Yesterday, during Zynga’s Q1 2013 earning call, CEP Mark Pincus announced the launch of Draw Something 2. The game is available to download for free exclusively on the Apple App Store. An Android version is coming soon.

The first Draw Something was a simple draw-and-guess game where players compete against each other to create pictures based on stimulus words. The game won the award for Best Social Network Game at last night’s Game Developer’s Choice Online Awards ceremony. It was the first time Zynga managed to take home a GDC Online Award, even though its games have been nominated for the past two years.

Draw Something 2 introduces a live feed where players can share, ‘like’ or comment on drawings, and follow friends, artists and celebrities. It also adds a collection of new drawing tools like new patterns, textures and colors.

Television personality Ryan Seacrest first revealed the existence of Draw Something 2 in March, when he posted a screenshot from the game to his Twitter account. Seacrest and Draw Something have long been associated with one another, especially following the revelation that Seacrest was producing a Draw Something-themed gameshow for CBS. Former Zynga vice president and Omgpop CEO Dan Porter was quick to confirm Seacret’s claim that the public was checking out some legit Draw Something 2 artwork, responding with the game’s official logo.

Zynga’s acquisition of Omgpop made some serious headlines last year, especially since the deal was reportedly worth somewhere around $200 million. Earlier this month, shortly after the announcement of Draw Something 2, we also learned that Zynga’s New York office general manager Dan Porter and former CEO and founder of OMGPOP had left Zynga.

“Developing and launching games is a team effort, and we’re proud of the great work the Zynga New York team has done with Draw Something 2,” said Zynga chief operating office David Ko, in a statement. “Our follow up to the original hit is even more social and engaging, and we’re excited to get it into the hands of our players globally. We thank Dan Porter for his efforts in making the Draw Something franchise a success and wish him well in his future endeavors. We’re proud to see talent like Sean Kelly take a bigger leadership role as the head of our New York studio and lead the team to the global launch of Draw Something 2.”

Sean Kelly, who’s been with the company since 2009, stepped in for Porter as the head of Zynga’s New York studio. Kelly’s official title is the vice president of mobile and general manager of Zynga New York, reporting to Zynga’s senior vice president of mobile Travis Boatman.

Inside Social Games will publish a full review of Draw Something 2 soon.

In Zynga’s Q1 2013 earnings call, CEO Mark Pincus’ opening statement  focused on Zynga’s transition from web to mobile. ”Our next opportunities are clearly on mobile,” he says.

Pincus laid out three key concepts for Zynga now and moving forward. He says Zynga is focused on building games, a network and working on profitability.

On the games front, Zynga’s most recently released mobile game, midcore card battler War of the Fallen, is monetizing 15 times higher compared to Zynga’s “With Friends” franchise, Pincus said.

“We’re following a playbook proven on the web to lead on mobile with a disciplined approach. We’re encouraged by early execution,” Pincus says.

Pincus also announced Draw Something 2, the sequel to Omgpop’s hit Pictionary-like drawing game Draw Something, is launching today. The sequel was first revealed in a Tweet by radio and TV personality Ryan Seacrest back in March.

As for Zynga’s network, which consists of 253 million monthly active users (MAU) across all platforms, Pincus says that the company has 65 million MAU on mobile. To demonstrate the power of Zynga’s mobile network, Pincus says word game What’s the Phrase, the company’s only mobile release in Q1, reached the No. 1 spot on the top free iOS apps charts, two days after the company turned on cross-promotion for the game within its network.

“The best way that we can be competitive in the market and positively move customer acquisition is by investing in our network and by better leveraging our large audience,” says Pincus, in the Q&A portion of today’s earnings call.

Since Zynga already has a strong user base on the web, Pincus says Zynga will continue launching cross-platform games that connect web and mobile users, a strategy that has worked for other companies such as King.

Aside from Zynga’s release of What’s the Phrase in the U.S., the company did launch two real-money gaming titles — Zynga Plus Poker (review) and Zynga Plus Casino (review) — in the U.K. in April. Both games are powered by real-money games operator bwin.party.

Later this quarter, Zynga plans to launch a casual title for mobile called Running With Friends, an endless runner game, which has already soft-launched in Canada, and action role-playing game Battlestone, which we reported on at the end of 2012.

Social game distribution and monetization company PapayaMobile announced the launch of a new SDK to help independent Android developers access the Chinese mobile market.

The first free game with in-app purchases to launch in China using the new SDK will be Scottish developer Cobra Mobile’s WW2 shooter iBomber for Android.

