PopCap Games公司自2000年成立以来已发生了巨大的转变，该公司在智能手机及Facebook游戏问世前，其“休闲”游戏也曾受到业内的非议。PopCap现在正打算在年底前进行首次公开募股（IPO），彻底变身为与十多年前的小公司截然不同的角色。

该公司CEO戴夫·罗伯特（Dave Roberts）在2005年加入了PopCap团队，当时该公司正面临规范业务发展的抉择，他表示PopCap一直受益于稳定有序的发展方式：“公司规模一直在壮大，但绝不冒进，我们希望可以保持公司的这种原则，而不是去走盲目‘做大做强’的路线。”

在罗伯特看来，PopCap之所以能够拥有这种企业文化，部分原因是他们位于西雅图而非硅谷，因此没有受到后者“急于求成”式的运营理念的影响。另一部分原因在于，PopCap重视游戏开发者的价值，为他们提供了许多创作自由，同时又擅于在这个基础上打造符合市场需求的项目。

罗伯特表示，“业务人员从来不对开发者的作品指手划脚。只要你的产品符合预期，并且开发6个月后就可发布，任何人都可以运营一个公司，如果是这样的话，销售和市场营销就是一件轻而易举的事情。但事实并非如此，所以我们还是需要一个商务团队，解决开发游戏过程中的不可预期因素，为开发者指引市场方向。这其实比看上去的情况更困难，需要业务人员掌握更多技巧，但他们现在的关系还是非常融洽。”

他早先还猜测，公司有点过于袒护游戏开发团队了。在今年的GDC大会上，该公司的一名创始人詹森·卡帕卡（Jason Kapalka）打趣道，PopCap最初成立时打算尽情发挥自己的创作自由，所以曾推出一伪色情的扑克游戏。在罗伯特2005年加入公司后，PopCapo团队增长至25名成员，他们花了一段时间才实现了规范化的企业管理。

罗伯特认为，“一个团队的规范不可过于僵化，但如果能够有效管理，同样可以让团队得到成长。我们很难一眼看出这种管理发挥的作用，但却可以马上判断出它是否彻底失效。”

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关于Zynga运营模式

PopCap已获得巨大的发展，已不再是过去仅局限于“休闲游戏领域”的小公司，PopCap因其出色的游戏设计和运营成效，赢得了各游戏领域的普遍赞誉。

这家公司与社交游戏巨头Zynga拥有一些共同点，后者刚起步时的规模更小，而且主要锁定一些“二级市场”的玩家，并且为大多数铁杆玩家和开发者所不屑。但现在的Zynga市场影响力已经不容小觑，并且也已经传出其准备上市的说法。

不过PopCap的《宝石迷阵闪电战》、《Peggle》以及《植物大战僵尸》等游戏却广受硬核和休闲领域玩家、设计师的认可，而直言主要侧重用户反馈参数及运营模式的Zynga，其简单的Facebook游戏却仍难免来自传统游戏领域的责难，甚至有人称《FarmVille》是不健康游戏的典型。

那么Zynga究竟能否赢得PopCap这十多年来积累的名誉？据PopCap公司另一名创始人John Vechey所称，从Zynga收购Area/Code等一些拥有杰出人才的工作室这一举动中就可以看出，Zynga实际上也非常重视游戏的趣味性和设计原创性，但同时也表示“我们对此没有压力，因为我们一直就很擅长开发游戏，过去也是没人相信我们会做到这一点。”

赢得其他领域的赞誉

Vechey回忆道，当时玩过《宝石迷阵》和《祖玛》游戏的玩家几乎羞于承认此事，《Peggle》问世后这一形势才开始好转——它带来了更多玩家，就连Valve公司的《半条命》团队也开始接纳这款游戏。

后来就出现了《Besharded》这个将《宝石迷阵》功能植入《魔兽世界》的混搭作品，它成了PopCap与《魔兽世界》玩家沟通的一个桥梁。这种现象引起了业内的高度关注，不少大型游戏发行商迅速作出反应，采取措施禁止他人违规使用自己的游戏机制或产品。而PopCap却很支持由游戏粉丝制作的《Besharded》，最后还将其该开发者引进了自己的团队。

