.

Fast forward to September 11th of 2013 and, as reported by TechCrunch, “Zynga Inc. and Kixeye Inc. have reached a mutually agreeable settlement of their litigation involving Alan Patmore,” the two companies announced via a joint statement.

In addition, Patmore has released a statement in which he confirms taking confidential information from his former employer, though he avoids the language of “trade secret.” The statement follows:

“I accept responsibility for making a serious mistake by copying and taking Zynga confidential information when I resigned from Zynga. I understand the consequences of my actions and I sincerely apologize to Zynga and my former colleagues.”

Zynga and Kixeye have not disclosed whether any sort of monetary compensation was part of the settlement.（source：gamasutra）

4）Despite $6 App Store price, 868-HACK is selling well

By Mike Rose

“It’s really easy to get into a really sociopathic mindset where you’re trying to tune one number to maximise another number, and you lose sight of the fact that you’re experimenting on actual human beings.”

- 868-HACK developer Michael Brough discusses mobile game prices.

Brough released 868-HACK for iOS a couple of weeks ago, attaching a $5.99 price point to the game — a price that is notably higher than your average premium $1-3 App Store game. [iTunes]

Talking to Indie Statik, Brough said that he has been experimenting with price points on the App Store, and that this higher price has proven very lucrative for him.

“There’s definitely a vast ocean of games at $0-$2, and so going higher than that breaks with people’s expectations,” he noted. “I’m not going to claim that this is the ‘right’ price by any means. Basically, I’m running a long on-going experiment to try to figure this out.”

Brough’s first iOS game Glitch Tank was released for $1.99, and sold barely anything. “The response I got from some established developers was that it was silly of me to expect anything better at that price,” he said. “App Store is for $1 or free.”

On this advice, Brough sold his next game Zaga-33 at $1, and ended up selling a couple of thousand copies. However, after he spent a lot more time developing 868-HACK, the dev decided that a higher price point was in order, hence the $5.99 price.

As it turns out, having some traction from your past iOS games can have a great effect on your follow-up games, regardless of price — or so was the case for Brough. “It has worked very well,” he noted. “I am not shy about numbers; it has sold almost 3000 copies already, which, wow.”

He admitted that it’s difficult to know how much effect the price had on sales, but said that the higher price point is now allowing him to carry on making games. And he questioned whether the constant battle that other studios go through to balance price versus sales is a symptom of the games industry losing sight of the fact that “you’re experimenting on actual human beings.”

“I’m not sure to what extent there are real ethical concerns here, but that mindset itself seems harmful to me,” he added.

“I think the trends towards low prices (App Store, bundles, etc.) are pretty harmful. Short-term, it’s been nice for customers to get things cheaply and nice for developers to cash in on quick sales, but long-term, it limits who gets to make games and what types of games get made. So many people have such backwards ideas about how selling things works, as I’ve seen in the responses to this price.”（source：gamasutra）

5）After 23 years, Blitz Games Studios has shut down

By Mike Rose

Blitz Games Studios, the UK-based games company co-founded by industry veterans Philip and Andrew Oliver, is to close its doors after 23 years in the games business.

The studio was founded in 1990, and houses multiple divisions including Blitz Games, Blitz Arcade and Volatile Games. The outfit is perhaps best known for creating titles based on TV and movie franchises.

In a statement today, the company announced that it has ceased trading, and that 175 people have been let go. Notably, around 50 staffers will apparently form a new studio out of the ashes of Blitz, to continue working on two of the company’s current projects.

Sniper Elite studio Rebellion Developments is also looking to help out by taking on some of the remaining out-of-work staff.

In a statement, CEO Philip Oliver said, “Frustrations with clients, the global economic crisis, and more than our fair share of simple bad luck” has led to Blitz going out of business.

“We have done all that we can to make Blitz a success, and we have come frustratingly close in recent months,” he added. “Major clients have felt unable to commit to investment in significant projects, others have changed strategy whilst appearing committed, and others have been slow to commit at all – all of these things have continued to hurt our finances. We have also sustained the business for some time with our personal savings but even those reserves have now been exhausted.”

Richard Wilson of UK trade body TIGA added that the liquidation of Blitz Studios “is a bitter blow for the games industry in Leamington Spa and for the UK generally.”

“Blitz is an iconic British games studio,” he adds. “Philip and Andrew Oliver, the CEO and CTO respectively at Blitz, have made an enormous contribution to the UK video games industry, having been involved in the sector since its beginnings in the 1980s… “We hope that everyone at Blitz will be successful in finding new work as quickly as possible. TIGA will endeavour to support any new start-ups that emerge from the closure of Blitz.”

[Update: Digital distribution platform IndieCity is also in jeopardy, as part of the closure. The Blitz Games-owned platform has noted that it may well be sold to another company.]（source：gamasutra）