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每日观察:关注Zynga或于本月上市等消息(5.25)

发布时间:2011-05-25 15:11:23 Tags:,,,

1)《侠盗猎车手》发行商Take-Two最近表示,数字内容收益占其第四季度总营收的15%,正考虑加大对社交游戏和MMO领域的投入(游戏邦注:动视暴雪在今年第一季度有50%的收益来自数字内容销售渠道)。

虽然Take-Two目前的数字内容收益主要得益于《侠盗猎车手》、《荒野大镖客》、《边境之地》和Sid Meier的《文明》中的额外内容,但Take-Two首席执行官Strauss Zelnick表示公司正密切关注数字内容领域。该公司即将在今年夏天推出的Facebook版《Civilzation World》尚未登台就已受到高度关注,观察者称Take-Two有可能向Facebook等社交平台推出更多数字内容。

frontierville-oregon-trail(from frontiervilleinfo.com)

frontierville-oregon-trail(from frontiervilleinfo.com)

2)由于Learning Company起诉《FrontierVille》扩展游戏内容“俄勒冈小道”名标侵犯其商标权,社交游戏开发商Zynga最近罕见地做出了让步,决定弃用该名称,并通过该游戏官方论坛向粉丝征集新名称。据games报道,有玩家已经提交了《FrontierVille:The Westward Trail》、《FrontierVille’s Poineer Trail》等建议,Zynga呼吁玩家通过论坛献策。

3)据AllThingsD报道,有知情者爆料Zynga有可能在本周或下周就进行首次公开募股,并表示Zynga的实际估值远超过外界之前的预期。最新资料显示,Zynga将售出4.9亿美元的优先股。根据AppData数据显示,Zynga游戏目前的MAU是2.47亿,其热门游戏《CityVille》占据了30%以上的流量,据称Zynga正准备发布其最新Facebook游戏的测试版本,该游戏可能就是传说中的《Crime Nation》。

Zynga-MAU DAU(from AppData.com)

Zynga-MAU DAU(from AppData.com)

4)《A Mystical Land》是一款在Facebook平台及其网站上运行的3D大型多人在线角色扮演游戏,据称该游戏采用了由视频游戏元老Richard Garriott的公司开发的网页浏览器插件Portalarium Player。

这款游戏开发商是Mad Otter Games,其全球发行商是Neonga AG公司。据AppData数据显示,《A Mystical Land》最近的MAU是2.5万,DAU是1000左右。这是一款含有格斗、职业、任务、技巧、成就、搜集等完整设置的MMO网页游戏,主要锁定休闲游戏玩家,但风格却与典型的MMO游戏极为相似,玩家在游戏中也需要在同一地点不断升级打怪。

该游戏的网页版本同样植入了Facebook Connect传播功能,支持玩家找到游戏中的Facebook好友,但并不允许使用Facebook帐号登录其网页版本。它的盈利渠道是其付费虚拟货币,玩家可购买虚拟货币以兑换药品、符咒等道具,未来还会增加Facebook Credits系统。

A Mystical Land(from insidesocialgames.com)

A Mystical Land(from insidesocialgames.com)

5)Facebook最近推出了一个名为Facebook+Games的新页面,该页面目前尚无任务内容,但其描述已足以表明Facebook对游戏领域的关注:“我们今天专为游戏合作伙伴和游戏运营群体开辟了Facebook+Games页面,希望大家能够由此获得Facebook平台游戏生态圈和社交游戏领域的最新动态。”观察者指出,从去年该平台限制病毒式传播渠道,以及今年强制推行Facebook Credits虚拟货币系统等方面可以看出,Facebook与社交游戏开发商之间的关系比以往更加复杂,Facebook+Games上线有可能是该平台意在与开发商群体改善关系所伸出的橄榄枝。

6)《Hero》是一款由中国游戏开发商Hero Legend向Facebook平台推出的角色扮演游戏,它上线6个月后,曾于去年12月跻身新兴Facebook游戏前20强榜单,今年初其MAU再创新高,但DAU增长波动较大。据AppData数据显示,该游戏最近的MAU是94.8万,DAU则是7.7万。