Vechey认为，“Valve公司的运营理念和我们很相似，他们在必要时会捍卫自己的产品，但另一方面也支持游戏粉丝自由创造好玩的东西。”

手机及社交游戏领域的崛起也为PopCap带来了一个绝佳的发展机遇，越来越多用户开始在智能手机、Facebook平台即时体验游戏，Vechey认为PopCap已经不再局限于“休闲”游戏领域，而且他们也曾面临社交游戏开发商一样的遭遇（游戏邦注：《宝石迷阵》也一度受到指责）所以他们很拥护这个新兴领域，“因为我们也曾因长期被边缘化，所以我们不会以同样的方式对待其他领域的开发公司。”

挖掘海外市场潜力

该公司表示他们遇到的主要挑战是挖掘市场未开发的潜力，在最近几年有数百万的用户在各种新兴平台上玩游戏，而且这一趋势还在不断加强。

罗伯特称，“我们真希望在公司发展的头5年中，休闲游戏市场也能有这种情况，但结果很遗憾。Facebook和iPhone为我们打开了一扇大门……因为这两个平台将更多用户引进了游戏世界，所以我们的业务开始迅速发展。”

有趣的是，手机游戏也为该公司的任天堂DS业务带来了发展机遇——“iPhone怎么可能推动你的DS业务发展？因为它让更多人开始玩游戏。我相信iPhone刚开始时还是蚕食了DS游戏市场份额，因为有许多家长买了iPod Touch给孩子当游戏机，这样每个月就只需要支付20美元左右的游戏费用。”

那么PopCap下一步又将如何解决发展过程中遇到的挑战呢？除了通过其游戏品牌争取更多新用户，它还将加大投入经典游戏的设计。罗伯特称创造和《Peggle》一样经起得时间考验的游戏并不容易，“这要花很长时间。”

“我们是一家成立10年的公司，我们拥有6款这类成功作品。我们每两年都要试验50到100个游戏创意，才能推出一个最终成品。我们一直在尝试开发大量成功游戏，我们专注于开发出色的游戏，并关注用户青睐的游戏平台。”

亚洲市场仍蕴含大量发展机遇，该公司与韩国网游戏公司NCsoft合作推出多人在线游戏，以打开中国MMO游戏市场。除此之外，PopCap还与日本的Taito联手，向该国绑定GREE等游戏平台的功能性手机推出Java Brew游戏。

未来发展愿景

据罗伯特所称，公司也会仔细考虑收购的可能，“我们确实有打算收购其他工作室，但前提是得找到适合我们的人才，我们并不想收购知识产权，我们只收购想成为PopCap一员的人才……我们需要与PopCap拥有共同游戏开发理念的成员。”

Vechey补充表示，“这一行有许多我们欣赏的工作室，比如Twisted Pixel，他们团队很有才华，开发了极有创意和好玩的游戏。如果有机会的话，我们会考虑跟他们合作，但现在也很乐意跟他们做好朋友。”

针对该公司年底前实现IPO的计划，罗伯特称，“我们快准备好了，但我认为假如上市只会影响公司的发展，那么现在就还不到正确的时机，我们并不着急。我们还要考虑许多关于市场、公司表现以及投资者的想法，他们会理解PopCap的想法吗？Zynga此时又有什么动作？假如Zynga上市了，他们就很可主宰这个市场。”

即使PopCap和Zynga之间在产品类型的市场定位上并没有可比性，投资者也还是会将他们进行对比——甚至还会将PopCap与EA或者育碧等公司作一番比较。

罗伯特主为最大的障碍在于，投次者“认为我们是一家制作公司，他们只想知道，‘你们的生产线是什么，有多少游戏已经投入制作，你们将如何提高制作速度并降低产品价格，’但这并不是我们想做的事情。我们的主要挑战在于如何向他们解释自己的原则，就像EA公司的股价总能反映投资者对其下一款游戏的信心一样。”

他认为在IPO成为板上钉钉的事实之前，公司首先要确保投资者理解PopCap的做法，他们的企业文化，假如做不到这一点，他们就不会上市。如果上市并不利于公司的长期发展，他们情愿远离这种运营模式。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，转载请注明来源：游戏邦）

Nothing ‘Casual’ About It: PopCap’s Brave New World

Things sure have changed for PopCap since its founding in 2000. The company was struck in an era before smartphones and Facebook, when “casual” was a villainous descriptor. Now, it’s considering being ready for an initial public offering by the end of this year, facing an entirely different landscape as an entirely different organization than it was just a little over a decade ago.

