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社交游戏巨头Zynga高管谈公司未来业务发展计划

发布时间:2011-04-07 11:47:31 Tags:,,

Zynga拥有7200万的日活跃用户,这些用户每天都会体验其简单、休闲的游戏。不论用户是想当农夫、黑手党头目或者是城市建设者,这些游戏均可以满足他们的愿望,将其带入奇妙世界,大部分的用户从来没有想过自己有天可以称雄称霸。游戏邦发现,Zynga用户每天会从生活或工作时间抽出5分钟来完成这些看似机械化的任务:快速点击几个图标,将虚拟道具从一个地方拖到另一个地方。

zynga

zynga

这是Zynga商业策略的一部分。游戏邦获悉,这家初创公司的估值大约为100亿美元,是迄今最成功的游戏公司之一,但其从未涉猎掌机游戏。虽然众人对其杰出成就了然于心,但鲜有人知晓其未来发展计划。

Zynga产品开发副总裁Mark Skaggs称,“我们的目标是创造紧密结合社交元素的优质娱乐体验。这里的社交元素指的是和朋友共同体验。我们将会不断开拓进取。”

Zynga策略(至少是对于数字产品来说):将其原有畅销游戏的经典元素重新包装,植入新款游戏,然后重新添加新功能,以此掳获其既有游戏用户群的芳心。Skaggs表示,他们发现用户渴望体验的是简单、不耗时间的游戏,他们希望在玩游戏的同时还可以边做其他的事情,比如打电话。玩家希望拥有持久性的空间,这样他们能够返回游戏,通过装饰空间使其富有个性化特点。虽然Zynga游戏刚开始的用户多为女性群体,她们通过游戏和朋友保持联系,但Skaggs表示如今游戏在24-35岁和35-50岁这两个年龄阶段的男女用户比例不相上下。这点在《Cityville》上表现得淋漓尽致。游戏邦获悉,该游戏的月活跃用户(MAU)在9000万左右,Zynga凭此稳居Facebook游戏开发商的榜首地位。

但是,Zynga依旧难逃某些问题的困扰。细看公司的数据就可以发现,老牌游戏似乎无法让自己青春永驻。游戏邦获悉,《YoVille》(Zynga的其中一款游戏)的MAU只有700万,而其鼎盛时期高达1900万。Skaggs表示,公司不会淘汰游戏,但对于那些风采不在的游戏会减少关注。他补充表示,“有些游戏的受欢迎程度的确不敌当年,但其仍旧拥有自己的铁杆粉丝。我们会为游戏添加新内容,不断修复游戏,但程度会比那些炙手可热的游戏略低。”

但是究竟是什么导致这些曾经风靡的游戏,用户急剧流失呢?虽然《Farmville》依旧是Zynga颇受欢迎的游戏之一,但其用户数量也有所减少。游戏邦获悉,近来为了挽回游戏用户,Zynga推出了其有史以来规模最为庞大的扩充游戏《Farmville English Countryside》,该游戏为《Farmville》提供了额外的农场。这似乎是公司未来发展的新方向,但Skaggs表示诸如此类的扩充内容,即为用户体验游戏提供新场所,对于其他游戏来说并不新颖。

他表示,“《Farmville English Countryside》主要服务于那些渴望尝试游戏新口味的用户,为其创造持久的游戏体验。”《黑手党战争》中的古巴和曼谷等级模式与此大同小异。到目前为止,虽然这对于吸引老用户返回游戏来说十分有效,但也有一些用户表示,《Farmville English Countryside》不过是原始《Farmville》的翻版,他们不会受此迷惑。

手机平台似乎是Zynga面临的瓶颈之一。Zynga目前致力于提高该平台的游戏体验。游戏邦发现,之前Zynga是直接将Facebook游戏转移至手机平台,但此办法似乎难以奏效,他们自己也意识到了这一点。他们如今正在寻找新办法为该平台的用户提供定制化的游戏,这也是为什么公司近来频频收购小型手机游戏公司。但反过来说,公司旗下针对手机平台的游戏《Words with Friends》效果显著,这是一款风格迥异的游戏,更适合手机平台。

但有一点毋庸置疑:Zynga不会中断和Facebook的合作关系。他表示,“我们和Facebook是非常好的合作搭档。该平台蕴藏着无限的发展机会,我们十分信赖Facebook。”Zynga对于Facebook着实情有独钟,公司计划今年年底推出几款Facebook游戏。Skaggs没有透露新游戏的相关内容,但游戏邦认为,如果用户是Zynga其他游戏的忠实粉丝,定也能从新游戏中获得乐趣。(本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译,转载请注明来源:游戏邦)

What’s Zynga Planning Next?

