日前，《愤怒鸟》（Angry Birds）发行商Chillingo公司宣布，其提供的Crystal软件开发工具包（Crystal SDK）现可同时支持微交易“免费”游戏和传统付费应用的开发。

crystal-SDK-logo

该软件开发工具包目前支持iPhone和Flash游戏的开发，还计划在年底前针对Android平台添加相关功能。这款SDK增加了货币化（monetization）选项，方便免费游戏通过虚拟商品、礼物赠送和促销推广中顺利创收。

另外，Crystal还可帮助开发商在游戏中轻松地添加任务挑战、成就管理、积分排行、品牌推广等功能。Chillingo公司联合创始人及主管乔威（Joe Wee）表示，“我们为开发商提供了两种有助于吸引玩家的商业模式，一种是常规的一次性付费游戏，另一种是免费游戏模式……过去六个月我们一直在扩展这款工具的技术框架，现在通过这一工具，开发商和终端客户都可以选择更多的手机社交游戏类型……”

免费游戏市场在最近几个月越来越受到人们关注，刚被日本DeNA收购的Ngmoco公司CEO尼尔·杨（Neil Young）就曾表示，“去年夏天我们公司开始转向免费游戏，这一决策确实很管用，我们的业务重心从付费下载转向了付费使用，后者让你意识到这一操作有助于建立游戏与客户之间的可持续发展关系……”

据悉，2011年游戏虚拟商品总营收预计将达20亿美元。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译）

Chillingo Updates Crystal SDK With Freemium Support
 
Angry Birds publisher Chillingo announced today that its Crystal SDK now supports development of microtransaction-based “freemium” games as well as traditional paid apps.

The SDK, which currently supports iPhone and Flash development, with plans to add Android support before the end of the year, has expanded available monetization options to make it easier for free-to-play games to make money off of virtual goods, gifts and promotions.

Crystal also allows developers to easily add features like challenges, achievements, leaderboards and branding into their games.

“We now offer our developers two alternative business models to engage gamers – the traditional one-off paid model, and a freemium model,” said Joe Wee, Co-Founder and Director of Chillingo.

“We have spent the past six months extending our technology framework. It now provides our developers and ultimately our customers more choice in how they choose to engage with social games on mobile platforms,” he adds.

The freemium market has received increased attention in recent months, with Ngmoco CEO Neil Young partially crediting the model for his company’s continuing success in a recent Gamasutra interview.

“In summer last year we made the shift to free-to-play games, and that really made a huge difference to our business as we transitioned from monetizing downloads to monetizing usage,” Young said.

“When you monetize usage, you realize it’s really about building sustainable relationships with customers, which is not entirely dissimilar from operating and running a service.”

Sales of virtual goods are projected to drive over $2 billion into the industry next year. （source:gamasutra）