一个企业CEO的运营计划好比是一员大将的作战策略，但无论是将军打响的第一枪还是企业达成的第一笔交易，其威力都远胜过那些落在纸上的兵法或者抽象的报表，从这一角度来看，美国iOS游戏发行商ngmoco选择被收购的结局就一点也不令人意外了。

Ngmoco-logo

ngmoco公司成立于2008年，由前电子艺届洛杉机工作室的一些年轻高管（科学地说，这些人已到中年）创立，主要面向App Store开发高端手机游戏。

这家年轻的企业不但拥有经验丰富的员工，得到了风险投资家的力挺，在旧金山甚至还有几家体面的办公室。ngmoco公司很快就吸引了一些很有创造性的开发商，发行了一系列叫好的大作，其中包括Hand Circus公司开发的《奥兰多大陆》（Rolando）以及The Muteki公司的积木平衡游戏《Topple》。

在2009年苹果世界开发者大会上，由ngmoco公司发行、Rough Cookie公司开发的游戏《星球防御战》（Star Defense）屡屡被斯蒂芬·乔布斯点名，ngmoco公司也因此名震江湖。《星球防御战》是首款支持iPhone 3.0操作系统的游戏，具有多人游戏模式、更新升级和微交易模式。

当时一并展出的ngmoco公司发行作品还包括第一人称射击游戏《灭绝战士》（Eliminate）、《触摸宠物狗》（Touch Pets Dogs，《任天狗》的克隆版）以及人们颇为期待的《奥兰多大陆2》（Rolando 2）。

但即使是在那个时期，高端手机游戏在App Store的生意就已经不那么景气了。《星球防御战》标价5.99美元，看起来并不算昂贵，但与《航班调度》（Flight Control）、《口袋上帝》（Pocket God）等仅售价99美分但非常出色，而且开始创造上百万份销量的游戏相比，《星球防御战》已经明显火力不足。

值得一提的是，《星球防御战》走向没落并非游戏本身质量不过关（它很可能是ngmoco公司最值得收藏的游戏），而是App Store的用户，尤其不断扩大的iPod Touch年轻消费群，看到那么多物美价廉的99美分游戏，已经不乐意再出这种价格为任何游戏买单了。

ngmoco公司由此开始走向拐点，CEO尼尔·杨（Neil Young）也确实做出了一些转舵的决策，让包括ngmoco投资者（当时已向ngmoco投资1500万美元）在内的所有人大为意外。

游戏质量当然不能大打折扣，但尼尔·杨认为，可以效仿Facebook的做法，让用户通过免费游戏与朋友互动，推出Plus+手机社交游戏平台，对于拥有10名以上员工但远逊EA Mobile或Gameloft公司1000多人规模的游戏公司来说，这种办法似乎才是ngmoco盈利的唯一出路。

还有不要忘了，ngmoco与其他多数iOS开发商和发行商的不同之处在于，其创立初衷就是为创始人及投资者盈利，所以很可能转手卖给大公司。

ngmoco公司并非仅有一帮只知道为实现理想而创造游戏，躲在幕后默默卖力的编码员，它的目标是成为“手机游戏产业的电子艺届（EA）”，这就意味着他们的发展宗旨就是逐利而行。

该公司在业务改革后，于2009年秋季推出了一系列免费游戏，支持用户通过购买虚拟道具提高游戏体验，比如说《We Rule》游戏中可以让东西运行变快的巫术（Mojo）、《触摸宠物狗》中为玩家宠物狗定制的商品、《灭绝战士》用来提高游戏等级的能量电池等。

事实证明这一招果然管用，这些游戏今年9月份的下载量已达5000万次，虽然ngmoco对游戏每日活跃用户的数量讳莫如深，但这种操作方法对初创企业的运营发展来说确实比较可靠。

ngmoco又相续收买了包括Miraphonic, Freeverse和Stumpdown等开发商，向他们兜售自己的内部开发技术，不断增加资金流入力图填补不断增长的现金消耗率和长远投资的缺口（这一数据今年已达3000万美元）。

这一举动的结果就是，日本发行商DeNA公司也参与进来，以4.03亿美元收购了ngmoco（其中3.03亿为股额与股份形式，另外1亿为基于财务表现的额外对价）。

当然，从企业并购的历史来看，不少收购方在基础条款上几乎总会多花钱，EA Mobile公司当时曾欲以6.8亿美元收购JAMDAT公司，但两年后又反悔，降到了3.68亿美元成交额。

但DeNA今年利润可能达到5亿美元，而且急需在美国扩张势力，因此收购ngmoco应该不需要太久就能收回成本。

无论如何，ngmoco过去的光辉岁月已足够他们回忆一番了，搞不好再过几个月还有可能成为MBA课程的研究案例呢。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译）

Opinion: The fall and rise of ngmoco

How the darling of iPhone gaming found its way 

As with the general’s plan for the battlefield, so with the CEO’s business plan for his company.

