作者：Joel Brodie

Zynga最近预先公布了他们在第三季度的收益（远低于预期值）——这也是在他们遭遇了第二季度惨淡表现后的又一轮低潮。新游戏《The Ville》表现欠佳，收购《Draw Something》开发商OMGPOP时亏损了9000万美元，除此之外，其CEO马克·平克斯在一份内部备注文件中也提到了裁员的打算，越来越多人离开该公司的现状也充分说明了Zynga的衰败（就连《Words with Friends》开发者也已离开Zynga）。近日，该公司的股票已经跌至每股2.3美元（远低于其IPO时每股10美元的高价）。

Zynga(from csdn.net)

如此还会有好消息存在吗？当然有。当我们处在低蘼时期时，我们总是愿意尝试各种风险而重振旗鼓。尽管面对衰败，Zynga仍然持有数十亿美元的资本，也拥有3亿多玩家基础，非常出色的基础架构，优秀的品牌以及一支强大的开发团队。

今天，我将站在Zynga的立场上阐述当我面对这种衰败时会如何做。

1.别再紧盯着数据而是更多地关注趣味性。Zynga一直都以“数据向导”著称，这点并没有错。但是从最基本的层面上来看，游戏都必须具有乐趣。《Zynga Poker》和《FarmVille》都未能成为顶级热门游戏的主要原因便是它们都是诞生于“培养皿”中。最初Zynga开发人员意识到扑克或农场游戏（就后者而言，他们注意到其它农场游戏所具有的潜力）属于有趣的社交游戏，所以在几周后他们便开始创建这些游戏。

2.减少Ville元素。“Ville”游戏本身并没有错，但是它们在手机平台上的表现却远不如在Facebook那般突出，并且也越来越多人对这类型游戏感到厌倦。创造了如此多“Ville”游戏的Zynga其实也在亲手埋葬着这类型游戏。Zynga应该适当借鉴Rovio在发展《愤怒的小鸟》时所采取的方法，即围绕着基础角色进行稳步扩展，并始终确保能够为玩家呈现出最高质量的游戏（如《愤怒的小鸟太空版》，《Bad Piggies》等）。

3.更多硬核元素。如今在手机平台上最受欢迎也是最有利可图的游戏便是那些能够同时吸引硬核玩家和休闲玩家的游戏，与此同时，越来越多亚洲游戏也相继涌进了美国市场。从Zynga最近收购A Bit Lucky的行动我们便可以看出他们正在朝着中度硬核游戏领域发展，我也认为他们可以适当加快这一发展速度。

4.在博彩游戏中下重注。谈到加倍下注，我认为Zynga应该更多地投资于博彩游戏中，不管是在线还是离线。而这里所存在的一大问题是，任何人都能够很轻松地创造一款老虎机游戏。如果Zynga全身心地投入于创造一系列的社交博彩游戏，他们便会面临巨大的挑战。Zynga应该授权其《FarmVille》游戏和角色成为真实老虎机游戏中的一大组成部分（就像其合作者Slingo所做的那样），并在一些认可博彩游戏的国家中进行较大的投资（游戏邦注：就像Big Fish Games选择在英国推出《Big Fish Casino》这款博彩游戏）。

5.走出安逸区。转向硬核领域也就意味着Zynga需要创造与其“填字游戏”，“Ville游戏”或赌场游戏不同的游戏。回顾过去，我们会发现Gree在收购Funzion的决定比Zynga收购OMGPOP来得明智。我认为Zynga应该收购的是《CSR赛车》的开发商NaturalMotion，因为该公司拥有一个很棒的游戏引擎，能够赋予手机游戏更高质量的图像效果。

6.更多地接触发行领域。发行领域是Zynga有所涉及但却始终摇摆不定的一大领域。Zynga已经与一些大大小小的游戏公司展开了合作（包括Mob Science，Konami等），并发行了一些极具创造性且非常有趣的游戏。最显著的例子便是《Horn》（获得5颗星的评级），《Sports Casino 》（4颗星的评级）以及《Super Bunny Breakout》。而Zynga所面对的问题则是，他们在发行游戏中所获得的利益远不及游戏开发业务，并且他们也还需要面对一些巨头发行商（包括EA，GREE，DeNA等）的竞争。所以选择一些合适的合作伙伴便是推动Zynga在此取得成功的关键。

