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每日观察:关注Social Empires及Rockstar跨平台计划(4.7)

发布时间:2012-04-07 10:58:58 Tags:,,

1. 早先关于Words With Friends最大的名人新闻应该是Alec Baldwin拒绝关机被赶下飞机的事件,现在同样卷入Words With Friends的名人八卦事件是Alice Eve,后者在名利场的专访中也表达了这种偏好。

alice eve image from blog.games.com

alice eve image from blog.games.com

2. 据Inside Social Games消息称,在Facebook上声名显赫的Social Empires将推出iphone和ipad版游戏。Social Empires由巴塞罗那游戏公司Social Point研发,是Facebook相当顶尖的RPG游戏,目前月活跃用户为590万,日活跃用户为98万,而Social Point本身也跻身Facebook社交游戏开发公司前十,位列第7,整体MAU为1300万(排在公司之前的是Playdom、Rovio、King.com、wooga、Electronic Arts和Zynga),领先题材更为相似的Kixeye(MAU为470万)和Kabam(MAU为210万)。

Social Empires from blog.games.com

Social Empires from blog.games.com

3. 据Gamesindustry消息称,随着Grand Theft Auto III在手机端的成功运作,Rockstar计划再推出Max Payne手机版,预计发行日期是4月12号(ios版)和4月26号(Android版),而Max Payne 3的PC版、Xbox 360版及PS3版也将于5月15号发行。

Max Payne系列堪称经典,Max Payne 3原本预定的发行日期是2009年底,后延迟至2010年底,而后最终敲定的发行日期是2012年上半年,这成为比游戏本身更有看头的跳票案例。

4. Steve Peterson分享了Zynga旧金山总部的办公环境,早在2010年Zynga就因为人员扩张租赁了位于旧金山的Townsend Center,作为自己的总部基地,后来进行了实质收购,据说该栋建筑可容纳超过2000名员工,之前日本游戏巨头SEGA北美公司就曾经在此办公,大概有两个很典型的特色,一个是Food is one of Zynga’s killer apps(食物供应是Zynga对员工的一大杀手锏),另外一个有特色的文化是,这里是狗的天堂(dogs are a welcome addition to the offices)。

lobby from gamesindustry.biz

lobby from gamesindustry.biz

Atrium Half from gamesindustry.biz

Atrium Half from gamesindustry.biz

Farm offices Half from gamesindustry.biz

Farm offices Half from gamesindustry.biz

5. 据asiajin消息称,Zynga日本将2010年收购Unoh附属而来的图片分享服务Photozou出售给Digital Garage。Photozou始于2005年,被认为是日本本土版的Flickr,服务拥有240万的注册用户。这笔并购交易的金额没有对外公布。

flickr photozou from asiajin.com

flickr photozou from asiajin.com

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

1. “Another falls,” the tyrannical Lord Zynga muttered under frigid breath, resting on his throne made entirely of Facebook Credit gift cards. Entourage actress and future Starfleet Command officer Alice Eve is officially a Words With Friends player, according to an interview with Vanity Fair. And a likely suspect is responsible for getting her hooked on the digital drug.

“After seeing Alec Baldwin on the news,” Eve admitted to Vanity Fair, “I thought, What’s he playing that’s so good he doesn’t want to turn his phone off? I got the app because of that.” Of course, Eve was referring to Alec Baldwin’s recent run-in with airport security on the runway after he supposedly refused to stop playing Zynga’s mega popular Scrabble knock-off.

The fiasco actually helped Words With Friends get in front of the public eye–you could say it even helped the game score a Super Bowl ad spot. But it helped Baldwin quite a bit, too. Hell, the guy has worn the incident like a badge on everything from Saturday Night Live to a new Capital One ad. Now, who wants to make Draw Something more popular than it needs to be?(Source:games.com

2. Social Empires creator Social Point has seemingly mastered the 13-to-27-inch screens. Now, the Barcelona-based developer looks to lord over the smaller screens in your life, namely your iPhone and iPad. Inside Social Games (ISG) reports that both Social Empires and Social Wars–the developer’s most recent Facebook release–are headed for iOS devices this year.

As if respecting the rules of seniority, Social Empires will get the mobile treatment first with a release coming in the next two months. Social Wars, one the other hand, will debut on iPhone and iPad by the end of this year. What’s better is that both games will utilize Facebook Connect to the fullest, meaning players can import their Facebook progress to their iOS devices and keep their conquests going from there.

