作者：John Gaudiosi

EA、Digital Chocolate创始人及首席执行官Trip Hawkins是那些早期就看好手机游戏和社交游戏未来发展的高管之一。与艺电早先发展情况一样，Digital Chocolate不断从移动领域以及Facebook平台挖掘到了大量游戏玩家。在IndustryGamers这次的独家采访中，Hawkins认为手机游戏，在线游戏以及云游戏平台将在未来电子游戏的发展中扮演着极其重要的角色。以下是游戏邦编译的访谈内容：

Trip-Hawkins(from gamerzones.com)

你如何看待当前的休闲游戏热潮？

我从来没有看到过可以与现今游戏产业发展相匹敌的变化速度。我们迎来了无数新的游戏玩家，来到这个简单休闲，社交且非常便利的游戏世界，所以整个产业的玩家数量可以说是大幅度地上升了。我们同样也可以看到很多硬核游戏玩家现在也拥有了自己的Facebook帐号。他们拥有自己的手机，也喜欢这种方便且具有社交价值的游戏，所以愿意转移到新的数字平台，而且这种转变也大大改变了这些玩家原本的属性。

随着电子游戏领域的这种变化，Digital Chocolate又将如何改变自己？

从营收数据和用户留存率来看，Digital Chocolate现在是继Zynga后在Facebook上的第二大独立游戏开发商。如今的在线游戏多采用免费模式，而让玩家通过购买虚拟商品进行消费。这种模式让玩家能够免费玩游戏，但也有玩家会在其中消费高达1千美元。我们正在致力于用这种模式扩大产品的生产线，可以说我们是一家跨平台的游戏公司。

能否说说贵公司的跨平台属性？

就Facebook平台，我们便拥有了好几百万的日活跃用户以及超过1亿次的每月访问量。我们是世界上第一家通过自己努力获得了超过1亿次手机游戏下载量的游戏公司，而且在Facebook以外平台上玩家超过1亿次的游戏体验，以及超过1亿次的虚拟商品游戏体验。我们在所有的数字媒体平台均取得了出色成绩，我们也认为未来的商业模式将是基于浏览器且提供虚拟商品的免费社交游戏模式。

你认为在今后的10年里，哪一种游戏平台将称霸游戏领域？是掌机还是手机？或者是网络电视还是浏览器？

的确，如今的游戏产业正在发生着巨大的变化，已从早期以实体零售产品的传统模式转变到以数据产品为主的新模式。你可以从应用商店中下载产品，但是我认为浏览器才是数据产品真正的归属地，因为它们是最方便且最为普遍的存在。从本质上看，浏览器作为人们使用电脑时最基础的工具，已经取得了巨大的成功。这一点在日本移动领域表现最为明显，平板电脑的存在将进一步显示其优势。我期待它在不久的将来也能渗透进电视市场中。因为几乎世界上的所有人都懂得如何使用浏览器，所以它必将成为一种最为方便的游戏平台。

你如何看待云游戏？

我认为这着实是一个让人惊喜的平台，甚至连硬核游戏玩家也会愿意去尝试这个便利的平台。从该平台上我们能够感受到社交游戏的魅力以及便利。我们在一些其它的媒体中也能感受到这种便利。举个例子来说，在YouTube上，过去每个用户都必须安装视频播放器才能观看视频，而如今只要依靠浏览器，就可以解决这个大麻烦了。在这里用户并不会计较视频是否如电影院般高清晰，他们更关注于观看视频的便利度。随后视频便能获得广泛的病毒式传播，而这也正式YouTube的魅力所在。

你认为手机游戏发生了怎样的变化？

我们经历了手机平台的一个过度阶段。苹果成功改变了传统意义上的手机。之前每个人都认为手机只是一种发音产品，然而苹果却主张“让我们把手机的整个界面变成一个显示器。让我们把手机真正当成一种令人满意的体验而进行销售。”而他们也因此取得了巨大的成功。手机是一个非常棒的东西，如今几乎所有人都想要拥有手机，并在这个平台上进行社交体验。可以说我们所有人都在向一个人人都玩游戏的世界靠拢，因为在那里所有的游戏都很简单而且都具有社交价值。

关于云游戏对手机游戏的影响，你有何想法？

应用商店环境是游戏产业必须经历的一个阶段，就像电脑必须经历台式机一样道理。在商业上，这种说法更加明显，使用搜索功能或者云服务都是高级用户在商业上必须采用的最正确的方法。而这也正是在暗示你，这种方法便是用户最为中意的一种。

