游戏邦在:
杂志专栏:
gamerboom.com订阅到鲜果订阅到抓虾google reader订阅到有道订阅到QQ邮箱订阅到帮看

咨询专家分析Facebook游戏用户结构失衡原因

发布时间:2011-02-11 14:38:35 Tags:,,,

游戏邦注:本文观点来自英国投资咨询公司Games Investor Consulting主管尼克·吉布森(Nick Gibson),他对Facebook游戏用户结构失衡的原因进行了相关分析。

社交网站在年轻人中最有群众基础,这部分人群也是社交网站的核心用户。但奇怪的是,社交游戏的主力军却是家庭主妇,而年轻人在社交游戏中的投入时间却远不如这些中年女性玩家。

facebook-f-logo

facebook-f-logo

为什么会出现这种情况呢?那么传统的硬核游戏在社交网站还有没有发展机遇?

Facebook游戏玩家结构与该网站的用户基础形成了巨大的反差,虽然Facebook游戏玩家主要集中于25至54岁的女性用户,而在Facebook所有用户中,14至24岁的男女年轻人却占据了压倒性的优势,数量已经超过2亿人。而MySpace和Orkut等社交网站的核心用户则更为年轻化,据游戏邦了解,14至24岁年轻用户在社交游戏中比重不足的现象有多种原因。

首先也是最明显的原因在于,适合这类群体的社交游戏其实并不多,仅有少数高质量的社交游戏是针对年轻玩家而设计。

但社交网站的病毒式传播特点,又导致多数高质量社交游戏主要锁定经济能力较强、更年长的用户群体,而这些用户也往往更乐于推荐好友参与游戏,从而迅速扩大了这部分用户规模。即使是更大众化的社交游戏,最终还是年长的女性用户数量更多。

第二个原因是,开发公司主要考虑游戏的收益。Facebook上最具影响力的付费玩家正是那些更年长的女性用户,她们的消费能力更强,也更容易受到游戏推广活动的影响,心甘情愿为游戏买单。

社交游戏市场还处于初级发展阶段,许多开发商的生存和发展仍然有赖于外部风险投资,因此不难判断,这些公司迫于收益压力,不得不集中精力扩大高消费用户的规模,而不是耐心培养新一代付费玩家。

另外,这些年轻用户不但难以取悦,而且他们的消费能力也比较有限,所以将目标锁定年长的女性用户就成了开发商的一条捷径。

第三,尽管社交游戏正不断提高年长的女性用户的游戏体验,但在年轻玩家看来这种游戏仍然欠缺水准。

年轻的男性用户,以及少部分年轻女玩家有多种可替代社交游戏的优质选择,他们可以玩传统游戏、掌机游戏、休闲的MMO游戏、虚拟世界,也可以通过游戏门户网站下载内容。

那么,社交游戏到底适合年轻用户吗?它有没有可能吸引更多硬核游戏玩家?我们认为这两者的答案都是肯定的,只是时候未到而已。

虽然不少面向男性硬核玩家的Facebook游戏在DAU(日活跃用户人数)和MAU(月活跃用户人数)上并不占优势,但它们的ARPU(每用户平均收益)却比其他社交游戏明显更高。

据游戏邦了解,不少侧重硬核玩家的Facebook游戏虽然用户规模不敌那些中年女性游戏,但在营收上却是后者的好几倍,比如说EA最近就通过《Madden》和《FIFA Superstars》等社交游戏实现了强劲的营收增长率。

不过尼克·吉布森也指出,以上所述观点主要是基于社交游戏近期的发展趋势而得出的结论。在2010年初期及中期,多数被收购的社交游戏公司都是那些更重视年长女性用户的开发商,但在过去六个月中,偏向硬核及男性用户的开发商收购行为也开始兴盛起来,比如Kabam收购了Wonderhill,Playdom收购了Hive 7,Zynga收购了Challenge Games。

Flash是吸引硬核玩家的一种行之有效的游戏形式,据称已有成百上千万的用户涌向了德国网页MMOG游戏,但倾向年轻用户的社交游戏如果融合了高质量内容、更强大的游戏设计元素和像Adobe的Molehill 3D API等新型网页游戏开发技术,一定会获得更大的突破。(本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译,转载请注明来源:游戏邦)

Games Investor Consulting’s Nick Gibson on Facebook’s lost audience

“Social networks were developed and popularised by young people, and they are still their heaviest users.

