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

评5家社交游戏开发商对Facebook Credits的态度

发布时间:2011-05-09 15:52:17 Tags:,,,

Facebook规定从7月1日起该平台所有游戏开发商均需绑定Facebook Credits作为游戏微交易的虚拟货币系统,在这个期限渐渐逼近之际,让我们先来看看Facebook前5强社交游戏开发商在这一点上有何行动。

Facebook曾表示将Facebook Credits作为购买付费道具和内容(开发商的主要营收来源)的唯一货币系统,并不代表开发商必须将Credits作为游戏中的保费货币(游戏邦注:不过Facebook强烈推荐开发商这么做)。这是一个显著的差别,虽然游戏独立的虚拟货币系统能够帮助开发商更好地控制其虚拟经济交易,然而如果每一款游戏都使用自己单独的货币,那么它们将很难融入Facebook这个广阔的社交平台。

Playfish最近宣布弃用其跨游戏虚拟货币系统Playfish Cash而改用Facebook Credits, 该公司解释道:“这次的改变能够有效地缓解我们在维持Playfish游戏中的保费货币而遇到的难题。”放弃使用Playfish Cash,而使用Facebook Credits来控制通货膨胀,本质上与公司之前在处理所有游戏的Playfish Cash的问题是一致的,即协调任何一款游戏中的促销和折扣都是非常困难的一件事。

在关于虚拟货币的访谈中,Playfish发行和产品管理副总裁C.J.Prober表示,“如果你采用了一种虚拟货币,并在某款游戏中对其展开推广活动,那就意味着你所有的游戏都提提供类似的推广服务,但这种推广对其他那些游戏来说并没有多大意义。”

采用Facebook Credits的游戏,比使用自己单独虚拟货币的游戏更能享受到多种不同功能。这些统一货币的游戏能够使玩家在购买低于3美元的游戏道具时只需轻轻点击鼠标进行操作,而不用麻烦地切换到虚拟货币交易页面。这些游戏同样也能够使用Buy With Friends(好友团购功能,简称BWF),用户能够在购买任何游戏商品后在Wall post中发表相关内容与朋友分享。玩家点击好友的BWF Wall post能够得到游戏道具的折扣, 这对于提高该游戏道具的销量具有重要影响,从而为那些因Facebook限制病毒性传播而大受影响的游戏挽回一点损失。

Diner-Dash

Diner-Dash

早期采用Facebook Credits的开发商已开始享用这些独有的功能。上个月,PlayFirst副总裁兼社交游戏总经理Eric Hartness表示,PlayFirst游戏已经开始使用Frictionless Credits(无障碍小额付费系统),并且从这周开始《美女餐厅》(Diner Dash)也激活了BWF功能。观察者还发现,有些社交游戏同样也将无障碍小额付费系统和BWF功能作为游戏虚拟货币系统的一种补充,即某款游戏可以仅采用一种虚拟货币,但也可以提供一些仅限使用Credits购买的道具和商品,那么它们也就可以使用无障碍小额付费系统和BWF功能了。

暂且不提Facebook Credits会给游戏个体带来成功还是挑战,Facebook上的五家巨头社交游戏开发公司对于采用Facebook Credits的态度将在未来几周深深地影响着其他开发商的决策。在这五家巨头公司中,只有CrowdStar和Wooga开始使用Facebook Credits。CrowdStar尤其看好Facebook Credits,它于2010年与Facebook签订了一份为期5年的协议,同意把Facebook Credits作为其游戏中的唯一保费货币。一个月后,Wooga紧随其后也与Facebook签订了相关协议。(游戏邦注:特别要提到的是,Wooga统一其虚拟货币并未有任何损失,因为它之前的游戏中并没有植入任何创收内容)

剩下的3家开发公司——Zynga,EA(游戏邦注:包括PlayFish游戏)和Playdom同样也在统一虚拟货币的道路上做出了贡献,包括把Facebook Credits作为获得他们旗下个体游戏货币的一种方式等。这些公司仍然还在使用信用卡和PayPal作为获得游戏中的虚拟货币的支付方式。除此之外,Zynga和Playdom也把TrialPay(游戏邦注:第三方在线支付平台)所支持的offer walls作为一种支付方式,Zynga同时还通过SocialVibe所提供的视频广告服务,为观看视频的用户提供虚拟货币。

video ads

video ads

很多人希望Zynga,EA和Playdom也抛弃原有的可选择支付方式而使用统一的Facebook Credits,而offer walls和视频广告也开始出现与Facebook Credits融合的趋势:Facebook于上周宣布与TrialPay合作,从此观看TrialPay视频广告的用户就可获得服务所提供的Facebook Credits奖励。SocialVibe的相关代表也表示,他们也将把Facebook Credits作为视频广告服务所提供的奖励。但与此同时,Zynga和Playdom却在计划着慢慢脱离Facebook建立起属于自己的游戏门户。他们希望能够继续提供PayPal和信用卡等支付方式,使得用户无需通过Facebook就能够直接进入他们的门户网站玩游戏。

