本周初，我们有幸与Ngmoco公司合作创办者Neil Young谈论目前蓬勃兴起的手机游戏市场。据游戏邦了解，Ngmoco可谓是2010年倍受瞩目的手机社交游戏公司之一，该公司于2010年10月以4亿美元的价格被日本DeNA公司收购。目前，两家公司正计划联合推出一个全球手机游戏网站。

Neil Young

问：首先，请与我们分享下ngmoco的创立经过，及公司原本的发展计划。

2008年夏天，我离开了Electronic Arts，并与朋友一起成立了ngmoco公司。因为我相信iPhone及其手机操作系统拥有庞大的市场前景。iPhone的实用性和兼容性将改变人们对手机设备的使用习惯和投入时间。

其实之前，我对手机游戏毫无兴趣。当时的手机游戏产品及其开发过程无法激起我的干劲。手机游戏开发公司从事的工作更像是工厂，而不是什么创意工程。

但当我拿到第一台iPhone后，我的手机使用方式和想法都发生了变化。当Steve Jobs宣布发布App Store和SDK时，我立马打电话给我的合作同伴Bob Stevenson，我说“我们应该做这个。”当时，我们的目标并不仅仅在于创立一家手机游戏公司，而是希望创立一家娱乐公司，并将它打造成百年老店。

问：2010年10月，Ngmoco被日本手机游戏公司DeNA收购。你们是否与DeNA公司分享过这一想法呢？

DeNA旗下还有其他产业，但主要开发手机游戏和经营娱乐网站Mabage-town。事实上，Mabage-town也可算是一种社交网站，其中汇集了各种DeNA及第三方开发商的产品。日本用户不仅在Mobage上玩游戏，同时还可以在Mobage上与朋友保持联系及了解各种娱乐资讯。Mabage-town为用户提供更全面的服务。

问：听起来很像社交网站Facebook。您及DeNA公司是否将Facebook视为劲敌呢？

我们很佩服Facebook。如果说Facebook关注的是新闻和资讯，我们的Mobage则关注游戏和娱乐。如果说Facebook是网页，而我们则侧重手机。另外，Facebook在日本并不十分流行。

还有一点重要的区别在于Mobage拥有虚拟社交元素。Mobage不强制推行实名制，因此用户在邀请现实好友的同时，大部分新朋友是来自这个网站不知名的陌生人。Mobage用户不必像Facebook用户那样担心“应不应该让朋友知道我收获了庄稼或建立了城市？”，这样的环境也更有利于娱乐的发展。

问：据说去年DeNA的手机游戏市场估值就超过了10亿美元，相当于整个美国手机游戏市场的估值。你认为什么是值得我们向日本市场学习的？

现在的西方手机游戏市场很像是10年前，即刚进入21世纪的日本手机游戏市场。当然现在的科技更加发达，网络更为宽敞，还有新兴的3G技术等。

令人惊讶的是现在日本市场中的大部分手机都不是功能强大的智能手机。在21世纪初，日本的功能性手机就已经比大部分西方手机更好用。因为他们跨过了这个技术门槛，再加上其他有利条件，日本手机产业实现了蓬勃发展。现在日本1亿2000万的总人口中约有1亿人为手机用户，其中又有2000万人为Mobage用户。方便无障碍的支付方式促使这一人群在虚拟商品上花费了大量金钱。

而现在的西方（美国）正处于与日本当年类似的环境。在iTunes中，用户可以实现无障碍付费，而iPhone，Android等手机则提供了强大的实用性和兼容性，网络费用较低，网络连接情况也很理想。

在Ngmoco被DeNA收购之前，我们就已经开始关注手机游戏市场，并知道它将以惊人速度向前发展，这一趋势并不仅限于iPhone和App Store。我们计划将公司打造成西方的DeNA，并着重为智能手机开发游戏和娱乐服务。后来，我们就被DeNA收购了。

问：对现在的手机游戏公司而言，广告和虚拟商品哪种更为重要？

在日本，虚拟商品的份额超过广告，这与功能性手机的展示功能有一定的关系。然而对Ngmoco而言，广告所占的比重则更大。我们认为在功能性手机转向智能手机的过程中，富媒体或广告在日本市场仍有大量上升空间。

