《天堂2：重生》开发商谈影响者营销和公司规模

原文作者: Dean Takahashi 译者：Megan Shieh

去年，韩国最大手游公司Netmarble推出了一款大型多人在线手游《天堂2：重生（Lineage 2: Revolution）》，该作在韩国市场取得了巨大的成功。不久后，Netmarble宣布将在西方市场投放这款游戏。

为此，该公司组织了各种广告活动，联合了游戏媒体和Youtube、Twitch等平台上的影响力人士为将在2017年11月推出的这款游戏做宣传。Netmarble甚至与Conan O‘Brien签约，请他在Twitch嘉年华活动上推广这款游戏。（游戏邦注：Conan O‘Brien是美国著名脱口秀主持人、喜剧演员、作家、制作人。）

在全球发布后的短短两个月里，《天堂2》的累积注册用户突破了500万人次。

本周，在2018年国际消费电子产品展（CES）上，GamesBeat记者采访了Netmarble美国分公司的总经理Simon Sim。

问：能否聊聊公司近况？

Sim：我们在17年11月份全球发行了《天堂2》。迄今为止，它在西方地区获得了很多有机下载，特别是在欧洲和俄罗斯。我们对此感到十分高兴。此外，我们还收到了很多来自玩家的反馈和建议。

问：西方玩家对这款游戏的热情是否会像韩国玩家一样高涨？

Sim：在西方市场推出《天堂2》对我们而言非常有挑战性。因为无论你玩的是哪款MMORPG，玩家都每天都至少需要投入一个多小时的时间，这一点与大多数西方手游不同，而且西方玩家对这款游戏中的很多机制也比较不熟悉。但根据我们目前收集到的用户行为数据来看，西方用户挺喜欢也正在适应游戏中的“自动打怪接任务”机制。此外，我们重新调整了游戏的难度，因此《天堂2》的西方版本玩起来会比亚洲版本更容易些。

我认为我们的优势在于RPG领域。我们已经将MMORPG推动成为了亚洲和西方游戏产业的主流类型之一，未来我们将继续制作MMORPG，也会试着将RPG元素应用到其他类型的游戏中。

问：你用了什么方法来说服西方玩家去玩你的游戏？

Sim：我们利用了很多影响者的影响力。虽说我们带来的这些新机制都很容易学会，但西方玩家始终对它们不太了解，毕竟我们是在要求他们尝试全新的东西。正因如此，所以我们邀请了许多已经拥有大量粉丝的影响者来帮我们做宣传并说服他们的粉丝来玩这款游戏。Conan O’Brien就是这些影响者之一，他也是一个爱玩游戏的人。这是我们营销战略中的一个很重要的部分，虽然这种做法比较新颖，但它已经起作用了。

问：通过与这些影响者合作，你学到了什么？怎么做才能让这一策略达到最好的效果？

Lineage 2: Revolution(from pocket gamer.biz)

Sim：每位影响者都有他们自己的粉丝群，尽管这些粉丝喜欢的可能是相似类型的游戏，但他们感兴趣的东西往往不同，因此这些影响者的直播风格和与粉丝交流的方式就可能会存在差异。我们认为开发商在选定目标的时候要格外小心，因为影响者不同，他们的粉丝群也会不一样。

问：那传统的媒体和广告还重要吗？

Sim：虽然这是一款手游，但它的核心粉丝还是来自电脑MMORPG的市场。我们试图通过媒体和社区网站以及影响者营销来为游戏做宣传，这种做法达到了病毒式传播的效果，同时也为《天堂2》创造了广泛的认知度。

问：能否透露一些相关数据？

Sim：《天堂2》在西方地区（北美、欧洲、澳大利亚）的累积用户刚刚突破了500万。一切都已经走上正轨了，自游戏发行至今还不到两个月，它已经跻身到了美国、俄罗斯和欧洲营收榜上的前10名，我们相信它有能力维持这种状态。在观察用户反馈和社区动态的同时，我们也在对搜集到的游戏内数据进行分析。我们一致认为《天堂2》的业绩可以更上一层楼，因此开发团队会继续加倍努力。

问：有些人认为市场上已经有太多漫威游戏了，你觉得呢？

Sim：没错，市场上的确有很多漫威游戏，但每款游戏都属于不同的游戏类型，而且它们也拥都有不同的特点。比如，《漫威：未来之战（Marvel Future Fight）》是一款动作RPG，以动作为主；Kabam工作室有他们自己的格斗类游戏；Jam City也有属于他们自己的漫威游戏。漫威家族中的所有游戏都拥有不同的特色和目标粉丝群。

问：你认为在目前的西方市场上，哪些IP会比较有吸引力？ Jam City的主席Josh Yguado说他很喜欢《哈利波特》,因为近期还没有人用这个IP做过手游。虽然已经有《哈利波特GO（Harry Potter Go）》了，但他认为这两款游戏会同时受到粉丝的喜爱。

