1）据Giant Bomb报道，曾有传闻称EA Labels主管Frank Gibeau宣称苹果曾在一个内部会议向EA支付了“大笔费用”，要求该公司延迟发布《植物大战僵尸2》Android版本。

尽管有知情人确认这一消息属实，但EA日前还是声明公司与苹果之间并不存在这种协议，并表示此事是被他人所误读。苹果也发布简短声明，表示这一消息不实。

Plants-Vs-Zombies-2(from edge-online.com)

2）据venturebeat报道，手机游戏开发商Naturalmotion Games发现iOS和Android游戏玩家首次进入赛车游戏《CSR Racing》（下载量约7000万次，发布首月收益达1200万美元）所存在的差异。

该工作室原本是将这款游戏首个关卡设置得极为简单，以免吓退玩家，因为他们认为这款游戏非常困难。Naturalmotion令玩家所乘坐的汽车速度快于电脑控制的对手，结果发现仍有36%的玩家在首场游戏中失利。

CSR Racing(from play.google.com)

Naturalmotion首席执行官Torsten Reil表示，针对大众市场开发游戏，必须认清用户之间存在巨大差异。如果你创造的游戏是不同的，那么你就是在冒险，实际上就是进入了所谓的蓝海市场。“蓝海”在此指的是从一个已经定型的市场延伸进入一个未开发的市场。

这意味着你无需同他人竞争，用户会主动提起你的游戏，你也就无需在激烈的市场竞争中投入大笔获取用户的营销费用。

3）据venturebeat报道，Zynga前首席运营官John Schappert日前聘请了两名游戏行业元老，作为其新工作室Shiver Entertainment联合创始人。这两者分别是1994年与Schappert共同创建EATiburon Entertainment工作室的Jason Andersen，以及前Zynga元老、数据驱动游戏设计师Jon Osvald。

John Schappert(from gameinformer.com)

4）据mobile-ent报道，Rovio于今年3月份向《愤怒的小鸟》应用中植入《愤怒的小鸟托恩》动画系列片，历经7个月浏览量已突破10亿大关。

Rovio已投入开发第二部《愤怒的小鸟》系列动画，以及以《Bad Piggies》和粉色小鸟Stella相关的电视节目。

angry-birds-toons(from toonbarn.com)

除了保证用户粘性之外，Rovio还在动画片中植入广告，并与第三方合作来创造收益。

5）据mobile-ent报道，mBlox最近针对美国、英国、德国、法国、西班牙、意大利、澳大利亚和新西兰的调查发现，73％受访者表示曾收到短信或推送通知广告，68％受访者认为这些营销内容颇有用处（游戏邦注：此前eMarketer报告也指出，45％美国手机用户喜欢移动广告和优惠内容，78％受访者认为本地通知功能很有用）。

这此用户查看营销短信和推送通知广告后会采取的三大行动包括：兑换商家提供的优惠券（22％），与好友或家人分享信息（14％），13％会采取购买行动。

59％受访者表示，比起其他促销推广手段，自己更希望收到含有优惠券的短信或推送通知。

offer messages(from mBlox)

值得注意的是，短信广告效能超过了网站和视频广告，青睐网站广告的受访者仅占比3％，视频广告支持率占比5％。

但有81％用户最希望与电视广告互动，76％喜欢与含优惠信息的短信互动，73％选择的是推送通知。（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 denies paid relationship with Apple, brands Plants vs. Zombies 2 debacle an ‘unfortunate misunderstanding’

by Keith Andrew

Electronic Arts has issued an official statement via its public relations agency in Europe denying that it has a “paid relationship” with Apple, despite claims the Cupertino giant paid to keep Plants vs. Zombies 2 off Android.

The statement follows a report by Giant Bomb quoting EA Labels head Frank Gibeau as claiming Apple had paid EA a “truckload of money” to delay the Android version of the game at an internal town hall meeting.

Despite the fact the site claims “several sources” confirmed the quote was genuine, EA has claimed no such arrangement between itself and Apple exists.

‘Unfortunate misunderstanding’

“A comment from an internal meeting taken out of context has created an unfortunate misunderstanding,” says EA’s statement.

“Reports of a paid relationship between Apple and EA are factually inaccurate, and we apologise for any confusion.”

That’s not a denial that Gibeau ever said the words, then, but rather that his words were taken out of context.

It’s hard to see what other context they could have been given in – there’s a possibility Gibeau may have been joking, perhaps responding to questions as to why the game hadn’t yet hit Android. We have contacted EA for clarification.

Apple also issued a short statement following the publishing of the original story, simply labelling it “not true”.（source：pocketgamer）

2）36 percent of gamers lost the ‘unfailable’ tutorial level in CSR Racing

Jeffrey Grubb

Mobile gaming is different from traditional consoles in a few ways. For example, the audience on mobile can have a much wider range of skill levels.

