也许有人会认为，Zynga这种未推出任何实体游戏产品的游戏开发商也能创造令人称羡的收益，很有可能诱使其他传统游戏发行商涌入数字游戏领域。不过据游戏邦了解，育碧首席执行官Yves Guillemot却有不同的看法，他最近表示数字游戏并没有为育碧带来多少收益。

CSI Crime City

“数字游戏”在这里的概念是指那些免费体验，或者基于社交网站的游戏，比如育碧旗下的《CSI: Crime City》和《The Settlers Online》就属于这种类型。《CSI: Crime City》是一款基于热门电视节目的Facebook游戏，支持用户扮演侦探长的角色调查犯罪案件，后者则是实时策略游戏《The Settlers》的网页版免费游戏。

游戏邦获悉，这两款游戏的收益情况并不乐观，但据Guillenmot所称，《CSI: Crime City》目前的月活跃用户人数是200万左右，虽然育碧对这个成绩比较满意，但还是认为开发商得向这些项目投入更多资金，才有可能让数字游戏结出硕果。这些投入的资金部分将用于游戏的全球发行业务，育碧已有计划将《The Settlers Online》推向中国和俄罗斯等新兴市场国家。

在Guillenmot看来，即使是《歪小子斯科特》（Scott Pilgrim vs. The World）这款在PlayStation Network和XBLA平台上热销的游戏，也仍然算不上高利润的游戏。他认为这些数字游戏项目已经出现收支失衡的情况。

不过他同时也表示，育碧仍然对这个市场的发展抱有乐观态度，并打算在下一财年推出新款数字游戏。Guillemot的言论确实有些令人意外，因为之前还有不少人认为，数字游戏领域实在是一个利润丰厚的市场。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，转载请注明来源：游戏邦）

Ubisoft: Digital Games Aren’t Profitable Enough

With videogame companies like Zynga flourishing without ever releasing any physical products, you’d think it’d be easy for more traditional publishers to jump right into the mix. Not so, says Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot, who recently talked about how digital games aren’t bringing in much revenue for the company.

In this case, “digital games” refers to free-to-play titles and those found on social networks. Guillemot specifically mentioned two of Ubisoft’s titles: CSI: Crime City and The Settlers Online. CSI: Crime City is a Facebook game where players solve crimes in the role of an investigator from the popular television show. The Settlers Online is a free-to-play browser version of long-running real-time strategy series The Settlers.

According to Guillemot, despite the quality of these games they’re not earning enough money yet. CSI: Crime City has an average of 2 million monthly users, which the company is pleased with, but Guillemot thinks that more investment will be needed for digital games to truly bear fruit. Part of that investment includes launching them worldwide, as it plans to do with Settlers Online by bringing it to new markets in China and Russia.

Even Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, which was one of the biggest selling games on the PlayStation Network in the second half of 2010 in addition to XBLA sales, doesn’t appear to be profitable enough for Guillemot. He says the cost of investment for many of these digital games may be higher than their returns.

However, Ubisoft is still positive about where this segment of the market is going, and plans to launch a new “digital initiative” in the next fiscal year that will improve on what has been done already. Guillemot’s words are surprising, because you’re used to hearing about how digital markets are earning cash hand-over-fist for publishers all over the world.（source:escapistmagazine）