当提到超级英雄和知识产权时，没有一个名字比“蝙蝠侠”更突出。多亏了Robert Downey Jr的魅力以及Jon Favreau的拍摄指导，《钢铁人》能够在过去几年强势复苏。但从长久性与世界范围的吸引力来看，蝙蝠侠才能够真正与迈克尔乔丹和星球大战共同屹立在知识产权的万神殿之上。

实际上如今NetherRealm的免费游戏《阿卡姆起源》位于美国iPhone和iPad免费排行榜前5名内并不让人感到惊讶。真正让人惊讶的是相对于该工作室大受欢迎的第一款免费游戏《不义联盟：人间之神》， Caped Crusader的表现显得较为一般。

batman(from famousaspect)

现在的《阿卡姆起源》真的表现不错。就我个人来讲，我能够接受一款在过去一周里并未出现在美国iPhone（106名）和iPad（109名）前100名畅销游戏排行榜中的游戏。但它是基于《蝙蝠侠》的授权，并且拥有巨大的PR所创造的认知度以及专门针对这款主机游戏的市场营销活动，同时游戏中还包含一些可以打开的内部道具，并且在NetherRealms中有18名强大的开发者致力于这款游戏的创造，所以我想华纳兄弟应该也会纳闷为何《阿卡姆起源》的表现不如《不义联盟》（即关于发行后前7天的比较以及最后7天的比较）。

相比之下，在前面7天里，《不义联盟》在iPhone畅销排行榜上的位置是20，在iPad上是16。而在刚刚过去的7天里，它在iPhone上的畅销排行榜的位置是30，在iPad上是26。很明显《不义联盟》的表现比《阿卡姆起源》好。

单单从游戏玩法和IP来看，这两款类似的游戏在畅销排行榜上的差异真的很让人困惑。作为一辈子的战斗游戏与漫画粉丝，我并不会被《不义联盟》的手机游戏所吸引。尽管它具有高质量的图像，游戏玩法却不能与每个角色控制有效地维系在一起。当我花几个小时刷任务去购买Bronze卡包时，我意识到添加Deathstroke到我的名册中并不能有效改变游戏体验，于是我便决定放下游戏。然而，我也觉得在传达免费游戏设计时，乐趣是一种主观体验。也许《不义联盟》对于我来说并不是一款合适的手机游戏，但是从其排行榜的位置以及玩家的评论来看，它的确具有强大的用户基础。

因为主题的变化，《阿卡姆起源》重新完善了《不义联盟》中的公式。蝙蝠侠拥有各自姿态能够影响打斗以及他所释放的特殊移动。联合系统也得到了完善，打斗变得更短且更适合较短的手机游戏时间，游戏的机制也解释得更加清楚，让我能够真正理解所有增益魔法和减益魔法，还有一些boss战斗改变了战斗的节奏，当我迫切想要看到更多行动时能力机制却阻止了我这么做，将我置于一个期待着在几个小时后重新回到游戏的状态中。

除了游戏玩法，NetherRealm也做出了有效的完善。游戏在界面中起到了很好的教授作用，教会我如何去花费货币同时如何升级自己的角色。但当我着眼于出售中的付费道具时，我便清楚了为何《阿卡姆起源》的表现步入《不义联盟》。

shop(from famousaspect)

在进入《不义联盟》后10分钟，如果玩家访问了商店，他便可以在此使用付费货币购买道具包，一般是购买100美元的货币包要花费8千至40万货币，或者0.53美元至26.67美元。如果玩家并不想要随机的纸牌包，他便可以直接购买一个喜欢的角色，价格范围与上述类似。

通过比较，如果玩家访问了蝙蝠衣的界面（游戏邦注：《阿卡姆起源》中的衣橱相当于《不义联盟》中的纸牌商店），那么在10分钟游戏后他便可以花1万8千个货币购买一件Long Halloween，但却还不能买其它的衣服。在盈利模式中还有其它值得注意的过失（战斗前的可消费购买还隐藏在子菜单后）和改进（玩家可以消费付费货币而继续一场输掉的战斗）。但是最重要的是，我认为限制玩家在游戏进程背后消费货币是引起《阿卡姆起源》的盈利落后于《不义联盟》的根源所在。结果便是《阿卡姆起源》的盈利策略主要是关于销售能量，而《不义联盟》则专注于纸牌包。

