社交游戏工作室Playfish的创办者Kristian Segerstrale认为Facebook社交网站不再是利于新兴社交游戏公司成长的领域。

从2007年开始，Kristian Segerstrale在伦敦创建的Playfish公司在社交游戏领域发展迅速，然而现在Segerstrale认为社交网站游戏已经过了发展的巅峰时期。他认为现在社交游戏领域发展虽然还不至于称之为“平原”，但却开始呈现下滑趋势。而近来，社交网站Facebook的政策调整更是减缓了Facebook平台本身的发展速度。

Kristian Segerstrale

今年初，Facebook仅用了网站中社交游戏的病毒式传播渠道，游戏开发商再也不能将游戏状态更新发布到Facebook用户的主页面Feed上。Facebook的这一措施令原本就竞争激烈的社交游戏行业开始走向低谷时期。同时，病毒式传播渠道的禁用也昭示着未来广告宣传将成为主要的传播方式，因此进军社交游戏领域的危险性也相对提高。

在CNBC Business的访问中，Segerstrale表示Facebook禁用病毒式传播渠道最直观的效果就是可以降低网站的点击率。此外，他还补充道“Facebook为社交游戏提供大量商机的时代已经逝去。”

Segerstrale认为要想成为社交游戏领域的真正赢家，社交游戏公司必须开发出一款集合了社交互动，竞争，合作和平台交流为一体的创新社交游戏作品。他认为现在的社交游戏领域还没有诞生诸如“超级玛丽”或“光晕”的经典游戏。

去年，Playfish以4亿美元的价格被老牌视频游戏公司EA收购。目前，拥有近5000万月活跃用户的Playfish工作室正致力于开发各种EA特许经营游戏如《FIFA Superstars》。

对于其他社交游戏公司，Segerstrale建议他们也可采用同样方式应对社交游戏领域日益激烈的竞争。“如果一方拥有《哈利·波特》，一方持有《‘The Wizard Adventure》，客户只会选择自己认可的那方。”

目前，Playfish近300名员工分布于伦敦，旧金山，北京和挪威特罗姆瑟等地。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，转载请注明来源：游戏邦）

Those without established brands are ‘in a increasingly precarious position’

The founder of Social studio Playfish believes the Facebook games platform is no longer a fertile ground for start-ups.

Kristian Segerstrale, whose London-based company has benefited immensely from the Facebook games revolution since 2007, says games on the social network are now over the hill.

“It’s more than plateaued, I think it’s declined a little bit,” Segerstrale said, before claiming that Facebook’s own initiatives have helped decelerate growth on the platform.

“[But Facebook has] gone from nothing to 200 million active players in two-and-a-half years. The fact that they’re dampening it down a little bit is neither here nor there.”

Facebook earlier in the year clamped down on the viral opportunities for games on its platform. Developers could no longer push game status updates on other people’s Facebook home-page feeds.

This moved turned what is already a hugely competitive space into one where the benefits of word-of-mouth began to diminish.

It meant that advertising was more crucial, analysts say, and as such risk was heightened.

“Perhaps the immediate effect of Facebook curbing some of these channels is to see the aggregate number of clicks going down a little bit,” Segerstrale continued, in an interview with CNBC Business.

“The era when Facebook provided the opportunity to grow enormously is over,” he added.

“The winner overall – the company that’s going to be remembered for forging this market – will be the one that creates a truly inspirational product for social interaction, competition, cooperation and exchange across a lot of platforms.”

Segerstrale believes that the social game space “has yet seen the Super Mario or the Halo” of its platform.

“We’ve barely scratched the surface of what’s possible,” he added.

A year ago Playfish was purchased by EA in a deal worth $400 million.

The studio, which is said has 50 million monthly active players, is working on various EA-owned franchises such as FIFA Superstars.

Segerstrale warns that others should follow in the same route to survive the competition.

“Companies without franchises will be in an increasingly precarious position,” he said.

“If on the one hand you have Harry Potter and on the other you have ‘The Wizard Adventure’, consumers will choose the one they recognise.”

Playfish has nearly 300 employees in studios across London, San Francisco, Beijing and Tromso in Norway. (Source : develop-online)