1）據insidesocialgames報導，Zynga日前宣佈向Facebook推出新款Ville遊戲《CoasterVille》（該遊戲隨後也將在Zynga.com上線）。
玩家在這款主題公園管理遊戲中要從一小塊遊樂場起步，建造出世界上最大的主題公園。該遊戲由Zynga洛杉磯工作室開發，該工作室之前曾推出《Empires & Allies》。
CoasterVille(from insidesocialgames)
與其他Ville遊戲一樣，《CoasterVille》同樣涉及擴地與管理社群元素，但其中的關鍵部分則是雲霄飛車，玩家在建設過程中可以自主選擇雲霄飛車的軌道方向。
報導指出，主題公園模擬遊戲目前在Facebook並不算盛行題材。6waves在3月份發行了由Noisy Duck開發的《Rollercoaster Mania》，它在5月份最高峰時的DAU為16萬，但目前DAU已降至4萬。
2）Superdata最新報告指出，10月份在Facebook玩社交博彩遊戲的玩家，同比9月份下降了8.5%，此類遊戲收益也同樣有所下滑。
但Superdata認為這種情況並不意味著社交博彩遊戲發展已經陷入瓶頸狀態，因為這可能是因為使用者在為即將到來的假期季省錢而縮減了在此類遊戲中的投入。
Zynga Slingo(from dotmmo)
《Zynga Slingo》在10月流失了1500萬使用者，對此類Facebook遊戲的表現造成了重要影響。
值得注意的是，目前仍有31%社交遊戲玩家在體驗社交博彩遊戲，而如果不是受到《Zynga Slingo》流量下滑的影響，這一使用者比例還有可能達到32.6%。
Superdata估計社交博彩遊戲市場規模已達17億美元，預計到2016年這一資料將增長至24億美元，如果各國政府放寬線上賭博政策，這一資料漲幅可能更高。
3）據insidesocialgames報導，Facebook日前根據使用者評價及使用者粘性評選了2012年熱門社交遊戲，本年度排名第一的是《SongPop》這款音樂問答遊戲。
西班牙開發商Social Point的社交手機遊戲《Dragon City》位居第二，Top Free Games的《Bike Race》位居第三。
今年有56%的社交手機遊戲入駐Facebook，另外44%則登陸了iOS和Android平臺。
Zynga今年有6款遊戲上榜，其中首款遊戲是位居第六名的《FarmVille 2》（目前是Facebook流量第一的遊戲）。
SongPop(from games.com)
本年度最受好評的Facebook社交遊戲名單如下：
1.SongPop（FreshPlanet）
2.Dragon City（Social Point）
3.Bike Race（Top Free Games）
4.Subway Surfers（Kiloo）
5.Angry Birds Firends（Rovio）
6.FarmVille 2（Zynga）
7.Scramble with Friends（Zynga）
8.Clash of Clans（Supercell）
9.Marvel:Avengers Alliance（Playdom）
10.Draw Something（Zynga）
11.Hay Day（Supercell）
12.Baseball Heroes（Syntasia）
13.ChefVille（Zynga）
14.CSR Racing（NaturalMotion Games）
15.Candy Crush Saga（King.com）
16.Matching With Friends（Zynga）
17.Legend Online（OASIS GAMES）
18.Jurassic Park Builder（Ludia）
19.Dungeon Rampage（Rebel Entertainment）
20.Pockie Ninja II Social（NGames Limited）
21.Jetpack Joyride（Halfbrick）
22.Social Empires（Social Point）
23.Bilve Fethet（Peak Games）
24.Ruby Blast Adventures（Zynga）
25.Pyramid Solitaire Saga（King.com）
4）據Techcrunch報導，Facebook日前宣佈Facebook.com現在MAU在100萬以上的應用數量超過了350款。目前有將近20萬款iPhone和Android應用繫結了Facebook功能，在iPhone前十名熱銷應用中就有9款採用了Facebook功能（遊戲邦注：8月份時iPhone熱銷應用前十名有8款應用繫結了Facebook，6月份時則是7款應用）。
Facebook8月份時宣佈擁有2.35億Facebook遊戲玩家，以及1.5億應用訪客，現在則表示每月有2.2億使用者訪問App Center，每月有2.51億Facebook遊戲玩家。
此外，在iOS前400名暢銷應用中，有45％以上採用了Facebook SDK。
5）在本週DAU增長最快的Facebook遊戲排行榜上，Zynga遊戲《ChefVille》位居本週DAU增長最快的Facebook遊戲榜單第一名，新增10萬DAU，增幅為3％。
Top gainers this week-DAU(from AppData)
本榜單前8名遊戲均新增10萬左右DAU，Nordeus的《Top Eleven Be a Football Manager》排名第二，新增4％流量；《FarmVille 2》排名第三，新增1％流量；Playtika遊戲《Slotomania》位居第四，新增5％流量；King.com最近釋出遊戲《Pet Rescue Saga》排名第五，新增5％流量。
6）據《華爾街日報》報導，Zynga日前向美國內華達州博彩管理局提交相關申請，計劃由此進入監管嚴格的真錢賭博市場，這是Zynga申請獲得賭博許可證而邁出的第一步。預計這一申請過程約12-18個月，該公司之前已同英國公司bwin.party合作，將於2013上半年推出首款真錢博彩遊戲。
zynga-poker(from thebestgameapps)
遊戲行業律師Mark Clayton表示，在內華達州如果你想推出賭博性質的線上撲克遊戲，就必須達成相關交易（例如收購一家賭場），但這種交易可能面臨“監管不確定性”的挑戰，因此內達華州推出了可助企業掃清一些監管障礙的資質，以便後者成功達成相關交易。（本文為遊戲邦/gamerboom.com編譯，拒絕任何不保留版權的轉載，如需轉載請聯絡：遊戲邦）
1）CoasterVille is Zynga’s newest “Ville” title
Mike Thompson
Zynga today announced the launch of its newest “Ville” title, CoasterVille.
The game is a theme park management sim, which is a new direction for the “Ville” franchise. Players are given a small fairground and tasked with building the world’s greatest theme park complete with themed lands, shops and rides. CoasterVille was developed by Zynga’s Los Angeles office, which previously developed Empires & Allies for mid-core audiences.
