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Zynga高管Boatman谈公司手机业务发展

发布时间:2012-02-15 10:17:32 Tags:,,

作者:Kim-Mai Cutler

Zynga手机业务新任高级副总裁Travis Boatman深刻感受到手机领域的翻天覆地变化。2005年,他目睹EA以6.8亿收购JAMDAT,随后帮助建立EA的手机业务,监管公司全球范围内的工作室。他从小在硅谷长大,童年是在《冰城传奇》等游戏的陪伴下度过,早期原本打算专研体育医学,后来却转投游戏领域。

最近,他又迈出历史性的一步——在Zynga上市数月后由EA跳槽至该公司。现在他在Zygna移动主管David Ko的手下工作,David最近刚晋升为公司首席手机业务主管——充分说明公司意图跳出Facebook平台(93%的收益来源),走多元化路线。

travis boatman from insidemobileapps.com

travis boatman from insidemobileapps.com

Boatman表示,“Zynga刚尝试采取不同的商业模式。若发行的是盒装商品,这是我多年投身的领域,那么你所要发行的内容通常很有限。免费游戏的独特之处在于,用户体验游戏无需付费。若你推出的是免费游戏,你就需要坚持更高标准,因为玩家的转换成本很低。”

他表示,同Mark Pincus的谈话使他更加坚定离开EA的决心,就像Barry Cottle等高级主管及首席运营官John Schappert去年所做的决定一样。Pincus始终坚持这样的理念:游戏必须具有社交性。

Boatman表示,“游戏源自于具有社交性的内容。大家都玩过捉迷藏和踢瓶子游戏。但正从这一阶段开始,行业在技术上才有所突破。行业的软件和技术性能取得惊人进展。但多数时候,玩家都是独自体验,我觉得这不够有趣。”

目前Zynga旗下主要有3个系列的手机游戏。“With Friends” 品牌源自于Newtoy的轰动巨作《Words With Friends》,然后逐步扩展出《Scramble With Friends》和《Hanging With Friends》。他表示,“这些通常采用异步模式,具有直接的社交性。”随后,业内涌现出众多《Cityville Hometown》之类Zynga热门Facebook游戏的衍生作品。

最后就是“Dream”系列,《Dream Zoo》和《Dream PetHouse》刚问世不久,所以这算是比较新颖的题材。Boatman表示,“Dream” 品牌承载公司更多的雄心壮志。“这个系列主要关乎‘赐予’和‘表达’。它们涉及发展和定制,这符合我们的主流用户。这些游戏大多都存在相似外观和感觉。”

和Pincus一样,关于最近有关Zynga游戏与既有作品过于雷同的批评声,Boatman淡然置之。最近NimbleBit批评Zynga尚未问世的作品《Dream Heights》,称其和《Tiny Tower》大同小异(游戏邦注:《Tiny Tower》曾是苹果的年度最佳应用)。《Dream Zoo》和《Dream PetHouse》似乎也让人不禁想起Pocket Gems的《Tap Zoo》和《Tap Pet Hotel》。

他表示,“这些游戏都免费呈现,我们的玩家可以选择自己想要体验的内容。若游戏和其他作品大同小异,丝毫未融入额外价值,那么用户为什么要体验此游戏?”

Boatman表示,公司基于市场规模评估机会和游戏题材,再来是推广就会,最后是用户体验质量。

“首先,我们会查看什么地方用户最多。我们主要着眼于设备销量和易用性——我们的玩家位于何处?这非常重要。然后我们会看看是否能够通过数字方式与用户沟通?第三点是,我们所能够提供的体验和娱乐类型。”

若Zynga无法凭借定价处于有利地位,它多半会将目光锁定于内容上。据悉,公司2012年将涉猎更多题材。

他表示,“我们对物理题材非常感兴趣。”他指的是《愤怒的小鸟》之类的作品。Zynga其实已有一款物理游戏《Zombie Smash》(游戏邦注:是通过收购GameDoctors获得的)。

相比Facebook,Android和iOS的热门榜单支持各式各样的作品,包括从《Temple Run》到掌机层次的Epic《无尽之剑》之类的独立热作。同样,Zynga希望扩大公司的延伸范围。但有些题材Zynga似乎永远都不会涉猎。

Boatman表示,“我们希望制作广泛的畅销社交游戏。有些游戏也许在榜单上的表现还不错,但若它们没具备足够的覆盖范围,我们还是会选择放弃,转而瞄准那些更迎合大众市场的作品。”这似乎说明,Zynga依然对硬核作品不感兴趣。

公司迄今已达成8项手机业务交易。多数都符合公司锁定人才的小规模收购传统。公司至今公开的最大一笔交易是凭借5330万美元的现金和股票收购《Words With Friends》开发公司Newtoy。虽未得到公开证实,但据悉,在PopCap Games尚未被EA收购前(游戏邦注:以高达13亿美元的价码收购),Zynga曾向PopCap伸出橄榄枝。此外,据说Zynga也和《愤怒的小鸟》开发商Rovio Mobile接洽过。

类似规模的交易依然可能发生——特别是就Zynga在其IPO中筹得10亿美元的情况来说。

Boatman表示,“现在我们面临众多选择。我们有责任制作出最具社交性的游戏,我们希望获得广泛的用户群体。”