如果玩家想要消费价值14.66美元的游戏内部货币去打开Regime Superman，他便可能掉进了钱比时间重要的策略中。玩家喜欢在《不义联盟》中战斗，他喜欢获胜并愿意花更多钱去扮演一个受欢迎的角色从而轻松地完成游戏。在这种情况中，同样的玩家可能不愿意花时间为了获得特权去刷任务。

免费游戏的开发和运营就像是马拉松般，而非短跑。蝙蝠侠是一个长期存在的品牌，所以《阿卡姆起源》有可能好几个月时间都位于前100名免费游戏下载排行中。对于这款游戏来说，如果在游戏机制上做出一些改变，或添加像道具包和多人游戏元素，合作事件等功能，它便可以在畅销排行榜上轻松战胜《不义联盟》。但从这两款游戏的制作人员来看的话，这种类型的改变并不可能出现在《阿卡姆起源》身上。

《不义联盟》核心手机团队的13名成员都参与了《阿卡姆起源》的创作，同时还多了5名新的核心团队成员。这两款游戏的时间间隔很短，在完成《不义联盟》的开发后几周或几个月时间里，整个团队便为了不耽误市场营销计划而立刻转向了《阿卡姆起源》项目。我猜在华纳兄弟的黑板上肯定已经安排好NetherRealms手机团队的下一个市场营销日期。也许他们已经致力于《格斗之王》的手机游戏制作中，或者是伴随着《蝙蝠侠》/《超人》电影的游戏，再或者是《魔戒》的游戏。

当我在比较《阿卡姆起源》与《不义联盟》时，我作为游戏玩家和游戏设计师的感觉是，NetherRealms的确创造出了一款更棒的游戏，但同时也是一件较糟糕的免费产品。他们所作出的一些基本改变能从那些提防免费游戏的玩家身上获得加分，但却不利于损益表。更糟糕的还是来自畅销排行榜的转移资源对于创造下一个新产品的影响。从自己的经验中我知道在像手机游戏开发这样充满竞争性的领域中雇佣有才能的团队成员的复杂性。但通过转移资源而不是发展整体的手机团队去支持多款游戏，华纳兄弟不但只能呈现出一款表现平平的作品，同时还错失了好几个月的时间往《不义联盟》中添加新功能去发展玩家基础和盈利能力。然而，随着蝙蝠侠和DC漫画角色越来越受欢迎，华纳兄弟和NetherRealms将拥有许多时间去强化他们的产品，并基于强大的品牌去创造全新的免费游戏。

（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）

Bruce Wayne’s millions can’t buy F2P success

When it comes to superheroes and intellectual properties in general, there is no name bigger than Batman. Thanks to Robert Downey Jr’s charisma and Jon Favreau’s directing, Iron Man is having an incredible resurgence over the past few years. But in terms of perennial, world-wide appeal Bruce Wayne is right up there with Michael Jordan and Star Wars in the pantheon of intellectual properties.

The fact that NetherRealm’s free-to-play Arkham Origins is currently enjoying a top 5 position in the US free charts on both iPhone and iPad is not a surprise. What is surprising is that relative to the incredibly strong performance of the studio’s first free-to-play outing, Injustice: Gods Among Us, the Caped Crusader appears to be significantly underperforming.

In a vacuum, Arkham Origins is doing well. Personally, I would be very happy to have a game averaging just below top 100 grossing in the US on both iPhone (106) and iPad (109) over the past 7 days. But throw in the Batman license, the awareness created by a huge PR and marketing campaign for the console game, the unlockable tie-in items and the 18 person strong core mobile team at NetherRealms credited in the game and I expect that Warner Bros. is scratching their head as to why Origins is falling short of Injustice’s performance, both in a days-from-launch comparison and last 7-days comparison.

By contrast, in its first 7 days, Injustice’s average position on the top grossing chart was 20 on the iPhone and 16 on the iPad. In the past 7 days, it has averaged a top grossing position of 30 on the iPhone and 26 on the iPad. Injustice is clearly outperforming Origins.