Zynga has managed to capture the attention of 72 million active users, who obsessively play their simple, mindless games every day. Whether you want to be a farmer, mafia don or city planner, these games tap into a fantasy life that most users could never dream of leading.  For five minutes a day, Zynga users sneak time from their home and work lives to complete the seemingly mindless task of clicking rapidly on a few icons and dragging virtual items from one spot to another.

That’s all part of Zynga’s business strategy. The start-up is valued at almost $10 billion dollars, and has become one of the most successful gaming companies of today, without ever having made a game for a console. While we can clearly see their success, little is really known about what Zynga is planning next.

“Our goal is to create the best entertainment experience that has that right combination of social,” VP of Product Development at Zynga Mark Skaggs said to Techland about the company’s plans. “When we talk about social we mean playing together with friends. We’re continuing to evolve.”

Zynga’s strategy, at least for digital games, seems to be this: Take what they know works from their popular games, reskin it with a different title, add a few new features and appeal to the same user base that likes their other titles. Skaggs says that Zynga has discovered that what people want is something simple and not time consuming that they can play while doing other tasks like talking on the phone. These players want a persistent space they can come back to that they can personalize through decorating. And, while in the beginning most of these games appealed to women who used these games to stay connected to friends, Skaggs says that the demographic for Zynga games is now equally spread between men and women ages 24 to 35 and 35 to 50. It seems to be working, especially with their latest title Cityville. The game has about 90 million active monthly users, helping Zynga retain the top Facebook game developer spot.

However, there are a few problems that have arisen. Looking closer at the company’s stats, older games don’t seem to be retaining their appeal. One of their games, YoVille, only boasts 7 million monthly active users, down from an all time high of 19 million. Skaggs says the company will never phase out the games, but just pay less attention to titles that are no longer as popular. “We have games fade in popularity, but we still know there is a set of very dedicated players. We add new content and continue to service them, but not as much at a level as high trafficked games,” he adds.

But what happens when one of your previously biggest games is losing players at a rapid rate? While Farmville is still one of Zynga’s most popular games, it isn’t nearly as trafficked as it used to be.  Recently, in order to bring players back to the game, Zynga launched their biggest expansion to the game, Farmville English Countryside, which gives users an additional farm. It might have seemed like a new direction for the company, but Skaggs points out that expansions like this one that give users the same experience in another virtual location have already been implemented in other titles.

“English Countryside aids in creating a long term game play experience for those who might want a slightly different flavor of the same game,” he says, adding that a very similar process was implemented when the Cuba and Bankok levels were added in Mafia Wars. So far, it seems to be attracting some old players back to the game, but many other users have voiced concerns that Farmville English Countryside is just a duplicate of the original Farmville game with a new title –- and they aren’t being fooled.

Mobile seems to be a different problem, and Zynga is looking to improve their gaming experience on devices. Their previous method of taking their games from Facebook and transferring them directly to the mobile platform doesn’t seem to be working, and the company is aware of that. They are looking into new ways to customize the mobile experience for players, which might lend some insight into why they are snapping up these smaller mobile companies. On the other hand, they are completely happy with their other mobile only games like Words with Friends, which is a completely different kind of game play that seems more suited for the platform.

One thing is for sure: Zynga will not break their relationship with Facebook. “We’re great partners with Facebook,” he says. “There’s great opportunities, and we do believe in what they’re doing.“ In fact, they’re so happy with the social network that they plan to release a couple more titles for the platform by the end of this year. He’s not spilling any details about what these new games might be, but we’re betting that if you’re a fan of any of the other games, you’ll gobble these new titles up.(Source:Techland


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