But, ironically, the booming social network games market is dominated by middle-aged housewives because younger people don’t play there as much there as they do elsewhere.

Why has this come about and is there an opportunity for core games targeting traditional gaming’s heartland audience on social networks?

The demographic mismatch of Facebook gamers to Facebook users overall has long been one of the great incongruities of the Facebook games market.

Whilst Facebook gamers are more concentrated around older users aged 25-to-54 with a clear female weighting, Facebook overall has a noticeably younger user base with 14-to-24-year-olds of both genders the dominant demographic. In absolute terms, the 14-to-24-year-old Facebook market comprises over 200 million users.

When you also consider the younger skewed alternative social networks such as MySpace and Orkut, this combines to represent a truly colossal addressable market of young people, the majority of whom have grown up (and are still) playing games. There are many reasons why 14-to-24-year-olds are so under-represented within the social network games market.”

YOUNG BLOOD

“The first and most obvious reason is a lack of supply of suitable games; only a small proportion of higher quality social network games are actually made for younger demographics.

The viral nature of social network gaming results in the proverbial chicken and egg: most higher quality social network games are aimed at the more affluent older audience who are incentivised to recruit their friends who rapidly become the dominant user base.

Even games aimed at a broader audience have often ended up dominated by the older female players. The second reason is that companies are simply and quite sensibly following the money. The biggest group of paying players on Facebook is older females because they have the ability to pay and are most receptive to the sophisticated marketing and conversion techniques of some very savvy and commercially aggressive games companies.

The market is at an early stage where many of these companies are driven by VC funding whose fundamental drive towards an exit means being laser-focused on maximising their most lucrative user base rather than nurturing the next generation of paying players.

Since these younger players are harder to reach and monetise, the older demographic represents something of a path of least resistance.

The third major reason is that, while social network gaming largely improves on older female players’ games experiences elsewhere, it currently represents a step down for younger gamers.

The young male and to a lesser extent young female gamer has several higher quality or more convenient alternatives to social network gaming including a wealth of console and handheld gaming, casual MMOGs and virtual worlds, and games portals and download services.

So, is there a viable market for this younger audience and, more specifically, will hardcore gamers ever take to social network gaming in material volume? We believe that the answer to both is yes, given time.

While Facebook games aimed at male-oriented core gamers do not necessarily result in higher daily to monthly active user ratios (an indicator of engagement), they emphatically do result in higher ARPUs and ARPPUs.

We have looked under the hood of several companies doing Facebook games aimed at a more hardcore audience and they are generally monetising at rates multiple times higher than those aimed at the older female audience albeit with audiences a fraction of the size. EA recently attributed a strong increase in monetisation rates at Playfish specifically to its Madden and FIFA Superstars Facebook games.”

ACQUIRED KNOWLEDGE

“Perhaps one of the most interesting indications of the potential of this demographic is found in recent acquisition trends. Until early-mid 2010, most social network games company acquisitions were of companies developing games for older and female players, but in the last six months there has been a clear diversification into more hardcore and male territory with Kabam’s acquisition of Wonderhill, Playdom’s acquisition of Hive7 and Zynga’s purchase of Challenge Games.

Flash is perfectly adequate for attracting a core audience – as proven by the hundreds of millions of players registered with German browser MMOG companies – but the evolution of a younger-oriented social network games market will undoubtedly benefit from a combination of higher production values, better games design and new browser technologies such as Adobe’s Molehill 3D APIs.”(source:develop-online)


上一篇:

下一篇: