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每日观察:关注社交卡牌游戏在非日本市场的可行性(5.17)

发布时间:2012-05-17 12:24:41 Tags:,,

1)据Serkantoto报道,在过去12个月中,GREE和Mobage这两大日本顶尖社交游戏平台的前20名热门游戏中,社交卡牌游戏所占比例达50-70%。

针对社交卡牌游戏是否会在其他地区受捧的问题,serkantoto举例称《Legend of the Crypitds》这款社交卡牌游戏于5月13日晋升至美国App Store免费应用榜单第13名,之后虽然略有下滑,但仍保持在该应用商店营收榜单第62名(5月16日排名情况)。

GREE首款针对美国市场的游戏《Zombie Jombie》同样属于社交卡牌游戏类型,它在3月份入驻美国App Store时曾跻身免费应用榜单第3名,之后虽然排名迅速下滑,但目前在应用榜单也排到了第16名,至今下载量超过100万次。

此外,通过英文版Mobage平台在Google Play发布的《Rage of Bahamut》也属于这种典型,它在该应用商店营收榜单登顶时间长达4周。

Rage of Bahamut(from topappstoday.com)

Rage of Bahamut(from topappstoday.com)

因此serkantoto认为这种迹象或许能够说明,这类游戏不但在日本很有市场,如果能够根据不同地区的用户品味进行调整,并执行适当的营销手段,它们在其他地区也可能同样受捧(需注意的是,上述三款游戏均未采用日本漫画风格的美术设计,而由Drecom开发并于去年投放美国App Store的《Spirit Force》则采用了极为典型的日本动漫美术风格,但却鲜有美国用户捧场)。

Spirit Force(from itunes.apple.com)

Spirit Force(from itunes.apple.com)

2)据GamesIndustry International报道,曾参与开发《孢子》和《文明》系列的知名设计师及程序设计师Soren Johnson也已离开EA加入Zynga团队。

文明(from games)

文明(from games)

他加入Zynga的时间可追溯到去年9月份,当时Zynga East总经理Tim Train及首席设计师Brian Reynolds极力邀请他加入工作室共同参与开发新游戏类型。Johnson目前担任Zynga East一款策略游戏的设计总监,这款基于HTML5的多人游戏将不同与典型的Zynga产品,它将含有最终结局、赢家和输家。

Johnson的游戏行业生涯始于十多年前在EA的实习,之后进入Firaxis任职7年,并在2007年重新回归EA,他在EA2D团队曾任《龙腾世纪:传奇》主设计师。

3)据insidesocialgames报道,在Facebook公开募股即将来临之际,Zynga股票又开始出现回升迹象。5月16日Zynga股价收盘价为每股8.22美元,虽然低于开盘时的8.75美元,但却明显高于本周初的情况(游戏邦注:Zynga股票在过去两周中持续下跌,上周五更是跌至7.45美元的历史最低点)。

Zynga stock(from insidesocialgames)

Zynga stock(from insidesocialgames)

Facebook在最近的S-1修订文件中指出,公司在2011年的收益中有15%来自Zynga(Facebook曾在2月份的S-1文件中称Zynga为Facebook创造了12%的收益,当时Zynga的股票就一度攀升至每股14美元),如果Facebook IPO获得成功,那么Zynga股票也很可能随之水涨船高。

4)韩国网游公司Nexon最近与6waves合作向Facebook发布《Zoo Invasion》这款玩法类似于《俄罗斯方块》以及《宝石迷阵闪电战》的益智游戏。

Zoo Invasion(from games)

Zoo Invasion(from games)

玩家在游戏中需扮演一个可爱的黄色小外星人,点击鼠标以绑架不同的小动物,并按顺序将它们排列成组,消除同种类型的动物。该游戏中含有积分排行榜功能,以及一个控制玩家游戏频率的能量补充系统。

5)King.com旗下游戏《Candy Crush Saga》在本周DAU增长最快的Facebook游戏榜单登顶,新增40万DAU,增幅达22%。

Top gainers this week-DAU(from AppData)

Top gainers this week-DAU(from AppData)

Peak Games英文版游戏《Lost Bubble》位居第二,新增40万DAU,增幅为500%;《Zynga Slingo》新增40万DAU,增幅达11%,位居第三;EA《模拟人生社交版》位居第四,新增30万DAU,增幅为11%;Cookapps游戏《Buggle》DAU增幅为50%,新增26万,位居第五。

迪士尼Playdom游戏《Armies of Magic》新增8万DAU,增幅达100%;Sulake旗下的《Habbo Hotel España》新增3万DAU,增幅为25%。(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

1)Will Collectible Cards Game Genre In Mobile Social Games Pick Up In South East Asia? [Social Games]

by Dr. Serkan Toto

I am a hardcore user of Q&A service Quora where I just gave a detailed answer to this question:

Will collectible cards game genre in mobile social games pick up in South East Asia?

