最近，社交游戏领域又迎来了“历史性的一刻”。社交游戏FarmVille自2009年8月首次成为Facebook排名第一的应用距今已经1年有余。然而本周据AppData数据显示，在月活跃用户数量排行上，FarmVille下滑至第二位，而应用“Phrases”夺得第一宝座。

“Phrase”是一款让Facebook用户运用图片和短句在“墙”上表达自我的一款奇特应用，能激发用户发表更多的内容。我试图通过Facebook网站上刊登的e-mail地址与该应用开发商取得联系，但目前还没有收到这位神秘开发商的回复。

虽然FarmVille月活跃用户的第一王座不保，但其在日活跃用户方面仍以1600万占据Facebook热门应用排行榜首位，排名第二的是Windows Live Messager，其日活跃用户为1000万人。虽然如此，但月活跃用户数量的减少仍然造成了FarmVille游戏用户的大幅度减少。在今年二月，FarmVille月活跃用户达到最高峰的8000万人。然而在之后的8个月里这一数据持续下降，现月活跃用户不足5400万人。

尽管如此，FarmVille仍是造就Zynga公司现在Facebook最大游戏开发商的一大功臣。在过去短短的四年期间，社交游戏开发公司Zynga创造了令人难以置信的55亿1000万美元的公司估值，甚至超越了老牌视频游戏巨头公司Electronic Arts的价值。然而近期Zynga公司旗下所有社交游戏的用户数量都呈现下降趋势，甚至低于了2亿月活跃用户大关。Zynga无法再发布一款具有FarmVille式轰动效果的社交游戏。其几个月前发布的FrontierVille虽然在发布之初迅速赢得了近3000万用户，但很快这一增长势头冷却，用户纷纷离开游戏。

FarmVille

相较而言FarmVille问世已久，其用户数的大量减少一部分是由于Facebook社交网站平台的变化。从今年开始，Facebook社交网站不再允许Zynga等游戏开发商通过“病毒式传播渠道”获取用户，这对Facebook上的社交游戏行情产生了一定性的影响。

对此游戏行业分析师Michael Cai认为这是因为社交游戏的黄金发展时期已经结束。这对Zynga公司可以说是有利有弊。利是经过这几年的发展，Zynga已是Facebook网站上规模最大的社交游戏开发公司，拥有多款知名游戏和大量的用户基础。Zynga可通过跨游戏宣传新游戏作品，新作的游戏用户也比较有保证。其次，Zynga还拥有足够的经济实力可通过营销手段吸引新玩家。与之相比，小型的社交游戏公司经济实力不足，网络的占有率也不足，又加之不能使用病毒式传播渠道，因此想要吸引新游戏用户则更加艰难。

但弊就是Zynga今年所失去的美国用户可能很难再次回笼。虽然付费游戏玩家的数量和每用户平均收入有些许上升，但很难达到飞跃式的增长。因此，如果美国人真的对社交游戏热情冷却，那么，Zynga和其他社交游戏开发商就必须进军国际市场谋求发展，这也正是Zynga公司最新游戏CityVille之所以全球发布的原因。目前这款类似于Simcity的游戏一共有五种语言版本：英语，法语，西班牙语，意大利语和德语。现在，各大社交游戏开发商现在必须再面向国际化发展得同时，注重游戏的本地化。同时，社交游戏开发商要注重开发更优质，更有趣的游戏体验。CityVille也许是Zynga历来在画面和游戏机制上最为复杂的一款游戏。在本周三的会议上，该公司的首席执行官Mark Pincus也指出目前再全部1300名Zynga员工中，有400人将在这季度结束前负责开发这一新游戏。

现在，社交游戏的发展势头有所冷却，我们也很难预料未来用户的喜好。然而现在Zynga公司仍然在社交游戏领域占有举足轻重的地位，其凭借着自身55亿1000万美元的估值仍然是社交游戏领域的巨头公司。而FarmVille游戏玩家的下降昭示着Zynga和其他所有社交游戏开发商所将共同面对的未来。