Boatman表示,他现在不方便透露公司年底会呈现什么样的多元化模式。公司在12月表示,他们在手机平台拥有1300万的DAU——相当于公司去年第三季度总DAU的1/4。Gameloft等公司表示,他们在假期季度的手机平台营收超过2500万美元。但Boatman并未说明他们的收益是否也处于类似水平。

他表示,“我不清楚我们的CFO会公开什么信息。关于内部消息,我不方便进行评论。”(本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译,拒绝任何不保留版权的转载,如需转载请联系:游戏邦

Zynga’s new SVP of Mobile Travis Boatman: “We’re excited about the physics category”

By Kim-Mai Cutler

Zynga’s new senior vice president of mobile Travis Boatman has seen the mobile gaming industry go through one seismic shift after another. He saw JAMDAT through its landmark $680 million acquisition to Electronic Arts back in 2005, then built up EA’s mobile business and oversaw its studios worldwide. Raised in Silicon Valley where he grew up on games like Bard’s Tale, he switched to gaming from earlier career ambitions in sports medicine.

And just recently, he made another leap — from EA to Zynga a few months shy of the company’s initial public offering in December when it raised $1 billion. Now he works under Zynga’s David Ko, who recently leveled his own title up to chief mobile officer — underscoring the company’s push to diversify off Facebook where it earns 93 percent of its revenue.

“Zynga just has a different business model,” he said. “When you ship packaged goods, which is what I’ve spent much of my career doing, you’re making a finite commitment to what you’re delivering to a title. What’s elegant about free games is that there’s no cost to consumers for trying them. When you provide free games, I think you’re held to a much higher standard because the switching costs are so low.”

He said conversations with Mark Pincus helped convince him to cross over from EA, as many senior executives like Barry Cottle and chief operating officer John Schappert have in the last year. Pincus, as he often does, drilled into the mantra that games must be social.

“Games started as something social,” Boatman said. “Everyone has played tag or kick the can. But there was this period of time where the industry swung toward technical achievement. There were amazing advancements in software and technical capabilities. But for the most part you played alone and I don’t think that’s as compelling or fun.”

Right now under Zynga, there are three main lines of mobile games. The “With Friends” brand grew out of Newtoy’s smash hit Words With Friends and then expanded to include Scramble With Friends and Hanging With Friends. “These are usually asynchronous and directly social,” he said. Then there is a cohort of games that are more or less extensions of Zynga’s core Facebook franchises like Cityville Hometown.

Lastly, there’s the “Dream” line-up, which is new given the recent debuts of Dream Zoo and Dream PetHouse. Boatman says the “Dream” brand is more aspirational. “We like to say they’re about ‘vest’ and ‘express.’ They’re about growing and customizing, which is in line with our core tenants. All of these games have a similar look and feel.”

Like Pincus, Boatman brushed off recent criticism that Zynga’s titles are too similar to ones existing in the market. NimbleBit recently blasted Zynga for an unreleased title called Dream Heights because it was too similar to its app Tiny Tower, which won Apple’s game of the year. Dream Zoo and Dream PetHouse also seem reminiscent of Pocket Gems’ Tap Zoo and Tap Pet Hotel.

“These games are free and our players have the choice to play what they want to play,” he said. “If games were too similar to consumers and there was no clear value add, why would a consumer play it?”

Boatman says the company evaluates opportunities and game genres by market size, then distribution opportunities then the quality of user experience.

“First, we look at where most the consumers are. We look at device sales and accessibility — where are our players? That’s really important,” he said. “Then we look at whether you can digitally talk to consumers? The third thing is the experience and the kinds of entertainment we could offer.”

If Zynga can’t buy its way in because of pricing, it will probably build to get there. The company is eyeing even more genres for 2012.

“We’re excited bout the physics category,” he said, pointing to titles like Angry Birds. Zynga actually already has one physics game, Zombie Smash, through the acquisition of GameDoctors.

Compared to Facebook, Android and iOS’ top charts support a wider variety of games with indie hits like Temple Run to console-quality ones like Epic’s Infinity Blade. Likewise, Zynga expects to widen the breadth of coverage. There are genres that Zynga looks like it won’t touch, however.

“We want to do broad, mass-market social games,” Boatman said. “There might be games that perform well on the charts, but if they don’t have enough reach, we’ll forgo them for games that are more mass market.” That seems to hint that Zynga still isn’t interested in more mid- or hardcore games.

The company has done eight mobile deals so far. Most are in line with Zynga’s history of making smaller, talent-oriented acquisitions. The biggest one the company has disclosed to date is the $53.3 million in cash and stock for Words With Friends-maker Newtoy. Though never publicly confirmed, Zynga also pursued PopCap Games before it was acquired by EA for up to $1.3 billion and was said to have been in talks with Angry Birds-maker Rovio Mobile.

A deal of such a scale is still a possibility — especially considering the $1 billion Zynga raised in its IPO.

“All options are on the table,” Boatman said. “It’s our mission to make the most social games and we want to have access to wherever our players are.”

Boatman said he couldn’t share any details about how diversified Zynga wants to be by the end of the year. In December, the company said it had 13 million daily active users on mobile — or about one-fourth of the company’s total DAU in the third quarter of last year. Other companies like Gameloft have said they earned upwards of $25 million in smartphone revenue in the holiday quarter. But Boatman couldn’t say whether Zynga’s earnings were in the same range.

“I’m not sure what our CFO is going to disclose,” he said. “I can’t comment on the secret sauce.”(Source:insidemobileapps


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