The first shot, and the first sale, are likely to turn those abstract pieces of paper and spreadsheets into nothing less than junk as your army, or your firm, gets on with the serious and dynamic business of killing the opposition, or making money.

To that extent, it’s no surprise that US iOS publisher ngmoco has ended up striding in a very different direction compared to the one it started out in.

Once upon an investment

Back in 2008, ngmoco – which was formed by some young (technically middle-aged) executive guns from EA’s Los Angeles studio – was the App Store’s premium games company.

It had experienced staff. It has venture capitalists’ cash. Heck, it even had proper offices in San Francisco. It hooked up with creative developers, publishing a string of successful games including signature releases such as Hand Circus’ Rolando and The Muteki Corporation’s Topple.

It hit a high point during Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in June 2009, when its, and developer Rough Cookie’s, Star Defense was highlighted as part of a Steve Jobs’ keynote. It was one of the first games to support the iPhone 3.0 OS, including multiplayer, updates and micro transactions.

Other games it showcased during the event included first person shooter Eliminate, Nintendogs clone Touch Pets Dogs, and the much anticipated Rolando 2

Times they are a’changing

But even then, it was becoming clear that premium games weren’t performing as well on the App Store as before.

At $5.99, Star Defense wasn’t that expensive, but compared to a wave of 99c success stories such as Flight Control and Pocket God, which were starting to sell millions, it flopped.

What’s important to note is that it wasn’t the fact that games like Star Defense weren’t great: it was perhaps ngmoco’s best reviewed game. However, the App Store audience, especially the fast growing younger iPod touch audience, wasn’t prepared to spend that sort of money on any game, and especially not when hours of fun were available for 99c.

This was the inflection point for ngmoco’s CEO Neil Young and inflect he did. Surprising everyone – especially ngmoco’s backers, who had already given it $15 million – he turned the company’s business model on its head.

Quality games remained important of course, but Young realised that giving away stuff for free as was already happening on Facebook – especially stuff that connected you to your friends, using ngmoco’s Plus+ social platform – was going to be the only way to make money if you were a games company with more than 10 staff, but unlike EA Mobile or Gameloft, less than 1,000.

Cash in is king

In addition, unlike most developers on iOS, and even some publishers, it should never be forgotten that ngmoco was founded with the express purpose of making a lot of money for its founders and investors, most likely by being sold to a large company.

It was never a couple of coders in a back bedroom, trying to make their ideal game. It was about building an “EA for the mobile generation”, and that meant following the money.

The result was a wave of new freemium games launched in autumn 2009, in which you bought virtual items to improve your experience, whether Mojo to make things happen faster in We Rule, customisation for your dog in Touch Pets Dogs or power cells to ensure your games ranked in Eliminate.

Certainly successful in terms of downloads – 50 million by September 2010 – even if ngmoco was tight lipped about revealing any daily user figures, this approach has been backed by classic start up business development.

Ngmoco has bought other developers – Miraphonic, Freeverse and Stumpdown – to bulk out its internal development, while continuing to raise more cash to cover its increasing burnrate and future investment – $30+ million in 2010.

And it’s the result of this activity that Japanese publisher DeNA has stepped into play with its $403 million ($303 million in stocks and shares, and up to $100 million in earnout) deal.

Buyer’s regret?

Of course, the history of such mergers and acquisitions is that companies almost always overpay in fundamental terms – remember EA Mobile’s $680 million purchase of JAMDAT, which resulted in a $368 million write down a couple of years later.

Yet considering DeNA’s is likely to make $500 million in profit this year, and desperately needs scale in the US, the deal perhaps isn’t so far fetched as it first appeared.

Either way, ngmoco’s founders and shareholders can look back on a job well done, and one that’s likely to feature in plenty of MBA case studies in the following months.（source:pocketgamer）