The PapayaMobile SDK helps Android app and game developers monetize by plugging into the company’s cross-promotion and ad network AppFlood, where they can buy, sell or exchange ads and traffic with advertisers and other publishers.

More importantly, the SDK also plugs into China Mobile, China’s biggest mobile operator with more than 700 million subscribers, to allow for in-app purchasing via carrier billing.

Carrier billing is tremendously important if not absolutely necessary in order to monetize in the Chinese market. In November 2012, CocoaChina’s US GM Lei Zhang Zhang told us that carrier billing accounted for 90 percent of Fishing Joy 2’s total revenue of $1.6 million per month. At the 2013 Game Developers Conference Yodo1’s CEO Henry Fong told us that there may be other companies that are able to push games and apps to the many Android app stores in China, but that only those with standing deals with the mobile carriers and access to carrier billing will be able to monetize.

The official release from PapayaMobile claims that the company is taking the lead in opening up the Chinese market to Western developers, but in reality they are already in competition with big and established players such as the aforementioned Yodo1 (which also offers important localization services), InMobi’s App Publish distribution platform which can push an app or game to more than 130 Android app stores in a few clicks, and others.

Supercell confirmed to Forbes that is had raised another round of funding at $130 million in February on a valuation of $770 million from Index Ventures, Atomico Partners and Institutional Venture Partners.

Index Ventures invested $52.5 million of the total $130 million, with participation by Institutional Venture Partners and Atomico. Accel Partners, an early investor of Supercell, and all shareholders, sold 16.7 percent of their holdings to new investors.

Supercell also shared some revenue figures, telling Forbes it generated $100 million in gross revenue last year and $179 million in just Q1 2013, which translated to $104 million for the first quarter, after Apple’s standard 30 percent cut.

Supercell was once reportedly generating $1 million in gross revenue a day from just its two iOS games — casual farm game Hay Day and village-building title Clash of Clans. Now the Finnish startup makes double that, seeing $2.4 million a day, which places the company at a run-rate of more than $800 million for 2013, with the potential to reach $1 billion, according to Forbes. Supercell also sees about 8.5 million daily active users playings its two titles, who play an average of 10 times per day.

Every time a hot venture capital-backed private company shares its numbers, the same question always arises — why did the company share its financial figures now? Rovio, another Finnish game developer, shared its financial results for 2012 on April 3, reporting that it increased revenues by twofold from €75.6 million ($97.1 million) in 2011 to €152.2 million ($195.5 million) in 2012.

CEO Ilkka Paananen told Forbes that the latest round of funding wasn’t exactly needed, but took the funding as more of an opportunity to give shareholders a quick payout as both a “thank you” for their hard work and to alleviate any pressure to go public any time soon.

Index Ventures, one of the venture capital firms that led this latest round of funding for Supercell, posted a blog post from one of their partners, Neil Rimer, about the deal earlier today.

Paananen told Forbes that Supercell’s plan for the next three years includes moving into Android development, expanding into the lucrative Asian markets, releasing more global hits and “probably” an IPO.

Full-service Chinese mobile games publisher Yodo1 revealed a social games platform it plans to launch in Western markets. The platform, titled Kryptanium, allows developers to add social and cross-promotional features into every game, including single-player games, with an API.

The Kryptanium platform emerged naturally out of Yodo1’s localization and publishing business, helping Western developers monetize their games in China. In Western markets, social networks like Twitter and Facebook are invaluable tools to developers for marketing their games, and can, in the best cases, have a viral affect. But this is much harder to achieve in China where Google, Twitter and Facebook are blocked.

Kryptanium aims to solve this problem by integrating with the popular alternatives to Facebook in China (Sina Weibo, QQ and Tencent Weibo) and pulling them all to one platform which can then cross-promote to a large audience. An added benefit to the platform is that the user can interact with the platform, tap on cross-promotions and download new games all without exiting their current game session. “Never leave the game,” is the guiding philosophy, Yodo1’s vice president and lead on Kryptanium Spencer Liu told us.  “When the developers we work with saw Kryptanium in action, the response was very enthusiastic. They asked us how they can use it, right now and in the U.S.”

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Social-mobile gaming developer Digital Chocolate today launched its first real-money gaming title Slots! Pocket UK for iOS in the U.K.

Powered by real-money gaming platform Betable, Slots! Pocket UK is a slots game that allows U.K. users the option to wager either real money or virtual currency and chips on pulls of the slot machine. Betable first announced its partnership with Digital Chocolate back in November 2012. Digital Chocolate is one of 10 developers so far to partner with Betable for its real-money gaming platform, which is still a private beta program. Betable handles all the real-money aspects of the game on the backend, including compliance, fraud prevention, identity checks, wagering, and gambling results, while Digital Chocolate can focus on the development of the actual game. In order for players to gamble with real money, they must be authenticated with Betable by signing up, depositing money, and more.

