近年来，社交游戏和手机游戏发展迅速。预计到2015年，包括游戏、电影和音乐在内的手机娱乐行业年产值将达到528亿美元。来自Inside Network的Justin Smith和虚拟商品峰会组织者Charles Hudson开展的研究表明，单是手机和社交游戏内虚拟商品二级交易（即所谓的“微交易”），年产值就将近21亿美元。

游戏邦觉得，纵然游戏业收入颇丰，最大的盈利者仍属个体公司。手机游戏业巨擘Rovio将在未来大展旗鼓，这种形势足可预见，因为风靡全球的《愤怒的小鸟》便出自该公司之手。流行社交游戏《Farmville》和《黑帮战争》的开发商Zynga也加大其资金投入力度，为将来公开募股增加筹码。

这意味着该领域还可以赚取大笔资金，某些致力于传统视频游戏零售业务的公司已开始转向手机和社交游戏。近年来，其发展开始逐步取得成效。以下是三家已经在社交游戏和手机游戏领域取得成功的上市公司：

迪士尼

虽然视频游戏在公司总体娱乐业务中所占比例不高，但迪士尼公司在该领域表现不凡。尽管如此，公司最近的表现不如竞争者。截止2010年12月底，迪士尼发布的任天堂Wii游戏《Epic Mickey》销售量为130万，但与同类型的任天堂游戏《New Super Mario Bros.》相比仍稍逊一筹。

迪士尼

颇为有趣的是，目前迪士尼在手机游戏和社交游戏开发中投入更多资金。游戏邦获悉，迪士尼在Facebook上的37款游戏总用户数将近330万。3月7日，迪士尼公司称其已经并购Rocket Pack，该公司研发基于HTML5的网页游戏平台。在未来两年内，预制的HTML5开发工具和迪士尼拥有的某些知识产权（包括其自有的和《Marvel Comics》中的人物和形象）势必会在支持HTML5的iPhone和网页浏览器上体现出二者结合的强大优势。

EA（美国艺电）

该公司的传统单机游戏甚为著名，如《疯狂美式橄榄球2011》和《极品飞车》系列等。但是近年来，EA在社交和手机游戏领域也有不俗的表现。休闲游戏网站Pogo.com用户数量稳步发展，而单是其下属公司Playfish每月就在Facebook上吸引了将近3700万玩家。EA在苹果出品的流行手持设备上的表现同样超凡，iPhone畅销游戏前25名中有14款出自该公司之手，12月份iPad上排名前25的游戏中EA占了15个。虽然公司2010年数字业务总收益只有7.5亿美元，但由于苹果近期与Verizon的合作使得iPhone销售量持续增长以及今年年末将发布的新款式，其数字业务进展显著。

EA Mobile

网易

网易公司主市场并不在美国，但其在中国的业务值得一提。该公司提供众多互联网服务，但在线游戏才是其关注的重点。与EA运营的Pogo.com不同，网易主要定位于多人角色扮演游戏。2010年，其社交游戏网站交易量排名全球第28位，收益的增长明显反映公司的受欢迎程度。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，转载请注明来源：游戏邦）

3 Stocks to Watch in Mobile and Social Gaming

For investors, the mobile and social gaming boom has been frustrating. The mobile entertainment industry, including games, movies and music, is expected to generate $52.8 billion annually by 2015, according to a recent report by IE Market Research. Secondary sales of virtual goods purchased inside of mobile and social games, so-called microtransactions, are on track to generate $2.1 billion by themselves according to a study conducted by Justin Smith of Inside Network and Virtual Goods Summit organizer Charles Hudson.

But the biggest earners are still private. Mobile-games king Rovio, creators of the phenom Angry Birds, is committed to independence for the foreseeable future. Zynga, the developer behind social game behemoths Farmville and Mafia Wars, is also raising investment capital on its own, offering tantalizing hints of a future IPO.

That doesn’t mean there isn’t money to be made. A few companies in the traditional retail video game business have already entrenched themselves in the mobile and social segment, and are only now starting to reap the rewards of calculated development in recent years. Here are three publicly traded companies making their mark in the social and mobile games market:

Disney (NYSE: DIS)

Despite being only a fraction of the company’s overall entertainment business, the Disney is nonetheless a major player in the video game market. However, its recent efforts have been outshined by competitors — Epic Mickey for Nintendo Wii may have sold 1.3 million copies by the end of December 2010, but it still couldn’t compete with the likes of Nintendo’s titles like New Super Mario Bros. Wii.

It’s interesting then that Disney is now pouring more capital into mobile and social games. Disney enjoys a user base of about 3.3 million Facebook players with a library of 37 titles on the social media site. Disney said Monday that it had acquired Rocket Pack, makers of an HTML5-based platform for Web browser games. Pre-made HTML5 development tools coupled with Disney-owned intellectual property including its own characters and those in Marvel Comics will make for a potent blend of offerings on both Apple’s HTML5-friendly iPhone and Web browsers in the coming two years.

Electronic Arts

The company is best known for its traditional game console titles like Madden NFL 2011 and Need for Speed, but Electronic Arts is already an established leader in the social and mobile gaming space. Properties like Pogo.com, a casual gaming website, maintains a healthy premium subscriber base while its Playfish unit pulls in about 37 million players each month on Facebook alone. EA is also a powerhouse on Apple’s popular portables –14 of the top 25 best-selling iPhone games and 15 of the top 25 iPad games sold in December were published by the company. While the company’s digital business only generated $750 million overall in 2010, significant growth is expected thanks to the continued proliferation of the iPhone through recent partnerships with Verizon and the release of new models later this year.

NetEase.com

NetEase.com doesn’t have a major presence in the U.S., but its business in China is strong. The company offers a variety of web services, but its core is online gaming not unlike EA’s Pogo.com though with a greater emphasis on multiplayer role-playing games. The social gaming website was named the 28th most trafficked site in the world in August 2010, and its revenue generation is starting to reflect that popularity. (Source: Investor Place)