Zynga Los Angeles General Manager Amir Rahimi tells us games industry veterans comprise the development team and, “the core group of us grew up with theme park building games. We thought we could adapt them into a really fun way for the social gaming space.”
Like the other “Ville” titles, the game is based on laying out and managing a community. Users place different types of structures around their property, and the layout plays a large part in how successful the park is. Essentially, areas with a high amount of foot traffic will generate more happiness. An example of this Rahimi showed us was a larger park where the central square was filled with shops and rides, which were all doing brisk business, while an outlying area with less foot traffic was going way slower.
Of course, the titular roller coasters play a major role in the game. Players can build and expand a coaster, which is based on one of the game’s various land themes (we got to see three themes in the demo: fantasy, frontier and jungle adventure). When a coaster is built, players are able to choose what direction the tracks will go and then can continue to build the ride one section at a time. After a new section of track’s been laid down, users can modify them to include exciting features like loops, corkscrews and enclosed sections. Even after a coaster’s been fully built, it can be re-designed at the drop of a hat; all players have to do is drag and drop the segments into new areas. This modular construction mechanic will allow users to dynamically adjust the layout of an area.
Players will also manage the area outside the park, mainly on a small stretch of road housing business that generate construction resources and hotels used to house guests once a resort reaches a certain size/fame milestone. Meanwhile, the main entrance and stores are the main producers of coins, the game’s soft currency. Rides and businesses operate on a timer, so they need to be turned on in order to attract guests or satisfy their need for things like food and bathroom breaks. Players can also “boost” (speed up) a ride, which attracts more guests towards it, but will actually make them sick if they boost an attraction too many times.
Aside from the standard social features where players can visit their friends’ parks, the game incorporates one’s friends into their parks’ populations. The game mixes and matches players’ friends’ names and creates characters using combined first and last names; Rahimi tells us he once found a guest with his wife’s first name and his boss’s last name. When players mouse over a specific guest, a bubble with the character’s name and what they want/need is displayed.
Rahimi also filled us in about what some of the post-launch plans for the game. Within a couple of months, the game will expand to let players build a full vacation resort next to the park.
In addition to that, there will soon be an option to construct a park mascot who can tour around friends’ parks and generate additional fame.
Theme park sims aren’t terribly prevalent on Facebook, even though the PC game market has been well-saturated with them for the past couple of decades. Back in March, 6waves co-published Rollercoaster Mania from developer Noisy Duck, which peaked in May with 160,000 daily active users. Since then, the game’s fallen to 40,000 DAU. As a result, it’s probably fair to surmise that Zynga will have the top-performing theme park social game within a few weeks.
