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从实际的游戏营收角度看待Gree为什么会退出西方市场

发布时间:2017-08-21 10:12:02 Tags:,,

原文作者:Matt Suckley,译者:Megan Shieh

在过去的几年里,Gree公司在其西方的业务缩减;终于,在2017年7月,Gree停止了在该地区的所有业务。

这家总部位于东京的机构关闭了旧金山、柏林和墨尔本的工作室,重新专注于其核心的日本市场。

这一举动并不是空穴来风。早在2015年,Gree就裁减了其旧金山办事处30%的员工,并关闭了温哥华办事处。

Gree在2012年以2.1亿美元收购了美国移动开发商Funzio,似乎成功地实现了从东方到西方市场的过渡,对于这样一家公司来说,退出西方市场是一个令人遗憾的转折,

那么,Gree为什么现在决定西方市场不再值得关注了呢?为了试着理解推理,pocketgamer.biz 查看了该公司游戏在美国收入总额排行榜上的表现。

Funzio 继续存活

作为前面提到的Funzio收购的一部分,《现代战争》(Modern War)对Gree来说,是一个经久不衰的西方热门。

它最初于2011年推出,是在蓬勃发展的移动市场上,首批以军事为主题的大型多人在线游戏(MMO)之一,在美国iPhone收入总额排行榜上首次跻身前十。

Modern War(from pocketgamer.biz)

Modern War(from pocketgamer.biz)

它的成功在Gree的管理下延续,在2012年和2013年的绝大部分时间里,保持前50的排名。

到2015年,《现代战争》排名开始有所下降,在美国iPhone排行榜上长期处于第100到200名间的位置。但即便如此,它仍是一个可靠的收入来源。

2016年和2017年,自然衰退的状况持续,其表现更加不稳定,但仍能隐约看到该游戏的收益。2017年,到目前为止,它在美国的排行最高达到了第196位(3月20日),最低跌至第1198位(7月31日)。

对于一个即将迎来六周岁生日的游戏来说,这些峰值是不错的,在Google Play的排行中,它的表现甚至更好。

在2012年9月的iOS版本发布将近一年之后,它立即在美国Google Play的收入总额排行榜中产生了影响,并且,在2014年之前,仅一次跌出前50名。

即使是现在,它在排行榜前500强中仍然是一个稳固的存在。

遗留之物

《现代战争》已经证明了它是Gree 的宝贵财富,《骑士和龙》(Knights & Dragons)在2012年12月紧随其后。这个角色扮演游戏(RPG)是即Gree 的收购之后,推出的第一个由 Funzio 开发的游戏。

它的表现进一步证明了这是一个精明的交易,该游戏克服了一个不算理想的开局,并在2013年和2014年的大部分时间里,在美国iPhone排行榜上保持了前50名的位置。

2015年绝大多数时间里,《骑士和龙》保持在前100名,而在2016年和2017年,它的排名变得相对不稳定。不过,仍大致保留在500强之内。

Funzio的《犯罪城市》(Crime City)经历了类似的旅程,自2014年以来,《帝国时代》(Kingdom Age)一直处于自由落体状态,而现在,它只是断断续续地出现在美国的iPhone排行榜上。

Gree 为西方市场最新提供的手游产品是《龙魂》(DragonSoul),该公司于2016年10月收购自美国开发商PerBlue,此后一直在运营。

2016年5月28日,《龙魂》达到其当前收入总额的最高峰,在美国iPhone排行榜排名第102位,此次收购似乎是在本次高峰后不久发生的。自被Gree收购以来,它的排名基本上在150至300的范围内波动,这使它成为一个体面且不引人注目的表演者。

还发生了什么?

看着这些游戏-其中一些已经显示出了非凡的寿命-很难确切地看出是什么促使Gree做出如此极端的措施。

但由于其西方主要游戏均来自于Funzio收购案,而现在,这些游戏表现最好的那几年也已经渐行渐远了,对于在收益下降的情况下应该如何取代它们这个问题,Gree似乎没有答案。

像《龙魂》一样的小规模收购交易可以进行精明的投资,但不太可能成为主要的收入来源。

为此,Gree将希望寄托在墨尔本工作室开发的游戏中。今年一月份,Shanti Bergel告诉PocketGamer.biz:“我们对规模和商业成果的期望是很有野心的。”

但这个工作室的关闭表明Gree显然内部决定了游戏的完成和发布的成本将超过潜在的利润。

简而言之,Gree有着强大但随着游戏老化而逐渐减少的用户基础,然而,他们却不知道如何将这些用户迁移或使之重新兴奋起来。

Bergel说:“有时候游戏变老,会需要进行大规模的技术升级,但有时这反而不好,因为玩家们可能更享受原版的游戏。”

重心

与Gree在日本的“闪电发布”相对比,不难看出为何该公司改变其重心。

与在西方市场的不确定性非常不同,Gree公司清楚地知道如何在日本制作热门手游,还建立了一个能加快游戏开发进度的系统。

最近的一个例子是Danmemo,它于今年6月在日本推出后,几乎立即在该国的iPhone排行榜上名列第9。

它的排名稳定保持在前100,大部分都在前50名中,在7月31日的排名是第44位。

如果要开发出一个能在西方市场达到这种规模的热门游戏,Gree估计需要花费大量的时间和金钱,而Funzio创造过的好日子也开始感觉越来越遥远。

考虑到这一点, Gree公司关闭西方业务的理由也变得更加清晰。

本文由游戏邦编译,转载请注明来源,或咨询微信zhengjintiao
After a scaling down of its Western business over the past few years, Gree finally pulled the plug on all of its operations in the region in July 2017.

