1）据pocketgamer报道，苹果日前透露在2013年12月份，用户已下载近30亿次iOS应用，并在App Store投入达10亿美元。

苹果引用Distimo数据指出，App Store目前在全球应用市场所占收益为63%，超过Google Play所占的37%。

苹果App Store目前共有120万款应用，整体下载量超过750亿次，每周有3亿人次访问App Store。

app-store(from pocketgamer)

2013年App Store用户总投入达100亿美元，自该应用商店问世以来，开发者收益已达150亿美元——其中半数收益来自2013年。

2）据pocketgamer报道，King公司上市后在三月底的股价比IPO时下降了10%左右，并且此后呈现一路下跌的趋势，在今年5月中旬股价降至15.26美元之后开始逐渐回温，在上周末股价从17美元上升至20.55美元，本周一增幅达15%。

king-share-price-30june2014(from pocketgamer)

目前还没有任何原因可以解释其股价上升原因，仅有一些财经网站指出该公司股票实现了许多交易量。

除了King之外，Glu Mobile在最近几天的股市也同样表现显著，从上周四的每股3.78美元增长至现在的5美元（其全盛时期每股5.65美元）。目前也没有任何消息可以说明原罪，只知道该公司最近发布了一款基于Kim Kardashian(美国娱乐界名媛，服装设计师）的时尚游戏。

glu-mobile-share-30june2014(from pocketgamer)

而Zynga公司股价仍在3-4美元之间徘徊，远低于其2012年12月IPO时的每股10美元售价。

3）广告中介公司Fuse Powered最近调查结果显示，视频广告可以在不影响玩家体验或交易的情况下，增加游戏的广告收益。

Fuse Powered在添加插入视频广告之前的15天研究了游戏的成百上千万次广告印象，并观察了添加广告之后15天的情况，结果发现这些游戏内的广告eCPM增加了300%，日活跃用户平均收益（ARPPU）也增长了700%。因此可得结论，这些广告并不会影响用户留存率和IAP收益。

在某款塔防游戏中，其eCPM增长了400%，从原来平均为4.02美元的eCPM增长至19.83美元，在此期间，ARPPU仍然保持不变，这表明其IAP并未受到影响。

eCPM(from techcompas.com)

在另一款文字游戏中，针对每名玩家每天植入一个视频广告令其广告ARPDAU增长了40%，IAP的ARPPU则保持不变。该游戏广告收益在整体收益中所占比例从原来的38%增长至45%；在另一款竞速游戏中也出现了类似的结果。在一款战略游戏中植入视频广告令其在头28天中的eCPM达到29.43美元，期间该游戏留存率保持稳定。

为期31天的调查结果发现，视频广告并不会影响游戏的IAP交易。与此同时，广告收益则从总体收益的3%增长至22%，并且每名玩家平均登录游戏次数也有所增长。

4）移动营销公司Fiksu最新报告显示，在今年5月份，应用营销成本（即获取忠实用户的成本）比4月份增长了17%，比去年同期增长34%。

overview-indexes(from Fiksu)

位列前200名的热门应用日均下载量也增长24%，达到660万次，超过4月份时的534万次。这意味着营销成本增长的确带来了更多用户。

5）据venturebeat报道，芬兰工作室Grand Cru推出的首款游戏《Supernauts》（历时两年开发时间）在iOS平台发布6天实现100万次下载量。

Supernauts(from mmohunter)

该公司表示这款游戏获得了40多个国家的App Store编辑推荐，并且进入了155个国家/地区的“最佳新游戏”行列。

6）据serkantoto报道，《Puzzle & Dragons》开发商GungHo Online Entertainment最近在日本发布新款手机游戏《Picotto Kingdom》。

picotto-kingdom(from serkantoto)

这是一款基于《Picotto Knights》（于2012年在Vita平台发布的动作RPG）的移植版本，值得注意的是《Picotto Knights》在索尼掌机平台上并没有收获太多用户，导致GungHo不得不在一年后关闭了这款游戏。

目前《Picotto Kingdom》仅面向日本Android市场发布，其iOS版本仍在制作中。

7）据gamasutra报道，微软日前关闭了《帝国时代Online》这款基于热门战略游戏《帝国时代》（于90年代中期由Ensemble Studios开发）的免费扩展版游戏。

Age-of-Empires-Online(from mmobomb)

《帝国时代Online》最初由Robot Entertainment开发，之后由Gas Powered Games接手。最初于2011年发布，并在2013年初终止更新。

在去年的GDC欧洲大会上，微软高管Kevin Perry在演讲中曾指出该游戏发布时所采用的免费模式简直是“一场灾难”。（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）Apple: $1 billion spent on App Store in ‘record’ December, 3 billion apps downloaded

By Keith Andrew

Almost 3 billion apps were downloaded by iOS users across the month of December 2013, Apple has revealed, with $1 billion spent across the course of the last month of the year.

