近期，关于业内手机游戏、社交游戏和单机游戏的未来争论颇多。最近在旧金山举行的游戏开发者大会上，任天堂总裁岩田聪以消极口吻评述手机和社交游戏：“游戏业如果继续这样发展下去，将会威胁到许多人的就业问题。”他认为，游戏需要更注重质量而不是数量。岩田聪并未特别指出哪个平台，但其强调目前社交网络上的游戏并非真正的社交游戏。依他所述，社交游戏应当类似多人游戏，玩家与他人一起参与其中。

岩田聪

IndustryGamers询问前索尼全球工作室总裁Phil Harrison对岩田聪此番评论的看法，他说道：“岩田聪功勋卓著，短短几年内便重新打造任天堂。他确实是任天堂的优秀领导，但在这个问题上他想错了。错误在于，他认为这只是种不久便会逝去的潮流。作为游戏的载体和娱乐方式，社交网络将继续发展下去。当岩田聪在谈论任天堂的未来时，乔布斯正在对面发布获得大量关注及全球新闻报道的iPad 2，这很有趣。有些人认为，未来这种小巧的平板电脑年销量将接近5千万到8千万台。这个巨大的市场将使其他市场相形见绌。”

或许有人认为iPad的大量出售并不意味着多数用户会买来玩游戏，但这个巨大的市场确实不容忽视。游戏邦觉得，任天堂似乎是出于手机和社交游戏会对其构成威胁的担心而发表上述言论，然而出于生存需要，许多开发者也不得不去考虑游戏的质量问题。

最终手机和社交游戏是否会完全取代主机和PC游戏呢？抑或是两种市场并存，或者是手机和社交游戏被挤出游戏市场？（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，转载请注明来源：游戏邦）

Nintendo’s Iwata “Mistaken” About Social Games, says Harrison

Lately there’s been some disputes about the future of mobile, social, and console games from the “big-wigs” in those industries. Recently at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata took a negative tone towards mobile and social games, saying that he feared  “[our] business is dividing in a way that threatens the continued employment of many of us,” and speaking of a need for quality over quantity. Iwata never named any specific platform, but stressed that social-network games were not the same as social games, which – to Iwata – were games in which people participate with other people with, like in multiplayer games.

IndustryGamers decided to ask former Sony Worldwide Studios boss Phil Harrison his opinion on Iwata’s comments.

“Iwata-san has done an incredible job rebuilding Nintendo over the last few years. He is a great leader of that company, but in this particular case he is wrong. He is mistaken if [he thinks] this is some kind of fad that will go away. Social networks, as a way of powering our game and entertainment choices, is here to stay,” Harrison told IndustryGamers.

“I thought it was fascinating that pretty much simultaneously with Iwata-san talking about Nintendo, in a hall across the street Steve Jobs is talking about the iPad 2, which got massive pickup and global coverage. … Some people are talking about 50 to 80 million ‘smartpads’ being sold a year for the foreseeable future. It’s going to create an enormous market, dwarfing every other market.”

One could say that iPads selling well does not necessarily mean that a majority of them may be used for games, but it cannot be denied there is a large market there. With Nintendo seemingly nervous about mobile and social games threatening them, perhaps more game developers will be pushed go for “quality” instead of just the quantity we have been seeing more and more of in the past 10 years, if only to survive.

What do you think? Will mobile and social games eventually kill off console and PC games? Is there room for two markets to co-exist or do mobile and social games not have a place in the gaming market? (Source: Industry Gamers)