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社交游戏最终会成为游戏工业的核心环节之一吗?

发布时间:2010-06-21 01:22:31 Tags:,,,,,

E3已经结束了,现在正是时间来审视和评估各个游戏公司。在E3中,包括微软游戏、电子艺界、育碧软件、任天堂、索尼游戏、美国动视在内的传统游戏巨头占据了各大新闻传播的头条,而与此同时,包括zynga在内的各大社交游戏开发商几乎都缺席了这个全球最大的游戏展览展示场合,于是人们不禁要问社交游戏最终会成为游戏工业的核心环节之一吗?

slide_social_games

slide_social_games

以zynga为例,该公司名下的farmville虚拟农场、mafia wars黑手党枪战、petville宠物城堡以及最新发布的frontierville边城等等为该公司赢得了超过2亿3000万的活跃用户。按照这个规模来讲,zynga掌握的玩家远远超过任何一家其他的传统游戏公司。

同时也不能说没有影响,zynga就出现在苹果举办的全球开发者大会上,并向全球介绍了farmville正式进军iphone手机游戏。

但是不能不面对的是,确实没有一款重量级的社交游戏参与全球最重磅的游戏展览的展出。对于全球传统玩家或者厂商的认可度来讲,社交游戏开发商在这方面明显显得不足,electronista网站将它称为是That’s a shame。

palyfish

palyfish

With E3 just finished, it’s time for the market to start evaluating game companies. But as EA, Ubisoft, Activision, and others continue to get all the headlines, social-gaming companies don’t get the kind of respect their bigger competitors do. This may have to change with larger platform supporters, including non-traditional Apple, as they may be ignoring an untapped market.

Zynga, the world’s most prominent social-gaming company is one such company that should be taken seriously. The firm is the home to FarmVille, Mafia Wars, PetVille and the newly released FrontierVille. According to the company, it has over 230 million active users playing its many games each month. That’s far more than EA and other top developers can muster.

And yet, it gets no respect. Recently, Zynga took the stage at WWDC during Steve Jobs’ keynote. At the event, the company announced that its wildly popular FarmVille is making its way to the iPhone. And as users play the game, they will be able to make in-app purchases to build up their farms. Even better, the game will sync with FarmVille on Facebook, making it easy for users to continue their progress on their mobile phones.

Whether or not FarmVille will be the success that its online alternative was remains to be seen. But there’s little debating that  social games are the future. With more and more users actively visiting Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks, having games to play with friends seems like an obvious inclusion. And considering they’re now making their way to mobile phones, they’re starting to gain the kind of ground that previously, only major releases from prominent developers have achieved.

And all the while, not a single social game has made a significant showing at E3, the video game industry’s biggest conference. That’s a shame. Social gaming is on the rise. Companies like Zynga have more customers than any prominent console developer. And yet, at the single event where social gaming should matter, it doesn’t matter at all.

Exactly what it will take to bring social games into the mainstream in the industry is anyone’s guess. Consoles are flashy. Handhelds are interesting. But simple games running on a social network? Yeah, not so much.

The simplicity of social games are holding them back. But that simplicity also contributes heavily to their success. So, while they might not get the kind of attention that more traditional games do, one thing is becoming abundantly clear: social games could very well drive industry sales going forward. And maybe then they will get the attention they deserve.


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