Sim：我同意这个观点。作为一家公司，虽然我们试图吸引的是西方玩家，但我们带来的也的确是亚洲风格的游戏。我们是一家亚洲工作室，即便你的游戏再好，人们还是会感到犹豫。因此IP就变得非常重要（特别是在未来的一年里）。目前我们有漫威、DC、星球大战和迪士尼的IP，但我们也在考虑其他的电影和电视剧IP。一直以来，我们都在不断寻找可以利用的IP。

问：你是否考虑过将业务拓展到手游以外的领域？

Sim：我们总部正在为任天堂的Switch开发游戏，试图开发出一款最适合这个平台的游戏。不过手游业务是始终是我们公司的核心，因此我们会持续开发手机游戏。随着机遇和市场趋势的出现，有时你会看到人们将PC游戏移植到主机上，或者将主机游戏的IP移植到手机上。我们对这类衔接挺感兴趣的，如果有好机会的话可能会尝试。我们工作室也有几个部门专门在开发PC游戏，尽管我们是一家以手游业务为主的公司，但我们对其他平台也保持着开放的心态，甚至主机游戏也是有可能的。

问：你们公司好像有很多员工喔？4000人？

Sim：是的，我们公司有4000名员工，但这个数字不包含Kabam或Jam City的工作人员。我们一直致力于围绕旗下的开发工作室培养优秀人才，所以在工作室的投资方面，我们不会吝啬。这是一个很大的原因。我们过去从事的是发行业务，然而只靠发行业务很难在手游领域获得成功，因此在业务扩张的过程中，员工人数也多了起来。此外，每当有工作室取得成功的时候，我们都会把这些知识与旗下的其他工作室分享，这样才能使它们发展壮大，于是我们就需要招更多的人来填补出现的空缺。

第二个原因是，随着开发规模的增长，游戏内容也越来越复杂，我们需要更多的人才和团队。制作《天堂2》的时候，我们在韩国、日本和亚洲的其他地方，还有西方都有开发团队驻扎。因为你很难在只有一个团队的情况下制作出一款能够吸引全球受众的MMORPG，所以我们才将开发团队按照这种方式分开。

问：你是否需要建立/投资更多团队来帮助Netmarble在西方开发游戏？

Sim：我们对此持开放态度，其实这也是我们投资Kabam和Jam City的原因之一。2018年，我们可能会对更多西方工作室或与人工智能相关的公司进行投资。

问：人工智能（AI）是一个重要的人才获取领域？

Sim：我们已经在自己的游戏中引入了人工智能工程，公司总部也已经在建立他们专用的人工智能团队了。但除此之外，人工智能还适用于游戏产业中的许多其他领域，比如与玩家的个性化互动，市场营销优化等。我们正在积极主动地扩展内部的人工智能团队，同时也仍在寻找更多的投资机会。

本文由游戏邦编译，转载请注明来源，或咨询微信zhengjintiao

Netmarble scored a huge hit in South Korea with its launch last year of Lineage 2: Revolution, a massively multiplayer online game on Android and iOS. But it was never clear if the beautiful medieval fantasy game would be a hit in the West.

So, the company lined up press, advertising campaigns, and influencers on platforms like YouTube and Twitch to promote the game for its November 2017 launch. It even signed up Conan O’Brien to help promote the game at TwitchCon.

And it paid off. The game that features 30-versus-30 matches got more than 5 million registered users in the past two months since the global launch.

I spoke with Simon Sim, general manager of Netmarble US, this week at the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the big tech trade show in Las Vegas. Here’s an edited transcript of our interview. Sim will be speaking at the Casual Connect USA Disneyland event in Anaheim, California this week.

Simon Sim: At Casual Connect, I’ll have a 15-minute presentation about our strategy, how we bring Asian games to the Western market — especially more about Lineage 2: Revolution and how that relates to our strategy.

GamesBeat: Did you have a good holiday season at the company?

Sim: We launched Lineage 2 in November. The launch was quite successful. It had a lot of organic downloads from Western gamers, especially in Europe and Russia. We’re excited about that. We’re still getting a lot of user feedback and contributions to improve the game more.

GamesBeat: Was there some question in your mind as to whether Western gamers would be as interested in Lineage as Korean players have been?

Sim: Lineage 2 was quite challenging for us. For any MMORPG, people need to play it for a long time, more than an hour a day. That’s pretty different behavior from a lot of Western mobile games. A lot of the mechanics are unfamiliar. But from what we’ve seen as far as user behavior after launch, people are [adapting to] and enjoying the auto-questing mechanics. We’ve rebalanced the difficulty level to make the game a bit easier than the Asian version. From what we’ve observed, Western players are adapting to our game.

We think our strengths are in the RPG genre. We’ve made the MMORPG genre into one of the mainstream areas of the mobile gaming industry in Asia and the West as well. We’ll keep working on this in the future, both making MMORPG games and adapting RPG features into hybrid genres.

