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EA高管称发行商需转变观念迎接游戏3.0时代

发布时间:2011-07-21 21:36:36 Tags:,,

作者:Stuart Dredge

EA Sports高级副总裁Andrew Wilson日前于英国举办的Develop Evolve大会发言中,为发行商解释了“游戏 3.0”的概念。

Wilson首先提出:“当前我们面临着对数字化的狂潮。任何东西看起来好像都与数字时代有关。我听到最多的一个问题是‘这笔交易是真的吗?’换而言之,手机、免费游戏、社交游戏和其他经营模式是否仍会保持长期影响力?”

Andrew Wilson(from next-gen.biz)

Andrew Wilson(from next-gen.biz)

Wilson认为应该用数据回答这个问题。“我们的行业正在发展,而这种发展显然来自数字渠道。正如我们在2010年所目睹的,数字化占据了行业总产值的一大部分,并且还在增长。”确切地说,数字化内容占据2010年整个产值的45%,即199亿美元,而这个数字在2008年时是124亿美元,所占比例为31%。

推动这种增长的刺激因素是什么?Wilson将讨论的焦点从原先重点关注硬核玩家的PS2、GCN(GameCube)和Xbox游戏,转向次世代游戏机(游戏邦注:例如Wii、Xbox 360和PS3)受到的重创,以及时下的手机、桌面、掌机和其他游戏设备的市场。

“新平台崛起带来的福音是,它为游戏行业带来了越来越多的玩家;面临的挑战是,这些平台上的游戏体验将变成什么样?收获巨大的胜者将是那些成功创造跨平台游戏体验的公司。”

Wilson 表示这不仅是对开发和发行领域的挑战,也是对市场营销模式的挑战。他谈到社交游戏公司Zynga,指出市场营销模式对其成功的促进作用一点也不亚于其他因素:“ Zynga促使我们相信病毒式营销是其成功的关键……(而实际上)他们为推广其免费游戏,每年投入的营销费用超过了1亿美元。”

他继续谈到不同娱乐行业的根本变化,以及不断变化的用户消费行为是改变人们如何开发并从数字媒体中获利的原因。关键在于,用户已经掌握了主导权,他们可以决定自己要在哪种设备上听音乐,什么时间看电视等等。

“十年前,我们说想以自己的方式创造音乐。五年前,我们说想做自己的电视。现在,我们说想做自己的游戏……我们想目睹这个行业的进化。我们想以控制音乐、电视和电影的方式控制游戏。结果是,我们这个产业不得不改变经营模式……用户的口味转变得太快,就像他们对音乐和电影一样,所以如果我们不能加紧步伐走在前面,我们就会惹上麻烦。”

他称游戏行业应从过去十年的音乐、电影产业“汲取教训”,他甚至引用美籍经济学家熊彼得的“创造性破坏的永恒风暴”(Perennial Gale of Creative Destruction)这一概念来阐述当前的新型经营模式。来呼应新经营模式。(游戏邦注:所谓“创造性破坏”在这里是指不断地革新旧的经营模式,创造新的经营模式,使经营模式始终处于一种动态演变的过程。)

他盛赞泛娱乐行业两家特别的公司:网飞和亚马逊。1999年,美国网飞公司靠线上DVD租赁业务兴起——不仅邮寄DVD给消费者,还摒弃了退货收费的理念。2008年,尽管该公司启动了按需定制流媒体服务,至今占据数字电影市场60%的份额。

“他们叫作Netflix(网飞),而不叫Mailflix、Postflix 或DVDflix,因为他们早就预料到他们尽早会革新经营模式,及数字化将在他们的未来发展中起到关键作用……网飞的所作所为瓦解了市场,打败了原来牢牢掌控用户体验的竞争对手,将选择权交还给用户,然后继续推进他们经营模式的转变。

在我们涌向数字化道路前,亚马逊在这条路上已经捷足先登。亚马逊的早期业务是在线书籍销售,随后又证明了它的模式适用于所有日用品销售。但Wilson重点指出Kindle电子书阅读器和Kindle数字商店对行业格局的冲击。

