《宝石迷阵》的开发商PopCap计划今年上市。日前公司联合创始人Jon Vechey就此接受了Games.com的采访。

john vechey

尽管PopCap已经荣登各大媒体的头版头条，但Vechey表示其仍旧有些羡慕《FarmVille》开发商Zynga的一夜成名，包括其将众多之前令开发商可望而不可及的用户收入囊中。

他补充表示，“PopCap也从Zynga的成功中间接受益。”虽然他们很难将《Farmville》玩家转移到《宝石迷阵闪电战》中，但PopCap却可以因此通过Facebook接触到新用户，可以成功通过社交版《宝石迷阵》实现创收。游戏邦获悉，在过去几周，《宝石迷阵闪电战》营收已突破100万美元。这是个不俗的成绩，毕竟1年前，这款游戏还默默无闻。

去年公司首席执行官Roberts曾谈到Zynga收买用户，其并不认可此举，他认为优质游戏才是制胜的法宝。Vechey也赞同该说法，但他表示，Zynga显然也已意识到这一点，如今Zynga开始通过收购Newtoy（《Words with Friends》开发商）和Area/Code（《Drop7》开发商）等游戏开发公司，壮大公司开发更为复杂游戏体验的实力。

drop7

“以前如果你问我，Zynga未来5年是否能够依然活跃于游戏领域，我会认为不能。如今虽然Zynga颇负盛名，但其未来能否依旧保持该势头，我们无从知晓。”

谈到存在问题，Vechey认为可下载的休闲PC游戏不久将淡出市场，他对Yahoo和MSN之类的游戏门户网站颇为不满。他表示虽然这些网站长期协助他们推广游戏，但他们在利润分成方面的要求高达70%。如今开发商可以寻求和苹果公司合作，其只要求30%的分成，且愿意为其他公司宣传。

在谈到此次采访的主题“上市”时，Roberts表示，他对公司此次的跨越持谨慎乐观的态度。他表示，PopCap向来十分注重游戏开发的创造性，如果上市对此存在隐患，“我们将坚决放弃该计划”。

创造性在PopCap新工作室4th & Battery中得到淋漓尽致的体现。该工作室即将在iPhone平台推出首款游戏《Unpleasant Horse》。游戏邦发现，该款游戏和玩家所熟悉的PopCap家庭和睦主题截然不同。游戏中，玩家将通过控制一匹飞翔的马，消灭鸟类及其他马匹。

Unpleasant Horse

Roberts表示，“人们对于新工作室此举有点大惊小怪。”他表示，PopCap之所以推出该款游戏是想要为游戏领域注入创新活力，探索能够快速实践的新点子，推出下款《宝石迷阵》或者《植物大战僵尸》。如果这些游戏能够引起玩家的共鸣，我们将考虑以PopCap公司的名誉发行游戏续集。

这些试验性的游戏都来自为期一周的PopCamp研讨会，会上公司内部各个团队，纷纷提出颇具建设性的创意构思。《Unpleasant Horse》就是PopCamp的首次结晶，游戏邦获悉，第二次PopCamp研讨会将于本周展开，或许下款《宝石迷阵》或者《植物大战僵尸》已经处在酝酿之中了。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，转载请注明来源：游戏邦）

PopCap co-founder says he’s ‘jealous’ of Zynga

In case you haven’t heard the news before now, Bejeweled creator PopCap is planning to go public sometime this year. Games.com -The Blog! met up with company co-founder Jon Vechey (pictured above) and CEO Dave Roberts during a NYC media tour where they’ve been outlining their plans to make a splash on the stock market.

Even in the middle of all of this big news, Vechey — during a larger conversation about social gaming — tells me he’s a little jealous of FarmVille-maker Zynga’s overnight success, and the fact that they’ve managed to reach millions players that have previously been untouchable.

“[PopCap] has benefited from Zynga’s success,” he adds, meaning less that they’ve been able to transform FarmVille players into Bejeweled Blitz players, but have been able to access new players via Facebook and been able to successfully turn their social version of Bejeweled into a money making machine. Bejeweled Blitz earned over a million dollars in the past few weeks, he says. Not bad, considering a year ago the game wasn’t making anything.

Last year, CEO Roberts was quoted talking about Zynga’s ability to buy customers and, then added in a dig about how good content will win out in the end. Vechey still backs up that notion, but says that Zynga has apparently grown aware of this and is now doubling down on creating more sophisticated game experiences by acquiring ‘real’ game companies like Words with Friends developer Newtoy and, more recently, Drop7 creators Area/Code. (As a side note, Vechey is a big Drop7 fan, and even pulled out his iPhone to give me an impromptu demo on how to play it).

“Before if you asked me if Zynga would be around in five years, I would have said no. Now I can see Zynga being around — the question is whether it will be relevant or not.”

Speaking of relevant, Vechey says that he doesn’t expect casual downloadable PC games to be relevant for much longer, and he blames game portals, like Yahoo, MSN (and our very own AOL Games) who — for years — demanded a 70% cut to to distribute those games. Now you can work with Apple who just takes a 30% cut and doesn’t have a problem promoting other companies, he says.

As for the topic of the day — PopCap going public — Roberts seems cautiously optimistic about making the jump. PopCap, as a company, tries to protect developer’s creativity, and if going public jeopardizes that, he says, “We won’t do it.”

Creativity seems to be king at PopCap’s new 4th & Battery game studio, which will soon launch its first game Unpleasant Horse for iPhone (pictured above). This mobile game is far from your standard family friendly PopCap fare, where you control a flying horse that destroys birds and sends other horses to their demise (by shoving them into a meat grinder).

“People are making way too big a deal of this new company,” says Roberts. PopCap created this offshoot, he says, to help the developers blow off creative steam and come up with new ideas that can be executed faster than say, the next Bejeweled or Plants vs. Zombies game. However, if these one-off games strike a chord with the public, he says, then they might be considered for re-release under the official PopCap label.

These experimental games are brewed during week-long PopCamp sessions, where groups of in-house developers come up with and execute on ideas that might be the next big game. Unpleasant Horse was the product of the first PopCamp and the second PopCamp is happening this week, where — who knows — the next Bejeweled or Plants vs. Zombies just might be in the works.（Source：Games.com）