CEO Dave Roberts, who joined the company in 2005 once the organization decided to formalize its growth process, says PopCap has benefited from a slow, steady approach: “It’s go big, but go careful,” he tells Gamasutra. “We wanted to preserve the essence of the company, and not just go ‘big for big’s sake’.”

To Roberts, that’s partially a consequence of being in Seattle, insulated from the serial entrepreneurship culture prevalent in Silicon Valley, where a long-term growth plan is often looked upon as a negative. Another part of growing carefully involved avoiding messing with what isn’t broken — in other words, leaving successful developers alone while building out the business infrastructure around them.

“The biz guys never blame the studio guys for slipped products,” Roberts says. “Any idiot can run a company where your products are predictable and get delivered six months in advance. Sales and marketing would be easy if that were the case. The truth is, that’s never the case, so we wanted a business team that can deal with the unpredictability inherent in making great games and manage their way around it. That’s taken more skill than might seem evident, but it’s a pretty good relationship now.”

In fact, early on Roberts surmises the company might have sheltered the studio a little bit too much. The company began as a trio who, as Jason Kapalka entertainingly explained at GDC, decided to reach for their creative freedom by developing a halfheartedly-’sexy’ strip poker game. Although PopCap grew to 25 people by 2005 when Roberts joined, it took a while before the staff was accustomed to a more formalized management structure.

“A team doesn’t have to be stifled, but it can also grow as well, with better management,” says Roberts. “When it works it’s invisible — when it doesn’t work, it’s painful.”

The Zynga Trajectory

Now the company’s seen major growth; rather than a small organization operating in the ill-viewed “casual gaming space,” PopCap enjoys a much more powerful stance, and much more cross-market favor in an environment where most on the design and business side agree that the word “casual” doesn’t even mean anything.

There are some parallels to be seen with Zynga. Like PopCap, the social gaming giant also began much smaller, addressing an audience generally relegated to second-class and viewed with some disdain by gamers and developers alike. Of course, Zynga’s market mass is now impossible to ignore — and the same types of IPO rumors now surround both organizations.

But PopCap’s games, from Bejeweled Blitz to Peggle and Plants vs. Zombies, have been at last generally embraced by the design community and audiences across sectors from core to the increasingly-meaningless “casual” group. For Zynga, which has been candid about its focus on metrics and forthright about its strategies to monetize users with simple Facebook products, there’s a steeper road to acceptance from the more traditional community, which tends to point to FarmVille as the poster child for all things unwholesome.

Could Zynga achieve the same kind of reputational makeover PopCap’s steadily achieved over the years? According to co-founder John Vechey, the fact that Zynga has acquired some boutique talent in studios such as Area/Code suggests that the company cares about the fun and integrity in game designs more than it’s given credit for. On the other hand: “We were easy, because we were always about the games,” Vechey tells us. “There was just no one believing we could do that.”

Cross-Market Acceptance And The Changing ‘Casual’ Space

People played Bejeweled and Zuma almost guiltily at first, Vechey reflects, something they engaged with for more hours than they were willing to admit. But it was Peggle that began to turn the tide, leading more and more players — somewhat-famously including Valve’s Half-Life team — to accept it as a welcome part of life.

Then came Besharded, the mashup of Bejeweled featured in Blizzard’s World of Warcraft, another bridge between PopCap and the gamer community. That situation was particularly notable, considering most major publishers quickly move to quash unauthorized use of their mechanics or IP. PopCap moved to support and assist with the initial fan version of Besharded in WoW — and ultimately hired the modder who developed it to the team.

