尽管《FarmVille》和《Mafia Wars》等热门社交游戏都已经移植到手机平台，但Zynga目前为止仍未将其在Facebook取得的辉煌成就复制到手机领域。不过游戏邦认为，Zynga今后有可能在这一领域持续发力，与EA Mobile、ngmoco、Gameloft等手机游戏公司在此展开角逐。Zynga首席游戏设计师布莱恩·雷诺兹（Brian Reynolds）在最近的媒体采访中谈到了公司的手机游戏发展战略。

他表示，“我们非常关注手机游戏领域，认为它是我们今后业务发展的一个主战场。”

farmville_iphone

问及Zynga为何现在仍无法统领手机游戏领域时，雷诺兹表示这是因为社交网络在手机平台的用户体验仍然充满障碍。“Zynga不能在手机平台取得瞩目成就，主要是因为这一平台的社交网站仍然存在不少局限性。这一点听起来有点不可思议，因为当你想起手机时，就会认定它就是一个天然的社交工具，你可以用手机与好友联系，可以发短信，可以发邮件，可以聊天，它就是一个社交中心。但尽管如此，它仍然缺乏Facebook所提供的那种神奇的社交体验。”

“Facebook社交体验的奇特之处在于，它可以让你与相距更远的好友联系，你有时候并不想打电话或者发邮件给自己的妈妈，但却可以通过Facebook将图片晒给她看。在一定程度上，Facebook的传播速度更快——我可以将图片晒给所有的亲戚看，而不是挨个发邮件，然后就忘了自己到底给哪些人发送了，哪些人还没发送。另外，你的交际圈子中还有一些人和你并不是特别熟络，比如说大学或高中同学，你们也并不常往来，但却可以通过Facebook与他们所有人保持联系。我发现，过去十多年没音讯的朋友，最后都通过Facebook与我取得了联系。”

在雷诺兹和Zynga看来，手机游戏领域首先得提供更为便捷而无障碍的用户体验，只有解决了这个问题，Zynga才有望真正抓住这一领域的发展机遇。“如果手机领域可以降低这种障碍性体验，比如说让我和好友更自由地分享内容，那时候我们就会真正积极投入这个领域。社交游戏可以让我在好友面前展现自我，体验游戏的一个价值在于，我知道好友会来光顾我的农场，我会为他们提供帮助，所有的朋友都有可能加入这个游戏圈子。目前来看，这个平台还有许多额外障碍性因素，这种情况在Facebook问世前的网络中也存在。”

那么，Zynga是否有意创建一个解决方案来处理这种障碍性问题，或者Zynga是否在等待移动网络实现自我完善后，然后才真正投入这个市场？游戏邦认为雷诺兹的回应表明，Zynga有意通过多种途径来解决这一棘手的问题，“我们正在认真考虑这个问题，也正在和一些合适的伙伴进行合作，有些平台运营公司也希望让这个领域更加社交化，我们会和他们合作……或者他们也有可能已经拥有社交平台，打算让这些平台更加移动化，不管他们的方向是什么，我们都会考虑。”

当然，对zynga这样的大型公司来说，他们还可以通过收购这种捷径来解决问题。游戏邦了解到，Zynga去年12月已收购了手机游戏开发商Newtoy，那么他们还会在手机领域展开更多收购行动吗？雷诺兹的答案是：“有可能，但现在还不明确。”（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，转载请注明来源：游戏邦）

Zynga Aims to Conquer Mobile Next

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While some of Zynga’s titles, like FarmVille and Mafia Wars, are already available on mobile, the social gaming juggernaut hasn’t seen the same kind of success on mobile platforms as it has on Facebook where it’s far and away the dominant player. Over time, however, Zynga is looking to become a force to be reckoned with in mobile, along with big players like EA Mobile, ngmoco, Gameloft and others. Zynga chief game designer Brian Reynolds talked with IndustryGamersabout his company’s mobile ambitions.

“[Mobile] is something that we actively care about, think about. It’s the major place where we think the future is,” Reynolds told us.

So what has prevented Zynga from dominating the mobile scene? Reynolds says it’s due to the friction currently present within social networking through phones. “The reason that Zynga isn’t ginormous on mobile yet is because the friction of social networking is still high on mobile. It’s ironic because when you think about your phone, it should be an inherently social device. It’s got your contacts. You can text. You e-mail people. You talk to them. It’s a hub; it’s a social hub. And people use it as a social hub but it’s missing some of the critical wiring that does the magic that Facebook does,” he explained.

“What Facebook is doing very efficiently is letting you communicate with your more distant friends. Sometimes it’s also a way to show pictures to mom, but I would’ve called mom anyway or e-mailed the pictures, right? At a certain point – and maybe it even made it faster – I can post pictures that all my relatives can see instead of e-mailing them one at a time and forgetting who. And then there’s the people at the lower end of the social,  the more attenuated distant relationships – people from college or high school, people that I don’t keep in touch with as well, that I might not keep in touch with at all if not for Facebook. What I found when Facebook exploded a few years ago, suddenly people that I hadn’t kept in touch with at all for decades I was back in touch with.”

For Reynolds and Zynga, the mobile space needs to become more of a frictionless experience. That’s when Zynga expects to really seize the mobile opportunity. “So when mobile gets to the point where I can eliminate all that friction – so I can broadcast something to my friends, for example – [that's when we'll dive in].  Social games are about expressing myself in front of my friends and part of the value of investing in the play is the fact that I know my friends are going to see my farm and I’m going to help them and all my friends are going to be there. Right now there’s a lot of extra friction because it’s not just auto-wired in – which is the way the web used to be, before Facebook,” he continued.

We asked Reynolds if that means that Zynga needs to create the solution to address the friction problem, or if Zynga’s waiting for the network problem to be fixed on mobile before it can really go after the market. The bottom line is Zynga’s looking into multiple avenues. “We’re thinking very carefully about it and we are working with appropriate partners; there are people that are making platforms or have platforms and want to make it more social. We work with them… Or they have social platforms and they want to make them more mobile, whatever direction they want to go,” Reynolds said.

Of course, one of the easiest ways to solve a problem for a massive company like Zynga is through acquisition. Zynga’s certainly not been afraid to open up its war chest to acquire developers. In fact, it acquired mobile studio Newtoy last December. Should we expect more mobile acquisitions? “Well, maybe, you never know,” answered Reynolds.（source:businessinsider）