作者：David Radd

游戏邦注：本文发稿于2008年2月20日，所涉时间、事件和数据均以当时为准。

Amplified Games总裁兼首席执行官Tom Hubina在GDC大会第二天发表演说，题为“iPhone及其未来：手机游戏新希望”。作为正专注于fatfreegames.com（游戏邦注：面向大众的iPhone及其他手机设备游戏站点）的新兴公司领导人，他早已做好同外界谈论未来iPhone游戏内容的准备。

iphone game(from quicklybored.com))

关于iPhone的积极方面，他指出苹果设备为游戏提供了许多机遇，包括开发者可以直接与目标顾客接触。可采用的运营模式也多种多样，其中包括微付费和先试后买。开发iPhone游戏的成本也较低，网络应用和原生iPhone游戏都只需要1.5万至2万美元。许多开发者已经开始利用这个优势，目前苹果网络应用站点上的产品数量已超过250款。

但是，该系统仍存在某些瑕疵。Hubina指出，尽管iPhone有触屏功能，但其精准性比鼠标要低。该系统的图形表现能力也比大型屏幕要好，但是仍有显而易见的不足之处，这会影响到某些大型动作游戏，甚至包括某些类似《俄罗斯方块》这样简单的游戏。该系统自带浏览器无法播放音效，网络也较为迟钝。系统开发可用的编程语言多种多样，这可能导致某些人感到厌烦。

除其他在线门户网站外，苹果在www.apple.com/webapps/games上的自有网页游戏应用列表让促销变得更为简单。广告可以让你锁定当前的400多万iPhone用户，他还指出，目前已证实玩家间的病毒式推广能够取得极大的成功。

对于如何留住顾客这个问题，他给出的建议非常简单，就是制作人们想玩的优秀游戏。除了这个通俗易懂的观点外，Hubina补充说他觉得社区功能是提高顾客留存率的关键，这主要包括排行榜、锦标赛和用户产生的内容等诸多方面。

他提出，游戏盈利是个极为复杂的问题。通过广告盈利固然可行，但他表示需要上百万个印象才能真正带来收入。使用标准的横幅广告很困难，背景广告也是如此。Hubina补充道，也可以选择通过订阅盈利，但需要频繁更新内容以抵消成本。他还指出，目前还不能合法使用可下载模式，但苹果不久就会发布该SDK。

关于iPhone与其他移动2.0设备的竞争问题，他说道尽管Windows Mobile和Blackberry都有着各自的粉丝，但它们的浏览器都不如iPhone。Hubina认为，虽然那些系统的浏览器都不错，但它们对动态内容的渗透力和支持仍不够强大。他还指出，其他平台与iPhone相比硬件分裂性更为严重，虽然他认为苹果也很可能会引进新型iPhone硬件配置。

展望未来，Hubina认为Google和Sprint等公司的3G手机可能会影响市场。他也想知道苹果会如何发展自己的iPhone游戏模式，该公司或许会坚持iTune之类的模式，也有可能变得更为开放，使iPhone游戏有更广阔的前景。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

The Future of iPhone Gaming

David Radd

Tom Hubina, President and CEO of Amplified Games, spoke during the second day of GDC, giving a presentation titled “iPhone and Beyond: A New Hope for Mobile Gaming.” As the head of a new company that is focusing on fatfreegames.com, a community oriented gaming site for the iPhone and other mobile devices, he was well set up to talk about the future of game content on the iPhone.

On the positive side for the iPhone, he noted that there are many gaming opportunities in using the Apple’s device, including being able to target customers directly. There are also numerous business models that can be used, including micropayments and try-before-you-buy. The price threshold to develop games on the iPhone is cheap too, between $15,000—$20,000 for both web apps and native iPhone games. Many developers have already taken advantage of it, and right now, Apple is listing over 250 titles on their web apps site.

Still, the system carries with it certain flaws. Hubina noted that, while the iPhone has touch screen capabilities, the accuracy is less than that of a mouse. The system also has good graphical capabilities with a large bright screen, but there’s still noticeable latency, which can be a problem with action heavy games or even something like Tetris. There’s also no sound in the system’s browser, the network can be clunky to deal with and there are multiple programming languages to develop for the system, which might be confusing and off-putting to some.

The promotional half of things is made easier by Apple’s own web game application list at www.apple.com/webapps/games, in addition to other portals online. Advertising allows you to target specifically iPhone users, of which he said there are four million right now. Hubina also noted that viral advertising between users has proven highly successful.

The advice he gave in retaining customers was very simple: make a good game that people want to play. Besides that obvious point, Hubina added that he thought community features were key in customer retention, with everything from leaderboards to tournaments and even user generated content.

The issue of actually monetizing these games is a tricky one, he noted. Ads are possible, but he said that you needed about a million impressions to make it worth it; standard banner ads are hard to use, as are context sensitive ads. Subscriptions are another option, Hubina added, but content updates have to be pretty frequent to legitimate the cost. He also said that currently, downloadable methods aren’t available legally, but Apple is releasing that SDK for the iPhone soon.

Speaking to competition from other mobile 2.0 devices, he said that while things like Windows Mobile and Blackberry have their own followings, their browsers aren’t as good as the iPhone’s. Hubina noted that, while there are capable browsers for those systems, they have low penetration and poor support for dynamic content. He also noted that those other platforms have fractured hardware bases compared to the iPhone, though he sees that as a more likely possibility should Apple introduce new iPhone hardware configurations.

Looking towards the future, Hubina mused that 3G phones, from companies like Google and Sprint, might affect the market. On the iPhone front, he wonders how Apple will proceed with their iPhone gaming model, whether they will insist on something like iTunes or something a bit more open, which could have large consequences for the future of gaming on iPhone. (Source: Bloomberg Businessweek)