日前，法国电子游戏巨头育碧（Ubisoft）公司，宣布将推出支持掌机、Facebook、iPhone三者跨平台互动的游戏发展战略。

Ubisoft-logo

育碧数码发行副总裁克里斯·尔力（Chris Early）近期表示，育碧计划推出“结盟游戏”（campanion games），这些游戏将在新平台上运行，比如说支持运行PlayStation 3或Xbox 360游戏的Facebook。

尔力是前微软游戏高管，于六个月前加入育碧，组建了该公司的数码在线部门，以期向发展势头强劲、正威胁传统掌机游戏市场的社交和手机游戏出击。尽管育碧在社交游戏市场初试未捷，《Tick Tock》这款游戏在Facebook上徒遭冷遇。但尔力表示，育碧已从失败中汲取教训，并将促使旗下主要游戏品牌与Facebook、iPhone和免费在线游戏接轨。

大家要问的是，像育碧这样的老牌游戏公司，究竟可否灵活应对社交和手机游戏时代的变化，或者Zynga、Ngmoco、Nexon这些晚辈是否终将在游戏市场中占上风。育碧还没有放弃掌机游戏的打算，而且还向Xbox Live平台和PlayStation网站提供《撕裂的天堂》（Beyond Good & Evil）等下载游戏。但有一点可以肯定，育碧若还想保持雄风，就不得不面对这些后来者的挑战。果真如此，这项Facebook与掌机的跨平台发展策略，可以算是育碧付诸行动的一大筹码。

育碧向社交游戏领域发力的表现之一在于，向Facebook推出了角色扮演类社交游戏《Assassin’s Creed：Project Legacy》，同时还推出了该游戏的掌机同步版本《刺客信条：兄弟会》（Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood）。这一跨平台策略的特色在于，用户在Facebook游戏版本中扮演的角色、所获积分等，均可通用于掌机游戏版本。用户可以从掌机平台转战互联网，再从互联网移师掌机平台，寸步不离《刺客信条》的江湖。

Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood

尔力表示，这种性质的跨平台操作，与现代人忙碌的生活节奏相当合拍，可以让人们在工作之余忙里偷闲地玩下游戏，回到家后又能看到自己的游戏成就。在掌机游戏中，玩家可以开启25项Facebook版本的任务；而在Facebook游戏版本中则可赢得虚拟货币、经验值，同时开启掌机游戏版本的其他内容和功能。比方说，玩家如果已在Facebook游戏版本中找到罗马城市地标，那就意味着这些地标也将在掌机游戏版本中显示。

唯一遗憾在于，这种游戏模式不能赢取Xbox Live积分。育碧在Facebook上已推出了自己的“育碧积分”，在掌机游戏上则推行“U游戏积分”，这些积分可通用于育碧游戏。如果要向玩家发放Xbox Live积分，育碧就得与微软另外交涉，让微软在Xbox Live积分奖励上行个方便。但就算微软愿意让Xbox Live积分与Windows Phone 7的游戏版本挂钩，它也未必愿意为Facebook游戏版本提供同样的服务。

育碧还针对少儿用户推出了免费游戏《Petz World》（所谓免费游戏即游戏本身免费，但针对虚拟商品收费），这款大型多人在线游戏与任天堂DS游戏《宠物幼兽 2》（Petz Nursery 2）密切相关，在《宠物幼兽 2》中，玩家可以饲养8种不同的宠物，然后将这些游戏宠物出售给《Petz World》中的用户。

Petz Nursery 2

另一款跨平台游戏是《Hamsterz Worldwide》，成人用户可以玩该游戏的Facebook版本，并开启一些道具，送给iPhone或iPod Touch儿童游戏版本的玩家。与此同时，儿童玩家也可以将自己在游戏中获得的积分送给Facebook上的成人玩家消费，成人玩家还可以让儿童玩家帮忙完成一些重复而消耗时间、自己不愿去做，但为提高自身级别不得不做的任务。

尔力表示，“这种模式创造了成人和孩子之间的良性互动。”尽管代沟问题仍然存在，但成人可以借此了解孩子在游戏世界中的情况，与之进行有效的沟通和互动。

尔力另外还补充，为实现这一跨平台互动战略，育碧在硬件设备上已投入重金，并将号召游戏设计师针对这一模式设计游戏作品；他同时还表示，这一切的付出诚有所值，因为其他游戏公司尚不能实现掌机游戏和社交网站的无缝对接，所以这种独创的游戏发展策略必将成为育碧的一大优势。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译）

Ubisoft brings “companion games” strategy to Facebook and iPhone

Ubisoft, the big French video game company, is late to the social and iPhone game party. But it has come up with what it hopes will be a smart strategy to deeply integrate its console, Facebook, and iPhone games.