My answer:

In Japan, by far the world’s biggest market for mobile social games, social card games (social card battle games or social collectible card games) are the most popular genre at the moment. (Note: I am based in Japan, a hardcore gamer, and a consultant focusing on the social gaming industry).

Background:

http://www.serkantoto.com/2012/01/24/ip-based-and-card-battle-social-games/

I estimate that during the last 12 months, around 50-70% of the top 20 games on the leading platforms in Japan, GREE and DeNA‘s Mobage, have been social card games.

I understand your question to be if Japan is ahead of the curve and if this popularity can spill over to other markets, i.e. South East Asia.

As I mention in the comments in my answer to the question What is the actual gameplay of Japanese mobile social card games? from December 2011, my view is this genre has potential outside Japan, too.

There are some pointers that indicate this is already the case, at least in the United States. It appears to be both DeNA’s and GREE’s strategy is to see how things pan out in the US before tackling other markets like South East Asia.

So let’s first have a look at how things look like in the US.

Example 1:

In the US App Store, a social card game called Legend of the Cryptids, has peaked at the No. 13 spot in the free app chart on May 13, 2012 (source in Japanese: http://gamebiz.jp/?p=60182).

Legend of the Cryptids is what I would call a typical mobile social card battle game (created by a Japanese company). It has since fallen in the free app chart, but it still holds a respectable position (No. 62) in the top grossing ranking in the US App Store right now (May 16, 2012).

Link to the game:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/l…

Example 2:

GREE’s first American social game, Zombie Jombie, mixes Japanese and Western game elements and has been very successful – as a social card game.

It was released in the US App Store in March 2012 and peaked at the No. 3 spot in the ranking of the top free apps. Zombie Jombie fell out of the charts quickly, but right now, the game is the No. 16 in the top grossing app ranking. It boasts over 1 million downloads overall.

Link to the game:

http://itunes.apple.com/app/id47…

Example 3:

On Google Play, a social card game developed by a Japanese company and offered in the English Mobage network, has been topping the top grossing rank for about 4 weeks now (source:

http://www.insidemobileapps.com/…).

The title, Rage Of Bahamut, is a typical Japanese mobile social card game.

Link to the game.

I personally think that these initial success stories confirm my hunch from last year that games belonging to this genre do have a chance outside Japan, not only in the US but also South East Asia.

Gameplay-wise, there shouldn’t be too many differences between the taste of Japanese vs. non-Japanese players in the case of this specific genre. If created in the right way, this genre can produce games that are very addicting and hard to put down, regardless of the player’s nationality or cultural background.

There are physical card games that have been doing very well in the global market for years, with Magic The Gathering being just one example. The gameplay and general structure is, in parts, very similar to mobile social card games.

If your question is if Japanese games belonging to this genre can be successfully ported to other country markets: I think that in this case, the titles must fit a certain design to appeal to a mass market in the US or Europe. The three games mentioned above don’t use manga-esque artwork but rather appeal to Western design tastes – I am doubting that they would be as successful otherwise.

One example for this hypothesis is Spirit Force, which Tokyo-based Drecom rolled out in the US App Store last year:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/s…

This game uses extremely manga-inspired artwork and has not been very successful outside Japan (I am neglecting other factors like marketing efforts or PR but do see a causality here).

Great for Japanophiles, but probably not the right way to go to appeal to a broad, global audience.

To conclude, I think that social card games – if executed and marketed in the right way – can catch on in regions outside Japan.

One development I don’t see for the future of social card games in the US or South East Asia is that this genre will be as dominant as in Japan: I think that the level of the popularity social card games are seeing is unique to this country.(source:serkantoto

2)Zynga’s Soren Johnson on why company is shifting focus to game design

by Eric Caoili

Noted game designer and programmer Soren Johnson, who has worked on titles like Spore and the Civilization series, has left Electronic Arts to join rival company Zynga.

Johnson cited shifts in the game industry away from big-budget retail games with long development periods, and toward relatively low-cost mobile/social titles that can be regularly updated, as one of his primary reasons for joining Zynga.

He joined Zynga last September after he was courted by the heads of FrontierVille developer Zynga East, studio general manager Tim Train and chief game designer Brian Reynolds, both veterans from Firaxis and Big Huge Games.

“Many designers are openly worried about whether social game design is being led by metrics towards decisions which maximize revenue over fun,” said Johnson in an interview with GamesIndustry.biz. “Tim and Brian, however, convinced me that Zynga is shifting its primary focus to game design.

“Ultimately, I told Tim and Brian what type of game I wanted to make, and Zynga is now giving me the chance to make it. The greatest opportunities today are for games that connect players and avoid the traditional retail model of gaming. Zynga suddenly made sense for me when it became clear that they wanted to experiment with new types of games in this space.”