Hero-MAU DAU(from AppData.com)

Hero-MAU DAU(from AppData.com)

目前尚不知该游戏的用户增长为何突然上升,这款游戏的更新周期并不稳定,最近一次更新主要是调整了其用户界面,修改了用户在游戏中的购买道具功能设置。insidesocialgames指出,如果该游戏能够定期进行内容更新,就有可能保持目前的MAU增长势头,同时也应该在7月1日Facebook要求所有游戏统一绑定Facebook Credtis系统的限期来临之前尽早采取行动。

7)据社交游戏开发商Rocket Ninja所称,公司将其3D Facebook游戏引擎Shr3d应用于《Wrestler:Unstoppable》仅10天左中,该游戏用户留存率明显上升。该游戏原先是一款2D版的一对一格斗游戏,支持玩家的虚拟形象与他人在离线或在线环境下进行回合制决斗。

Wrestler Unstoppable--MAU DAU(from AppData.com)

Wrestler Unstoppable--MAU DAU(from AppData.com)

该公司在5月5日将Shr3d引擎植入这款游戏,同时也保留了原来的2D版本游戏以供玩家选择。据AppData资料显示,游戏刚引进Shr3d引擎时,它的MAU最初呈现了下滑趋势,而DAU数值却反而开始上扬。不过该公司并未透露这款游戏的具体用户留存率,仅表示它在过去十天中的表现很乐观,并称将在下周更新游戏内容,引进更多3D动画效果。

Zoo World 2(from games.com)

Zoo World 2(from games.com)

8)社交游戏开发商RockYou宣布将于6月8日发布新游款动物园主题游戏《Zoo World 2》,这款续集游戏将支持玩家搜集“来自世界各地的动物,饲养刚出生的小动物”,同时还可以控制其创建的动物园环境。从该游戏的截图来看,它的视觉效果比原版游戏《Zoo World》更胜一筹,其原版游戏之前的表现落后于其他同类游戏。

keiji-inafune(from-gogaminggiant.com)

keiji-inafune(from-gogaminggiant.com)

9)据彭博社报道,前Capcom公司制作人Keiji Inafune(游戏邦注:他是僵尸主题游戏《Resident Evil》制作人)在最近的采访中透露,他在去年离开Capcom的一个重要原因是董事会不让他参与制定项目决策。在他看来,游戏领域存在一种通病——创意人员清楚项目是否具有发展潜力,但却无权决定是否发行游戏。大型游戏发行商都面临难以挽留人才的问题,随着游戏开发成本大幅上升,再加上廉价手机游戏及社交游戏领域的挑战,传统大型游戏公司将面临更大运营风险,他们的短见可能导致其落后于Zynga、Facebook等新兴公司。

10)吉米·巴菲特(游戏邦注:Jimmy Buffett,美国乡村摇滚的老牌传奇歌星、成功的商人和畅销书作家,其代表歌曲包括《玛格丽特小镇》)最近与游戏发行商THQ合作,将面向Facebook和iPad平台推出与其代表作同名的在线社交游戏《Margaritaville Online》,吸引其粉丝参与体验该游戏。

Jimmy-Buffett(from countryhound.com)

Jimmy-Buffett(from countryhound.com)

这款游戏中的角色和目标与巴菲特本人的生活经历、歌曲和书本密切相关,支持玩家在游戏过程中欣赏巴菲特的音乐,同时组建自己的乐队。《Margaritaville Online》由Exploding Barrel Games开发制作,该工作室去年发布的Facebook游戏是《Top Bar》。(本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译,如需转载请联系:游戏邦

1)Grand Theft Auto publisher gets serious about social games

by Libe Goad

Take-Two, publisher of Grand Theft Auto, seems to be taking a more serious look at social games and MMOs after recent earnings show that digital content drove 15% of the company’s fourth quarter

revenue. (In the meantime, Call of Duty and World of Warcraft maker Activision Blizzard says 50% of its revenues came from digital sales in the first quarter this year).

