本文是上期关于采用免费模式的《星球大战》授权游戏的后续讨论。

Ben Board（Boss Alien高级产品主管）

现在让我们思考一下——假如是《马里奥》授权又会怎样？它在游戏领域拥有更多受众。这里还可以运用同样的逻辑——从长期来看，如果执行得当，免费模式更胜一筹，但这类游戏若不转向F2P设计，至少可以通过第一款授权游戏赚取大笔预付费销售额。我之所以提到这一点，是因为我认为移动版马里奥游戏肯定已经被搬上了任天堂的议程，如果没有，那简直是不可想象。

Mario_MS(from fantendo)

Andy Payne（Mastertronic总经理）

移动平台的付费版《马里奥》，若售价5美元甚至10美元，可以在1周内实现2000万或3000万次下载量吗？

Ben Cousins（DeNA欧洲游戏工作室主管）

我不知道这种情况是否会发生。《马里奥》对于那些爱玩《愤怒的小鸟》的主流手机游戏玩家来说，并不具有非凡的意义。

Mark Sorrell（Hide & Seek开发主管）

同意。一款免费版《马里奥》可能是个“非常”糟糕的主意。价值，而非收益才是最关键的考虑因素。

Harry Holmwood（Marvelous AQL Europe首席执行官）

“喜欢马里奥的人（也可能喜欢《星球大战》）”以及“现在并不喜欢F2P的人”之间的交集才是根本问题。

Ben Board（Boss Alien高级产品主管）

《马里奥》在移动平台上也能像在其他平台一样大成气候，只是因为任天堂在硬件设备上的固步自封，才阻碍了它进军移动平台，但这种情况应该不会持续太久。

将《马里奥》制作成触屏控制，短暂体验的手机游戏，并以小额定价出售，它采用的就是付费模式。F2P？没错，这种模式确实让我有点担忧，但具有可行性的《马里奥》F2P游戏理论上应该存在，尽管这可能需要任天堂经过多次迭代将其改造成符合F2P模式的游戏。Mark，《马里奥》究竟有哪些地方无法与F2P兼容？采用这一模式存在什么局限性？

Mark Sorrell（Hide & Seek开发主管）

我认为F2P版《马里奥》存在的主要问题包括：a)其粉丝群体可能会反对这个版本；b)传统的《马里奥》玩法并不适合触屏或F2P机制。你当然可以制作一款适用于触屏和F2P模式的马里奥游戏，但可能会激起任天堂粉丝的极大反弹。

Stuart Dredge（《卫报》记者）

总之，这真是令人遗憾，这种游戏就是黑线一个敛财机制而设计……

Ben Cousins（DeNA欧洲游戏工作室主管）

《马里奥》在主机平台有多大影响力？与移动平台的热作相比，700万份的Wii销售并不算多大的用户规模。

Ben Board（Boss Alien高级产品主管）

整个《马里奥》品牌的产品销量已经超过了2亿份。《Mario Kart》在Wii平台的销量就达到3500万，这对一款免费游戏来说就已经很不错了，而这款游戏不但是付费游戏，而且是售价不菲的付费游戏。

我们无法用数以百万的数据来概括马里奥的粉丝群体。a)任天堂粉丝很狂热，但多数知道马里奥，基本上只是通过有趣的电子游戏与之互动的人却并非这种热情粉丝。b)马里奥无论是以哪种新旧形式茁现，都可以像

它在过去几年转向其他平台一样，转向触屏设备。我对些毫不怀疑，它的开发者远比其他任何人更擅长此道。

Ben Cousins（DeNA欧洲游戏工作室主管）

我认为你不应该将其至今销量视为粉丝基础的衡量标准。事实上，这系列游戏除了在日本之外，并没有收获堪比手机下载量的销量。

我不认为任天堂IP在手机游戏玩家中的影响力能够与《愤怒的小鸟》等热作相提并论。我只看到现在的孩子们都穿着小鸟T恤，马里奥只是供成人怀旧的IP。

Andy Payne（Mastertronic总经理）

我去年参与伦敦1万米赛跑时就是穿着愤怒的小鸟服装。旁边还有些同伴则打扮成马里奥和乔帮主。不用说，那些不足4英尺高的小屁孩一看到我就尖叫“愤怒的小鸟！”4英尺以上的孩子则因“乔帮主”而兴奋地尖叫。而“马里奥”仅从5英尺以上的成人那里得到了一点反响……

最重要的是，人人都认识愤怒的小鸟。

Teut Weidemann（育碧在线专家）

无论如何，多数《马里奥》游戏一年所创造的收益都超过了Rovio。这并不意味着他们（Rovio）做得很糟糕，只能说明他们是一种每用户收益更少，但覆盖面更广的媒介。

换句话说，多数拥有更广覆盖面的媒介的每用户收益都更少，但如果执行得当，总体收益会更高。

从长期战略来看，将马里奥推向其他平台对任天堂来说可能是件糟糕的决策，因为这可能赶走任天堂的硬件用户。在他们看来，如果你想玩出色的IP，你最好购买他们的硬件设备。

Ben Cousins（DeNA欧洲游戏工作室主管）

我们都知道，获取用户是一个困难的环节。只要获得用户，通过他们盈利就容易多了。我相信在我有生之年，我们将可以看到一个拥有数十亿玩家，终身价值超过60美元的游戏品牌。

我猜测关于任天堂会制作手机游戏的讨论，其假设就在于任天堂当前的硬件运营模式已经难以为续。（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）

[Gamesbriefers] Free-to-play Mario?