Zynga’s been seeing a good deal of success with its “Ville” games lately, thanks to the major traffic gains of FarmVille 2 and CityVille 2. That said, this is the first time the company’s launched an original “Ville” IP since it launched The Ville, which saw dramatic traffic losses after its summer debut.（source：insidesocialgames）
2）Social casino gameplay dropped in October, but it’s probably temporary
By Frank Cifaldi
The audience for casino-based social games saw a pretty steep drop in October, but that market is still expected to grow.
That’s according to new research from Superdata, which shows that 8.5 percent fewer people played social casino games in October versus September. Revenue declined similarly.
All eyes are on the rapidly-growing social casino market lately, which has more than doubled its audience in the last two years and could become the segment to watch in 2013. A decline could mean we’ve finally hit a plateau, but Superdata CEO Joost van Dreunen doesn’t think that’s the case here.
“The dip in I think is normal for the year,” he tells us by phone. “People are probably saving their dollars for the holiday season. On the spending side, people are probably more conservative.
“Is this the beginning of a trend? I don’t think so.”
One big factor for the decline is Zynga’s struggle to retain its Zynga Slingo players: the company lost 15 million of them in October.
An industry to watch
Those who haven’t been paying attention may be surprised to learn that an estimated 31 percent of social game players are playing casino games. And if it wasn’t for Zynga Slingo’s decline, that share would actually be around 32.6 percent.
Superdata estimates that social casino gaming is a $1.7 billion industry. By 2016, that figure is expected to grow to $2.4 billion, and could go even higher if online gambling regulations are lifted to allow real-money gambling (specifically in the United States, which generates the most social casino revenue despite having to rely on virtual currency).
Developers are becoming increasingly interested in entering the space, which has become so big as to spawn its own individual conferences.（source：gamasutra）
3）Facebook: SongPop is the top social game of the year
Emanuel Maiberg
Facebook today announced that according its users’ ratings and engagement levels SongPop is the top rated social game of the year. Facebook made the announcement during Le Web technology conference in Paris, France, where SongPop co-founders Romain and Mathieu Nouzareth started their careers.
The music trivia game was built with the social network for Facebook, iPhone and Android. You can read our review of the game here.
Spanish developer Social Point’s social mobile game Dragon City was No. 2 and Top Free Games’ Bike Race (another social mobile title) was No. 3.
It was a big year for social mobile games in general, with only 56 percent of the games available on Facebook, while the remaining 44 percent are social mobile games available on iOS and Android.
Zynga placed more than any other developer on the list with six titles, but its first entry is at the No. 6 spot with FarmVille 2 (which is currently the top-trafficked game on Facebook).
This is also the most international year for social games to date, with the majority of games developed outside the U.S., in countries ranging from France, Spain and the U.K. to Brazil, South Korea, Australia, and Turkey.
Top Rated Social Games of 2012:
1. SongPop (FreshPlanet)
2. Dragon City (Social Point)
3. Bike Race (Top Free games)
4. Subway Surfers (Kiloo)
5. Angry Birds Friends (Rovio)
6. FarmVille 2 (Zynga)
7. Scramble with Friends (Zynga)
8. Clash of Clans (Supercell)
9. Marvel: Avengers Alliance (Playdom)
10. Draw Something (Zynga)
11. Hay Day (Supercell)
12. Baseball Heroes (Syntasia)
13. ChefVille (Zynga)
14. CSR Racing (NaturalMotion Games)
15. Candy Crush Saga (King.com)
16. Matching With Friends (Zynga)
17. Legend Online (OASIS GAMES)
18. Jurassic Park Builder (Ludia)
19. Dungeon Rampage (Rebel Entertainment)
20. Pockie Ninja II Social (NGames Limited)
21. Jetpack Joyride (Halfbrick)
22. Social Empires (Social Point)
23. Bil ve Fethet (Peak Games)
24. Ruby Blast Adventures (Zynga)
25. Pyramid Solitaire Saga (King.com)（source：insidesocialgames）
4）Facebook Talks App Traction: 350 Apps Have 1M+ Monthly Actives On Site; Facebook Now Integrated In 200K Mobile Applications
Sarah Perez
Facebook today announced new numbers related to Facebook app usage on its site, as well as its integration into mobile platforms like iPhone and Android. The company said that there are now over 350 apps on Facebook.com that each see more than 1 million monthly active users. The company also said that there are nearly 200,000 iPhone and Android applications which are integrated with Facebook, including 9 of the top 10 grossing iPhone applications.
