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每日观察:关注美国手机用户下载新应用情况(8.25)

发布时间:2014-08-25 16:16:59 Tags:,,,,

1)ComScore最新报告指出,多数美国手机用户并不常下载新应用,尽管他们的整体应用使用时间仍在持续增长。

app downloads(from comscore)

app downloads(from comscore)

65%受访者每个月下载不足一款新智能手机应用,ComScore调查还发现,多数手机用户可能仅仅满足于找到自己所喜欢的应用,不会主动去寻找新应用。

多数用户有75%的智能手机使用时间投入于他们最常用的4款应用,他们最常用的应用所占使用时间达42%,这些用户最常使用的应用是Facebook,紧随其后的则是其他社交媒体应用。

《Candy Crush Saga》和《Words With Friends》等游戏位于35岁及以上年龄用户群体最常用的十大应用之列,但它们在用户投入总时间中平均仅占1-2%的比例。

2)据serkantoto报道,《Puzzle & Dragons》开发商GungHo最近将旗下位于荷兰的全资控股公司GGFB.V出售给母公司软银。

GGFB.V是GungHo与软银专为收购Supercell公司51%的股份而于去年3月成立的企业。据GungHor所称,此次交易额为3.44亿美元,将为当前财年产生额外的7300美元利润。

报道称这笔交易的来龙去脉相对复杂,当初软银及其子公司GungHo先是为了收购Supercell股份而在芬兰成立了Kahon 3 Oy这家公司,软银向Kahon 3投入了12亿美元(占总成交额的80%),GungHo则投入3.06亿美元(占比20%),并以Kahon 3这家新公司名义于2013年10月收购Supercell公司51%的股份(投入15.3亿美元)。

除此之外,GungHo又在荷兰成立了GGFB.V公司,代表GungHo的身份收购Kahon 3 Oy股份。

现在,Supercell正式成为软银在芬兰的子公司,GungHo表示其达成这项交易的原因在于他们想将更多精力投入到新兴市场和亚洲市场。

3)据gamasutra报道,GungHo Online旗下热作《Puzzle & Dragons》在日本下载量已超过3000万次。

Puzzle & Dragons(from forbes.com)

Puzzle & Dragons(from forbes.com)

该公司称这款游戏在北美下载量为400万次,在韩国下载量为200万次,在台湾和香港下载量为100万次。

4)德克萨斯州大学最新调查发现,每天玩暴力电子游戏超过2小时可能导致青春期前的孩子出现抑郁症状,这个结论仍然有待进一步研究和论证,但已经可得到一些值得注意的数据。

这样调查的样本是5000多名在一年中玩过电子游戏的10岁少儿群体,这些参与者被划分成4个小组,一组玩暴力电子游戏超过2小时,一组玩非暴力电子游戏超过2小时,一组玩暴力电子游戏不足2小时,一组玩非暴力电子游戏不足2小时。结果显示玩暴力电子游戏的男孩出现抑郁症状的情况远高于其他参与者。而玩同类游戏的女孩却并未出现抑郁症状的大幅上升。

5)据venturebeat报道,《Flappy Bird》开发者Dong Nguyen日前向iOS和Android推出新款手机游戏《Swing Copters》。

Swing-Copters(from softpedia)

Swing-Copters(from softpedia)

这款简单的街机类免费游戏要求玩家控制一个戴着直升机头盔的小人,点触屏幕向空中疯狂射击。与《Flappy Bird》一样,玩家要引导角色穿过狭窄的通道,它也是一款极为困难的游戏,其中仅含一项IAP内容,允许玩家支付1.29美元移除条幅广告,但这些广告并不具有干扰性,所以并不会影响玩法。

Dong Nguyen在本月初还向亚马逊Fire TV Android微主机平台发布了翻新版本的《Flappy Bird Family》,其中采用了分屏多人竞赛等新功能。(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)Report: Most U.S. smartphone owners rarely download new apps

By Alex Wawro

The ComScore research firm released a new report on the state of the U.S. mobile market that suggests most people aren’t downloading a lot of new apps for their devices, even as their total app usage time continues to rise.

The report’s most notable takeaway for game makers? Roughly 65 percent of those surveyed by ComScore downloaded less than one new app per month for their smartphone, which seems like bad news for any mobile developer hoping to drum up downloads of their next game.

While the problem may be assuaged by platform holders like Apple taking measures to boost discoverability of new games and apps, it might not be enough: ComScore’s survey of smartphone user habits suggests the majority of mobile users may simply be content to find a few apps they like and stick with them.

According to the firm, those surveyed spent nearly 75 percent of their smartphone time using their four most-used apps. Their top app sucked up nearly 42 percent of their smartphone time, and the number one app most popular app was — you guessed it — Facebook, followed by other social media apps.

Games like Candy Crush Saga and Words With Friends were among the ten most-used apps for those age 35 and older, though they accounted for an average of between 1-2 percent of the total time spent with mobile apps by those surveyed.(source:gamasutra

2)GungHo Sells Stake In Supercell To Parent Company SoftBank For US$344 Million

by Serkan Toto

Apart from setting up a new Singapore subsidiary, the Puzzle & Dragons company also sold GGF B.V., a wholly owned holding company based in the Netherlands, to its parent company SoftBank (9984).

GGF B.V. was specifically established last year in March to acquire 51% of Supercell together with SoftBank (more on that below).

According to GungHo, the deal is worth US$344 million and will lead to an un extraordinary profit of US$73 million for the current fiscal year (which ends for GungHo in December 2014).

The background of the deal is a bit complicated to explain:

After agreeing to buy Supercell in principle, SoftBank and its subsidiary GungHo established “Kahon 3 Oy”, a so-called special-purpose company in Finland last year.

