据路透社报导，业内分析师认为微软公司或媒介巨头Viacom等潜力买家将会在2011年将再次掀起社交游戏领域的收购狂潮。随着近十年来广告宣传效力的逐渐降低，大型媒介和技术公司希望通过开发虚拟商品来维持公司的经营。

对此，Norwest Venture Partners投资公司的Tim Chang表示，现在所有人都在尽力寻找，潜力买家基本上和每一家社交游戏公司都谈论过收购事宜。

Microsoft

业内分析师认为为了升级Xbox Live平台，微软公司显然可能成为下一轮收购潮中最大的买家。而最近Zynga公司的热门游戏FarmVille登录微软Windows Phone 7也昭示着分析师的看法是正确的。

然而，最知名的社交游戏开发公司Zynga估值超过50亿美元，基本上不在被收购公司之列。但这并不意味着小型开发公司无法填补这一空隙。

对于收购前景，Grotech Ventures的合伙人Don Rainey认为，在所有社交游戏公司中，Playfish和Playdom已经被收购，而Zynga则不可能收购，因此买方要从收购大型公司转向小公司。

Acquisitions

那收购CrowdStar或Kabam之类的小公司怎样呢？现在CrowdStar的主席Peter Relman表示并没有卖出公司的压力。因此，微软可能会向他提出一些诱惑性条件。也许，微软公司会运用社交游戏来宣传下一轮的《光晕Halo》专营权。如果CrowdStar加入微软公司，它将像EA旗下的Playfish一样，成为负责Facebook网站平台的微软游戏工作室。

尽管收购在一定程度上有利于巩固社交游戏开发公司的基础，但这也可能损害游戏工作室在开发游戏时的创新理念。要知道开发品牌畅销品的压力是对创新的最大阻碍。在分析家看来，社交游戏明年的收益很可能突破20亿美元。

The year 2011might involve even more acquisitions in social gaming from more companies than just Zynga, with potential buyers like Microsoft and media giant Viacom expected by analysts to be considering serious purchases, Reuters said. Because advertising isn’t exactly working out this decade, big media and tech companies will look to virtual goods to stay afloat, according to analysts’ predictions.

“The truth is everybody is talking to everybody, every potential buyer is probably talking to just about every social game company out there,” said principal with Norwest Venture Partners Tim Chang, whose firm invested in Playdom.

Apparently Microsoft could be the next big customer, looking to enhance its Xbox Live platform, industry executives said. With Zynga’s FarmVille coming to Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7, they just might be right. However, Zynga is pretty much off the table at this point with an estimated worth of over $5 billion, but that doesn’t mean smaller companies couldn’t fill that void.

“With Playfish and Playdom gone, Zynga being unbuyable, we’re on the downside of that slope,” said Don Rainey, a partner at Grotech Ventures. “We’re through the big moves and into the small moves.”

What about ‘small move’ companies like CrowdStar or Kabam? While CrowdStar chairman Peter Relman reportedly doesn’t feel the pressure to sell, Microsoft could probably offer him something enticing. Who knows, Microsoft could be looking to promote the next phase of its Halo franchise through social gaming. All the cool kids are doing it. A Microsoft-owned CrowdStar could become the Facebook brand manager for Microsoft Games Studio much like Playfish is for Electronic Arts.

While consolidation through buyouts is certainly good for business, this could hurt the creative potential of social games studios to make gripping games with fresh ideas. There’s nothing like the pressure to create a brand seller to stunt innovation. Hey, at least according to analysts, social games could be worth over $2 billion come next year. （Source：Games.com）