“[Betable] helped us leapfrog the whole race into real-money gaming by allowing us to partner with them on their platform, and of course, they have the license in the U.K. to do real-money gaming,” Jason Loia, chief operating officer of Digital Chocolate, told Inside Mobile Apps.

Mobile game developer and publisher Pocket Gems today released a case study about its publishing program, where the company explained its publishing philosophy and process. It’s first two published games — Chasing Yello for Android and Amazing Ants for iOS — both saw more than two million installs in the first two weeks of its respective releases.

The purpose of the case study was to review the first two games Pocket Gems published and to share some information on how the games performed as well as more on the publishing process between Pocket Gems and the indie developers. Future developers can get a better sense as to how Pocket Gems works with developers, since many have asked Pocket Gems how its publishing process works.

“We had on our website that this is the general process, but here we can say here’s what we did with the first developers we worked with and get a better sense of what it actually looks like,” says Jameel Khalfan, who oversees publishing efforts for Pocket Gems.

The San Francisco-headquartered game studio, which was founded in 2009, first announced that it was adding a publishing side to its business in December 2012. The development house had revealed three games from indie developers it was publishing so far. The first game published by Pocket Gems was endless swimmer game Chasing Yello for Android in December 2012 from German developer Dreamfab and Danish developer Tactile Entertainment. The second title was Twyngo’s Lemmings-like puzzler Amazing Ants for iOS in January. Pocket Gems’ third announced title that was part of its initial publishing deal was we.R.play’s robot action title RoboQuest for iOS, which has yet to release. Khalfan says the game will launch “soon.”

Khalfan reiterated what CEO Ben Liu told Inside Mobile Apps last year, saying Pocket Gems didn’t believe there were any good publishing options for developers, so that’s why the company decided to fill that void.

“We only publish games that we love from a small group developers,” Khalfan says. “Our goal isn’t to go and publish a thousand games. Our goal is to find the best games and focus our time and attention on them rather than going for the shotgun approach.”

Pocket Gems helped Twyngo and Dreamfab through the entire publishing process including the design, engagement, and monetization phase, the testing phase and the launch phase. Khalfan adds that each developer Pocket Gems worked with needed help in one phase more than the other. Pocket Gems helped Twyngo decide whether it should release two versions of Amazing Ants — a light and full version — or a purely freemoim game with in-app purchase. Twyngo ultimately went with the latter. Dreamfab, which had already released Chasing Yello for iOS on its own, came to Pocket Gems for help with porting the title to Android. Due to the severe fragmentation when it comes to Android devices, Pocket Gems aided Dreamfab by telling the indie developer its best practices for which Android devices and operating system versions Dreamfab should support and not support.

“For each different game, it’s going to be a different approach from everything from the game design to the QA process to the launch and the ongoing marketing and analytics,” Khalfan says. “That’s the best approach for developers because they all want something a little bit different and they all have different skills sets, and they all have different things they are good at and things they want help on.”

Pocket Gems is now one of many major gaming giants such as DeNA, GREE, Zynga and Kabam which have invested into the publishing of third-party titles.

A fear many indie developers have when working with publishers is if their game doesn’t perform well, publishers will put less support and resources into the their game, while putting more into games that are performing well.

“We want to put in our all for every game that we publish, so that’s why we focus on a smaller set of games,” Khalfan says.

Khalfan says Pocket Gems is currently looking for more games to publish from all genres and primarily free-to-play. Developers interested in learning more about Pocket Gems’ publishing efforts can go here.

Zynga’s latest publishing partner is Elite Beat Agents developer iNis, which is getting ready to launch its new mobile title Eden to Green on Zynga’s network.

The game’s story takes place on a world inhabited by sentient plants who find their planet under siege by a group of alien machines. After devastating the planet, the machines begin to get beaten back by a group of plants focused on restoring nature around the world.

iNis is best known in the U.S. for its rhythm game for the Nintendo DS handheld device, Elite Beat Agents, which released in 2006. The developer has worked on other music games since, and even made a couple of forays to smartphones in partnership with Square Enix, with Demon’s Score and Symphonica. But with Zynga’s powerful cross-promotion tools behind it, Eden to Green is likely to make iNis more visible than it’s been in years.