Judging on gameplay and IP alone, the discrepancy in top grossing chart position between these two similar games is befuddling. As a lifelong fighting game and comic fan, the Injustice mobile game did not grab me. Despite the high quality graphics, the gameplay felt incredibly shallow with each character controlling exactly the same as the last. When I spent a few hours grinding to purchase the Bronze card pack, and realized that adding Deathstroke to my roster would not change the experience in a meaningful way, I put the game down. However, as I am fond of saying when lecturing on free-to-play design, fun is a subjective experience. Injustice may not be the right mobile game for me, but clearly from the healthy chart positions and player review scores there is an appreciable audience for the game.

A variation on a theme, Origins has refined the formula put forward in Injustice. Batman has a variety of stances that affect how he fights and the special moves he can unleash. The combo system is improved, fights are shorter and more appropriate for short mobile play sessions, the game’s mechanics are more clearly explained in a way where I actually understood all the buffs and debuffs at work, there are boss fights that change up the pace of battle and the energy mechanic cut me off when I was eager for more action, putting me in state where I was looked forward to coming back a few hours later.

Outside of the gameplay, NetherRealm has made clear improvements as well. The game does a better job of teaching me the interface, teaching me how to spend my currency as well as how to upgrade my character. But it is when I took a look at the premium items on offer that, as a free-to-play consultant, it is clear why Origins is currently underperforming relative to Injustice.

10 minutes into Injustice, if a player visits the store he can spend premium currency on packages ranging from 8,000 to 400,000 coins, or $0.53 to $26.67 when purchasing $100 currency package. If the player does not want a random card pack, but instead to directly purchase a favorite character, the prices are in a similar range.

By comparison, if the player visits the Batsuit interface – Origins’ closest equivalent to the card shop in Injustice – 10 minutes into play, he can purchase the Long Halloween suit for 18,000 coins ($1.64 assuming I buy currency at the $100 level) but the rest of the suits are locked. There are other noticeable missteps in the monetization model (pre-battle consumable purchases are hidden behind a sub menu) as well as improvements (the player can spend premium currency to continue a lost battle). But more than anything, I believe that locking the player’s ability to spend currency behind game progressions is the root cause of Origins’ lackluster monetization relative to Injustice. The result is that Origins’ monetization strategy largely devolves to selling energy in place of Injustice’s focus on card packs.

If a player is willing to spend $14.66 worth of in-game currency to unlock Regime Superman, he likely falls into the category of money-rich, time-poor. The player likes battling in Injustice, he likes to win and he is willing to pay a big premium to play as a beloved character and breeze through the game. In this scenario, the same player is likely unwilling to spend hours grinding for the privilege to then spend money on a Batman Beyond suit for the Dark Knight.

Free-to-play development and operations is a marathon, not a sprint. Batman is a perennial brand and Arkham Origins is likely to enjoy a position in the top 100 free downloads charts for months. A few simple changes to the game mechanics, or additional features like gadget packs and multiplayer, cooperative events and the game can easily overcome Injustice in the top grossing charts. But based on the credits section of the two games, I hypothesize these sorts of changes are unlikely to come to Origins.

All 13 members of Injustice’s core mobile team are credited on Origins, along with 5 new, core team members. Given the short timeframe between the two games, I would guess that after a few weeks or months of live development on Injustice, the full team moved over to Origins in order to hit the hard date that fit into the overall marketing plan for the core, console product. I assume that on a whiteboard somewhere within Warner Bros. the next hard marketing date for the NetherRealms mobile team is already scheduled. Perhaps they are already hard at work on the mobile tie-in for the next Mortal Kombat, or a game to accompany the Batman/Superman movie, or a Lord of the Rings brawler.

When I compare Arkham Origins to Gods Among Us, my sense as a player and a game designer is that NetherRealms has made an undoubtedly better game, but a worse free-to-play product. They have made fundamental changes that will earn them brownie points with gamer wary of free-to-play, but have a negative impact on P&L. Even more damaging is the effect of diverting resources from a top grossing, live game to build a new product. I know from firsthand experience how difficult hiring talented team members can be in a competitive space like mobile game development. But by shifting resources instead of growing the overall mobile team to support multiple games (which I assume is the case solely based on the credits) Warner Bros. has not only delivered a lower performing product, they have missed months’ worth of opportunity to add new features to Injustice that would grow player base and profitability. However, with the ongoing appeal of Batman and DC Comics characters in general, Warner. Bros and NetherRealms have plenty of time to enhance both products while building new free-to-play games based on a strong stable of brands.(source:famousaspect)