The numbers – released as a follow up to a report published by Vision Mobile suggesting app developers from across the UK will add £4 billion to the economy in 2014 – are designed to show the App Store’s continued dominance on mobile.

Indeed, Apple cites Distimo numbers that suggest the App Store still has a 63 percent to 37 percent market share advantage over Google Play when it comes to global revenue from apps – third-party Android marketplaces, of course, not included in the figures.

The numbers game

Elsewhere in the blank of stats, Apple reveals the App Store now has more than 1.2 million apps on sale in total, with cumulative downloads having surpassed 70 billion.

The App Store remains the be all and end all for many devs

App Store customers spent a total of $10 billion in 2013, with developers having made a cumulative earnings total of $15 billion since the marketplace launched – around half of which was generated in the last four quarters.

In all, more than 75 billion apps have been downloaded in the App Store’s lifetime, with 300 million people visting the marketplace every week.（source：pocketgamer）

2）King and Glu’s share prices rise sharply on no news whatsoever

By Jon Jordan

It’s not quite above water yet, but the signs are that the share price of King (NYSE: KING) will soon be back in black.

Infamously, the company’s stock opened 10 percent down on its float price of $22.50 in late March and has been dropped down ever since.

Well, no more it seems.

Hitting a nadir of $15.26 in mid-May, King’s share price had been slowly rising, until the end of last week when it’s jumped from $17, closing at $20.55, up 15 percent on Monday.

No reason has been provided, other than financial websites noting that the shares were experiencing a lot of trading volume.

Stuck to the ceiling

And King isn’t the only US floated F2P mobile gaming stock on the up.

Glu Mobile (NASDAQ: GLUU) has also experienced a strong rise in its share price over recent days. From a price of $3.78 on Thursday, it’s now $5.00; not far off its 52-week peak of $5.65.

Again, there’s no particular news to pin this performance to; Glu’s most recent release is a fashion game based on Kim Kardashian.

Yet, there is one F2P gaming stock that refuses to rise on this general market enthusiasm.

The share price of Zynga (NASDAQ: ZNGA) remains rooted around the $3-$4 range, way below its December 2012 IPO launch price of $10. （source：pocketgamer）

3）Study reveals that video ads can pump up revenues without hurting in-app purchases

Dean Takahashi

Video ads can increase ad revenue in games without hurting the retention of gamers or the purchases they make, according to a study by ad mediation firm Fuse Powered.

Toronto-based Fuse Powered studied millions of ad impressions for games for 15 days prior to adding interstitial video ads (which run in the middle of a pause during a game) and 15 days after adding them. The result was a 300 percent increase in eCPM (effective cost per mil, or ad revenue generated per 1,000 impressions) and a 700 percent lift in average revenue per daily active user (ARPDAU). Fuse Powered said that these ads did not affect rates of retention and in-app purchases — something key the mobile gaming industry, which brought in nearly $16 billion in 2013.

In one tower defense game, eCPMs saw a 400 percent increase, moving the average gross eCPM from $4.02 to $19.83. During the same time, average revenue per paying user (ARPPU) remained flat, which indicates no loss in in-app purchases. This is important, because these account for the bulk of a free-to-play game’s standard revenue. During the same time, first-time in-app purchases increased slightly.

The inclusion of one video per player per day in a word game delivered an increase in ad ARPDAU of 40 percent. ARPPU from in-app purchases remained stable in the word game. Ad revenue in the game increased from 38 percent to 45 percent of total revenue, resulting in a 7 percent increase in total revenue from the game, with the addition of only one video ad per player per day.

Meanwhile, a racing game saw similar results. Over 31 days, video ads did not affect in-app purchases. During the same time, ad revenue grew from 3 percent to 22 percent of total revenue. The average number of sessions per user during this same time also trended up slightly.

