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The popular Postmortem column in Game Developer magazine features firsthand accounts of how some of the most important and successful games of recent years have been made. This book offers the opportunity to harvest this expertise with one volume. The editor has organized the articles by theme and added previously unpublished analysis to reveal successful management techniques. Readers learn how superstars of the game industry like Peter Molyneux and Warren Spector have dealt with the development challenges such as managing complexity, software and game design issues, schedule challenges, and changing staff needs. Postmortems from Game Developer enhances your project management skills by showcasing projects from start to finish with candid, thorough, and specific accounts of the good and bad decisions made along the way.

China's online games market is worth 55.7 billion yuan ($8.8 billion) in 2012 and will reach 82.6 billion ($13.1 billion) yuan in 2015 on annual growth of 25 percent, according to a forecast out this week from Analysys International, which noted: "The impetus for the market comes from the economic development in 2nd and 3rd tier cities, the updating of bandwidth and operators' changes in game operation."

Sohu is expected to benefit from its strength in online games. We believe that Sohu's promising games portfolio and the growing popularity of Changyou's games will drive profitability over the long term. However, higher operating costs due to continued investments in video may hurt profitability in the near term. Moreover, cut-throat competition from the likes of Baidu Inc. ( BIDU ) and increasing government scrutiny into Chinese Internet usage may also hurt Sohu's growth over the long term. We, therefore, maintain our Neutral recommendation on the stock over the long term. Currently, Sohu has a Zacks #1 Rank, which implies a short-term Strong Buy rating.

Changyou-the name means "uninhibited play"-operates 10 online games, but the most popular by far is Tian Long Ba Bu, a martial-arts juggernaut derived from a popular serial novel about the eight races of nonhuman demigods. Naturally, shareholders worry about customers tiring of the game one day, and whether the company has another blockbuster in its pipeline. Another concern: Competition among Chinese online games is rife, and concerns have increased that Changyou's stellar margins may wilt as it invests in the growing social or mobile platforms. Late last year, Changyou paid $162.5 million in cash to buy from its parent a Chinese game-information portal called 17173.com.

Henry Jenkins at Authors@Google(video) Henry Jenkins"s pioneering work in the early 1990s promoted the idea that fans are among the most active, creative, critically engaged, and socially connected consumers of popular culture and that they represent the vanguard of a new relationship with mass media. Though marginal and largely invisible to the general public at the time, today, media producers and advertisers, not to mention researchers and fans, take for granted the idea that the success of a media franchise depends on fan investments and participation. Bringing together the highlights of a decade and a half of groundbreaking research into the cultural life of media consumers, Fans, Bloggers, and Gamerstakes readers from Jenkins's progressive early work defending fan culture against those who would marginalize or stigmatize it, through to his more recent work, combating moral panic and defending Goths and gamers in the wake of the Columbine shootings. Starting with an interview on the current state of fan studies, this volume maps the core theoretical and methodological issues in Fan Studies. It goes on to chart the growth of participatory culture on the web, take up blogging as perhaps the most powerful illustration of how consumer participation impacts mainstream media, and debate the public policy implications surrounding participation and intellectual property.

Yesterday, we took a look at the growing comfort consumers, specifically gamers, have with purchasing virtual goods and currency on the Web and mobile devices. Virtual goods are becoming a booming market thanks to the growing maturity of gaming platforms, free-to-play models and the profusion of mobile devices. Today, international investment firm Digi-Capital published its in-depth review of the global gaming space, giving us a sense of the size, breadth, and activity of the very international gaming market last year that is contributing to the changing behavior around virtual commerce - as well as a glimpse into what we can expect from the industry over the course of 2012.

Mobile games enable senior citizens to play games which effectively alleviates their perception of loneliness and isolation. This reinvigorates their vitality by helping them reconnect with the world that they, in many cases, have reluctantly retired from. What was once strictly a youthful domain is now becoming theirs as well. Playing such games also gives the elderly the confidence to better exploit the new possibilities and life experiences facilitated by the prevalence of new information and communication technology.

In China's Internet market, if you consider making your platform open right from the beginning, some may appreciate your efforts, but you risk not getting invited to the ball. Pirate culture is the mainstream on the Chinese web. An enterprise has to identify with this culture to survive. Some firms accumulate their users and brand name in the name of cooperation with others, but will quickly burn the bridge once they have passed over. Nevertheless, China's environment and the rules of the game are improving. User consciousness and a sounder legal system will all help to establish a better environment in the Chinese Internet sphere. 

China Online Gaming Market to Reach RMB57.7B in 2012: China's online gaming market size will reach RMB 57.7 billion in this year, according to a report out last month by Beijing-based market researcher AnalysysInternational, up 20.7% from last year, while webpage games will account for RMB 7.882 billion. Another report conducted by 17173.com, the gaming portal of Sohu, has found that more than 96% of gamers are willing to pay for online games. China Mobile Gaming Market Size: According to a report by AnalysysInternational, China mobile gaming market size stood at RMB 370 million in the fourth quarter of last year with 30.28 million mobile gamers. The market is picking up as the result of proliferation of smartphones and emergence of attractive mobile games.

China had 513 million Internet users at the end of last year, according to data from the government-sponsored China Internet Network Information Center.

China's online video game market has experienced a dramatic upsurge in 2011, generating revenues of nearly 43 billion yuan (6.82 bln USD), according to a report from China's National Copyright Administration.

Offering online games, entertainment and lifestyle services to QQ users, while keeping the basic messaging service free, has helped Tencent boost revenue. Games accounted for more than half of the company's third-quarter revenue of 7.5 billion yuan.

The Taiwanese company has suffered falling revenues and increasing losses in recent quarters, which it has attributed to audience shifts from online gaming to mobile.

Another mobile game developer to shift its games from screens and into stores is Angry Birds maker Rovio. It sells a line of plush toys, branded baby merchandise and even a cookbook. The company even plans to open stores in China, a country where the bird-based game has a huge following.

According to figures from the China Internet Centre, nearly £1.2bn of make- believe currencies were traded in China in 2008 and the number of gamers who play to earn and trade credits are on the rise. It is estimated that 80 per cent of all gold farmers are in China and with the largest internet population in the world there are thought to be 100,000 full-time gold farmers in the country.

Business section: Investing ideas To help you analyze the key players in the industry, here is a list of the popular gaming companies trading on U.S. stock exchanges, some of whom are based in CHINA.

Offering online games, entertainment and lifestyle services to QQ users, while keeping the basic messaging service free, has helped Tencent boost revenue. Games accounted for more than half of the company's third-quarter revenue of 7.5 billion yuan.

Shanda Games, China's third largest online developer, has revealed that it plans to roll out titles to Chinese content portals and social networks over the next year, expanding its presence in social gaming. This is an excerpt from the full story. Log in or register for free to read the whole article.

A new paper from Asian research specialist Niko Partners is predicting that videogame revenues are set to more than double in the South East Asian markets between now and 2014.

Welcome to Shanda Games Limited's fourth quarter and full-year 2011 results conference call. The conference call will be recorded and available for replay in its entirety. A copy of Shanda Games' fourth quarter and full-year 2011 results announcement can be found and downloaded from the Investor Relations website at ir.shandagames.com.