为了拉拢那些不想加入统一货币行列的中小型游戏开发商,也许Facebook下一步做法就是与TrialPay和SocialVibe合作了。至于那些大型的游戏开发商到底会采取什么行动,或许得等到6月中旬我们才会知道答案。(本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译,转载请注明来源:游戏邦)

The Road to Credits: Top 5 Developers Set A Slow Pace

As the July 1 deadline for Facebook Credits integration across all microtransaction-based social games looms, we turn our attention to the top game developers and the steps they’ve taken toward integration two months out from the day it becomes mandatory.

Facebook has said that while the games are required to make Credits the only means of purchasing premium items and content (the primary revenue stream for most developers), they are not required to offer Credits as the game’s premium currency despite Facebook strongly encouraging developers to do so. This is an important distinction, as games that maintain their own currencies keep control of inflation within their virtual economies while games that use Credits as an in-game currency are vulnerable to adjustments Facebook might make with Credits over time.

When Playfish recently announced its move to phase out its cross-game Playfish Cash currency in favor of individual game currencies, the developer explained that this was a consideration for them in deciding to maintain its own premium currencies within Playfish games. Surrendering inflation control to Facebook in essence is the same problem Playfish already dealt with when Playfish Cash was the premium currency across all its games: coordinating any kind of in-game promotion or discount was too difficult.

“If you’ve got one currency and you offer a promotion in one game, that means you’re offering a promotion in all your games and maybe it doesn’t make sense [to do that],” Playfish VP of publishing and product management C.J. Prober told us in an interview about Credits.

Games that do choose to integrate Facebook Credits as an in-game currency, however, enjoy some features that other games don’t. In particular, these games have the option to implement Frictionless Credits into gameplay, where a user can purchase an item worth less than $3 with one click that does not take the player out of the game to a Credits purchasing screen. These games can also use Buy With Friends, a feature where a Wall post is created when a user purchases something in-game. Players that click on a friend’s BWF Wall post receive a discount on the in-game item, potentially increasing the overall revenues from sales of that item and certainly restoring some of the viral sharing Facebook games lost when game posts were restricted in the News Feed.

Early adopters of Facebook Credits are already enjoying some of these features. When we spoke with PlayFirst last month, vice president and general manager of social games Eric Hartness told us the game had already implemented Frictionless Credits; the Buy With Friends feature went live in Diner Dash just this week. We also observe some games using an apparent loophole as a means to access Frictionless and Buy With Friends — if the game has only one in-game currency, but at the same time offers certain items for purchase only with Credits, it seems they meet the requirements to use these features.

Regardless of individual games’ success or challenges with Facebook Credits, how the top five social game developer on Facebook approach integration could set the tone for all other developers in the coming weeks. Of the top five social game developers on Facebook, only two use Facebook Credits as in-game currency: CrowdStar and Wooga. CrowdStar in particular was bullish on Credit, signing a five year deal with Facebook last year in which the developer would use Credits exclusively as its in-game premium currency. Wooga followed suit only one month later, introducing Credits as the only means to buy its in-game currencies. Wooga, notably, had nothing to lose by integrating Credits at the time because it didn’t have any monetization in any of its early games.

The remaining three — Zynga, Electronic Arts (which includes PlayFish games) and Playdom — have all taken at least one step toward integrating Credits within their games by offering Facebook’s currency as one of several means for acquiring individual game currencies. Each company still offers credit card and PayPal payments as a means to acquire in-game currency. Additionally, Zynga and Playdom use offer walls powered by TrialPay as a means of distributing currency. Zynga also offer up currency in exchange for watching video engagement ads powered by SocialVibe.

While we expect the alternative payment options to disappear from the three developers’ games in the next two months, the offer walls and video engagement ads look like they’re here to stay: Facebook announced an expansion of its partnership with TrialPay this week that enables the service to pay out Credits for watching videos. Representatives from SocialVibe tell us Facebook also extended Credits to it as a payout option for its video ads. We’ve also seen a trend with both Zynga and Playdom where the developers seem to be building their own games portals off Facebook, which would allow them to maintain payment options with PayPal and credit card for users that access their games via the developer-maintained portal instead of Facebook.

It could be that integration with TrialPay and SocialVibe is the next step on the road to Credits for mid-level social developers that don’t wish to integrate Facebook’s currency directly into their game economies. As for bigger steps from the big social game developers, we’ll likely have to wait at least until mid June to see any significant moves toward (or away from) Facebook Credits.(source:insidesocialgames


上一篇:

下一篇: