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品牌力量崛起 Facebook游戏迎来新转机

发布时间:2011-09-26 15:47:25 Tags:,,

作者:Dean Takahashi

Facebook游戏玩家最后都会选择一些较为出名的品牌社交游戏,这是在昨天举办的F8开发者大会上关于社交游戏而做出的一大总结。

Facebook游戏部门主管Sean Ryan指出Facebook作为一大游戏平台已经从早前的游戏理念中进化过来了。他表示如今Facebook已经有高达8亿名用户,所以让一些高知名度的品牌掌管这一领域也是在自然不过的事了。玩家会因为了解游戏背后的故事而选择这些游戏,所以开发者应该尽可能地让游戏更加通俗易懂。

有段时期,Facebook对于品牌游戏相当抵触。早些时候Zynga鹤立鸡群控制着整个社交游戏市场,而那时候玩家乐于一发现好游戏就与好友分享,这便进一步推动Zynga游戏的推广,按照其当前如此强势的发行能力,即使发行了一款早前游戏,该公司也能够凭借交叉推广优势吸引其广大现存用户。对于iPhone平台也是相同道理,虽然《Koi Pond》等原创游戏都能在一开始便吸引众多玩家的注意,但是占据着榜单前列的始终是那些品牌游戏,如《宝石迷阵》,《植物大战僵尸》以及《Uno》等。

Facebook平台的好友推荐功能,使得那些非品牌游戏比起品牌游戏更为盛行。很多仍尝试着在Facebook上发行品牌游戏的公司在相当长一段时间中无异于四处碰壁。

但是,今年对于那些品牌游戏可谓是大好良机。最显著的例子便是EA的《模拟人生社交版》这款《模拟人生》(游戏邦注:该游戏在电脑和掌机平台销量超过1亿份)的Facebook游戏。现在《模拟人生社交版》在Facebook上排名仅次于Zynga《Cityville》,成为第二大人气游戏,其月活跃用户高达5千3百万。反过来,《模拟人生社交版》同时也推动着EA其它品牌游戏的发展。

f8 conference(from venturebeat)

f8 conference(from venturebeat)

EA Interactive(EA社交,手机和在线业务分部)主管Barry Cottle说道:“品牌是商业运营中不可或缺的重要部分。早前,在传统游戏市场中,原创游戏更能吸引玩家的注意。也就是说你必须制造出一款优秀的游戏才有机会取得成功。这是关键因素。但是现在,随着玩家的品牌意识逐渐加强,品牌游戏更能够挽留住玩家。”

Cottle表示,《模拟人生社交版》之所以能在短短的6周时间里,在不打任何广告的情况下便吸引了1千万用户,主要是因为它已经拥有了长达10年的品牌知名度了。“人们总是喜欢选择那些自己熟知的东西”。

而社交游戏巨头Zynga原先似乎并不乐衷于开发品牌游戏。但是首席商务官Owen Van Natta却表示,Zynga抓住了机会与卢卡斯影业的合作机会,于10月份将《夺宝奇兵》中的人物角色印第安那琼斯加入到最新游戏《Adventure World》中,以更好地进行游戏推广。虽然这笔交易是在《Adventure World》发布后才达成的,但是久而久之将帮助这款游戏吸引更多玩家的注意。

Van Natta说道:“印第安那琼斯对我们来说是一个机遇。对于过去我们在Facebook上的品牌游戏的迅速发展我感到非常惊讶。”Zynga同时也在利用各种电影,甚至是与歌手Lady Ggaga在《FarmVille》进行品牌营销等手段进行合作。

德国新兴企业Iconicfuture最近也抓住商机,创造了一个平台让品牌授权方与游戏开发商能够进行虚拟商品贴牌合作,支持开发商通过该平台找到最适合植入游戏中的贴牌虚拟商品。

通过制作了以电影《教父》为题材的社交游戏,Kabam也迈进了品牌游戏的行列。Kabam首席执行官Kevin Chou表示,当Kabam决定制作一款犯罪题材的游戏时,这款品牌游戏便逐渐开始形成了。

Kabam先为这款游戏定位了有趣的核心机制,随后再寻找适合的游戏背景故事。《教父》这款电影非常有意义,而Kabam也已经与派拉蒙电影公司就该电影的授权进行了协商。

Chou说道:“你必须先确定游戏的核心才能进行下一步。”

Playdom首席执行官John Pleasants说道,在两个月之前,迪士尼也通过推出《Gnome Town》而见识到了品牌游戏的威力。这款游戏在刚发行时就获得了50万的日活跃用户,随后,迪士尼将其重新命名为《Disney Gnome Town》,这款游戏的成绩是更上一层楼了,而用户也愿意花更多钱于游戏上了,因为他们甚是相信“迪士尼”这个响当当的招牌。