在过去的几年中，Zynga公司充分探索了美国的社交游戏市场，而现在全球和手机领域出现了新的发展机会。尽管并不容易，但现在社交游戏领域已经发展成熟并开始向下一个发展阶段进发。（本文由游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，转载请注明：游戏邦）

This is a historic moment for social games. “FarmVille,” the hit Facebook game among all hit Facebook games, is no longer the top app on the social network. For the first time since claiming the top spot more than a year ago in August 2009, FarmVille has fallen to second place in terms of monthly active users on Facebook, according to AppData.com. Coming in at no. 1 now is the app “Phrases.”

“Phrases” is a curious and inconspicuous sort of app that allows users some self-expression on their Facebook walls through images and phrases. It may be a testament to the power of user-generated content. I reached out to the creators of Phrases through several email addresses available on their Facebook page to learn more about them and their plans, but haven’t heard back from this mysterious outfit.

To be sure, FarmVille is still easily the top app in terms of daily active users, at more than 16 million compared to the second-highest app Windows Live Messenger at nearly 10 million. But its decrease in monthly active users is still a big step down, or more accurately, a steady decline for the game. Just last February, FarmVille hit its peak with more than 80 million monthly active users. Eight months later, that number has continued a downwards march, now down to just under 54 million users.

FarmVille has played a large part in helping social games company Zynga dominate and reach its unbelievable valuation of $5.51 billion in just four years, surpassing videogame giant Electronic Arts’ value. In the meantime, Zynga’s collective monthly active users numbers across all its games has also taken a dive, recently dipping below 200 million monthly active users for the first time since it passed that milestone one year ago. The company hasn’t been able to follow up with a hit of quite the same magnitude as FarmVille. FrontierVille, for instance, launched a few months earlier, initially took off, zooming past 30 million users. But just as quickly, growth cooled, and users have begun a slow trickle out of the game.

While FarmVille is a game that’s been around for a while, part of its declining fortune is from the changes Facebook has made to the platform, no longer allowing Zynga and others to access the ‘viral’ user acquisition channels they once had. This has had an effect on the entire social games ecosystem on Facebook.

“I think the gold rush is pretty much over now, the days of easy money are gone,” says Interpret games analyst Michael Cai. That’s good and bad news for Zynga. Good in that it already has a big — the biggest — network of users it can cross-promote its new games on. This helps ensure that each new game it delivers will attract lots of users. Zynga also has the money to spend outright and acquire new users through heavy marketing. A smaller social games company, on the other hand, has neither the money, the network, nor the viral acquisition channels to entice new users to its games.

But it’s bad news for Zynga too in that user growth in the US may have leveled off for good, says Cai. The percentage of people who spend money in a game may go up a little, as might the average revenue per user, but neither is likely to see a significant jump. “The growth from this point on is going to be more organic than explosive,” Cai says.

If the US has cooled to social games, Zynga and other developers would be wise to look to international markets for growth. That’s exactly why Zynga’s latest title “CityVille” was the company’s first international launch. The SimCity-like game is available in five languages: English, French, Spanish, Italian and German. Social games developers now need to think international and invest in localization. They also need to focus on developing better and more interesting games. CityVille is perhaps Zynga’s most complex game to date in terms of graphics and game mechanics. And at a conference on Wednesday, Zynga chief Mark Pincus said that by the company would have 400 of its 1,300 employees focused on creating new intellectual property by the end of the quarter.

But the hits-driven games industry is fickle, and it’s difficult to predict what users’ tastes will swing towards next time. Zynga looks great right now, with a $5.51 billion valuation, more than half a billion dollars in total funding, a stable of top social games and a still-large network of users. FarmVille’s fall is symbolic of what’s to come, however, for Zynga and for the rest of the social games industry.

Zynga exploded over the past few years in the US, but growth now will be found in new markets — global and mobile — and it won’t come easy, either. The social games industry is maturing and transitioning into the next phase. A new dawn will greet the citizens of FarmVille tomorrow. （Source：Forbes）