问：本月初，Ngmoco宣布将关闭部分免费iPhone游戏，其中包括Epic Pet Wars, Epic Chef Wars, Epic Crime Wars和Titan Wars.尽管并没有多少人抗议，但玩家也确实在其中花钱买了不少虚拟商品，可是游戏关闭并不赔偿玩家的损失。这样一来会不会对以销售虚拟商品为盈利方式的公司发展造成影响？

我们当然希望尽可能地维持游戏的运营。虚拟商品是游戏娱乐的一个环节，我们应该尊重这些购买了虚拟端口的玩家，但他们所花的钱已经转变成了一种有趣的游戏体验，而这些体验现在已经不具备经济或策略上的实际意义。我们当然希望长久地运营游戏，但有时候就是无能为力。

问：所以你认为玩家并不是真的拥有这些虚拟商品？

如果我们深入探索这一行业，就不免遇到一些问题：什么是虚拟商品？它是一项资产吗？还是说只是一种加强娱乐体验的元素？在这一行业产生更多研究、创新和思考之前，我们暂时没法解释这些问题。

这是一个全新的产业，发展速度很惊人。下一代社交游戏不会只是上一代社交游戏的简单叠加，它的玩法和游戏体验将会有巨大的变化。游戏开发商在不断发展，游戏玩家、平台、手机设备和网站也都在不断变化，大家都不例外。这也正是最让人兴奋的一点：我们正处于一个巨大变革的开端，我们有机会打造一个我们原来设想的公司，一个未来的娱乐公司。

问：最后，请与我们分享下今年推出的全球手机游戏网站。

Mobage将绑定三星游戏门户网站GameHub，预装到三星Galaxy S2产品。

今年第二季度，我们将分别面向Android和iOS发布不同版本的Mobage应用，这是我们创建未来娱乐网站迈出的第一步。我们想借这个机会，开发出像MTV一样影响一代人的产品，它将具备传媒网站一样广泛的影响力，同时又带有和社交网站一样的创收功能。希望它可以成为手机用户玩游戏和寻找娱乐体验的终点站之一。因为手机操作系统的触角已经遍及手机、平板电脑和电视，所以这个网络建立起来后，一定会形成不容忽视的影响力。

我们选择被DeNA收购并不是迫于无奈，也不是资金匮乏，而是认为mobage有助于实现我们的理想！（本文为游戏邦编译/gamerboom.com编译，转载请注明来源：游戏邦）

Earlier this week, I was lucky enough to spend a few minutes discussing the exploding mobile gaming market with Neil Young, an Electronic Arts veteran who co-founded ngmoco. A mobile social gaming company with one of the more successful exits of 2010, ngmoco was acquired by DeNA in October 2010 for $400 million. Now, hand in hand, the two companies are poised to launch a global mobile gaming network that could be the future of entertainment.

Let’s start at the beginning. Tell us about the genesis of ngmoco and your original vision for what the company would become.

I left Electronic Arts and started ngmoco in the summer of 2008 because I fundamentally believed that devices like the iPhone and the mobile operating systems that powered them would eventually be in the pockets of billions of people. They had this unique blend of usability and capability that changed how people used them and how much time people spent with them.

Before, mobile games had never been interesting to me. The types of products and the way you built those products were both particularly uninspiring, and the companies who built the products were more like factories and less like creative organizations.

That really changed for me when I got my first iPhone and recognized that my usage patterns were changing. When Steve Jobs announced the App Store and SDK, I called up my founding partner, Bob Stevenson, and said, ‘We should do this.’ Our aspirations, at the outset, were not just to build a mobile gaming company, but to ultimately build a future entertainment company that would last longer than we did.

ngmoco was purchased for $400 million in October 2010 by DeNA, a decidedly mobile gaming-focused company in Japan. Do they share your aspirations of growing beyond games?

They have other businesses, but the core of the business is a mobile games and entertainment site called Mobage-town. It’s probably best described as both the social network and the products, made by both DeNA and hundreds of other third-party developers. People in Japan use that service not just to play games, but to also stay in touch with each other and access other forms of entertainment. It’s a pretty comprehensive service.

Sounds a lot like Facebook. Do you or DeNA feel threatened by their seemingly unstoppable growth?

We respect Facebook. Think about it this way: if Facebook is news and information, we’re games and entertainment. If Facebook is the Web, we’re starting with mobile. And in Japan, Facebook just doesn’t have the same traction it has elsewhere.