迪士尼同样也推出了一系列ESPN品牌游戏,以便他们能够再次利用电视广告(卖剩下的)宣传他们的游戏。这就推动了那些看了广告的用户更有可能成为“终身价值”(游戏邦注:每个购买者在未来可能为企业带来的收益总和)用户,或者愿意在自己的游戏生涯中进行投入。而这一切都归于他们对ESPN品牌的忠诚度。Pleasants表示,在2012年,迪士尼将推出2至4款带有迪士尼品牌的社交游戏。

Pleasants说道:“如果你能够先确定好游戏机制,那么这也是一大优势。”(本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译,如需转载请联系:游戏邦

Brands finally succeed in social games on Facebook

Dean Takahashi

Facebook gamers are finally embracing well-known brands in their social games. That’s one of the conclusions from a panel on social games at the f8 conference for Facebook developers yesterday.

Sean Ryan (pictured left), director of game partnerships, pointed out that Facebook as a gaming platform has evolved from a place where original game ideas initially prospered. Now that there are 800 million users on the social network, it’s only natural for brands to take over, he said. Gamers can gravitate to them because they can pick up a game already knowing the narrative behind it, making the game much easier to learn.

For a time, Facebook was resistant to brands. Friends shared games that they found to be fun, and in the early days, Zynga dominated the market. That turned into a huge advantage for Zynga, and its distribution power now allows it to launch original titles that can succeed in part because they can be cross-promoted to so many of Zynga’s existing users. The same is true with the iPhone, where original titles such as Koi Pond drew a lot of attention at first but where plenty of brands such as Bejeweled, Plants vs. Zombies, and Uno in the top charts.

What was unusual about Facebook is that non-branded games held onto the top rankings on the popularity charts for a longer time than usual, largely because of the power of friend recommendations on the platform. Many game companies tried to launch branded games on Facebook and it was like hitting their heads against brick walls.

But this year, that is beginning to change. The biggest proof is The Sims Social, a Facebook game from Electronic Arts that taps the Sims franchise, which has sold more than 100 million units on the PCs and consoles. The Sims Social is now the No. 2 game on Facebook, with 53 million monthly active users, second only to Zynga’s Cityville. In turn, the Sims Social is helping other branded EA games catch on.

“Brands are an important part of the business,” said Barry Cottle (pictured left), head of EA Interactive, the social, mobile and online division of EA. “Early on, in traditional gaming markets, original intellectual property caught on. At the core, you always have to have a great game. That’s a core ingredient. But brands give the ability to be recognized, to tap into loyalty.”

Within six weeks, the Sims Social hit 10 million users without much advertising at all, mainly because it has been known for a decade, Cottle said.

“People coalesce around things they recognize,” Cottle said

Zynga has mostly stayed away from brands. But the company took advantage of a chance to get a license with Lucasfilm for its Adventure World game, Owen Van Natta (pictured right), chief business officer at Zynga, said. By October, the film character Indiana Jones will be integrated into the game. That deal came after the game launched, but it could help the game get wider awareness over time.

“Indiana Jones was an opportunistic thing,” Van Natta said. “I’m amazed at how we were able to create brands quickly on Facebook.” Zynga also has run promotions with a variety of movies and with the singer Lady Gaga in its FarmVille game.

We ran our own feature story recently on startup Iconicfuture, which has created a marketplace so that brands can license their properties in a matchmaking service with game companies that want to license them.

Kabam also jumped into the branded-game business by acquiring the rights to the Godfather for Facebook. But he said the game evolved when the company decided to create a crime game, said Kevin Chou (pictured left), chief executive of Kabam, a maker of mostly original hardcore social games on Facebook.

Kabam figured out the core fun mechanics in the title, and then looked around for a narrative that could become the overarching back story for the game. The Godfather made a lot of sense, and Kabam was already talking to Paramount Pictures about a license.

“You have to start with the core game,” Chou said.

Disney tested the power of a brand with a title called Gnome Town, launched two months ago, said John Pleasants (pictured right), head of Disney Interactive and Playdom. That title did OK at first, getting 500,000 daily active users, but then Disney renamed it Disney Gnome Town. The result was that the cost of acquisition, such as advertising a game, dropped by a third as the game took off more on its own. Users were also more likely to spend money in the game, since they trusted the Disney name.

Disney also launched a couple of ESPN-branded games, where it was able to advertise the games on TV using remnant (unsold ads). The result was that the users who came in from the TV commercial had a much higher “lifetime value,” or spending on the game over the course of the game’s life. That was because those users were much more loyal to the ESPN brand. During 2012, Pleasants said Disney will come out with two to four major Disney brands as social game properties.

“We think it’s an advantage, if you put game play first,” Pleasants said.(source:venturebeat


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