SoftBank invested US$1.2 billion (80% of the total), while GungHo contributed US$306 million (20%) to Kahon 3. This new company was then used to acquire 51% of Supercell for US$1.53 billion in October 2013.

In addition, GGF B.V. was established in North Holland with 1 Euro capital as a wholly owned subsidiary of GungHo to acquire the Kahon 3 Oy shares.

Following the purchase, Supercell became a subsidiary of SoftBank in Finland.

The Puzzle & Dragons maker says the motivation for the sale is to focus more on emerging markets and Asia going forward.(source:serkantoto

3)Puzzle & Dragons surpasses 30M downloads in Japan

by Alex Wawro

GungHo Online continues to dominate the Japanese mobile market with Puzzle & Dragons, which has now passed the 30 million downloads mark in Japan.

The news comes courtesy of a blog post published by industry veteran Dr. Serkan Toto.

Toto cites a Japanese press release [PDF] circulated by GungHo this week, and notes that GungHo also claims Puzzle & Dragons has seen 4 million downloads in the U.S. and Canada, 2 million downloads in South Korea and another 1 million downloads across Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Those numbers suggest that, on a global scale, the company still has significant room to grow. GungHo Online founder Kazuki Morishita noted plans to do so during an interview with Gamasutra earlier this year, stating his company is seeking to focus on expanding into foreign markets — starting with North America.

“We’re taking it one step at a time,” Morishita told Gamasutra. “To have a presence in the U.S. that’s as strong as it is in Japan.”(source:gamasutra

4)Study finds slight link between preteen gaming and depression — but it needs more study

Ruth Reader

Another piece of research says that gaming might be bad for you — but don’t roll your eyes just yet.

A new study out of the University of Texas says playing violent video games for more than two hours daily may lead to symptoms of depression in preadolescent kids. The results are far from concrete and require further study, but this inquiry has some notable data.

Studies often lead to further study, so that conclusion should come as no surprise. But what’s significant about this association, small though it may be, is that it is consistent across all racial and ethnic subgroups for boys.

Since video games have existed, questions have emerged about their effects on health, including children’s mental well-being. The bulk of studies have tried to determine whether playing violent video games leads to aggressive behavior in real life. To date, conclusions have been murky. Researchers have neither been able to prove a link between violent behavior and violent games nor disprove one.

But this study takes a different approach to analyzing the effects of violent video games on mental health. Rather than focus on violent behavior, this study focuses on depression. Researchers at the University of Texas asked themselves, if witnessing violent behavior in real life can lead to depression, can exposure to virtual violence affect the same response?

Controlling for gender, race/ethnicity, peer victimization, witnessing violence, being threatened with violence, aggression, family structure, and household income level, the study examined more than 5,000 video game-playing 10 year olds over the course of a year. The participants were divided into four categories, those who play violent video games for more than two hours; those who play nonviolent video games for more than two hours; those who play violent video games for less than two hours; and those who play non-violent video games for less than two hours. The results showed that boys who played violent video games excessively were significantly associated with a higher number of depressive symptoms than their counterparts. Girls on the other hand, did not show an uptick in depressive symptoms as a result of longer hours playing violent video games.

Other researchers have had a difficult time proving that playing violent video games especially over prolonged periods of time can lead to aggressive behavior. But a link between depression and violent gaming over long periods of time might account for those inconsistent links to aggression, as it’s occasionally being a symptom of depression.

The study, as noted at the beginning of this article, takes pains to say while boys who played violent video games for longer showed a significant increase of depressive symptoms, more information is needed to prove causality.

Even if an association was confirmed, further studies would need to be conducted to investigate potential underlying mechanisms, what happens to symptoms over time, and causality.

But in an arena full of murky conclusions these researchers seemed to hit on an interesting nugget worth exploring and possibly an explanation for why researchers haven’t been able to determine whether or not violent video games lead to aggression.(source:venturebeat

5)Flappy Bird creator’s Swing Copters is now available on iOS and Android

Jeffrey Grubb

After a surprise reveal earlier this week, you can play Dong Nguyen’s latest mobile game today.

Swing Copters is out now on iOS and Android, and it’s a free-to-play app. The simple arcade-style game has players controlling a tiny person with a helicopter helmet who shoots wildly into the air and off to the side with the tap of the screen. Tapping again makes the character swiftly change direction while gaining altitude. As with Flappy Bird, players guide their avatar through narrow passages. Also like Flappy Bird, Swing Copters is incredibly difficult. Nguyen’s last mobile game surpassed millions of downloads and made the developer a lot of money. It’s possible that Swing Copters could do the same, but it has a long way to go before it does so.

Mobile developer or publisher? VentureBeat is studying mobile app analytics.

Fill out our 5-minute survey, and we’ll share the data with you.

Swing Copters only features one in-app purchase. You can pay $1.29 to remove banner ads. Otherwise, Nguyen will make most of his cash by placing advertisements for other games at the top of the screen. If you’d rather not spend money to swear at your smartphone while you fail to get past the first obstacle for the 100th time, don’t worry — the ads are actually unobtrusive.

Nguyen rose to mobile-game prominence earlier this year when Flappy Bird inexplicably shot to the top of download charts on both iOS’s App Store and Android’s Google Play marketplace. After reportedly earning around $50,000 a day from in-game ads and receiving a ton of attention in the media and on social networks, the developer decided to remove Flappy Bird from both stores. The game designer explained that the game was negatively affecting his simple life and that he felt that Flappy Bird is too addictive.

Earlier this month, however, Nguyen rereleased a new version of his smash hit called Flappy Bird Family. It debuted exclusively for Amazon’s Fire TV Android-based microconsole, and it features new features like splitscreen multiplayer competitions.(source:venturebeat


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