GamesBeat: You have a lot of fans of Japanese RPGs over here. Nier was on a lot of best-of-the-year lists. Sometimes, that Western interest in Asian games is enough to create a big audience.
Sim: We made a lot of use of influencers. It’s one thing to say that we have these new mechanics, and they’re very convenient. But Western gamers still aren’t familiar with these mechanics, and they don’t fully understand what we’re talking about. That’s why we contacted a lot of influencers who already have trust from their fans. We used them to communicate about our game and convince their audiences. Conan O’Brien was one. He’s obviously a gamer. That was a big part of our strategy to overcome those challenges. It’s a new approach, but it’s working.

GamesBeat: What did you learn from working with influencers as far as how to get good results from that strategy?

Sim: Each influencer has their own fan base, and those fans have different interests, even though they may follow similar genres. Their ways of communicating with their fans, their styles of streaming, can be different. We learned that we need to be careful about targeting, about what kinds of genres and what [kinds] of fans different influencers reach.

GamesBeat: Do the press and traditional advertising still matter?

Sim: This is a mobile MMORPG, but the core fans of this game still come from the PC MMORPG market. We tried to reach press sites and community sites together with influencer marketing to make sure that was all aligned. It’s worked very well. We’ve created a lot of virality and awareness.

GamesBeat: What numbers have you released about Lineage 2 so far?

Sim: We just passed five million accumulated users in the West — North America, Europe, Australia. It’s on track. In the U.S., we’re sustaining our rankings — and in Russia and Europe as well. We’re making the top 10 grossing charts. We believe this has a strong potential to sustain its performance. It’s only been two months so far, not even two months. We’re observing user feedback, watching the community, and analyzing our in-game data. We think we can do better, and we’re continuing to work on the game.

GamesBeat: Some people wonder if there are too many Marvel games out there. How do you feel about the strength of that franchise across so many games?

Sim: It’s true. There are a lot of Marvel games. But each game has a different genre, different characteristics. Marvel Future Fight is very much an action RPG, a more action-based game.

Kabam has their fighting-based game. Jam City has their own game. Among the Marvel family, everything has different characteristics and a different target fanbase. If the game genre is different, it still has an opportunity to do something with the IP. Between Netmarble and Kabam, we have a lot of synergy, working with the same IP and the same fanbase.

GamesBeat: What kind of brands still look appealing to you for games in the Western market? I talked to [Jam City president Josh Yguado] recently, and he said they liked Harry Potter because it hadn’t been done recently in mobile. They have Harry Potter Go to compete with, but he felt that fans would welcome both games.

Sim: I share that opinion. As a company, we believe that even though we’re trying to appeal to Western gamers, we still bring an Asian style of games. We’re an Asian studio. Even if our games are great, people might hesitate to play our games. So IP is very important, especially in the coming year. Currently, we have Marvel, DC, Star Wars, and Disney, and there are other TV shows and movies we’re looking at. We’re continually searching for IP we can use.

GamesBeat: For you, it seems like mobile games are still a good business to be in. You don’t need to branch out to other platforms.

Sim: On the headquarters side, we’re starting to develop games for the Nintendo Switch. We’re looking at what kind of games would fit that platform best. But we’re a mobile-first company.

We’ll keep working on mobile games. As opportunities and market trends present themselves — sometimes, you see PC games coming to console or console IP coming to mobile. We see opportunities around that kind of convergence, and we’ll keep looking for them. Parts of our studio are developing PC games. We’re mobile-centric, but we’re open to other platforms as well, even console.
GamesBeat: Your company has an awful lot of people. What is it, 4,000?

Sim: 4,000, yes. But that excludes Kabam or Jam City.

GamesBeat: It’s kind of staggering when you consider that Jam City is only 500 people. I guess that’s the nature of MMOs?

Sim: Building good talent around our development studios is very important. We proactively invest in studios. That’s the number one reason. We used to be in the publishing business, but in mobile, publishing alone isn’t that easy. Building up studios, building that internal capability, is very important. And as our studios are successful, we need to share that knowledge together so other studios can grow. That’s the number one reason why we’ve grown.

The second reason is, scale is getting bigger and bigger. Content is getting more sophisticated. We need more talented people and more teams. For Lineage 2: Revolution, we have teams in Korea, in Japan, elsewhere in Asia, and in the West. It’s hard to make an MMORPG with just one team that builds everything to meet the needs of a global audience. That’s why we’re separated this way.

GamesBeat: Do you need more teams developing games in the West?

Sim: We’re open to that. That’s why we’ve invested in Kabam and Jam City. In 2018, we’ll keep searching for opportunities to invest in new studios here, as well as AI-related companies.
GamesBeat: AI is an important area of talent to acquire?

Sim: We already have AI engineering in our games, but beyond that, there’s more personalized interaction with gamers, marketing optimization, a lot of areas where we can [adapt AI technology for the] gaming business. As a company, we’re trying to extend our internal AI team proactively, and we’re still searching for more investment opportunities. Headquarters is already building up their dedicated AI team. （Source: venturebeat.com ）