7.创建游戏基础设施业务。虽然这是个无聊的工作，但是Zynga已经投入了数亿美元去创造最强大的社交游戏基础设施。亚马逊斥资10亿美元去发展自己的基础设施服务，Zynga也应该这么做。如此他们才能够创造出更多收益，并继续发展他们的服务——特别是当这种服务具有延展性时。

当然了，要想完全落实这些方法是不可能的事。所以Zynga必须进行适当筛选，先执行那些最迫切的改变。

（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）

How Zynga can get its groove back

By Joel Brodie

Zynga pre-announced yesterday weaker than expected earnings for the third quarter, which follows a previously horrible second quarter.  Zynga’s new game The Ville underperformed, it had to write off $90 million from the OMGPOP Draw Something acquisition, CEO Mark Pincus may have hinted at layoffs in an internal memo, and people are leaving (the founding creators behind Words with Friends are the latest two).  The stock has dropped today to $2.30 a share (far below the $10/share IPO price).

The good news?  When you’re down, you’re willing to take the risks to get back up.  Zynga still have a billion+  in the bank, 300+ million players, incredible infrastructure, good brands, and a strong team.

And they have me, telling them what I would do if I were in charge of Zynga.

1.Cut the data cord and focus on fun.   Zynga is known for being data wizards and there’s nothing wrong with that.  But games are supposed to be fun.  Zynga Poker and FarmVille didn’t emerge as super-hits because they were born in a petri dish.  Someone at Zynga thought poker or farming (in the latter case, they noticed other farming games) would fun social games and in a matter of weeks, they built them.

2.Less Ville.  Nothing wrong with the “Ville” game franchises, but they don’t do as well on mobile as they do on Facebook and there is growing fatigue around this game style.  By creating so many “Ville” games, Zynga is in danger of burning the franchise.  Zynga should look at how Rovio has expertly handled the Angry Birds franchise, expanding and building it out around its characters slowly but with high quality (e.g., Angry Birds Space, Bad Piggies).

3.More Core.  The most popular and lucrative games on mobile now are those that appeal as much to the core as the casual audience, and with more games entering the US market from Asia (read Chicago Tribune’s excellent article about Asian companies going after Zynga’s turf today).  Zynga has already made a move toward mid and core gaming with its recent acquisition of A Bit Lucky but they need to move faster.

4.Bet on Casino.  Speaking of doubling down, Zynga should invest more in casino games, both online and offline.  The problem is that its so easy to create a slots game, everyone is doing (Kabam Slots, anyone?)  Zynga will be challenged if all they are doing is creating a catalogue of social casino games.  Zynga should license its FarmVille games and characters to be part of actual slot machines (like its partner Slingo does) and get more heavily invested in gambling games in the countries it is legal today (e.g, United Kingdom, just like Big Fish Games did with Big Fish Casino).

5.Get out of your comfort zone.  Back to going to the core, Zynga really needs to build games completely different than its “with Friends,” “Ville,” and casino franchises.  In retrospect, Gree’s purchase of Funzio was better than Zynga’s buy of OMGPOP (though to be honest, I probably would have made the same decision as Zynga at the time).  A good example of a company Zynga should buy is NaturalMotion, makers  of CSR Racing, because it has a game engine that takes mobile games to a higher graphical level.

6.More publishing deals.  The one area that Zynga has invested in and is rocking is publishing.   Zynga has signed deals with big and small game companies alike (Mob Science, Konami, etc) and the games coming out innovative and exciting.  Notable examples are Horn (5 stars), Sports Casino (4 stars), and Super Bunny Breakout (a breakout-style game by Atari we previewed yesterday).  The problem for Zynga is that the margins in publishing are not as good as creating the game yourself, and and they are competing big players like EA, GREE, DeNA, and many more.  The good news is that all it takes is picking one winner for the business to be great and Zynga is picking up good partners.

7.Build out games infrastructure business.  Boring, yes, but Zynga has invested hundreds of millions of dollars into building the #1 infrastructure for social games in the world.  In the same way Amazon built a billion dollar business around its cloud infrastructure services, Zynga can do the same here.  And it’ll allow them to generate new cash and continue and grow its services, assuming they designed it correctly to be scalable.

So, there you have it, my prescription of how Zynga can get back on track.   It’d be impossible to do it all of course, so Zynga has to prioritize, close some games, maybe lay off staff.  Which is why I’m glad I’m not in charge of Zynga so I don’t have to make such decisions myself.(source:gamezebo)