以产品体验的角度谈《荒野乱斗》是如何盈利的

原作者：Jon Jordan 译者：Willow Wu

欢迎回到In-App Purchase Inspector，在这里我们会以消费者的视角，定期测评一些F2P游戏。

对于每一款游戏，我们都要考虑IAP设计与游戏的整体玩法以及meta体验的契合程度。

这次我们要测评的是Supercell备受期待的俯视团队射击游戏《荒野乱斗》（Brawl Stars）。

鉴于《皇室战争》被手游盈利领域的专业人士描述为“一款盈利系统复杂且极不友好的游戏”，《荒野乱斗》精简的盈利机制确实给人们带来了不小的惊喜。

brawl stars （from tencent games）

有趣的是，在测试发行期间，玩家的关注点都在游戏的操作改变以及竖屏变横屏上，但其实游戏的盈利设计也做了一些细微而关键的调整。

与去年十月我们试玩的最初测试发行版本相比（游戏邦内容），原来用来解锁新英雄的筹码（Chip）已经被剔除了。现在，玩家要通过游戏的乱斗宝箱解锁新英雄。另外，药剂（Elixir）也没有了，它本来是用于提高生命值、普通攻击或者是超级技能，是一种通用资源。现在换成了战力能量（Power Points），用于升级特定的角色，实际上就相当于角色碎片。玩家现在不用分别升级三个属性，使用战力能量就能同时升级所有属性。

这些设计改变就是要在解锁、升级角色方面对玩家自由做出一定限制。游戏目前有22个英雄。之前，玩家们可以只聚焦在某些英雄上，集中升级它们的属性。然而，现在英雄的升级资源主要来源于乱斗宝箱中随机掉落的物品。

因此，游戏进阶和盈利都是通过这个战利品箱系统。箱子分为三种，都可以立即打开，而不是像Supercell在其它F2P游戏中经常使用的定时开箱机制，比如《皇室战争》。

打开一个普通乱斗箱子需要花费100奖章，这是你在玩游戏时攒积到的。但是如果你想快速获得大量奖章，商店中也可以买到双倍奖章。每个乱斗宝箱中都包含一些金币（软货币），还有其它两样东西：战力能量或者是角色解锁。

大型宝箱的奖励会多两倍，可以用宝石（硬货币）或者是10枚星辉奖章购买。

最大的宝箱是超级宝箱，奖励是普通宝箱的十倍，只能用宝石购买。宝箱和随机史诗级别角色购买是铁杆玩家的主要氪金点，也是《荒野乱斗》最主要的收益来源。

商店内提供了六种不同规格的硬货币礼包，宝石也可以转换成金币，用于升级英雄或者是购买战力能量，后者在商店中的每日精选区就有。这个板块还有优惠的一次性礼包以及随机的特殊折扣物品。

每个英雄都有一套皮肤，但是我们目前尚不清楚Supercell要如何设计相关的盈利机制。目前它们还是多用于社交方面。

相比《皇室战争》，《荒野乱斗》在盈利方面没有那么直接，消费要看玩家的动机是什么，而不是单纯地因为游戏进阶。

《荒野乱斗》是一款更加大众化的产品——即开即玩的射击游戏，没有延绵无尽的关卡。玩家会有自己喜欢的英雄，但又不必在升级策略上过于烦恼。

由此看来，游戏的盈利机制是经过精心设计的，且不具有侵略性，对于大多数玩家来说也没有什么特别的氪金理由。

作为一个卡牌策略游戏，《皇室战争》需要更高的沉浸度和更强硬的盈利设计促使玩家争取最好的卡牌。玩家要有明智的升级策略，保证卡组是平衡的。

当然，它也是一个对技巧有需求的游戏，但是相比《荒野乱斗》就没那么明显了。

显然，Supercell希望《荒野乱斗》能够通过庞大的用户基数创造数十亿美元的收益，而相较于ARPU潜力较好的4X游戏、集换式卡牌游戏以及RPG游戏，这个游戏走的是“薄利多销”的方式。

如果早期迹象可以作为参考的话，那么这确实是一个很好的开始。但毫无疑问，关于游戏更新、新角色加入、电竞活动等等，《荒野乱斗》还有很长的一段路要走，我们还要等上一段时间才能知道它有没有可能跟《部落冲突》《皇室战争》一样，成为Supercell第三个生命周期总价值过十亿的产品。

本文由游戏邦编译，转载请注明来源，或咨询微信zhengjintiao

Welcome to The In-App Purchase Inspector – our regular look at free-to-play mobile game monetisation from the consumer’s perspective.