Developer Naturalmotion Games discovered just how varied iOS and Android gamers are when it first put out its driving game CSR Racing. The mobile title has players facing off against other gamers in drag races where you don’t have to steer, but you just have to shift at the right time.

The studio wanted to make CSR Racing’s first level very easy so that players wouldn’t give up because they thought the game is too difficult. Naturalmotion put players in a faster car than the computer-controlled opponent and purposefully messed up the A.I. to screw up its shifting.

“[The player] should just plow ahead,” Naturalmotion chief executive officer Torsten Reil said during a talk at the DICE Europe developer conference. “In the first versions of this, we thought, ‘This isn’t a game anymore. This is un-loseable.’”

That wasn’t the case. It turned out that 36 percent of CSR Racing players lost the first game.

“This shows how different this audience can be, especially if you do a mass market game.” said Reil. “CSR is at around 70 million downloads.”

Reil says that if developers can understand that the audience is different, then they can mitigate the risks of appealing to this audience — and that has a lot of benefits.

“If you create a game that [is different] — if you take a risk — you are essentially in a blue ocean,” said Reil.

“Blue ocean” refers to the strategy of branching out from an established market to reach untapped markets and customers.

“You don’t have to compete with other games,” he said. “People will talk about your games because they want to talk about it — because it’s new and newsworthy. You don’t have the issue where you are copying other people’s games where eventually you are all playing in the same playing field and you have to do a lot of user acquisition.”

CSR Racing went to the top of the iOS highest-grossing apps chart. It made $12 million in its first month and is still producing strong revenues, according to Naturalmotion.

Since CSR Racing established the drag-racing genre on mobile phones, other developers are following it including Kabam with its Fast & Furious 6: The Game movie-license title.（source：venturebeat）

3）Why Schappert’s Shiver Entertainment hired two top game veterans

Dean Takahashi

John Schappert, the former No. 2 executive at Zynga, said he has recruited two veterans from his former companies as co-founders at the free-to-play game studio that he is building.

Schappert told us in an interview that he wants to make the best quality free-to-play online and mobile games and that is why he turned to the vets. The hires include Jason Andersen, who co-founded EA’s Tiburon Entertainment studio with Schappert in 1994, and Jon Osvald, a data-driven game designer who was key to the rise of Zynga.

“What I am interested in doing is putting together the elite team of the best of the best to make the world’s best free-to-play games,” Schappert said. “To do that, you need a great culture. Great talent. Great teams. I couldn’t be happier with the hiring of Jason Andersen and Jon Osvald.”

Shiver Entertainment is off the ground running with an investment and multi-game deal with Asian free-to-play online gaming giant Nexon.（source：venturebeat）

4）Angry Birds TV channel hits one billion views in seven months

by Zen Terrelonge

ToonsTV platform secures big new partners including Marvel legend Stan Lee, and has a Bad Piggies cartoon in the works.

Rovio introduced the Angry Birds Toons series to its app line back in March, offering consumers the power to become even more obsessed with the furious feathered franchise through animations.

Seven months later and the ‘ToonsTV’ channel – which runs in-app, on selected VOD services, smart TVs and more – has now passed one billion views.

Rovio is already working on a second Angry Birds series, as well as shows for Bad Piggies and pink bird Stella.

While designed to keep consumers engaged, Rovio has cleverly weaved advertising and partnerships with third parties into the service to generate revenues.（source：mobile-ent）

5）76 per cent of people prefer SMS when engaging with a brand

by Phil Tottman

Along with push notifications, consumers find this form of communication the most persuasive.

Of the 73 per cent who said that they have received a text or push message from a company, 68 per cent found them useful, reveals mBlox.

The three main actions taken once reading an SMS or push notification consist of redeeming a deal offered through the message (22 per cent), 14 per cent shared the message with friends or family and 13 per cent made a purchase.

Across the US, UK, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Australia and New Zealand, 59 per cent of respondents indicated that they preferred to receive SMS and push messages with an offer of a coupon over any other method.

Surprisingly SMS has proved to be a more persuasive form of advertising, even above website and video ads which were preferred by 3 per cent and 5 per cent of respondents respectively.

The most likely form of advertising that consumers would engage with is TV commercials with 81 per cent, however 76 per cent said it was texts offering coupons or deals, and 73 per cent opted for push notifications.

Tom Cotney, CEO of mBlox, said: “While UK consumers are slightly more skeptical about SMS and push messages than their global counterparts, it is still one of the strongest tools available to UK marketers. Smarter mobile strategies that utilise consumer preference by including behaviour and location data in their design is the key to engaging consumers.”

These findings come after it was revealed by eMarketer that 45 per cent of US mobile owners wanted mobile ads and offers, and 78 per cent found location alerts useful.（source：mobile-ent）