你认为游戏领域在今后的十年里会有何发展？

我很高兴人人都想要玩游戏。在我的职业生涯中，我最大的愿望便是人人都能够在电脑上玩游戏，因为你能从中获得更加丰富且深层次，发人深思的游戏体验。让玩家能在游戏中学习并深入体验，真正进入一个完全不同的新世界着实是一件非常棒的事呢！（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Games in Browsers Are The Future, says EA Founder

by John Gaudiosi

The man behind Electronic Arts has watched as video games have grown into a mainstream form of entertainment. Trip Hawkins, founder and CEO of Digital Chocolate, was one of the early executives to see the future of mobile gaming and social gaming. Like EA in its early days, Digital Chocolate has been able to find an audience of gamers across the growing field of mobile devices, as well as on Facebook. Hawkins talks about mobile gaming, online gaming and the role the cloud will play in the future of video games in this exclusive IndustryGamers interview.

IndustryGamers: What are your thoughts on the casual gaming boom that’s happening right now?

Trip Hawkins: I’ve never seen anything change as fast as they are in the game industry. We have this explosion of new customers coming into the game industry to play simple casual, social, and very convenient games, so the population of gamers is just blowing up. We’re also seeing a migration of the hardcore gamers who now have Facebook accounts. They have mobile phones and they like the convenience and the social value of shifting over to new digital platforms and it’s just creating a massive amount of disruption.

IG: How has Digital Chocolate evolved with this changing video game landscape?

TH: Digital Chocolate is now the second largest independent developer on Facebook after Zynga, as measured by revenue and customer retention rates. Letting audiences play for free with the ability to buy virtual goods is definitely the way to go with online games. It allows some people to play for free and others to spend as much as $1,000 and every amount in between. We’re very dedicated to expanding our product line with that model and we’re a cross-platform company.

IG: Can you talk about the cross-platform nature of your company?

TH: We have several million daily players and over 100 million monthly play sessions just on Facebook alone. We’re the first company in the world that organically from our own effort has had over 100 million downloads on mobile devices and over 100 million play sessions on the web outside of Facebook and over 100 million play sessions with virtual goods games. We’ve done all of these things in all of the new digital media and we think the business model of the future is going to be browser-based free-to-play social games with virtual goods.

IG: What do you feel is going to be the largest gaming platform over the next 10 years?  Is it Console or Mobile or IPTV or Browsers?

TH: There’s a really radical change going on right now from traditional distribution business models that in the old days involved brick-and-mortar retail packaged goods to digital. You have streaming and downloads from App stores, but the real destination of digital is the browser because of the convenience and the ubiquity of the browser. The browser has already essentially won out on the PC as the fundamental way that people organize how they use their computer. It’s already won mobile phones in Japan. It’s going to be the big winner on tablets. I expect it will also penetrate the TV market. The browser is just so convenient because everybody in the world is growing up knowing how to use a browser.

IG: What are your thoughts on cloud gaming?

TH: I think it’s actually turning out to be a very pleasant surprise that even hardcore gamers are willing to adopt behaviors like streaming and playing on more convenient platforms. It just shows the power of social games and the benefit of convenience. We’ve seen this with other media. If you look at the way YouTube took over video, everybody used to have to install a video player and go through set-ups to watch a video. YouTube just blew all that out of the water because it stays in the browser. It’s not as concerned about the super high fidelity high performance video experience like you have in a movie theater. It’s all about the convenience. And then you get the viral spread and that’s all really been magic for YouTube.

IG: What are your thoughts on how mobile gaming has evolved?

TH: We went through a transition phase with mobile. Apple did a great job of re-imaging the mobile phone. Everybody always thought of it as a voice product and Apple said, “Hey, let’s just turn the entire surface of the product into a display. Let’s really market this as a content experience.” And that’s been a very big success. It’s a wonderful thing that now the public wants to have these convenient content platforms and they all want to be socially connected. You’re moving towards a world in which everybody plays games because they’re easy to play and there’s social value associated with those games.

IG: How do you see the cloud impacting the mobile sector?

TH: The idea of a controlled App store environment is a phase the industry is going through, similar to what the PC went through with the desktop metaphor. Clearly even for business users now the browser, using search and having cloud-based services is the right way to go even for power users in business. That just tells you right there that eventually that’s the way consumers will want to do it.

IG: Where do you see games going over the next decade?

TH: I’m very excited about the fact that everybody is going to play. My whole career I’ve wanted to get everybody to play games on computers because you can have a much richer, deeper, more thought-provoking experience with a game on computers. People learn by doing and to be able to let people act out all of these fantasies and transport themselves into new worlds is a fabulous thing.（source:industrygamers）