And in a strategy game, the inclusion of video ads saw global eCPMs of $29.43 over the first 28 days. Retention was steady in the same period.（source：venturebeat）

4）App marketing cost inflation keeps getting worse

Dean Takahashi

How can you leverage mobile to increase profitability for your company? Find out at MobileBeat, VentureBeat’s 7th annual event on the future of mobile, on July 8-9 in San Francisco. There are only a few tickets left!

Inflation is no fun. Especially when costs are rising more than what you can charge for something. That’s the problem facing app developers, based on the latest report by mobile marketing firm Fiksu.

During May, marketing costs rose 17 percent from April and 34 percent from a year ago, as measured in Fiksu’s Cost per Loyal User Index, which measures the cost of acquiring mobile users who open an app at least three times on iOS. That sets the stage for a competitive summer.

Fiksu’s App Store Competitive Index, which measures the aggregate daily download volume among the top 200 ranked apps, grew by 24 percent to 6.6 million, compared to April’s 5.34 million. That’s a good sign, as it means the increased spending is having an affect on getting more users.

“With the increase in volume this month, app marketers will need to find more creative ways to find and acquire loyal users,” Fiksu said. “Granular targeting options and optimized app marketing efforts continue to improve, helping advertisers break through the noise.”

“While there have been ebbs and flows, it’s very clear that the cost of app marketing and the competition for downloads is on a constant upward trajectory: what we’re calling app inflation,” said Micah Adler, CEO of Fiksu. “The increased quality and growing popularity of apps continues to fuel ever-increasing demand, meaning marketers must continually hone their new strategies and spending in the quest to cost-efficiently acquire loyal and engaged users.”

Fiksu has accumulated more than 282 billion app actions, such as launches or registrations.（source：venturebeat）

5）Grand Cru’s ambitious Supernauts mobile game hits 1M downloads in six days

Dean Takahashi

Grand Cru’s Supernauts, an ambitious social world-building game that was built over two years, has hit a million downloads in just six days after its release on iOS.

That’s good news for the Helsinki-based Grand Cru, which raised venture capital funding to build the free-to-play game and tap into a multibillion dollar industry. The publisher said that the game received editor’s choice nods in 40 countries in the Apple App Store and has ranked in the “best new games” category in 155 countries.

Of course, now the challenging part will be to hang on to those users and to get them to spend money. But the signs are good for the game, which taps into the craze for world-building started by games such as Minecraft — a game that has sold millions of copies on mobile, consoles, and PCs.

Grand Cru billls Supernauts as the “most ambitious iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch game of all time.”（source：venturebeat）

6）Picotto Kingdom: Puzzle & Dragons Maker GungHo Releases New Game In Japan

by Serkan Toto

After quite a long time, Puzzle & Dragons maker GungHo Online Entertainment (3765) has released a new mobile game in Japan today, Picotto Kingdom.

In contrast to recent GungHo games like Summons Board or Divine Gate however, this title is not “original” but based on Picotto Knights, a free-to-play Vita action RPG that was published in 2012.

Another point that is interesting is that back then, Picotto Knights didn’t really find too many fans on the Sony handheld, causing GungHo to shut it down after only a year. A (planned) English version was never released.

Picotto Kingdom is a port of the Vita title and lets players equip soldiers (s0-called Cocoroids) with around 600 different weapons and other items. Users can then fight against enemies together with up to three other allies (computer-controlled or actual people), by completing quests in real-time.

Players can choose between 300 different Cocoroids, with GungHo saying more will be added later.

At the moment, Picotto Kingdom is only available in Japan and only on Android. An iOS version is in the works.（source：serkantoto）

7）Age of Empires Online shutting down today

By Christian Nutt

Newsbrief: Today, Microsoft shut down Age of Empires Online, its free-to-play expansion of the popular strategy franchise first created by the erstwhile Ensemble Studios in the mid 1990s.

Age of Empires Online was originally developed by Robot Entertainment and later by Gas Powered Games. The game originally launched in 2011 but ceased updating in early 2013. Its closure was announced less than a month ago.

At last year’s GDC Europe, Microsoft’s Kevin Perry delivered a lecture on how the company originally whiffed the game’s free-to-play design — calling the business model “a disaster” at the time of its launch — but was able to turn the game into a success. （source：gamasutra）