He is now working on a strategy title at Zynga East as design director. The multiplayer-focused HTML5 project is meant to be a departure from Zynga’s usual output, in that it actually has an ending, with winners and losers.

When Gamasutra published an early report of Johnson jumping ship to Zynga last year, insiders indicated that he was heading development of a game that would compete with Civ World, Firaxis’ social game adaptation of beloved strategy series Civilization.

Johnson got his start in the industry at EA as an intern more than a decade ago. He eventually joined Firaxis and worked there for seven years before returning to EA in 2007. Most recently, he was a lead designer at the EA2D team, where he worked on Dragon Age: Legends.

EA has previously acknowledged that it’s far behind Zynga in the social space, though it’s attempting to catch up. But Zynga hasn’t made it easy for EA, as it’s poached key executives from the competitor in recent years, such as former COO John Schappert and EA Interactive head Barry Cottle.(source:gamasutra

3)Zynga’s stock recovers as Facebook IPO looms

Mike Thompson

After starting off the week at an all-time low, Zynga’s stock is beginning to rise again while Facebook’s initial public offering approaches.

The stock closed today at $8.22 a share, down from its opening at $8.75 but still notably higher than where its price was at the beginning of the week. Since Monday, Zynga’s shares have opened above their closing point from the previous day. The stock could be improving as Facebook’s Friday IPO draws near. The social network will likely be valued at over $100 billion with a stock price between $34 and $38 a share.

Facebook recently revealed in an S-1 amendment that Zynga was responsible for 15 percent of its 2011 income. When Facebook’s February S-1 showed 12 percent of its income came from Zynga, the developer’s stock rocketed up to over $14 a share before starting to fall back to previous levels. If the social network’s IPO is as big a success as many believe it will be, Zynga’s stock will likely see an even more dramatic share price increase.

Zynga’s stock still hasn’t taken off like many investors hoped it would when it began trading in December; shares didn’t return to their original price until late January. The stock managed to stay above $10 for February and March, but began a significant slide in mid-April, especially after the company’s Q1 earnings call on April 26. Although the company reported record bookings, it also reported a net loss of $85.4 million and shares dropped from $9.50 to $8.52 the next day. Shares continued to drop over the past two weeks, hitting an all-time low of $7.45 last Friday.(source:insidesocialgames

4)Zoo Invasion, or the cutest puzzler you’ll ever play on Facebook

by Joe Osborne

If there’s one way to describe Nexon’s most popular games, it’s “cute”. The latest from the Korean games maker (and publisher 6waves) all but takes the cake: Zoo Invasion. A brand new puzzler for Facebook, Zoo Invasion is an interesting variant on the ever-popular Tetris that employs the Blitz-style of gameplay popularized on Facebook by Bejeweled Blitz.

In Zoo Invasion, you play an adorable, blob-like yellow alien that abducts various mammals conveniently condensed into little cutes for such a puzzle game. Using the mouse, players pick up the cubes and rearrange them in order to make matches and for them to disappear. Think of Zoo Invasion as Tetris meets Bejeweled meets Hello Kitty, and you’re about on the same page.

Of course, the game features friend-based leaderboards and a heart system that refills over time to control how often players can play the game. And like any good match-three game, power-ups are on the way. This release comes hot off the heels of KartRider Dash, the Facebook version of one of the developer’s hottest franchises. If you don’t come away from Zoo Invasion with at least one dawww, then you just don’t know what “cute” is.(source:games

5)Candy Crush Saga also on top of this week’s fastest-growing Facebook games by DAU

Mike Thompson

King.com’s Candy Crush Saga continues its chart-topping performance this week, taking the No. 1 spot on our list of fastest-growing Facebook games by daily active users with a 22 percent gain of 400,000 DAU.

Peak Game’s English-language bubble shooter Lost Bubble takes the No. 2 spot with 400,000 DAU for a 500 percent increase. Zynga Slingo also gained 400,000 DAU for an 11 percent gain, allowing it to take the No. 3 position. EA’s The Sims Social appears in the No. 4 spot with its first serious gain since late April, up 11 percent with 300,000 DAU. Cookapps’s Buggle swelled by 50 percent with 260,000 DAU, securing it the No. 5 spot.

Five more games on the list show gains greater than 25 percent. King.com’s Pyramid Solitaire Saga is already picking up speed, increasing by 210,000 DAU for a 55 percent gain. Disney Playdom’s Armies of Magic shows a 100 percent gain with 80,000 DAU, while Corazon Games’s Spanish-language La Vecindad de “El Chavo” (“The neighborhood of “El Chavo””) grew by 40,000 DAU for a 36 percent gain. Plumbee’s Mirrorball Slots is up by 40,000 DAU for a 27 percent increase. Finally, Sulake’s Habbo Hotel España shows a 30,000 DAU gain, up by 25 percent.(source:insidesocialgames


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