“Valve is of a similar philosophy to ours,” says Vechey. “They’ll protect their stuff when they need to, but on the other hand they give the community the flexibility to create cool stuff.”

The explosion in the mobile and social space has also helped create an environment in which PopCap can stand more favorably, to say nothing of the very early start its smaller games got on the digital distribution market by being too small for retail when retail was still much healthier.

With more people playing quick gaming sessions on smartphones and Facebook, the environment’s a lot more populated. And yet it’s not a rivalry: “We love it,” says Vechey. And now that the company is no longer on the most extreme end of the “casual” spectrum, the company can relate somewhat to the woes of social game developers whose peers tell them their work is “not a game” — after all, people once said that about Bejeweled.

“We were on the other end of the spectrum for so long that we’re not going to do that to other people,” says Vechey.

Keep On Growing

The company sees its main challenge as the fact that there’s still, in its view, such a large addressable market that remains untapped. In recent years, millions and millions of people have found they like playing games on the developing platforms that they’ve begun discovering, and there are more still to come.

“It’s what we wanted the casual industry to be like in the first five years, and it just never could do it,” says Roberts. “Facebook and iPhone “have absolutely opened every door for us… our business has gone crazy because of those two platforms that opened people’s eyes to gaming.”

Interestingly, it’s been a boon to the company’s business on the Nintendo DS — “How can the iPhone help your DS business? Because more people play games. I’m sure there was some real direct cannibalization at first, particularly among kids 5-12 whose parents were buying them iPod Touches because it’s just easier to give them a $20 a month allowance for software.”

So what’s next, and how will the company address the challenge of growing further? In addition to reaching more of the new audiences with its successful brands, it hopes to add another classic design to its portfolio. But creating something as hooky and enduring as Peggle is hardly easy: “It takes us a long time,” says Roberts.

“We’re a 10 year-old company; we have six of those. Every couple of years, we try 50 or 100 concepts to get to one [major product],” he notes. “We’re always trying to build a couple of them, and our big focus is trying to build out and keep up with where people are playing games.”

The Asian market remains a huge growth opportunity, as the company works with NCsoft on an avatar-based multiplayer environment for its games that both companies hope will be friendly to China’s MMO-oriented market. And with Taito in Japan, PopCap is collaborating on a game service for feature phones that has all of PopCap’s Java Brew games running on mobile phones integrated with GREE, among other efforts for the East.

Future Moves And The Big ‘If’

The company will carefully consider potential acquisitions, too. “We do look to buy studios, but we have to find people who are a really good fit for us,” explains Roberts. “We don’t buy IP; we buy people who want to be part of our studio, typically… we need people who can be compatible with how we think about games.”

Adds Vechey: “There’s a lot of studios out there we have a lot of respect for… like Twisted Pixel. They’re great, we love them, they make great games that are super innovative and cool. If there’s a way it makes sense to work together, we’ll figure it out — until then, we’re happy just being friends with them.”

With all these elements in play, the company aims to be ready for an IPO by year-end, as Roberts says. “We’re going to be ready — but I think if it screws up the company, or it’s the wrong time, we’re in no hurry,” he points out. “A lot of it’s market, a lot of it’s the company performance and what investors think. Can they understand a company like ours? And what’s Zynga doing? Because if they go public, they’re going to define the market.”

And even though a comparison between PopCap and Zynga ultimately doesn’t hold up in terms of product offering and market position, investors will seek parallels — and they’ll also seek parallels between PopCap and Electronic Arts or Ubisoft, even though those would be imperfect comparisons as well.

The biggest hurdle, says Roberts, is that investors “think of us as a manufacturing company. They all want to know, ‘what’s your pipeline, how many games are in the pipeline, how do you make them faster and make them cheaper,’ and that’s not what we do. A lot of our challenge will be explaining that to people, as a lot of the stock price for a company like EA is what investors think is going to happen with their next game.

“We really have to make sure we’ve got a message that they understand that’s true to what we do, true to ourselves and to our culture while being a public company” before the IPO is firmly on the table, he adds. “And if we can’t, we definitely won’t. If it can’t make us a better company in the long term, we’ll run away from it kicking and screaming.” （source:gamasutra）