Most of Take Two’s digital profits came from add-on content for Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead Redemption, Borderlands and Sid Meier’s Civilization, but Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick says the company is looking into other digital offerings that might be able to, according to AllThingsD, ‘generate significant revenues.’

One of those money makers will be the upcoming Civilization World for Facebook, which is currently in beta and expected to launch sometime this summer. And, there are — apparently — several other projects of that ilk in progress.

Does that mean we’ll see a Facebook rendition of Grand Theft Auto? I wouldn’t bet my first born (or my second) on it — though I could imagine some kind of social rendition of Take-Two/Rockstar’s recent (and very accessible) action/adventure game LA Noire, maybe something similar to Red Dead Redemption: Gunslingers. I also expect that Take-Two will be eyeballing its more successful sports games — like Top Spin and Major League Baseball 2K — and see if either of these can make a splash in the still very experimental sports gaming scene on Facebook and other social networks.(source:games

2)FrontierVille: Zynga drops “Oregon Trail” name; help pick a new one

by Brandy Shaul

After being served with papers by the Learning Company, suing them over the use of the name “Oregon Trail” in FrontierVille’s upcoming expansion, it looks like Zynga has decided to drop the Oregon Trail name altogether. This might come as a shock to some players (like myself), who rarely see Zynga step down from anything, but there is a bit of a light at the end of this tunnel.

Zynga is asking fans to help (re)name the expansion via a poll on the game’s official forums. Unfortunately, this still means you have to choose from a list of possible options, and can’t simply write in your own option, but the choices aren’t all bad. Here’s what we have to choose from:

FrontierVille: The Westward Trail

FrontierVille: The Trail West

FrontierVille’s Trail West

FrontierVille’s Westward Trail

FrontierVille’s Pioneer Trail

FrontierVille: The Pioneer Trail

Personally, I think FrontierVille’s Pioneer Trail has the best ring to it, but that’s the beauty of a poll – if you don’t agree with me, you can vote for your own favorite in the hopes that it wins. While the name might still be up in the air, it looks like the gameplay is staying put, and we’ll make sure to bring you continued coverage about what’s sure to be a massive gameplay update as soon as we know more.(source:games

3)Report: Zynga Filing for IPO This Week or Next Week

By AJ Glasser

Zynga could be filing for its long-rumored initial public offering as early as this week or next week, AllThingsD reports. The article cites unnamed sources “close to the situation” as saying the company’s filing will reveal more “robust” valuation numbers than previously reported for the company’s speculated annual revenues.

A Zynga IPO this month would come as no surprise given both the company’s history of rapid growth and successful game launches on the Facebook platform (and long-standing speculation about an IPO). A recent filing shows that the FarmVille developer appears to be selling $490 million in Series C Preferred shares that had been slated to take place in early March, which would corroborate earlier reports that Zynga was raising $500 million in funding with a $10 billion valuation. AllThingsD reports that the valuation may be much higher when Zynga files with the Securities and Exchange Commission, citing the $9 billion valuation LinkedIn got at market despite having half that in valuation pre-IPO.

According to our social game traffic tracking service, AppData, Zynga currently enjoys 247 million monthly active users and 49 million users across all its Facebook apps and games. Its largest game, CityVille, accounts for over 30% of that traffic. An ISG tipster tells us that Zynga is about to launch a beta of its newest game on Facebook and that the title of the game may or may not be called Crime Nation.(source:insidesocialgames

4)Richard Garriott’s 3D Portalarium Plugin Appears in A Mystical Land

By Carolyn Koh

A Mystical Land is a 3-D massively-multiplayer online role-playing game playable on Facebook as well as through the game’s website. It’s one of the first Facebook games to utilize the Portalarium

Player, a web browser plug-in developed by video game entrepreneur and developer Richard Garriott at his new company of the same name. A Mystical Land is developed by Mad Otter Games and published worldwide by Neonga AG.

According to our traffic tracking service, AppData, A Mystical Land currently has 25,000 monthly active users and 1,000 daily active users.

The game is a full-fledged MMO that features combat, crafting professions and quests, feats, achievements, badges and collections. The gameplay is targeted toward a casual player, as if often the case with browser-based MMOs due to the limitations of the platform. A Mystical Land, however, is one of very few full 3D games on Facebook and it has more in common with classic MMOs than it does with the modern casual browser-based MMOs.