Also, one fundamental difference between what we do with Mobage is that we have a virtual social aspect. While you can invite people you know into your network, the vast majority of new friends are those you’ve made within the service, which affords a modicum of anonymity. Probably one of the things you feel while playing games on Facebook is, ‘Do I really want people to know I’m harvesting my crops or building up my city right now?’ This solves that problem and makes sense in an entertainment setting.

Last year, the Japanese mobile gaming market was worth $1 billion just for DeNA alone, but the same market here in the states is only just surpassing that value for all publishers combined. Can you speak to what we can learn from the Japanese market?

If you look at the conditions on the ground in the West right now, they are very similar to the conditions that were on the ground in Japan in the early 2000s. You have very affordable, if not flat-rate, data plans. You have bandwidth and connectivity at 3G or better. And you have devices that have crossed a threshold of usability and capability.

It surprises people to know that the vast majority of phones in Japan are not as powerful as most smartphones. In early 2000s, the feature phones they had in Japan were radically better than anything we had here in the West. They crossed this threshold that, combined with those other conditions, created an explosion in usage that has fueled the industry. In Japan today, you have a population of about 120 million people, 100 million of which have cell phones and 20 million of which are Mobage users. And those users are spending a lot of money on virtual goods because of frictionless payment services, the last piece of the puzzle for the market.

Now, here in the West, we have very similar conditions. With iTunes, you have a frictionless way to pay. With iPhone and Android phones, you have powerful usability and capability. You have single-price or low-price unlimited data plans. And you’ve got a good level of connectivity.

Before the acquisition by DeNA, we looked at the market and knew it would explode, way beyond what people imagine. This isn’t just about the iPhone and the App Store, it’s an undeniable tide that will rise higher and faster than anyone can forecast. We literally began modeling our company on trying to become the Western DeNA and build a service for games and entertainment that surfaced on smartphones versus Japanese feature phones. In the end, that’s how we came to be acquired by DeNA.

What’s bigger for the mobile gaming company today? Advertising or virtual goods?

Today, virtual goods is significantly larger than advertising in Japan. That has a lot to do with what you can display on a feature phone versus a smartphone. What we’re finding is that the ngmoco side of the business sees a much higher mix of advertising, meaning there is tremendous growth potential in rich media or advertising in the Japanese market as it tips from feature phones to smartphones.

Earlier this month, ngmoco announced that it would be shutting down several free iPhone games, including Epic Pet Wars, Epic Chef Wars, Epic Crime Wars and Titan Wars. Though there wasn’t too much outcry, the fact remains that customers did spend money on virtual goods in these games and were not reimbursed. Is this going to be a big future problem for companies that make tons of revenue from the sale of virtual goods?

We like to keep the games going for as long as possible. Virtual goods are a part of the cycle of entertainment and enjoyment for the game, so it’s important to respect what customers have spent money on. But, at the end of the day, they are spending money on elements and items that are contributing to an entertainment experience. At some point, those experiences are no longer viable from an economic or strategic basis. We wish we could keep those games running forever, but sometimes it’s not possible.

So do you believe that a customer doesn’t actually own a virtual good?

As we explore the industry, there are a lot of questions we need to answer: What is a virtual good? Is it a piece of property? Is it an element that contributes to an entertainment experience? Probably a lot of work, innovation, thinking and iteration has to happen before we figure it out.

The whole industry is completely brand new and it’s evolving at an incredible pace. The next set of social games will not be small increments on the last set of social games; there will be radical changes and improvements in how they are played. As we evolve as game makers alongside evolving users, platforms, devices, networks, it’s all up for grabs. And that’s what’s most exciting: we’re at the beginning of a tremendous revolution. We have the opportunity to build companies like that original vision of ngmoco, a future entertainment company.

Lastly, tell us about this global mobile network you’re launching this year.

On Samsung Android devices, Mobage will be powering GameHub, which is Samsung’s portal for gaming. That will launch with Galaxy S2 devices.

In Q2, we’ll be releasing Mobage as a separate application for both Android and iOS, which will be our first step in building that future entertainment network I mentioned. There is an opportunity to deliver something that impacts the current generation as much as MTV impacted the last, to build something that has the reach of a broadcast network but has the monetization potential of a social network. Hopefully, it will become one of (if not the) definitive destinations for games and entertainment on mobile operating systems. As those mobile operating systems move from phones to tablets to televisions, you can start imagining a network that is just incredibly impactful.

We sold the company to DeNA not because we had to or because we wanted the money, but because we felt that Mobage-town in Japan was an early blueprint of that network we wanted to build.（Source：vator.com）