本文原作者：Craig Chapple 本文译者：Ciel Chen

活跃于游戏行业的内业人士们是如何看待该行业的近期和未来趋势的？为了对此有一个比较全面的了解，我们对游戏行业进行了一个大体的调查，以此来看看在这样有趣的时期中游戏行业会呈现怎样的温度。

该报告涵盖的内容有：游戏公司都是如何对自己进行定位的，这些公司经营的领域、规模、预算、它们手头最受欢迎的游戏类型以及在全球范围内遇到最大的挑战与机遇等。

我们调查的对象有250人，他们都是手游行业的业内人士，他们来自世界各地，有英国、北欧国家、美国、加拿大、中国、日本、印度还有澳大利亚。

Mobile Games Developer Trends Survey Winter 2016

契机

在调查中，大部分调查对象对2017年的手机游戏行业的态度一般持中立或积极（57.9%）。

业内人士认为：伴随着2017年新兴市场的成长，最大的契机将随之而来。调查对象中55.5%的人同意此观点。

包括中国，东南亚以及印度在内的手游市场都在以飞速的脚步发展着，这对于那些有意愿将这些地区本地化和承担起来的西方手游开发者来讲，无异于开启了新的契机。

其他契机包括新的盈利方式——广告越来越流行，对开发者也越发有价——和实时多人竞技游戏。这些契机似乎是在Supercell公司的《部落冲突：皇室战争》（Clash Royale）的刺激下形成的，据说这款游戏自发行起不到一年内总共收入了了超过10亿美元。

同样地，在增强现实，虚拟现实，地理位置游戏里，还有智能手机销量的不断增长中都存在着各种契机。

威胁

激烈的竞争，日益增加的获取用户成本和营销成本是2017年的主要关注问题。

当问到移动游戏行业面临的最大问题时，调查对象们选择了激烈的竞争（51.3%）（这是在app store里发布的具体数字）、获取用户成本的增加（51.3%）和营销成本的增加（47.1%）作为2017年的主要关注问题。

关于可发现性的问题对很多人来说并不陌生，这个话题在不同平台里已经被争议了好些年了。但就是这个问题还有那些赚钱的Top热门游戏都让获取用户成本和营销成本在不断增加，以至于吸引用户来下载自己的游戏变得越发困难，盈利就更别谈了。

其他需要关注的问题还有：增加的开发成本（42.4%）、英国脱欧（36.1%）、提供的免费内容数量（22.5%）以及一般的政治不明确性（20.4%）。

本文由游戏邦编译，译者Ciel Chen 转载请注明来源，或咨询游戏邦，微信zhengjintiao

Mobile Games Developer Trends: The opportunities, the threats and Brexit

By Craig Chapple, Editor

The mobile games industry is a fast-evolving sector and 2016 has been no different for these rapid new trends.

To get a broad look at how industry professionals in the thick of the action perceive the recent past and future of the sector, we conducted a survey of the business at large to take the temperature of the market at such an interesting time.

The report covers how companies have set themselves up, from the fields they operate in to their size, budgets and the most popular genres they work in, as well as the biggest challenges and opportunities across the globe.

Our survey included 250 people from the mobile games industry based in countries all around the world, including the UK, Nordic countries, the US, Canada, China, Japan, India and Australia.

You can read the full Mobile Games Developer Trends Survey Winter 2016 here.

Not registered? You’ll need to sign up to the Pocket Gamer Business Network to read the full report for free. It’ll appear under ‘Your Downloads’ in the left column of your profile.

The opportunities

Most of the respondents in our survey had a generally neutral to positive outlook for the mobile games industry in 2017 (57.9%).

Industry professionals believe the biggest opportunities in 2017 will come from the growth of emerging markets, with 55.5% of respondents agreeing wit this sentiment.

Markets including China, Southeast Asia and India are continuing to grow at a rapid pace, and can unlock new opportunities for Western developers willing to localise and take on these regions.

Other opportunities include new monetisation methods – with ads becoming increasingly popular and valuable to developers – and real-time competitive multiplayer games. This is likely spurred on by the huge success of games like Supercell’s Clash Royale, which is thought to havegrossed over $1 billion in less than a year after launch.

There’s also opportunities in augmented reality, virtual reality, location-based games and the growth of smartphone volumes.

The threats

Fierce competition, rising user acquisition costs and rising marketing costs were major concerns for 2017.

When it comes to the biggest threats facing the mobile games industry, fierce competition (51.3%) – specifically the number of releases on the app stores – rising user acquisition costs (51.3%) and rising marketing costs (47.1%) were the major concerns for 2017.

The issue of discoverability will be no surprise to many, a topic of debate for a number of years across platforms. But with that, and the deep pockets of the top grossers, the rising UA and marketing costs are making it increasingly difficult to bring users in to start generating downloads and, ultimately, revenue.

Other concerns include rising development costs (42.4%), Brexit (36.1%), the amount of free content available (22.5%) and general political uncertainty (20.4%).

Brexit concerns

One of the major topics of debate in the UK is Brexit – the country’s decision to leave the European Union.

Over half (52.5%) of those surveyed thought that industry uncertainty in 2017 would be caused by Brexit, with 36.1% citing it as one of the biggest threats to UK games businesses.

The other biggest concerns in the face of Brexit include a skills shortage (44.6%), lack of UK investment (41.7%), a skills exodus (40.7%) and rising costs (38.7%).

Few believe Brexit will have a positive impact. Only 8% believe it could offer a growth opportunity and access to new markets.

The general outlook for the UK mobile games industry remains positive however, 57.9% responded as neutral to very positive, while just 13.7% had a negative outlook for 2017.

It should be noted though that 26% felt it was difficult to say, and their outlook would be dependent on the outcome of Brexit negotiations.

You can read the full Mobile Games Developer Trends Survey Winter 2016 report right here by signing up to the Pocket Gamer Business Network.(source:pocket gamer )