Nexon是过去十年中业内公认的发展最为迅猛的网络游戏公司，这家韩国公司率先采用微交易/免费游戏这一经营模式，玩家们可以免费体验游戏并以真实的货币购买虚拟商品。在过去的五年中，Nexon旗下的《Maplestory》注册用户已超过1亿，其中包括700万美国用户，该公司产品是最具魅力的网络游戏之一。

据游戏邦了解，目前Nexon的社交游戏网站正准备登陆Facebook，同时也将针对平板电脑和智能手机投放相关游戏。它想通过尚未在Facebook游戏中尝试过的手段来获得成功：以引人入胜的游戏玩法吸引用户，而不是通过像零食一样的休闲游戏来虏获用户。

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在硬核游戏与休闲游戏之间的大战，迄今为止在Facebook上最先告捷的是休闲游戏，比如《CityVille》和《FrontierVille》这类更为简单的游戏就已吸引了大批玩家。但位于洛杉矶的Nexon美国公司董事长丹尼尔·金（Daniel Kim)认为，社交游戏将继续演变。他指出，在早期的好莱坞中，大部分成功的电影都是西部片，这个产业直到后期才发展出其他各种类型的影片。

游戏邦获悉，像其他许多游戏公司一样，创办了16年的Nexon正面临着艰难的转型。《Maplestory》及公司旗下其他游戏都是必须下载的大型在线游戏，相比之下，Facebook游戏则通常是简单休闲，由Flash动画构成，并且可以通过浏览器即时体验的游戏。尽管Nexon是网络游戏巨头之一，但在社交游戏与手机游戏领域却还是个新手。

在拉斯维加斯DICE峰会上，金在接受采访时表示Nexon的重心将放在互动游戏上，建立在线社区，创造富有竞争性的游戏吸引用户。他说，尽管游戏产业的发展速度已经减缓，但Nexon仍然实现了自身的进步。总而言之，Nexon在全球范围运营了超过30款的在线游戏，其中大部分是电脑游戏，但现在Nexon希望进军其他各种平台。

据游戏邦了解，在去年的一次参访中，金曾谈到了游戏产业中的各类角色，如“恐龙”（单机游戏开发商）、“哺乳动物”（免费网络游戏公司）、“鼠类”（Facebook社交游戏开发商）以及“蟑螂”（手机游戏开发商）。问题在于，在这些竞争者中，谁会最终幸存下来？

长久以来，Nexon一直很擅长增加游戏黏性，许多玩家是连续好几个月泡在该公司的游戏上。因此，Nexon用户的付费转化率也总是比一般公司要高。而Facebook上的玩家经常每天只玩五分钟游戏，如何吸引这一用户群体并延长他们的游戏时间，对Nexon来说将是一个很大的挑战。

游戏邦了解到，Nexon正与两个外部工作室合作：加拿大的Antic和波兰的One2Tribe，目的在于尽快实现业务发展。该公司计划实现两位数的付费率、两位数的每用户平均收益等目标。与社交游戏大约数分钟的游戏时间相比，Nexon的玩家每次登陆游戏时间长达数小时。此外，在Nexon对游戏进行重大更新后，《Maplestory》的同时在线用户数量或固定时段玩家数量在去年12月走向了新高峰。

金表示，他认为Nexon在游戏黏性上已领先了10年左右，他们打算利用这一优势向新的平台进军。

尽管对Zynga来说，Nexon只是一个迟到的竞争对手，但金还是相信这个市场才刚刚起步，一切都为时不晚。（本文为游戏邦 /gamerboom.com编译，转载请注明来源：游戏邦）

Can Nexon make social games more engaging?

Nexon has proven to be one of the fastest-growing online game companies of the past decade. The Korean company pioneered the microtransactions/free-to-play business model, where users play for free and buy virtual goods with real money. In the past five years, Nexon’s Maplestory game has signed up more than 100 million users, including 7 million in the U.S., and its games are some of the most engaging on the web.

Now the company is setting its sites on social games on Facebook and mobile games on tablets and smartphones as well. It wants to succeed through something that hasn’t really been tried in Facebook games yet: hooking users through engaging game play, rather than via casual “snack”-type games.

In the struggle between hardcore and casual, casual games have won so far on Facebook. Simpler games such as CityVille and FrontierVille have had much better luck reaching audiences. But Daniel Kim, chief executive of Nexon America in Los Angeles, believes social games will continue to evolve; he notes that in early Hollywood, most of the successful movies were Westerns. Only later did the industry evolve other types of films.

Like many other game companies, 16-year-old Nexon faces a tough transition. Maplestory and other Nexon games are hefty online titles that have to be downloaded. By contrast, Facebook games are often light and casual, built with Flash animation and played instantly via web browsers. Even though Nexon is one of the giants of online games, it’s new to social and mobile games.

Kim said in an interview at the Dice Summit video game conference in Las Vegas that Nexon’s focus is on connected games, building online community, and creating competition that drives engagement.

Despite the slowdown in game industry growth, Nexon’s formula has kept its rate of growth high, Kim said. Altogether, Nexon is operating more than 30 games as online services across the world.

Most of that is on the PC. But Nexon now wants to move on to a variety of platforms.

In an interview with Nexon’s Kim last year, we talked about the dinosaurs of the game industry (console game makers), the mammals (the free-to-play online game companies) the rats (the social game companies on Facebook), and the cockroaches (the mobile game makers). The question is, who among these different rivals is going to inherit the Earth?

Nexon manages to hang on to its players for a long time, with many of them playing for months. A higher percentage of Nexon’s users convert to paid users than is normal. To try to get Facebook players, who often play for just five minutes a day, to switch to longer engagement times is a challenge.

Nexon is working with two outside studios, Antic of Canada and One2Tribe in Poland. The goal is to get Nexon to move as fast as a startup. It aims to get double-digit payment rates, double-digit average revenue per user, double-digit tens of millions of users playing, and double-digit months of engagement. Nexon’s games are played by users for hours per session, compared to a matter of minutes for social games. And Nexon’s numbers of concurrent users, or the number playing at any given time, hit new peaks for Maplestory in December after the company launched a major update to the game.

“When it comes to engagement, I feel Nexon has a 10-year head start,” Kim said. “But we are trying to move into new platforms and to do that via engagement.”

It may be late compared to rivals such as Zynga, but Kim says the market is just getting started.（source:venturebeat）