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人物专访:Chillingo公司总经理谈2011年发展愿景

发布时间:2010-12-14 11:14:43 Tags:,,,,

英国游戏发行商Chillingo公司今年的运程真是势不可挡,先是发行了“年度最热销游戏”《愤怒的小鸟》(Angry Birds),紧接着又推出“年度最快销游戏”《糖果小怪物》(Cut the Rope),最后又以2900万美元的出售价格找到靠山—–世界游戏发行巨头EA公司。

Chillingo原先的联合创始人Joe Wee、Chris Byatte现在摇身变成EA旗下的Chillingo公司总经理,当然,公司被收购并不意味着大家可以因此搁置正事,所以这两名Chillingo总经理现在正全力以卦,准备迎接2011年的新任务和挑战。

EA_Chillingo

EA_Chillingo

Joe Wee在记者采访中表示,“我们的专长是挑选世界各地的开发商,并与他们进行发行合作。另外还将通过EA的发行渠道和资源,将我们的游戏推向更多用户。”

Chris Byatte表示同意这种说法,“我们对自己的定义不变,依然是为开发商服务的发行商。任何开发商都可以单独跟我或者Joe聊聊,和开发商建立这种个人关系对我们来说非常重要。我们不想放弃这种沟通渠道,它是我们致力培养的业务资源。”

2010年业务未受影响

提到Chillingo与EA两家公司的联姻,难免还是有人担心,这种小型独立开发商与世界重量级选手的组合,对Chillingo的掣肘作用远甚于EA受到的风险。

据游戏邦所知,《愤怒的小鸟》开发商Rovio公司已经摆脱对Chillingo的依赖,开始自主发行游戏,这种现象对Chillingo的业务运营究竟有无影响,也是人们关心的问题。

Chris Byatte的回答无疑是一颗定心凡,他认为这种现象只是个例,并表示他和Joe与开发商都有个人交情,所有人都认为这是一桩好事,开发商可能对自己的游戏有了其他的定位,但不管怎么说,这是个好现象。

Joe Wee认为,现在有了EA Mobile公司的商业广告和市场营销支持,开发商的游戏可以通过EA的渠道获得更多曝光率,Chillingo正在开拓其他业务和发行渠道,将与运营商之类的公司进行合作。

新平台发展计划

值得一提的是,Chillingo现在的运营重心仍然是针对iOS平台的游戏发行业务。但这一行业的发展趋势以及EA的收购,有可能加快该公司向其他手机平台进军的步伐,比如说EA已经十分熟悉的其他智能手机平台及Java、Brew等市场领域。

Joe Wee和Chris Byatte自己也声称不会只盯着iOS平台,还会兼顾其他平台的市场。

Joe Wee表示,他们已经涉足Android Market,也正在关注Android和WP7的市场行情,这两个平台的发展潜力都很大,不过Android的用户消费体验仍然有待改善,但相信这些情况最终总会大为改观;总体而言,这些平台对开发商来说是一个更大的市场,而且即使是iOS平台,也有大量的免费游戏营收问题需要解决。

虽然Chillingo已经发行了免费模式的MMORPG游戏《My Kingdom》,最近还宣布另一款免费游戏《The Witcher: Versus》也已经进入原始网页版本的开发过程,但这两名总经理始终不肯透露他们在这一领域的具体拓展计划。

展望2011年

尽管二人认为Chillingo与EA的结合现在还处于“磨合期”,但他们强调Chillingo在2011年的表现应该与今年差不多,但是会比现在掌握更丰富的资源,为开发商带来更多发展机遇。

Chris Byatte表示,“Chillingo象征着优质游戏的招牌,独立开发商的选择,游戏的优化渠道,游戏推广的保障,现在有了EA的支持,Chillingo会获得更大的发行市场,这对我们现有的业务来说简直是如虎添翼……我们现在还是自主运营,自行拓展业务,最重要的是我们一直高度重视产品的质量。EA很理解我们的做法,也希望我们保持这种优良传统。”(本文为游戏邦编译,转载请注明来源:游戏邦)

Chillingo on the potential of its EA deal and future expansion to Android, WP7 and freemium

It’s been a stellar year for UK publisher Chillingo.

It kicked off with the release of Angry Birds – the year’s best selling game – followed by release of Cut the Rope – the year’s fastest selling game – and ended selling out to EA in a headline $29 million deal.

Happy days then for co-founders Joe Wee and Chris Byatte, now officially titled as Chillingo’s co-general managers.

Still, people don’t just buy your company and then allow you to sit back and smoke fancy big cigars, so their focus is now on realising the potential synergies in 2011.

“Our expertise is in identifying and working with developers all over the world. Couple this with EA’s publishing skill and reach, it’s great opportunity to push out our games to an even broader audience,” says Wee.

Byatte agrees. “The deal doesn’t change the fact that we see ourselves as the developers’ publisher. Any developer can talk to myself or Joe. That personal relationship is very important to us. We don’t want to lose that connection. It’s something we’ve worked hard to nurture.”

The human touch

Still, after the deal, there was a perception that the marriage between a small independent publisher and one of the world’s gaming giants would affect Chillingo’s working practices more than it would EA’s.

The reaction of Angry Birds developer Rovio, then kicking off its own expansion push, that you didn’t need publishers for mobile games didn’t help matters either.

Byatte says this was an isolated case.

“There’s been really positive feedback,” he reveals. “Joe and I know our developers personally. All of them said this is a great deal. Of course, they need some clarification in terms of what it means for their game, but it means good things, better things.”

Wee points to the ability to plug into EA Mobile’s commercial and marketing arms as being key.

“For developers, it means expansion in terms of discoverability via EA’s reach, so we’re bringing another dimension to the business and distribution, in terms of access to carrier decks and the like.”

New horizons

It’s an interesting point as to-date Chillingo has almost exclusively focused on iOS releases. Both wider industry trends and the EA deal will accelerate its move into other mobile platforms, from other smartphones to potentially the Java and Brew markets that EA has been traditionally very strong in.

The co-general managers won’t get drawn on specifics however.

“We’ve dipped our toes in the Android Market, and are looking at Android and Windows Phone 7,” says Wee. “There is a lot of promise there, and of course challenges in terms of the purchasing experience [for Android], but these things will come out in the wash.

“In general, this means a larger addressable market for developers and that’s what it’s all about.

“And don’t forget that even on iOS, there are a multitude of monetisation methods including freemium games.”

The pair won’t reveal any more about their plans in this area, although Chillingo has already published freemium MMORPG My Kingdom, and has recently announced The Witcher: Versus, which is a freemium game in its original browser version.

Byatte won’t confirm the monetisation scheme for the iOS version however. “Watch this space,” is all he will say.

The same but better

Instead, citing that it’s “still early days” in terms of integrating fully with EA, what the pair want to stress is that Chillingo circa 2011 will be much like Chillingo circa 2010 but with more resources and potential for its developers.

“Chillingo is a synonymous with good games, working with indies, polishing those games, and promoting them while the EA piece give us a larger publishing reach. It’s a really good compliment to what we’re already doing,” Byatte ends.

“We are still fully autonomous, doing our own thing. We’re running our own roadmap, expanding our operations of course, but the bottomline is we’re highly concentrated on the products. EA understands we do what we do well, and it wants that to continue.” (source:pocketgamer)


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