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盈利微薄是大公司无意开拓手机游戏项目原因

发布时间:2011-05-11 15:39:02 Tags:,,

游戏邦注:本文作者为Pocketgamer博客撰稿人Jon Jordan,他在文中就动视暴雪公司营收情况发表自己的看法。

我是个吹毛求疵的人,每年都会花4个礼拜浏览各大公司的财务报告。

上周,各公司纷纷公布了自己2011年第4季度(根据公司时间安排的不同,或称作2011年第1季度)的财务状况,情况同以往一样,几家欢喜几家愁(游戏邦注:其中EA Mobile、Gameloft、DeNA和Capcom有所增长,而THQ Wireless和Glu Mobile则呈下坡趋势)。

然而为了深入分析背后蕴含的信息,我收集了动视暴雪公司的相关数据,这家公司是这样介绍自己的:动视暴雪是全球在线、PC、掌机、掌上设备和手机游戏发行公司,公司是发展迅速的互动娱乐软件行业各类产品的佼佼者。”

Activision Blizzard

Activision Blizzard

动视暴雪分解收入来源

是的,动视暴雪是全球最大的游戏发行专营公司,该公司第1季度创收14亿美元。

和其他发行商一样(游戏邦注:如EA和THQ),公司详细分析了各大创收来源。因此,在线订阅量(即指《魔兽世界》)、PlayStation 3和Xbox 360平台都有各自的汇总数据。

PSP、DS和3DS设备的掌上平台也有自己的单独统计数据。该部分在这一季度的总营收为3100万,同比上季度下滑21%。

那么,手机领域是否有所细分?

动视暴雪公司手机游戏业务

答案是没有。

虽然《Call of Duty: Zombies》自2009年发行以来,就一直是苹果App Store创收赢家之一,带来了数百万的收益,但动视暴雪公司在手机领域微薄的营如同化整误差,少之又少。

这个置身报表末端的数据还不够庞大,无法跻身财务报表之中。

当然这丝毫不令人惊讶,毕竟动视暴雪公司并没有自己的手机业务,也没有吸纳任何内部手机游戏开发人才;Vivendi的巴黎工作室已经改组为Bulkypix。游戏《Call of Duty: Zombies》出自英国工作室Ideaworks Game Studio手中。

但,换个角度看,虽然新闻头条都在陈述智能手机/手机行业的发展势头良好,但手机游戏行业对于许多行业大腕来说,依旧是个缝隙市场。

虽然EA 2011年度的手机营收仅为2.3亿美元(游戏邦注:这占公司总销售额的6%),但这就是该公司近几年斥资7.5亿美元收购Jamdat、Chillingo、IronMonkey和Firemint所换来的成就(其中包括以3.68亿美元收购Jamdat公司)。

坦白讲,从很多方面来看,如果公司希望自己能够发展壮大,那么相比售价60美元的零售作品而言(更别提同每月拥有数百万订阅量的在线游戏),99美分-5美元手机游戏的ROI(游戏邦注:即投资回报率)着实难为公司提供有利保障。(本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译,转载请注明来源:游戏邦)

Opinion: Before we get ahead of ourselves, mobile remains a rounding error for Activision Blizzard

by Jon Jordan

Being something of a beancounter, I spend at least a four weeks per year trawling through game company financial reports.

The round of Q4 FY11 (or Q1 FY11 depending on company scheduling) announcements finished last week with the usual array of ups (EA Mobile, Gameloft, DeNA, Capcom) and downs (THQ Wireless, Glu Mobile).

Looking further afield however, I perused the figures of a company, which describes itself as “a worldwide online, PC, console, handheld and mobile game publisher with leading positions across the major categories of the rapidly growing interactive entertainment software industry.”

Reading between the lines

Yes, Activision Blizzard is the world’s largest pure games publisher, recording Q1 revenue of $1.4 billion.

And like other similar publishers – notably EA and THQ – it breaks out which consoles its revenue comes from. Hence, there’s total for online subscriptions (aka World of Warcraft), PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 etc.

There’s even a separate handheld section listing PSP, DS and 3DS. Its overall total for the quarter was $31 million, down 21 percent year-on-year if you’re interested.

So, where’s the mobile breakout?

Drawing a blank

Answer. There isn’t one.

Despite Call of Duty: Zombies being in the top reaches of US top grossing Apple App Store chart since its November 2009 release, and hence generating some millions of dollars in revenue, it seems mobile remains the equivalent of a rounding error for Activision Blizzard.

The bottomline is it’s just not big enough to get its own total on the financial statement.

Of course, it’s no real surprise as Activision Blizzard doesn’t have any mobile focus, nor any internal mobile development talent; Vivendi’s Paris studio having reformed as Bulkypix. Call of Duty: Zombies was developed by UK developer Ideaworks Game Studio.

But, in another way, it’s demonstrates that while our headlines are filled with positive talk of the exploding smartphone/app market etc, mobile games remain a niche market for many of the industry’s biggest players.

Even EA, which booked mobile revenues of $230 million in FY11 (6 percent of its total sales), has spent getting on for $750 million over the years on the likes of Jamdat and now Chillingo, IronMonkey, Firemint (eventually writing off $368 million of the Jamdat deal), to get to that position.

Equally, over the years, THQ has been keen on mobile, but has now pretty much totally pulled out of the business.

Frankly, in many regards, the return on investment offered by 99c-$5 mobile games compared to $60 retail products, let alone millions of monthly subscriptions, doesn’t compute if you want to build a really big business. (Source:Pocketgamer



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