For comparison’s sake, Facebook in August said that it was in 8 of the top 10 grossing apps on iPhone, and in June it was in 7 of the top 10. It did not, however, reveal new numbers as to how many monthly app users it sees on Facebook.com or visiting its App Center, but in August it had 235 million monthly “gamers” and 150 million app visitors. (Update: Facebook has now told us that it sees 220 million people visiting the App Center each month, and more than 251 million people play games on Facebook.com every month.)
In addition, Facebook said today that over 45 percent of the top 400 grossing iOS apps use the Facebook SDK, which demonstrates Facebook’s traction even within the longer tail of mobile applications. The company specifically touted its involvement in several mobile and web apps, calling itself the “social building block” for apps like Deezer, Endomondo, Shazam, Pinterest, Kobo, TripAdvisor, Fab.com, Gogobot, and Foodspotting.（source：techcrunch）
5）ChefVille has this week’s blue-ribbon recipe as the fastest-growing Facebook game by DAU
Mike Thompson
Zynga’s ChefVille took the No. 1 spot this week among fastest-growing Facebook games by daily active users, up 100,000 DAU for a 3 percent gain.
Actually, all eight of the top games on the list had traffic gains of 100,000 DAU, but for varying percentage gains. Nordeus’s Top Eleven Be a Football Manager continues to grow steadily, securing the No. 2 position with a 4 percent traffic increase. FarmVille 2 came in at No. 3, up by 1 percent. Playtika’s Slotomania grabbed the No. 4 spot with a 5 percent gain. The No. 5 placing went to King.com’s recently-launched Pet Rescue Saga, which grew by 5 percent.（source：insidesocialgames）
6）Zynga Makes First Move Towards Gambling In Nevada, Says Process Will Take More Than A Year
Anthony Ha View Staff Page Follow me on twitter Anthony Ha is a writer at TechCrunch, where he covers media, advertising, and startups. Previously, he was a staff technology writer at Adweek, worked as a senior editor at the tech blog VentureBeat, and was also a reporter at the Hollister Free Lance, where he won awards from the California Newspaper Publishers Association for breaking news coverage and writing…. → Learn More
posted 1 hour agoCommentsZynga has applied for a “preliminary finding of suitability” from the Nevada Gaming Control Board, which the first step towards offering real-money gambling games in that state.
The news broke in the Wall Street Journal, and Zynga has confirmed it, though it notes that the process will take 12 to 18 months, and says that it sees gambling in the “broader U.S. market” as “further out on the horizon based on legislative developments.” The company also repeated that it plans to launch first effort in real-money gambling ( a partnership in the United Kingdom with bwin.party) during the first half of 2013.
Here’s the full statement from Chief Revenue officer Barry Cottle:
Zynga has filed its Application for a Preliminary Finding of Suitability from the Nevada Gaming Control Board. This filing continues our strategic effort to enter regulated RMG markets in a prudent way. We anticipate that the process will take approximately 12 to 18 months to complete. As we’ve said previously, the broader U.S. market is an opportunity that’s further out on the horizon based on legislative developments, but we are preparing for a regulated market. We’ve also recently partnered with bwin.party to bring the highest quality real money gaming experiences to our UK players in the first half of 2013.
Over the past few months, as Zynga has finances have disappointed, CEO Mark Pincus has been pointing to real-money gambling as one of the main opportunities for Zynga’s future growth.
Update: I just got off the phone with gaming attorney and former regulator Mark Clayton, who gave me more of the legal context. He said that historically, in Nevada, “if you wanted to get licesned for a gaming project, you had to have a deal in hand” — such as the rights to purchase a casino.
On the other hand, securing a deal can be challenging when you’re facing with “regulatory uncertainty.” So Nevada introduced this concept of a preliminary finding of suitability, which allows a company to clear some of the regulatory hurdles before they make an actual deal. Basically, it’s an acknowledgment from the gaming board that the state are okay with that company doing business in Nevada, subject to the terms of the specific deal.
In other words, this is indeed the first step for Zynga to apply for gambling license, and eventually to offer real-money gaming in Nevada. Clayton also noted that in order to offer online poker, you have to either be a resort casino, or be an Internet gaming company that partners with a casino. He didn’t talk about Zynga specifically, but it sounds like a casino partnership is a likely course of action.
文章來自：遊戲邦