In each instalment, we consider how well a developer has designed its in-app purchase retailing to work alongside the overall gameplay and metagame experience.

This time we’re looking at Supercell’s much anticipated (and delayed) team-based top-down shooter Brawl Stars.

Taking back control

Given previous game Clash Royale was described by monetisation experts as having “sophisticated and extremely aggressive” retailing, the big surprise with Brawl Stars is just how simple and streamlined its monetisation is.

But interestingly, given how much attention has been focused on the changes made to the game’s controls and its aspect ratio during soft launch, the monetisation was tightened up in some subtle yet significant respects too.

Comparing the globally-released version of the game to our In-App Inspector article for the original soft launched game in October 2017, the Chip resource used to unlock new brawlers has been scrapped. Now, new brawlers are unlocked through the game’s gacha loot box system, Brawl Boxes.

The same is true for Elixir. This was a universal resource that could be used to upgrade either the health, standard attack or super attack of any brawler. It’s been replaced by Power Points, a levelling currency which is specific to each brawler, not universal.

Brawlers no longer have the three attributes that can be separately levelled up either. Spending power points upgrades all of them simultaneously.

Streamlined through loot boxes

The impact of these changes is to reduce players’ freedom when it comes to unlocking and levelling up brawlers. The game currently has 22 different characters.

Previously it was possible to focus resources on a couple of specific characters in terms of the unlock and levelling processes. Now, however, unlocking and levelling brawlers is a totally random process dependent on drops from Brawl Boxes.

Hence all game progression and monetisation is streamlined through this loot box system, of which there are three options. All open immediately, without the waiting around Supercell popularised within the F2P mobile sector in Clash Royale.

The price of unlocking the standard Brawl Box is 100 tokens. These are earned as you play the game, although you can speed this up by buying a token doubler. Each Brawl Box contains the game’s soft currency Gold and two other items, power points or brawler unlocks.

Big Boxes offer three times the rewards and can either be purchased using the hard currency Gems or collecting 10 Star Tokens.

The largest box is the Mega Box, which contains 10-times the rewards of Brawl Boxes and can only be purchased with hard currency. And this – together with one-off random epic brawler purchases (see below) – will be the place in which hardcore players will be focusing their spending and where Supercell earns the most money.

Hard currency is purchased in the standard manner, with six retailing options available. Gems can also be converted into gold, which is used to level up brawlers and buy power points, which are provided as daily deals through the game’s store. This features the usual array of discounted one-off bundles and random special offers.

Each brawler also has a set of skins, although it’s not yet clear how they will combine with monetisation. At present Supercell appears to using them more for social engagement.

Wide and shallow

Comparing Brawl Stars’ monetisation to that of Clash Royale, then, it’s more indirect, triggered by player motivation rather than directly by metagame progression.

This makes sense as Brawl Stars is a more mass market game being – on one level – a pick-up-and-play shooter, in which players will likely have their favourite brawlers but not be overly concerned about levelling them up in any strategic sense.

In that regard, the game’s monetisation is well honed but isn’t aggressive and there will be little incentive for most players to spend any money.

As a deck-based card game, Clash Royale required a higher level of engagement and monetisation to unlock the best cards, as well as the ability to spend to ensure your deck was well balanced.

Certainly, it was also a skill-based game, but in a more abstract way than Brawl Stars.

Clearly, Brawl Stars is a game Supercell expects will generate its billions (if so) by appealing to a very large audience, which it will monetise at a relatively low level compared to the high ARPU potential of 4X, trading card and role-playing games.

And if the early signs are anything to go by, it’s off to a great start. But there will be a long way to go in terms of updates, new brawlers and esports tournaments, etceter,a before Brawl Stars can sit alongside Clash of Clans and Clash Royale as Supercell’s third game to one billion dollars of lifetime revenue.（source：pocketgamer.biz ）