据switched网站的消息，NPD Group最近的分析报告认为在过去的三个月内有20%的美国人玩过社交游戏，其中这些玩家当中有35%在接触社交游戏前并没有玩过视频游戏。

当大家都沉浸在社交游戏未来一片美好的情境中时，Terrence O’Brien却认为游戏工业的未来会因为社交游戏的强势而蒙上阴影。

social game

Brien表示那些兴冲冲地在gamestop门店或者他们的在线网站花60美元购买星际争霸2（StarCraft II）已经不代表游戏工业的未来了。

这些新晋的社交游戏玩家并不是从玩atari游戏开始的，他们的游戏付费意愿让人担心，只有11%的社交游戏玩家表示愿意为他们玩的游戏进行付费，整个行业的付费意愿和能力都在下滑。很显然这样的营收方式对于游戏工业的未来并不是那么乐观。

Those of you.okay, those of us who rushed to the nearest Gamestop (or just got online) to throw $60 at ‘StarCraft II’ the day it dropped are not the future of the video game industry. According to a recent report from NPD Group, one in five Americans over the age of six has played games on a social network  within the last 90 days, while spending less than the average on video games overall.

Of the 56.8 million people who were partaking in ‘Mafia Wars’ and its ilk, 35-percent were completely new to video games. (Yes, we mean they had never played a video game before — ever.)

These new gamers are overwhelmingly female, and are typically older than those who have been playing since the Atari days. This new demographic would constitute great news for gaming companies if it weren’t for one alarming detail: only 11-percent of social gamers say they plan to spend money on such entertainment. Additionally, respondents reported spending 20-percent less on games than they had before playing social networking games. With spending in decline, and an apparently unreliable model for future revenues, companies are going to have to evolve or face an uncertain future, wherein ‘FarmVille’ is more important than ‘Grand Theft Auto,’ and neither can make any money. （source：switched）