A Mystical Land also uses Facebook Connect viral features from its browser version, allowing players to find their Facebook friends in the game, although a Facebook account is not required to play the browser version of the game. Recall that any player using Facebook Connect off the platform to access the game is counted toward that game’s MAU and DAU figures. The game is monetized by purchase of its premium currency, crowns, which is used to buy consumable items like potions and spells and for avatar customization items. Currently, crowns can only be purchased through Neonga, but the developer tells us it is working on implementing Facebook Credits.(source:insidesocialgames

5)“Facebook + Games” Equals a New Effort by Facebook to Communicate With Game Industry

By AJ Glasser

In the latest sign that Facebook is trying to win over social game developers, the company has just launched a Page called Facebook + Games. There are no posts up yet, but the Page description says that it’s going to be focused on industry issues.

Today we’re launching Facebook + Games, a page created for the games partner and business community. Expect to hear the latest on the Facebook Platform games ecosystem and social gaming innovation, directly from the Facebook Games Partnerships Team.

Facebook has had a long road to travel with social game developers, particularly following reductions in viral channels last year, and its drawn-out efforts to make its Credits virtual currency the mandatory method of in-app payment across the platform.(source:insidesocialgames

6)Hero’s Blend of City-Building and Adventure Sees Steady MAU Growth but Variable DAU

By Pete Davison

Hero is a role-playing game for Facebook from Chinese developer Hero Legend. The game previously appeared on our top 20 list of emerging Facebook games in December, about six months after its launch. After holding steady throughout the beginning of 2011, its monthly active users are again on the rise. Daily active users are another story, however. Today’s figure comes just after a recovery from a large drop, which oddly coincided with a spike in MAU.

We were unable to contact Hero Legend for comment on the game’s growth pattern, but it appears that game updates are somewhat sporadic, which could account for the sudden MAU uptick. Past updates seem to have revolved around revamps of the user interface, and new equipment for players to purchase in the in-game store. There was also a seasonal event around Christmas of last year where players could purchase a special Santa Claus item to heal their heroes. It’s fair to assume that the game will continue to support its community with content updates, particularly if the MAU figure continues on its upward path. If Hero Legend plans to stick around on Facebook, Facebook Credits might also be a forthcoming update as the mandatory deadline for social game integration goes into effect at the end of next month.(source:insidesocialgames

7)Rocket Ninja Seeing Retention Rise After Launching 3D Mode in Wrestler: Unstoppable

By AJ Glasser

Social game developer Rocket Ninja debuted its proprietary 3D Facebook game engine, Shr3d, this month in pro wrestling combat game Wrestler: Unstoppable. The company reports that just 10 days live,

the game is already seeing a spike in retention rates.

Wrestler: Unstoppable was originally a 2D one-on-one fighting game where players customized an avatar and sent them into turn-based combat with other players’ avatars either in offline or live mode. Players start out with a list of move types like holds and throws and unlock different moves within the type as they win fights and gain experience points. During combat, the player can use as many moves as they like during their turn, but player statistic such as stamina and fatigue combined with statistics for each specific move determine the success or failure of a move. If the player fails a move, their turn ends and the other player is free to attack. The game originally didn’t have viral features and monetization was limited mostly to costume items for avatars.

On the whole, however, Rocket Ninja says the 3D engine has increased player retention. From what we can see in our traffic tracking service, AppData, Wrestler: Unstoppable saw an initial drop in monthly active users right when Shr3d launched while daily active users climbed. The MAU figure now reflects a growth trend consistent with new or returning players visiting the game for a look at the new system. Rocket Ninja did not provide more detailed metrics for player retention, but said that all features in the game are experiencing a marked lift in the past 10 days alone.