Social Point also told ISG that it looks to focus solely on the “mid-core” audience that it’s had great success with through Social Empires and Social Wars. To that end, the game maker looks to release two more mid-core games on Facebook before summer. There are little details on either game, aside from that one is a “turn-based combat featuring mythical creatures like dragons,” while the other is “an online RPG,” according to ISG. It just might be time to schedule that stay-cation.(Source:games.com

3. Rockstar follows GTA III success on mobile with Max Payne launch

Rockstar Games, close to launch with Max Payne 3, has announced its intention to bring the original classic to mobile devices. This is the second game the studio has ported over to mobile devices, following the success of Grand Theft Auto III.

The new port will update the game substantially, offering an HD upgrade as well as controls adapted to touchscreens. Rockstar will also be adding their Social Club service, which has been utilized for most of Rockstar’s titles since Grand Theft Auto IV.

Max Payne Mobile is set for launch on iPhone 3GS and higher, iPad devices and iTouch 4 platforms on April 12. Those running Android can expect the game to launch on April 26.

Max Payne 3 will launch on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 just three weeks after on May 15.(Source:gamesindustry

4. A look at the working environment at Zynga

Zynga is not a typical game company in many ways, and their working conditions at the San Francisco headquarters are far from the norm for game companies. Zynga recently purchased the building they now occupy in the South of Market area of San Francisco, home to an extensive area of mobile and social game companies. Their offices are not far from downtown San Francisco and even closer to Pac Bell Park, where Zynga employees can take a break from building their games to watch the San Francisco Giants trying to put together another run at the World Series.

Zynga’s headquarters building has some 407,000 square feet of space, which sounds like an enormous amount until you look at the fact that it’s shared by 1700 employees. There are six floors, not including the concourse and the rooftop parking (a must in SF, where parking spaces are rare and precious things). The building’s ground floor contains the enormous cafeteria and open meeting space, which is also used for all-hands meetings and press events.

The main lobby features a Winnebago with a Z, a huge PLAY sign, and a time tunnel. It’s all connected to props created for some photos, and they liked them so much they kept them. It certainly creates an otherworldy experience when you enter, and traveling through the time tunnel to reach the offices has an odd effect. You do begin to believe you’re entering a different time and space. When you think about all that Zynga has accomplished in such a short time, maybe that’s not too far off the mark.

Food is one of Zynga’s killer apps. They have chefs on staff who prepare meals daily for the employees, lunch and dinner. Every week, Zynga goes through an average of 24,000 pounds of food. The menu is varied and always delicious. If you ever have the chance to try the pizza, you’ll find a contender for the best pizza you’ve ever had. It’s a great incentive to stay close to the office. If you get hungry at other times, each floor features its own break room, fully stocked with a wide array of food and drink.

Arranged around a central atrium, each floor houses the teams for various games in a wide-open floor plan that is common now among high-tech companies. The FarmVille team on the top level has the best views of the city. Is a team’s position in the building due to its longevity, or revenue, or just the fact that they claimed an open space first? No one would say, though the odd Nerf weapon here and there hinted at battles from time to time.

As you might have expected from the Zynga logo, dogs are a welcome addition to the offices. On a daily basis, there’s about one dog for every 9 Zynga employees in the office. Each doggie gets a signature Zynga bone tag with a number for safety. Zynga has a general policy for doggie behavior based on common courtesy. All the dogs I encountered were friendly, if they weren’t curled up sleeping. Apparently they are bored with programming, game design, and art, though perhaps the ping-pong tables might hold some interest for them.

Zynga now has some 2854 employees all told, with about 1700 in the Bay Area. There are more than 20 studios worldwide now, located in San Francisco, Austin, New York, Baltimore, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Dallas, among other places.

When you wander through the offices, it’s easy to see how Zynga is able to retain employees as well as they do. The working environment is open, spacious, and well provided with creature comforts, both for humans and dogs. As to the nature of that work, we’ll have some interviews coming up with key Zynga executives that will shed some light on how Zynga gets things done.(Source:gamesindustry

5. Back in 2010, when Zynga acquired Tokyo-based Unoh (and turned the company into its Japan HQ), the main targets of the Americans were game-related assets and the team.

But Zynga also acquired a pretty successful photo sharing service that was developed by Unoh: Photozou,which went live in 2005 and can probably be best described as Japan’s homegrown Flickr. (During its company history, Unoh launched quite a few services, i.e. a movie information service or a mobile ad network that were both sold off later, too.)

Today, Tokyo-based Digital Garaget (Twitter’s partner in Japan) announced it acquired Photozou from Zynga Japan for an undisclosed sum (press release in English). DG says that Photozou currently boasts 130 million photos on its site, uploaded by some 2.4 million registered members.

For Zynga Japan, selling a photo sharing service it acquired “by chance” makes sense.(Source:asiajin


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