This resulted in the Tokyo-headquartered outfit closing studios in San Francisco, Berlin and Melbourne, with a renewed focus on its core Japanese market.

This move wasn’t without warning though. Gree trimmed 30% of its San Francisco-based staffersand shut down its Vancouver office back in 2015.

It’s a sad turn of events for a company that seemed to have nailed its East-to-West transition back in 2012 with the acquisition of US mobile developer Funzio for $210 million.

So why has Gree now decided that Western markets are no longer worth its attention? To try and get a sense of the reasoning, PocketGamer.biz took a look at how a selection of its games have fared in the US top grossing charts.

Funzio lives on

An enduring Western hit for Gree, picked up as part of the aforementioned Funzio acquisition, has been Modern War.

Originally launched way back in 2011 – one of the first military-themed MMOs in a burgeoning mobile market – it debuted in the top 10 on the US iPhone grossing charts.

Its success continued under Gree’s stewardship, remaining solid in the top 50 throughout the vast majority of 2012 and 2013.

By 2015 Modern War was beginning to fall away somewhat, regularly occupying the 100 to 200 spots in the US iPhone grossing charts. But even then it was a solid earner, with grossing spikes that year propelling it as high as 21st.

Natural decline continued in 2016 and 2017, its performance more erratic but showing glimpses of a still-profitable title. In 2017 so far, its US grossing rank has reached as high as 196th (March 20th) and sunk as low as 1,198th (July 31st).

The peaks aren’t bad for a game approaching its sixth birthday, and on Google Play it’s fared even better.

Launched almost a year after the iOS version in September 2012, it immediately made an impact on Google Play’s US grossing charts and only dropped out of the top 50 once before 2014.
Even now it’s a solid presence within the top 500 grossing positions.

Legacy

With Modern War by now already proving a valuable asset to Gree,Knights & Dragons followed in December 2012. The RPG was the first Funzio-developed game to launch following Gree’s acquisition.

Its performance further proved the deal to be a shrewd one, with the game overcoming a sluggish start to hold down a regular top 50 spot on the US iPhone top grossing charts for much of 2013 and 2014.

Knights & Dragons remained in the top 100 for large parts of 2015, while in 2016 and 2017 it has become less consistent. However, it still remains largely within the top 500.

Crime City by Funzio has seen a similar traectory, while Kingdom Agehas been in freefall since 2014 and now appears only intermittently in the US iPhone grossing charts.

Gree’s most recent mobile title for a Western audience is DragonSoul, which it acquired from US developer PerBlue in October 2016 and has been running ever since.

But the purchase appears to have come just after the crest of its wave, with 102nd on May 28th 2016 its current US iPhone grossing peak. Since Gree’s acquisition it has mostly bounced around the 150th to 300th, making it a decent if unremarkable performer.

What’s next?

Looking at this selection of games – some of which have shown remarkable longevity – it can be difficult to see exactly what prompted such drastic measures from Gree.

But with its main crop of Western titles coming from that Funzio deal, now long past their best years in terms of performance, Gree seemingly had no answer to how it should replace them as their revenues decline.

Small-scale acquisition deals, like in the case ofDragonSoul, can make for canny investments but are unlikely to be a major income source.

For that, Gree’s hopes rested in the game being developed at its Melbourne studio. “It’s ambitious in terms of scope, and in terms of our hopes for business outcome,” Shanti Bergel told PocketGamer.biz back in January.

But with that studio now closed, it was clearly decided internally that the cost of finishing and launching the game would outweigh the potential profits.

Simply, Gree found itself with a strong-yet-declining audience in ageing titles, but with no idea how to either migrate or revitalise them.

“Sometimes the games get old and they need a massive technological upgrade, but sometimes that’s dislocating and the players actually enjoy the older game,” Bergel told PocketGamer.biz in January.

“It’s something that requires a lot of care. Upending their world and saying ‘everybody over here now’ – that can be met with trepidation.”

Priorities

Compare that to Gree’s Japanese ”release blitz”, and it’s easy to see why the firm is shifting its priorities.

A far cry from its Western uncertainty, Gree clearly understands how to make a mobile hit in Japan and has built a system that allows it to do so very quickly.

A recent example is Danmemo, which launched in Japan in June and almost immediately shot to ninth in the country’s iPhone grossing charts.

It’s remained solidly within the top 100, and mostly in the top 50, sitting at 44th as of July 31st.

A great deal of time and money would have been needed for Gree to land another hit on this scale in the West, and the Funzio days are beginning to feel more and more distant.

With this in mind, sad as any closures and job losses are, Gree’s reasoning for closing its Western operations becomes much clearer. (Source: PocketGamer.biz  


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