最近，Facebook游戏开发公司Kabam和Zynga Game Neiwork宣布将在全球最大的互联网市场——中国聘用软件设计师开发Facebook游戏。

今年5月，Facebook游戏Kingdoms of Camelo的开发公司Kabam在北京成立了工作室。在昨天的访问中， 该公司的亚洲管理总监Andy Lee表示，目前Kabam中国工作室正在开发两款尚未命名的游戏，而其美国本土工作室也在紧锣密鼓地进行多款游戏的开发。另一方面，开发FarmVille和Mafia Wars等Facebook游戏的Zynga公司也表示希望利用中国快速发展的游戏革新思想。

Kabam

Lee说，“我们十分重视中国。我们在中国开设多个工作室，希望大规模开发这一领域。中国在我们的国际发展策略占有重要地位，而我的任务就是管理我们在中国工作室的发展。”

亚洲国家是世界最大的网络用户市场，以4亿2000万网络用户调动了很多软件设计者的开发动力。 在作为电脑、玩具、服装等货品的最大出口国后，互联网的发展重心不断向中国转移，而中国也着力促进国内软件开发。

中国技术咨询公司BDA China Ltd的主席Duncake Clark认为，中国正从薄利多销的产业链转向设计领域。

目前，Kabam北京工作室有员工35人，与之相比，其美国本土工作室的员工是100人。Lee相信经过接下来几年的发展，Kabam在中国的员工很可能超过美国本土的员工数。

8月刚从Watercooler改名为Kabam的游戏开发公司从伦敦Betfair Group Ltd和康涅狄格州西港Canaan Partners投资公司获得950万美元投资。

该公司北京工作室的Andy Tian表示，为了吸引注重成本节约的客户，打击盗版并在中国竞争市场中争取一席之地，北京工作室的软件开发人员不得不比美国本土员工更加拼命工作。

同样为了利用中国不断发展的软件实力，旧金山游戏开发公司Zynga也在中国设立分店。今年5月Zynga将收购北京社交游戏公司XPD Media作为自己进入亚洲市场的第一步。XPD Meida包括原创办人Tian在内的40名员工都加入了Zynga的全球工作小组，着力进行工程和产品开发。

Zynga

在10月18日由斯坦福大学赞助的会议上，Tian提出“这里的人们比西方更加注重商业模式的创新。中国在游戏创新处于领先地位。她不仅规模庞大，而且还在持续成长。”

目前，由于Facebook尚未进入中国市场，所以Kabam和Zynga之前开发的Facebook游戏并不能在中国运营。

获得3亿6000万美元投资的Zynga最近表示自己每月的活跃用户也高达3亿6000万人。

北京投资公司GSR Venture的管理总监James Ding指出，很多只有几个员工的中国软件开发公司现在在苹果公司的App Store占有10%的份额。

Ding在本周的斯坦福大学会议上表示：“中国不仅有潜力赶上美国市场，而且可能成为新应用的母国市场。这个国家正尝试开发的很多项目都将可以在美国甚至全球市场使用。在将来我们会看到更多这类的事例。”

Kabam的Lee表示5个月后Kabam将在中国开设另一个新工作室，它的规模将是现在北京eTower工作室的三倍。Lee指出“中国是游戏革新的重要基地”。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译）

Facebook Inc. game developers Kabam and Zynga Game Network Inc. said they will increasingly turn to Chinese software designers to make games for the website, tapping engineering talent in the Internet’s largest market.

Kabam, maker of the Facebook game “Kingdoms of Camelot,” set up a Beijing studio in May that has two unannounced titles under development, as many as are in progress at the company’s U.S. studios, Andy Lee, Asia managing director for Redwood City, California-based Kabam, said in an interview yesterday. Zynga, maker of the “FarmVille” and “Mafia Wars” games on Facebook, said it wants to harness China’s faster pace of innovation.

“China is very important to us,” Lee said. “We see ourselves aggressively expanding in the region with multiple studios in China. This is a large part of our international strategy, and my task is to manage that growth.”

The Asian nation has the world’s biggest Internet market by users, with 420 million online, creating a large base to stimulate the development of talented software designers, Lee said. After becoming the largest exporting nation making computers, toys and clothes sold at Wal-Mart Stores Inc. outlets, China is moving into software development as the Internet’s center of gravity shifts to the country.

“China is moving up the value chain from low-margin, high- volume manufactured goods into the realm of design,” said Duncan Clark, chairman of Beijing-based technology consultant BDA China Ltd. “The value is in design, and that is where China wants to head.”

Betfair, Canaan Backing

Kabam has 35 employees in Beijing, its first international studio, compared with 100 workers in the U.S., Lee said. Over the next few years, the number of employees in China will likely exceed the U.S. workforce, he said.

Closely held Kabam, which changed its name from Watercooler in August, has raised about $9.5 million from London-based Betfair Group Ltd. and Canaan Partners in Westport, Connecticut.

To attract cost-conscious consumers, fight off pirates and survive in China’s competitive market, software developers “have to work harder” than those in the U.S., leading to a large body of talented engineers, said Andy Tian, head of Zynga’s Beijing studio.

San Francisco-based Zynga has set up shop in China to take advantage of the country’s growing software prowess. Zynga in May announced the acquisition of Beijing-based social-gaming company XPD Media, the company’s first step into the Asian market. XPD then had 40 employees, including co-founder Tian, who Zynga said would immediately be integrated into its global workforce to focus on engineering and product development.

Harder Workers

“People here are innovating in terms of business model faster than they are doing in the West,” Zynga’s Tian said on Oct. 18 at a Stanford University-sponsored conference in Beijing. “China is a leading area of innovation. It’s big already, but growth is continuing.”

Facebook is inaccessible in China, so games developed by Kabam and Zynga specifically for that site won’t be accessible in their country of origin.

Closely held Zynga has raised $360 million from investors and says it has 360 million active monthly users.

Chinese software-development companies, many with only a handful of employees each, have cornered about a 10 percent share of the revenue from Apple Inc.’s App Store, estimates James Ding, managing director of GSR Ventures, a Beijing-based venture capital fund.

“China has a market potential not only to follow the U.S.; it can become a home market for new applications,” Ding said at the Stanford University conference this week. “A lot of things in this part of the world are being tried for the first time that can be used in the U.S. and global market. We’ll see more and more of these types of applications in the future.”

At Kabam, the China growth can be seen in the company’s expanding studio, Lee said. After only five months, Kabam is moving to a new office that will be triple the size of its current office at Beijing’s eTower, he said.

“China is one of the most important places for game innovation,” Lee said. （Source：Bloomberg）