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Mobile-social game developer Storm8 today launched tile-matching game Fruit Blast Mania for iOS from its casual social label TeamLava, the third social arcade title from the Redwood City, Calif.-headquartered company.

“When we decide to enter a genre, we decide not to be a one-hit wonder and will create multiple hits over time,” Perry Tam, co-founder and CEO of Storm8, told Inside Mobile Apps. “This is a great example of how we strategize our game launches to conquer a game genre to expand our footprint within the genre, and gain a user base by launching more titles.”

Fruit Blast Mania features two new modes for the tile-matching genre on mobile — Color Mode and Digging Mode. In Color Mode, players are tasked with matching a particular type of fruit, while in Digging Mode, users are challenged by navigating through the puzzle, unlocking hidden charms. Also, the game comes packed with 100 levels to play, and unlike many tile-matching games where players are pitted against the clock, Fruit Blast Mania features hand-crafted levels that were designed for users to solve each puzzle by strategically moving around tiles. Fruit Blast Mania also remains fresh for players by adding new obstacles to each level. Lastly, the game features asynchronous multiplayer gameplay where players can compete against their friends or family’s high scores for each level.

Storm8 launched its first social arcade game Bubble Mania in June 2012, which reached one million downloads in three days thanks to Storm8′s network it’s built up over the years. The game studio’s second social arcade game Jewel Mania launched in November 2012, and it’s constantly reaching the top 25 on the top grossing iPhone apps charts, according to our traffic tracking service AppData.

Speaking of Storm8′s gaming network, Tam says the benefits of a network include lower user acquisition costs because Storm8 can cross-promote games on its network, and the ability to extend a user’s lifetime, while reducing churn. Tam adds that a user who plays multiple games on its network are three-times more likely to continue playing Storm8 games compared to users who just play one Storm8 game. The network also allows Storm8 to monetize its users from multiple games. As an example of Storm8′s platform effect, the company spend zero dollars in marketing on Bubble Mania’s launch, despite the title generating more than one million downloads in three days.

“When we first started the company, we started with this network approach, which is different than a lot of other developers,” he says.

At the 2013, Game Developers Conference, CEO Perry Tam revealed deep insights as to how Storm8 grew without taking VC funding or plans to go public anytime soon. Although Tam wouldn’t disclose Storm8′s financials, he did point to app store analytics company App Annie’s recent report, which listed Storm8 as the No. 6 top grossing app publisher worldwide (No. 1 private company since the top five are all public companies). Storm8 was one spot above Supercell which is reportedly pulling in $1 million in revenue per day from just two games — Clash of Clans and Hay Day. He says App Annie’s report can give people a benchmark as to how well Storm8 is doing.

Storm8, which was founded in 2009, now sees more than 10 million daily active users across its gaming network, which consists of about 40 titles across five genres. Storm8 also accumulated 400 million total downloads across 200 million devices. Storm8 publishes games under its own game developer labels including TeamLava, casino label Shark Party and hardcore label FireMocha. Some notable titles from Storm8 include social casual titles like Pet Shop Story and Restaurant Story, massively multiplayer online role-playing games like World War and iMobsters, and social casino games like Bingo! and Slots.

For the rest of 2013, Tam says Storm8 plans to continue making games in the causal and mid-core genre, while expanding into the hardcore genre — all of which he sees as having potential for continued growth.

Finnish mobile game developer Rovio today announced it’s bringing the Facebook version of its flagship title, Angry Birds Friends, to mobile.

Angry Birds Friends is different from the other mobile versions in the franchise in how it monetizes and its social hooks. Whereas in the mobile versions a single lifetime purchase of $0.99 unlocks all of the game’s levels and powerups, players of Angry Birds Friends can only purchase a limited number of powerups that range from 20 uses for $1 to 1000 uses for $20. The Facebook version of the game also includes exclusive levels and items. Rovio has also expanded the game’s social features for Facebook, integrating Open Graph so users can add the app to Timeline, creating a more visible leaderboard that stays on the right side of the screen and allowing players to send and receive gifts. Players can also collect bonuses for playing every day and competing in weekly tournaments.

Rovio, presumably, hopes to drive up engagement by offering all of these social features and monetization methods to mobile players.

Angry Birds Friends peaked after it officially launched in May 2012 with 24.1 million monthly active users. It has been losing users steadily since, but seems to have platued in December 2012. Today AppData has Angry Birds Friends at an estimated 10.8 million MAU, placing it in the No. 38 spot of thr most popular Facebook games by MAU (right behind FreshPlanet’s SongPop and ahead of Zynga’s CityVille).