作者：Mark Stephens

全球金融危机和财政紧缩？胡话！若全球用户会在游戏虚拟角色服装之类的内容中投入30亿美元，那么经济领域若非存在严重的不平衡性，就是已创造高出我们预期的额外收入。

虚拟商品市场

据Juniper Research最近在英国发布的报告显示，虚拟商品市场今年有望创收30亿美元，而到2016年此数值有望升至46亿美元。

主要原因非常明显：智能手机和平板电脑的迅速涌现促使手机游戏获得相应发展。

虚拟商品销量的提高主要集中在中国和日本，报告称这有望转变成全球趋势，尤其是随着市场涌现越来越多竞争性平板电脑，创造比优于iPhone或Android手机的游戏体验。

以《僵尸农场》为例

Zombie Farm from brutalgamer.com

这里我们以《僵尸农场》为例（游戏邦注：这是款iPhone游戏，采用免费模式），据PlayForge总经理透露，游戏凭借虚拟商品交易创收上千万美元。这款游戏的下载量超过1100万次，在App Store应用营收榜单中排名第七。

玩家可以在完全不购买任何虚拟商品的情况下体验《僵尸农场》，但为加速游戏进程，玩家可以选择购买99美分到35美元不等的虚拟商品。只有1/10用户会购买游戏道具，而只有3%用户的消费数额超过100美元。

开发者的虚拟商品

寻找额外创收来源是开发者的职责所在，因为在App Store定价99美分或采用免费模式在多数情况下都无法回收成本；这是个高度竞争的市场，所以我们很难提升作品价格，因此制作融入虚拟交易内容的游戏变成开发者增加盈利性的选择之一。

Giving money over smart phone from monkeybin.no

潜在问题

这个趋势存在若干问题。

一个问题就是负面宣传效应——有些媒体报道称iPhone、iPad儿童用户积累众多信用卡账单，儿童用户不断通过父母的信用卡购买虚拟商品。若加强教育及在游戏中进行额外监管，就能避免此种情况的出现。

开发者的这些创收构想存在另一问题，苹果App store、谷歌Android Market和黑莓App World依然分成30%收入。在社交游戏领域，开发者面临的形势更加严峻。

这令开发者开始担忧游戏创收问题，但愿这不是独立开发者即将面临末日，资金雄厚的大型开发者依然握有集中控制权的预兆。

其他创收选择

游戏开发者还有许多其他创收选择。

一个办法就是嵌入更多游戏广告：游戏将获得营销者越来越多的关注，他们清楚自己能够以此种方式吸引用户眼球，树立自己的品牌。随着游戏越发引人注意，开发者便能够提高价格（游戏邦注：热门游戏的创收潜力无比巨大）。

问题是95%的游戏都无法变成热门作品，无法获得营销者的青睐，仍然是那些处在食物链底部的内容。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

The Art of Monetising Mobile Games

by Mark Stephens

Global financial turmoil and austerity measures? Rubbish! If people can spend $3 billion worldwide on things like clothing for their in-game avatars then either there’s something seriously imbalanced out there or there is more spare income available than we’re being led to believe. Hang on a second…I just need to harvest some more zombies on my Zombie Farm…brb. Damn – where’s my credit card?

The Virtual Goods Market

A recent report by Juniper Research in the UK found that the virtual goods market will hit $3 billion this year and predicted it rising to $4.6 billion by 2016.

The main reason for this is no secret: the rapid rates of smartphone and tablet uptake and the corresponding spike in mobile gaming.

Much of the growth of virtual good sales has been in China and Japan and the report expects this to become more of a global trend, especially as more and more competing tablets are released, offering better gaming experiences than simply on an iPhone or Android phone.

The Numbers: A Zombie Example…

To use the above-mentioned example of Zombie Farm– the iPhone game – the app itself is free to download, but it raises “double-digit millions” of dollars through in-game virtual goods purchases, according to the GM of PlayForge. It has been downloaded over 11 million times and is number 7 in the App Store for highest grossing app.

You can play Zombie Farm without buying any virtual goods at all, but to speed up progress you can buy goods that range from $0.99c to $35. Only 1 in 10 users actually buy anything and only 3% of users spend over $100.

Virtual Goods for Developers

It’s become almost incumbent upon developers to find additional revenue streams for their games because selling games at $0.99c or offering for FREE on the App Stores may not even cover costs in many instances; it’s a very competitive market so pricing increases will be hard to introduce, so making games with in-game purchase options is seen as a way for developers to boost revenues.

Potential Problems

There are a number of problems associated with the trend.

One problem is bad publicity – there have been a few press reports about large credit card bills being racked up by the children of iPhone or iPad owners, where the child has kept buying virtual goods again and again using their parents’ credit card details. This is mainly a problem of education and of creating extra controls within the game so this can’t happen.

Another problem with these revenue ideas for developers is that the Apple App store, Google Market and BlackBerry World still retain 30% of payments for in-game virtual goods. In social media gaming circles the story is usually worse for the developer.

This leads to many worries for game developers on just how to generate revenue for their work; hopefully it doesn’t signal the end of too many independent developers and the concentration of all the power into the hands of the major developers who are already cash-rich.

Other Monetising Options

There are perhaps other ways for game developers to create revenue for their business.

One idea is to incorporate more in-game advertising: gaming could become increasingly attractive for marketers, who are well aware that they can grab audience attention in this way and position their brand. As it becomes more attractive, prices can increase from the developers and the revenue-potential from popular games is high.

The problem might be with the 95% of games that don’t become very popular and will not be attractive to marketers, meaning those at the bottom of the food chain remain there.

Any bright ideas for monetising mobile gaming not covered here? Drop a comment below and let us know what you think.（Source：monkeybin）