This is a continuation from last week’s Gamesbriefers post about free-to-play Star Wars.

Ben Board Senior Product Lead at Boss AlienNow here’s a thought – what if you’re talking about the Mario license?  That has a vastly bigger audience in games terms.  Same logic applies – free is likely to do better in the long run, if you do it right – but they could absolutely make big money off up-front sales without having to transition to F2P design, at least as a first game.  I mention it because Mobile Mario must surely be on the agenda in Nintendo Towers.  If it isn’t – oh dear.

Andy Payne MD at MastertronicMario on mobile – paid game $5 or even $10 a pop. 20 or 30 million paid downloads in a week?

Ben Cousins Head of European Game Studios at DeNAI don’t that would happen. Mario is not that meaningful to the mainstream mobile gamer who plays Angry Birds etc.

Mark Sorrell Development Director at Hide & SeekAgree. An F2P Mario game would be a *very* bad idea. Value, not revenue and all.

Harry Holmwood CEO of Marvelous AQL EuropeThe crossover between ‘People who like Mario’ (and possibly Star Wars) and ‘People who currently dislike F2P’ is substantial.

Ben Board Senior Product Lead at Boss AlienMario could be as big on mobile as he is everywhere else; it’s just Nintendo’s dogged attachment to its hardware that stops him, and that might not last much longer. Set Miyamoto on a touch-control, short-burst mobile game, sell it for pocket money, light the blue touch paper and retire to St Tropez.

That’s for a paid game. F2P? Yes, it gives me the willies too, but there surely exists in idea-space a viable Mario F2P game (come on, we’re Gamesbriefers!), even if it would take a few iterations of paid games for Nintendo to get into the right headspace for it. What is it about Mario that makes it incompatible with F2P in your view, Mark? What limit does that imply to the model?

Mark Sorrell Development Director at Hide & SeekMy main issue with a Mario F2P game would be a) the fan base would be massively against it and b) the traditional Mario gameplay doesn’t lend it self to either touchscreen or F2P mechanics. You could definitely make a Mario game that *did* work with Touchscreen and F2P, but there would be a big old backlash against that. Nintendo fans. Nintendo fans!

Stuart Dredge Journalist at The GuardianIn a way, that’s a shame – they already have the coin-collecting mechanic built right in…

Ben Cousins Head of European Game Studios at DeNAHow big IS Mario on console? 7 million units on Wii isn’t great reach, compared to a mobile hit.

Ben Board Senior Product Lead at Boss AlienPretty big. Mario as a brand has shifted 200m+ units all up. Mario Kart has sold something like 35m on Wii alone. Sic. Thirty-five million. That would be fantastic for a free game; this one was not only paid but expensive, bundled with a plastic steering wheel.

One can’t generalise about a fan base measured in hundreds of millions. Ninty’s fanboys are pretty vocal, absolutely, but most people who know of Mario and basically associate him with fun video games are not them. b) Mario, in one or more of his many forms, or in new ones, could transition to touchscreen as well as he’s transitioned to all the other platforms over the years. I have precisely no doubt at all about that. Those guys do that stuff better than anyone in the world.

Ben Cousins Head of European Game Studios at DeNAI don’t think you can take lifetime sales as a measurement of fan base. The fact is the recent games have not sold in numbers outside of Japan that are that big compared to mobile download numbers.

I don’t think Nintendo IPs are anything near as big internationally with mobile gamers as somethng like Angry Birds. All I see is kids wearing AB t shirts. Mario is a retro IP for older people.

Andy Payne MD at MastertronicI ran the London 10K last year dressed as an Angry Bird. I ran with mates dressed as Mario and Steve. Needless to say all the kids on the route who were less than 4ft high screamed ‘Its an Angry Bird’. Kids over 4ft were thrilled to see Steve and shouted as much. Mario got some feedback but mainly by 5ft and above……

Bottom line was everyone knew the Angry Birds.

Teut Weidemann Online Specialist at UbisoftWhatever that means. Most Mario releases do more money than Rovio a year. That doesn’t mean they do a bad job, its just a medium which does less per customer but has more reach.

In other words most mediums with bigger each does less money per customer but might do more overall … if you do it right.

Long term strategy wise it would be a bad decision [for Nintendo to take Mario to other platforms] as it drives away Nintendo’s hardware customers. From their view: if you want to play their excellent IP’s you better buy their hardware.

Ben Cousins Head of European Game Studios at DeNAAs we all know, reach is the difficult part. Once you find consumers, monetizing them is the easy part. I’m convinced we’ll have billion-player franchises with 60 dollar plus LTVs within my lifetime.

I guess any conversation about Nintendo making mobile games assumes that this is a result of them being unable to have a sustainable hardware business.（source：gamesbrief）