作者：Rob Crossley

尽管动视暴雪首席执行官Bobby Kotick宣称他们高度关注蓬勃发展的社交游戏市场，但是对于社交游戏的商业模式却仍然抱有谨慎的态度。

Kotick曾经在动视的财报电话会议中声称：“社交游戏，社交网络，手机游戏和便携式游戏可以说是当今时代人们最熟悉的几个词语，它们代表着休闲娱乐，代表着当今品牌发展，更是代表着市场营销的潜在机遇。但是这个市场却仍然充斥着一些不成熟的商业模式，整体的发展依旧混乱无章，具有较低的准入门槛。”

Bobby-Kotick

社交游戏以其打破行业格局的免费盈利模式而著称，使免费游戏在当今市场上大行其道（尽管在整个游戏体验中仍需要玩家支付一定的费用）。

这种商业模式瞬间“引爆”游戏产业，随后像Playfish和Zynga这样的巨头公司身价也一路向上攀升。

在去年，美国艺电（EA）以3亿美元的高价收购了Playfish。

Kotick称当前的游戏市场正出现一股”投机性”的热潮，而当问及他是否认为社交游戏也在此列时，他答道：“社交游戏对我来说就是一种数字渠道的收益，在这里玩家可以通过游戏进行交流，就像在Facebook上的《FarmVille》那样与亲友轻松交谈、游戏，但是这种盈利机遇却仍然存在着很大的风险。”

Kotick宣称动视过去一直在广阔的数字领域探索发展机遇，但他们在挑选运营模式这一点上仍然十分谨慎。

Kotick说道：“我认为我们还有希望，我们投入了不少时间观察社交游戏领域的情况。就像过去那样，不管哪里有新的机遇，不管哪里有更大的发展前景，我们都会奋力追求，而我们也因此取得了巨大的成功。所以我认为在这个具有发展潜力的新兴平台中，我们也一定能够创造出另一个奇迹。”

“我们计划把品牌扩展到其他数据领域，就像我们推出了iPhone版本的《使命召唤》，并且我们将再次向新兴平台推出《吉他英雄》等其他品牌内容。”

据Kotick所称，“然而，比起得到更大的财政收入或财政回报，今天我们所抓住的这些机遇更多的是帮助我们与整个行业保持密切的交流，并帮助我们不断地推广品牌。”

“可以说在利用社交游戏和手机游戏的发展机遇中，没有哪一家公司可与我们匹敌。而我们在过去20年的发展经验更是证明了这一点。”（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Kotick: Social game biz model ‘unproven’

by Rob Crossley

Activision-Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick remains cautious of social game business models, though insists that his company is carefully monitoring the blossoming market.

“Social games, social network integration, mobile and portable games, a few you’re hearing a lot about today, they’re interesting and present brand development and marketing opportunities,” said Kotick, speaking at last night’s Activision financial call.

“[But] they remain characterized by unproven business models, a lot of clutter, and relatively low barriers to entry,” he added.

Social games are known for their disruptive freemium monetization models, where restricted editions of the games are free to play though the full experience will require consumers to pay.

The business has ignited the game industry, with emerging companies such as Playfish and Zynga soaring to high valuations.

Last year, EA bought Playfish in a $300 million deal.

Kotick said the current wave of emerging game markets were ‘speculative’. And when asked if he thought social games were the exception to the rule, he replied:

“Social games is like digital revenues to me where games are social, and to be talking about like casual games like Farmville that are in Facebook, the monetization opportunities are still very speculative.”

Kotick made it clear that Activision was fully exploring opportunities in the broad range of digital segments, but the company is being selective with what it’s backing.

“I think we’re hopeful; we’re spending a lot of time looking at [social games],” he said.

“I think as we always have in the past, when there is an opportunity for a new platform or a new revenue opportunity, we always pursue it thoughtfully, we’ve had great success in doing that, and I don’t think that any of these new potential platforms is any exception.

“We plan to continue selectively expanding our brands into other digital segments like the iPhone as we did with Call of Duty, and will do with other brands like Guitar Hero.

“However, today these opportunities are better utilized as a means to connect our community and extend the brand, and less about financial scale or huge financial return.

“If there is an opportunity to capitalize on some of these new trends in social gaming or in mobile gaming, there’s no better company that’s better positioned to capitalize it on it than we are. And I think we’ve shown that over a 20-year history.”（source:google）