这种冲击导致了另一种模式的诞生,也就是人们一次性购买电子书,然后在一系列设备上阅读而无需二次付费。Wilson还指出:“亚马逊的行动领先于熊彼得所谓的产生破坏的曲线。”在2010年,Kindle书籍内容在 亚马逊网站上的销量超过了精装本和平装本书籍。

Wilson认为也会跟紧游戏市场潮流。

“我们打算建立一种跨平台模式,涉足用户所在的任何平台,以及他们还未触及的平台……我们将确保所有的产品都具有社交粘性,我们还将充分利用一种持续性和存在性的概念,即我们向玩家一次性收费,玩家就可以完全掌控自己的游戏。”

Wilson称社交互动是EA Sports玩家关注的重点话题之一。“我们所做的一切都与社交有关,这一点不仅仅体现在Facebook平台上。”这也正是EA投入培养Origin社群的原因所在。在Origin这个社区中,玩家有自己的数字身份,这样就可以借此跨平台玩遍EA游戏。

他继续谈论EA的《FIFA11  Ultimate Team》这款拥有超过三百万玩家的足球游戏。这群玩家已经体验过2亿场比赛,而该游戏也发布了13亿个道具。“这款游戏仅今年的产值就将达到五六千万美元。”

Wilson表示EA将努力保证游戏机玩家继续尝试其他平台。“如果玩家到了Facebook就只玩《CityVille》,或是在iPhone上就玩《愤怒的小鸟》……你每天给另一个竞争对手让出的分分秒秒,都可能导致自己最后彻底失去玩家。”

他谈论的最后重点是持续性和存在性:无论是在哪种设备玩游戏,这种体验都会与玩家如影随形。他举例称,FIFA玩家报名支持真实世界中的世界杯,然后在各种设备上完成游戏挑战,使自己所支持的球队在虚拟排行榜上位居前列。

“现在,你不会拿着iPhone就玩《愤怒的小鸟》,而很可能是玩《FIFA》,因为这也是你的个性象征。”

他还谈到EA打算打造一个跨平台的经营模式,暗示着在今后一年里,我们将会从该公司那里了解到更多情况。

“如果我们推出一种经营模式,让玩家无需支付更多费用就可以体验所有游戏,这个主意怎么样?”在给开发者听众留下临别赠言前, WIlson抛出了这个问题。

“抛弃把自己、公司或平台持有者放在商业前景中心的这种想法吧,用户才是重心所在。因为无论你做什么,用户还是会以他们自己为中心。他们会用科技与你对抗,除非你让他们和你一起使用科技 。”(本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译,如需转载请联系:游戏邦

Evolve 2011: EA talks gaming 3.0

by Stuart Dredge

Andrew Wilson on taking games across multiple platforms, including mobile

EA Sports’ senior vice president and worldwide head of development Andrew Wilson kicked off the Develop Evolve conference in Brighton this morning, giving the publisher’s view of ‘Gaming 3.0′.

“There’s a lot of hype around right now,” he explained, by way of introduction. “Everything seems to be about this digital age, and this digital age of gaming… It’s very easy to get caught up in the hype. The question I get the most from people is ‘Is this the real deal?’” In other words, will mobile, free-to-play, social gaming and other new business models have a lasting impact?

Wilson said it’s important to look at the numbers to answer this question. “While our industry is growing, the growth is very clearly coming from digital,” he said.

“Digital now makes up a far bigger chunk of the overall industry revenue that we saw in 2010, and that continues to grow.” Specifically, digital was 45% of industry revenues in 2010 – $19.9 billion – compared to 31% in 2008 – $12.4 billion.

What has been driving this growth? Wilson talked about the shift from the games industry’s focus on the core gamer in the days of PS2, GameCube and the original Xbox, to the disruption that started to happen with the next generation of consoles: Wii, Xbox 360 and PS3, and to today’s market of many mobile phones, tablets, handhelds and other devices.

“With all of these new platforms that we’ve got, the good news is it’s brought in more and more gamers,” he said. “The challenge is what does the gaming experience look like on these platforms?.. Those companies that have the greatest success will be those who figure out what a connected experience will look like across those platforms.”

