作者：Kris Graft

总部位于西雅图的休闲游戏开发商PopCap为了获得进一步发展，将视线越过美国望向世界，特别是亚洲市场。

尽管PopCap早已发觉到亚太地区拥有巨大的发展机遇，但是对于是否快速进入该市场他们还保留着谨慎的态度。PopCap花了好几年的时间研究如何才能在该地区成功创造手机和社交游戏。

植物大战僵尸(from verycd.com)

PopCap全球发行执行副总裁Dennis Ryan说道：“我们过去几年，并不是将亚太地区当成一个整体进行研究，而是根据不同国家分别研究。”每一个国家的玩家游戏喜好都不尽相同，所以不能在整个亚太地区采用同一种运行方式。游戏公司必须想办法迎合不同国家的不同特征。

如今归属于发行巨头EA的PopCap共拥有500至600名员工。在亚洲地区共有100名员工，主要集中在上海。该公司也在东京设立了一个较小的工作室。

在中国，日本以及韩国等国家，Facebook的渗透率远不及美国，所以游戏开发者就必须针对不同的平台制定不同的社交策略。Ryan还提到，从Gree以及DeNA等公司取得的巨大成功看来，日本市场拥有较悠久的手机及社交游戏历史。

Ryan表示：“这里的盈利率远远高于美国市场。”从每用户平均收入（ARPU）来看，日本的社交和在线游戏的盈利性非常之高，甚至是美国游戏市场的2至5倍。

根据Ryan所称，DeNA以及Gree的每日ARPU是10至15美分，甚至有一些游戏每日ARPU高达50美分至1美元。

日本社交和手机游戏当前最流行的是集换式卡牌游戏，如《Tanken Doliland》，每个月能够为Gree赚得2500万美元；《Kaitou Royale》每个月也能为DeNA带来超过1500万美元的收益。Ryan表示，开发者必须留意当前哪些游戏类型更受玩家欢迎，并且考虑创造这些游戏的需求等问题。

尽管Gree和DeNA坐拥日本最大的游戏平台，但是“推动着日本市场在未来几个季度以及几年内更加快速发展的驱动力应该是iOS，虽然这一平台目前在日本还处于早期发展阶段。”Ryan说道。

“这几年来我们一直坚持与Gree和DeNA合作。这是帮助我们获得进一步发展的重要方法。”

早在3年前PopCap就在中国成立了工作室。而在这里，社交游戏和手机游戏的巨头当属腾讯，新浪和人人网。

Ryan表示，中国在线和社交游戏平台的显著特点在于，玩家能够很容易找到游戏。例如在腾讯的Qzone中，“游戏总是陈列在平台的最前方或正中央。”

除此之外，中国社交游戏与美国社交游戏还存在许多不同之处。就像，“送礼”并非一种有效的用户留存机制。并且，中国玩家更愿意为获得游戏内部的优势而花钱，而美国玩家则更青睐游戏中的自我表达元素，如角色的虚拟配件。

特殊活动在中国社交和在线游戏中也很流行。Ryan说道：“在中国的各大平台上，特殊活动的发生频率如果不是每周一次，那就是每隔一周一次。”

腾讯网页游戏《Immortal Path》收益超过了1500万美元。另外一款游戏《胡莱三国》每个月的收益也高达450万美元。

Ryan说道：“中国是一个快速发展的大市场。我们仍坚持用自己的IP，造出了适合中国平台的《植物大战僵尸》和《宝石迷阵》游戏。”

由于时间不足，Ryan只能简要阐述韩国市场，他称这是“一个重要且巨大的游戏市场”，但更关注社交网站和手机网站中的硬核游戏。尽管PopCap更加重视休闲游戏体验，但是Ryan表示，面对韩国这种硬核游戏市场，“我们将不断完善自己的发展策略。”

（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）

GDC 2012: One size doesn’t fit all in Asia Pacific – PopCap

by Kris Graft

Based in Seattle, Bejeweled and Plants vs. Zombies developer PopCap has looked beyond U.S. borders for growth, particularly exploring key Asian markets.

While PopCap has known that there is big opportunity in Asia Pacific regions, it has been cautious about jumping into Asian markets too fast. PopCap has taken years looking into the necessary, small steps for building a mobile and social game business in that region.

“One of the important takeaways for us over the past few years … is don’t look at [Asia Pacific] on a regional basis, but on a country basis,” said Dennis Ryan, VP of worldwide publishing at PopCap. The tastes and gaming habits of players varies by each country — don’t assume that all of Asia Pacific operates in the same way, warned Ryan. Companies have to cater to the traits of each country.

Around 500-600 people now work at PopCap, which is now owned by publishing giant Electronic Arts. About 100 workers are in Asia Pacific, most based in Shanghai, while the company has a smaller office in Tokyo.

In countries like China, Japan and Korea, Facebook doesn’t have nearly the same kind of penetration as it does in the U.S. So the social strategy needs to be markedly different, because game makers are dealing with drastically different platforms. Ryan noted that in Japan, social and mobile markets have already had a long history of mobile and social gaming, with companies like Gree and DeNA finding major success.

“There are much higher monetization rates [than in the U.S.],” Ryan said. Monetization of social and online games is significantly higher in Japan with ARPU [average revenue per user] that can be around two to five times greater when compared to U.S. games.

Daily ARPU for DeNA and Gree is 10-15 cents, while some genres might pull in 50 cents to $1 a day said Ryan.

The current trend in Japanese social and mobile games is the popularity of trading card games like Tanken Doliland, which does $25 million in revenue, monthly, for Gree. Kaitou Royale brings in over $15 million a month for DeNA. Ryan said it’s important to note what kind of genres are popular with audiences, and consider serving the demand for those genres.

While Gree and DeNA have the biggest platforms in Japan, “Certainly one of the forces that will drive this market over the coming quarters and years is the iOS impact, which is still in its early stages of effect,” said Ryan.

“We’ve chosen to partner with Gree and DeNA, and we’ve been doing that for a few years. That’s the path going forward,” he said.

PopCap is also investing in China, with an office that has been there for the past three years. Tencent, Sina and RenRen are the biggest players in social and mobile in the country.

Ryan said one distinct feature on Chinese online and social game platforms is a prominence of game discovery. “Games are much more front and center on platforms” such as Tencent’s Qzone, said Ryan.

There are other notable differences, between Chinese social games and those in the U.S. For example, “gifting” isn’t as popular as a retention incentive. And In China, players respond to, expect, and are willing to pay for in-game advantages. In the U.S., players tend more to pay for self-expression such as virtual accessories for avatars.

There’s also a prevalence of special events within Chinese social and online games. “On these Chinese platforms, if [a special event does] not [happen] every week, it’s every other week,” said Ryan.

One web game, Tencent’s Immortal Path, brings in over $15 million in revenues, a “significant” amount, said Ryan. Another title, HuLai San Guo has monthly revenues of over $4.5 million.

“The market moves fast, it’s a large market in China. We stick with our IP, so we’ve done versions of Plants vs. Zombies and Bejewled for Chinese-oriented platforms. But we also try to translate [IP] to [popular game genres],” he said.

Pressed for time, Ryan only was able to offer a quick overview of Korea, but he called it a “key, large gaming market, very large,” and one that is focused more on core gaming on social and mobile networks. PopCap is more focused on casual experiences, but Ryan said that addressing the hardcore market is “what we’d look to in terms of evolving our strategy [in Korea].” (source:GAMASUTRA)