Assuming the growth pattern remains consistent, Rocket Ninja has other features it plans to introduce to Wrestler: Unstoppable. For example, the game is getting an update next week that will introduce sound to the 3D animation sequences, like crowds cheering and booing and wrestler grunts and shouts. Rocket Ninja was not prepared to discuss plans for cross-platform development or additional game plans at this time, but it is possible that the developer might acquire other games in which to introduce Shr3d. Any in-game features the developer is likely to audition within its “test environment” game, Ocean Kingdom.(source:insidesocialgames

8)Zoo World 2: RockYou’s new zoo-themed Facebook game arrives June 8

by Libe Goad

Facebook game creator RockYou has announced that June 8 will be the launch date for its new zoo-themed sim game — Zoo World 2.

The sequel to the popular Zoo World on Facebook will “let players collect animals from all over the world and breed adorable baby animals.” Virtual zoo keepers will have more control over what type of zoo environments they want to create. Want a special section with an African safari vibe? You’ll be able to do it with more decoration options.

Based on the screenshots for the game — it also looks like Zoo World 2 will be taking a step up in terms of visuals. The original Zoo World — while a very popular game — always seemed to lag behind its peers in the looks department. Let’s just hope that whole improvement thing will also apply to how smoothly the game runs. We’ll see when this new zoo sim launches in a few short weeks. (source:games

9)Resident Evil’ Producer Inafune Sees More Management-Creator Disputes

By Pavel Alpeyev and Gearoid Reidy

The producer behind the zombie- fighting “Resident Evil” games who left Capcom Co. after clashing with management said more developers are likely to face similar disputes as social games upend the industry.

“In this industry, it’s often the creators who have the eye for potential hits but they’re not the ones deciding what gets published,” Keiji Inafune, who left as head of research and development of Capcom in November, said in an interview last week in Tokyo. “We’ll see many more clashes as creator- management divides widen.”

Difficulty retaining talent would add to the pressure for traditional video-game publishers, led by Electronic Arts Inc. (ERTS) and Activision Blizzard Inc. (ATVI), which face rising production costs and competition from companies churning out $1 games on smartphones and free ones on social networks. Inafune said companies that include creators in decision-making will be better positioned to weather the challenges.

As game budgets climb into millions of dollars and production times stretch into years, video game publishers have become more risk-averse, preferring to rely on aging franchises, said Inafune, who’s started two game companies since leaving Capcom. Such shortsightedness may cause industry leaders to fall behind social game upstarts such as Zynga Inc., Facebook Inc.’s biggest game operator, he said. (source:bloomberg

10)Jimmy Buffett’s ‘Margaritaville’ sails to Facebook, iPad

By Mike Snider

The musician is collaborating with game developer THQ on a free-to-play online social game, due this year on Facebook and Apple iPad, stocked with attractions custom-built for Buffett’s Parrothead following.

“You can build a boat (and) you can build a bar. You gotta evade the pirates. You can have adventures,” Buffett says. “You can go to Margaritaville.”

Like other online games, Margaritaville Online will let players earn virtual currency to buy in-game booty and spend real money to customize their game more quickly. Buffett hopes to incorporate a feature that lets players parlay virtual goods into rewards at Margaritaville restaurants. “If you buy virtual cheeseburgers and margaritas to send to friends, that should earn you a real burger or beer at a restaurant,” he says.

Over the years, the singer has been approached with all manner of online ventures. As Margaritaville grew into a multibillion-dollar business of its own with more than a dozen restaurants and hotels, as well as food, beer and liquor products, Buffett “carefully lifeguarded” it as an entertainment property.

Online social games became “the next new, new thing,” Buffett says, but he waited “for the right time to come along and somebody who knows about (Margaritaville) and is a fan and who gets it. That is exactly what happened.”

Among developers at Exploding Barrel Games, which is creating the game for publisher THQ, creative director Chris Parry is a lifelong Buffett fan. The Vancouver, B.C., company released the Facebook game Top Bar last year.

Margaritaville Online will draw more than Parrotheads, says Scott Steinberg of TechSavvy Global. “Say ‘Margaritaville’ and it instantly paints a picture,” he says. The name “stands out in a crowded field, when you can choose between Café World, Restaurant City and Treasure Isle. It may turn into the interactive equivalent of the virtual watering hole.”(source:usatoday


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