Wilson said this is not just a development and distribution challenge, but also a marketing challenge. He also talked about social games firm Zynga, pointing out that its success has been built just as much on marketing as on other factors.: “What Zynga would have had us believe was that viral was key to their success… they’re spending in excess of $100 million a year in marketing these free-to-play games.”

He went on to talk about fundamental changes in various entertainment industries, and how changing consumption behaviour is what has changed how people develop and make money from digital media. The key: people have taken control: over what device they listen to music on, what time they watch TV shows and so on.

“Ten years ago we said we want to do music our way. Five years ago we said we want to do television our way. And now what we’re saying now is we want to do games our way… We wanna see an evolution in this sapce. We wanna take control of games in the same way we have taken control of music, television and  movies. And the result is we as an industry have to change our business models… There is a consumer shift happening here in the same way as it did in music and movies, and ultimately if we don’t get ahead of it, we’re going to be in a little bit of trouble.”

Wilson said there is a big need for the games industry to “learn the lessons” of the music and movie industries from the last 10 years. He even threw in a quote from economist Joseph Schumpeter about the “perennial gale of creative destruction” in response to new business models.

He praised two particular companies in the wider entertainment industry who are examples of this: Netflix and Amazon. Netflix started in 1999 by dramatically reshaping the DVD rental market – not just by posting DVDs to customers, but by ditching the idea of charging fees for late returns. In 2008, though, it launched its on-demand streaming service, and today has a 60% share of the digital movie market.

“They were called Netflix. They weren’t called Mailflix, Postflix or DVDflix,” said Wilson. “They already anticipated that they were going to evolve that business model over time, and that digital was going to play an important role in their future… What Netflix did was disrupt the marketplace, unseat the player that was in control of the experience, gave control back to the consumer and then continued to evolve their business model.”

Over to Amazon, who “got digital a long way before the rest of us did” right from their early days as an online bookstore, before proving that its model worked for all manner of consumer goods. But Wilson highlighted the disruption of the Kindle e-reader and Kindle digital store.

The big disruption, though, was shifting to a model where people bought an e-book once, and could then read it on a range of devices without having to pay more than once. “What Amazon did was stay ahead of this curve of creating disruption that Schumpeter talked about,” said Wilson. And in 2010, Kindle books outsold hardback and paperback books on the Amazon website.

Naturally, Wilson said EA is looking to follow suit in the games market.

“We’re going to build across every platform that consumers have, and some that they don’t yet. We’re going to make sure everything that we do is socially engaging…

And we’re going to capitalise on this notion of persistence and presence: this notion that you can buy once from us, and have complete control of your game in the world.”

Wilson said that whenever EA runs focus groups with EA Sports gamers, social interaction is one of the key topics that comes up as being important to players.

“Everything we make is social, not just what happens on Facebook.” Which is why EA has been investing in its own Origin community, where players have their own digital identity to be used for EA games, that travels with them across various platforms.

He went on to talk about EA’s work with FIFA 11 Ultimate Team, which has more than 3.3 million players, who have played 200 million matches, with 1.3 billion items released into the game – “it’s going to generate $50 or $60 million this year alone”.

Wilson also said EA is trying hard to persuade players of its console games to continue playing on other platforms. “If by the time they get to Facebook they’re playing CityVille, or by the time they get to iPhone they’re playing Angry Birds… Every minute of every day that you give to another player is a chance that you will lose them long term.”

His final points focused on persistence and presence: people taking their gaming experience with them whatever device they’re playing on. He cited the example of FIFA players signing in to support a real-world club, and then completing challenges on a range of devices to bump their team up virtual league tables.

“Now, rather than going and playing Angry Birds on your iPhone, you’re going to play FIFA on your iPhone, because that’s going to help build your identity…”

He also talked about EA’s attempts to make a  business model work across these various platforms, suggesting we’ll see more from the publisher on this score in the year ahead.

“How about we drive towards a business model where a gamer can experience everything you make without having to pay that much more?” said WIlson, before giving the audience of developers some parting advice.

“Move away from having yourselves or your company or the platform holders at the centre of your business vision, and put the consumers at the centre.

Because regardless of what you do, they’re going to put themselves at the centre anyway… They’re going to use technology against you unless you empower them to use technology with you.”(source:mobile-ent


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