Venture capital equity financing of Chinese companies fell to its lowest level in more than five years in the first quarter of 2012, according to Dow Jones VentureSource, which tracks venture-backed companies. During the quarter, 45 deals raised US$745 million, a 39% decline in deals and a 56% decline in capital invested compared to the first quarter of 2011. This marks the lowest quarterly volume since the first quarter of 2006.

SanGuo (Three Kingdoms) is a popular material for webgames. Almost every game platform has its own profitable game about SanGuo. RenRen Game officially released the mobile game “JueZhanSanGuo” iOS version in Appstore on May 3.

GREE, announced the acquisition of Funzio, Inc., which is known for developing mid-core mobile game titles. Funzio - creator of successful titles “Crime City,” “Modern War,” and “Kingdom Age” - said it has more than 20 million game downloads.

According to published reports, the revenues of Dream Group’s social networking game is more than 10 million Yuan ($1.5 million) per month. Dream Group also plans to invest 30 million Yuan ($4.6 million) into mobile game industry.

On April 24th, Shanda (SNDA) officially released the agent mobile game “My Country”. SNDA plans to release several mobile games, which includes MMO games transplants and licensed games. The company said it is building an platform for mobile games and has recruited some people to develop mobile games.

Chinese gamer website 17173.com released findings from a 500,000 person survey questionnaire. In 2011, 66.5% of China’s players thought that game character and skill was the first criterion they used to choose games.

Pearl Research and its sister site Redline is pleased to be a media supporter of “Casual Connect Asia 2012 “. The Casual Games Association, the international trade organization of the casual games industry, announced that Casual Connect Asia 2012, the world’s largest mass market games conference series, will take place 22 – 24 May 2012 in Singapore. To register, please visit http://asia.casualconnect.org/registration.html

Venture capital investors are increasing their focus on ventures in China and India, according to Ernst & Young's Global Venture Capital insights and trends report 2011. Currently, only about 20% of VC firms in Brazil, India, Israel and the UK invest outside their home countries. However, a majority of VC firms in Canada (69%)v and the U.S. (49%) invest internationally.

DeNA, a Japanese Mobile social gaming platform operator, and The Walt Disney Company (Japan) have announced today that the companies have agreed to bring mobile social games through DeNA Group’s Mobage social gaming platform. The two companies launched their first jointly developed social game, Disney Party, on March 28 on the Mobage network in Japan, which currently serves over 35 million in the country. DeNA and Disney plan to launch their second title, Disney Fantasy Quest, on April 2, and the third title based on Marvel Comics characters this summer in Japan.

NetEase said that the 3D turn-based Game “Chuang Shi Xi You” will be stopped on March 19, 2013. On the official website of “Chuang Shi Xi You”, NetEase explained that this adjustment was due to changing business conditions.