Chris Early, vice president of digital publishing at Ubisoft, said at an event in San Francisco last night that the company plans to do “companion games.” These are games on new platforms such as Facebook that work with or enhance games that you play on the game consoles such as the PlayStation 3 or the Xbox 360.

Early, a former Microsoft games manager, joined Ubisoft six months ago as part of a plan to form a new digital online division to attack markets such as social and mobile that have been growing faster than the traditional game console business. Ubisoft has had false starts in Facebook games before, with the launch of its unsuccessful Tick Tock game on Facebook. But Early said Ubisoft has learned and now the company is bringing its major game brands to Facebook, iPhone, and free-to-play online games.

The question at hand is whether the old guard game companies such as Ubisoft can adapt quickly enough to the new age of social and mobile games, or if the newcomers such as Zynga, Ngmoco, and Nexon will come to dominate those markets. Ubisoft isn’t abandoning the consoles; in fact, it is launching downloadable games such as Beyond Good & Evil on Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network. But it has to challenge the newcomers on their turf if it is to remain relevant in the long-term. If it takes off, this Facebook-console integration could turn out to be a big advantage.

In an example of a major investment by Ubisoft in a social game brand, Ubisoft is launching its social role-playing game Assassin’s Creed Project Legacy for Facebook, a companion to the Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood game launching on the consoles on Nov. 16. For the first time, the Facebook game will let you level up a character and earn points that can be expended in the console game. You can move from the console to the web and from the web to the console, always staying inside the fiction of the Assassin’s Creed universe.

Early said that this ability to move between platforms will catch up with the schedules of busy people, allowing them to catch a brief fix at work and come home to find that they’ve made progress in a game they’re  hooked on. In the console game, players will be able to unlock up to 25 missions in the Facebook game. Players can earn virtual currency and experience points in the Facebook game and unlock extra content in the console game. You can, for instance, find landmarks in the city of Rome on the Facebook game. Those landmarks then become available for the player to explore in the console game.

The only problem is that you can’t earn Xbox Live achievement points, which are the rewards you get in every Xbox 360 game when you get through critical hurdles. Ubisoft has its own Ubisoft credits on Facebook and U Play points that reach across its console games and can be expended inside Ubisoft games. In order to get Xbox Live achievement points, Ubisoft would have had to work closely with Microsoft, which controls the Xbox Live rewards. While Microsoft is willing to link Xbox Live rewards with Windows Phone 7, it isn’t yet willing to do so with Facebook games.

Ubisoft is also launching its free-to-play online game Petz World for young kids (free-to-play games are ones in which you play for free but pay real money for virtual goods). The massively multiplayer online game is tightly tied to a Nintendo DS game, Petz Nursery 2, where you can raise eight different breeds of pets. You can then export those game pets into Petz World and play with them there.

Another game is Hamsterz Worldwide, which is akin to Rollercoaster Tycoon (a theme park simulation) meets Habitrail (cages for hamsters), Early said. Adults can play the Hamsterz Worldwide game on Facebook and unlock items that they can give to kids who play the kids version on an iPhone or iPod Touch. The kid can also earn points in a game that they can give to an adult, who can spend the points in the Facebook game. The adults can get the kids to do “grinding,” or the repetitive tasks that adults would rather not do in order to level up in a game.

“You create a cycle where the kid and the adult benefit each other,” Early said.

Despite the generation gap when it comes to games, the adults will be aware of what is happening inside the child’s game and will thus have a way to begin a meaningful conversation with the child.

Early said that Ubisoft had to invest heavily in infrastructure to make the cross-platform integration happen. It also had to get game designers to work the integrations into the design of their games. But Early says it is worth it because the approach gives Ubisoft an advantage over other game makers that can’t tightly integrate console game brands with the new social networks.（source:venturebeat）