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免费游戏创收渠道多样 未来或将脱颖而出

发布时间:2011-09-23 15:32:50 Tags:,,,

作者:Nicholas Lovell

是否还记得《地下城主》?是否想在iPhone平台免费体验《地下城主》之类的游戏?是的。

我是复古RPG游戏的忠实粉丝。我曾在Twitter《地下城主》、《创世纪》和《巫术》之类的作品发文辩护。

多亏Frazer McCrormick,我得以接触《地下魔宫》。

这是款复古地下城探险RPG游戏。游戏创造4个角色的团队(游戏邦注:魔术师、战士和牧师等),将蜘蛛、老鼠、不死者、机器人同宝剑、魔法及忍者星型暗器融合起来。

我至今已投入12小时,非常享受游戏内容。

我提到《地下魔宫》的原因是这款iPhone游戏采用的是免费模式。其免费形式和《英雄联盟》不同,但完全免费呈现。

这款游戏出自英国发行商Jagex之手(游戏邦注:成功巨作《江湖》也是它的作品,《江湖》是款免费浏览器游戏,游戏鼓励玩家通过订阅访问所有游戏内容,也就是传统MMO模式,而不是微交易经济模式)。

我上次同该公司交谈时,他们称公司目前拥有1000万活跃用户(这里的活跃用户是指过去2个星期玩过游戏的用户)和100万订阅用户。Jagex 2010年的营收和利润分别是4450万英镑(7020万美元)和1880万英镑(2960万美元)。

那么他们为什么会选择通过免费形式发行这款iOS地下城探险游戏?我猜这款游戏的资金应该是来自公司营销预算,而不是开发预算。《地下魔宫》以如下启动画面呈现。游戏菜单屏幕巧妙嵌入《江湖》视频链接。

runescape splash screen from gamasutra.com

runescape splash screen from gamasutra.com

我的推测是,《地下魔宫》是《江湖》的一个营销渠道。观念上看,玩家会喜欢《地下魔宫》,完成游戏内容,对下个环节的游戏内容充满好奇,最终查看这款支撑iPhone游戏《地下魔宫》、让游戏能够采用免费模式的网页游戏。

同免费模式抗衡

关于免费模式能否胜出的谈论非常多。我觉得会,免费模式(通过靠少数忠实粉丝支付大笔资金的辅助模式)会最终获得胜利。

批评者通常会问:“若玩家没有付费,我如何支撑游戏开发?”我的看法是:“会很艰难。免费模式即将到来。你最好寻找解决方案应对这个问题,否则你将陷入真正的困境。”

《地下魔宫》只是免费模式游戏的一个例子,其目标不是创造直接收益。这是款优质作品,具有相当高的制作价值。若采用付费模式,你的竞争对手就不是毫无价值的内容,而是:

* 《Barclaycard Waterslide Extreme》之类的广告赞助游戏

* 《地下魔宫》之类的交叉推广游戏

* 仅靠3%用户掏钱便能顺利运作的免费游戏(游戏邦注:如《Tiny Tower》,预计其年收入将超过300万美元)

* 盗版内容

你真正觉得你的游戏能够在众多采用免费模式的高质量作品中脱颖而出?若你制作的是《Legends of Grimrock》之类的游戏,你难道不担心众多潜在玩家会满足于《地下魔宫》免费呈现的地下城探险体验?

在如此多高质量内容采用免费模式的情况下,你难道不该思考如何让自己的杰出内容采用免费模式,同时确保依然能够获得丰厚营收,而非坚持以往的商业模式?(本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译,如需转载请联系:游戏邦

Analysis: How Do You Compete With Free?

by Nicholas Lovell

[In this analysis, Games Brief's Nicholas Lovell examines the totally free iOS dungeon crawler Undercroft to see how it makes money for the developer, and to ask how paid games can hope to compete with this model.]

Remember Dungeon Master? Want to play a game like Dungeon Master, for free, on the iPhone?

I do.

I’m a sucker for old-school RPGs. I put out a plea on Twitter for a game that was like Dungeon Master, Ultima, or Wizardry.

And thanks to Frazer McCrormick, I found Undercroft.

It’s an old-school dungeon-crawling RPG. Build a team of four characters – mage, warrior, priest, and so on – and bash an assortment of spiders, rats, undead, and golems with swords, magic and ninja throwing stars.

I’m about 12 hours in so far and really enjoying it.

Don’t You Write A Business Column?

The reason I mention Undercroft is because the game is free. Gratis. Complimentary. Not free like League of Legends, but genuinely, totally free.

The game is made by Jagex, a British publisher that operates the phenomenally successful Runescape, a free-to-play browser game that encourages players to subscribe in order to get full access to all of the in-game content (i.e. a traditional MMO model, not a micro-transaction economy).

The last time I spoke to the company, it had 10 million active users (defined as someone who had played in the last two weeks), and 1 million subscribers. In 2010, Jagex generated revenues of £44.5 million ($70.2 million) and profits of £18.8 million ($29.6 million).

So why did they release an iOS dungeon crawler for free? I’m guessing that it was funded by their marketing budget, not their development budget. Undercroft launches with the splash screen you see below. There is a subtle link on the menu screen to see a video about Runescape. That’s it.

My supposition, therefore, is that Undercroft is part of the marketing funnel for Runescape. Ideally, players will get drawn into Undercroft, finish it, wonder what to play next, and decide to check out the browser-based game that funded the iPhone game and made it available for free.

I have no idea whether the conversion rate is good, or whether Undercroft has been a good marketing strategy for Runescape. I do know that its existence should scare the bejeesus out of game developers.

Competing With Free-Free

Much has been written about whether the free model will win. I am generally of the view that yes, free (with an associated business model of allowing that subset of users who love what you do to pay you a bucket-load of money) will triumph.

Critics often ask, “How will I afford to make games if users won’t pay for them?” To which my response is “Tough. Free is coming. You’d better find a way to deal with it, or you will be in real trouble.”

Undercroft is just one example of a game that is free, with no expectation that it will generate any direct revenue at all. It is a good game with relatively high production values. If you are charging for your game, you are not competing with rubbish, no matter what you would like to believe. If you are charging for a game, you are competing with:

* Advertiser-funded games like Barclaycard Waterslide Extreme

* A funnel-filling game like Undercroft

* Free-to-play games that can make a successful business if only 3 percent of users spend money (like Tiny Tower, on track to make over $3 million a year)

* Pirated games

Do you really believe that your game can stand out when there is so much quality content available for free? If you were making Legends of Grimrock, wouldn’t you be a little concerned about how large a percentage of your potential audience might be satisfied with the free dungeon crawling experience of Undercroft?

When so much high quality content is free, doesn’t it make sense to work out how to make your high-quality content available for free, and still make bucket-loads of money, rather than clinging to a business model established in a different, physical era?(Source:gamasutra


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