游戏邦在:
杂志专栏:
gamerboom.com订阅到鲜果订阅到抓虾google reader订阅到有道订阅到QQ邮箱订阅到帮看

人物专访:DeNA美国子公司CEO谈收购ngmoco主要原因

发布时间:2010-10-16 13:03:25 Tags:,,,,

日本手机及社交游戏巨头DeNA公司以4.03亿美元收购美国ngmoco公司一案,引来了不少同行的密集围观。DeNA本身的运营力量十分强大,在日本的市场影响力远胜于美国,而ngmoco却不过是个才开始真正盈利的公司。

这几天,业界对该案议论纷纷,这桩交易背后的不少细节也相继浮出水面,比如说收购金额的多种支付形式(有1.46亿美元来自DeNA的普通股,有2700万美元是认证股,有1.28亿美元是现金,另外1亿美元是基于财务表现的额外对价),以及ngmoco公司CEO尼尔·杨(Neil Young)在采访所提到的ngmoco公司营收和未来发展计划等情况。

为一进步了解情况,insidesocialgames网站记者日前对DeNA美国子公司DeNA Global的CEO南场智子(Tomoko Namba)进行了采访,下文为访谈内容:

Tomoko Namba

Tomoko Namba

问:很多人评论ngmoco公司不值得DeNA花这么多钱,你们打算怎么收回投资?

我个人认为,ngmoco公司有四项优势。第一,创造出色的手机社交游戏的核心能力;第二,Plus+是很优秀的手机社交游戏网站;

第三,(这一点还不能很确定)ngmoco的游戏开发引擎支持开发商使用一个源代码集,移植或开发iOS和Android社交游戏。跨平台发展对我们来说是非常重要的运营战略,因为用户玩社交游戏的时候,总不愿意局限于跟iOS或Android玩家的交流,用户当然希望与更多的朋友互动。

第四,就是企业运营,这一点确实很关键。今年夏天我跟尼尔交流的时候,很高兴也很惊奇地发现,我们在智能手机市场领域上的观点非常一致,要找到其他全部具备这四个要素的企业或选手并不是那么容易。别人可以认为这是一笔昂贵的交易,但我相信ngmoco公司很符合我们的需求。相信再过一年,大家回头来看这桩交易时,就会认为这是一笔划算的买卖,可以帮助DeNA成为世界手机社交游戏行业的领袖。

问:你们已经掌握了OpenFeint(Aurora Feint公司运营的手机社交游戏平台)20%的股份,但又曾提到计划把ngmoco运营的Plus+网站改造成一个Open Mobage开发工具包,你们是在和Aurora Feint公司竞争吗?

Plus+和OpenFeint有可能形成竞争关系,我们在OpenFeint那里只是一个被动的投资者,但我们要将Plus+打造成战略核心组成部分之一。

问:ngmoco公司的内部开发引擎对你们的收购有何重要意义?

这个引擎还在开发当中,但我们已经拿到了样本,对它非常满意。我认为它是我们收购ngmoco的最大动因,这个引擎支持开发商使用一个代码同时为iOS和Android平台开发游戏。这一点至关重要。

问:尼尔·杨在DeNA公司将负责什么事务?

当然,我还是希望由他来运营ngmoco,不过我也想让他加入DeNA的高级管理层。我希望他积极融入DeNA的全球发展执行战略。DeNA将主要引领东方国家的社交游戏产业,尼尔可以领导我们在西方国家的事务。当然,我们会共同协作。

问:除了美国和日本,哪一个国际市场对你们更有吸引力?

在西半球当然是美国、南美和欧洲,在东半球就是中国和印度。对西方国家的市场来说,只要我们在美国部署了工作,就很容易延伸到其他地区。

不过东方国家的市场比较分散,我们总部在日本,但会在中国发展一系列新项目,可能并不像在印尼市场那么容易,因为有很多当地因素夹杂其中。我们需要重新调整发展的优先次序,现在我们在东方国家优先考虑的就是中国市场。

问:ngmoco公司发行业务的重要性如何?DeNA的发行业务呢?你们为外部开发商提供了多大的发展空间?

DeNA的发展重点还是社交游戏平台。我们不是社交游戏开发商,我们是虚拟社区开发者。但我们会开发内部游戏来充实自己的平台,作为游戏平台开发者,更重要的是邀请其他开发商为平台提供内容。

问:是否会开发Mobage Town平台的西方市场版本?

我们还需要再碰头讨论一下还有哪些元素可以移植到Plus+。我个人看法是,Plus+如果加入更多社交功能还会变得更加强大。

问:从世界范围来看,免费模式是否更适合手机游戏?

是的。因为不同的手机游戏市场,会产生不同的付费服务限制问题。我们也在美国尝试并研究了多种不同的付费模式,免费但支持虚拟商品交易的游戏比较可行,不过游戏广告赞助也具有相当大的发展潜力。

问:DeNA未来两年的计划是什么?

到2014年,DeNA总营收预计达40亿美元,其中50%来自日本市场,另外一半来自世界其他地区。不过这并不是一个正式的计划声明,仅是我个人的愿景,我希望DeNA到那时可以成为市值40亿美元的企业,比现在还要多4倍。但在此之前,我们首先要考虑的是如何才能实现这个目标。

问:你们短期内,比如说未来3至6个月内,会为其他公司提供什么发展机会?

我们希望强化游戏引擎和社交游戏平台,这可能需要3个月左右的时间,然后可能会邀请第三方企业进行合作。这就是我个人的想法,不过我还会和尼尔再碰面讨论出一个具体的计划,所以也有可能不到3个月就解决了这个问题。(本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译)

Interview: DeNA Global CEO Tomoko Namba on Ngmoco and Growing to $40

When Japanese gaming and mobile giant DeNA announced earlier this week that it would buy its Western counterpart Ngmoco for up to $403 million, the social and mobile gaming industries sat up and took notice. While DeNA itself is hugely profitable, the Japanese market is far more developed than the US, and Ngmoco itself is just starting to make serious revenue.

More details on the deal have been emerging throughout the week, including breakdowns of the money ($146 million in stock, $27 million in warrants and $128 million in cash, plus a potential $100 million earnout) and interviews with Ngmoco CEO Neil Young giving background on Ngmoco’s revenues and future plans.

Below, we talk to Tomoko Namba, the CEO of DeNA Global, which is the US subsidiary of DeNA that led the acquisition.

Inside Social Games: Most people commenting on the acquisition have said that DeNA paid too much for Ngmoco. How will you recoup the investment?

Tomoko Namba: Ngmoco has, I think, four great things. One is the core ability to come up with great social games on smart phones. Second, the Plus+ network is a great network for social games.

Third, and this isn’t well known yet, is the Ngmoco game development engine that enables developers to deploy or develop social games for iOS or Android with one source-code set. Multi-platform is really the key, crucial strategy for us, because when it comes to social games, you don’t want to be restricted to just iOS or Android users. You want to be able to communicate and play with your friends.

Fourth, what’s really fundamental is the management. It was a pleasant surprise when I talked to Neil this summer. We’ve come to share the same vision for the smartphone business. You just can’t find any other company or player that already has these four things that we were looking for. People can say it’s an expensive deal, but I think it’s the perfect fit for us, and I’m really fired up. Within a year, people will look back and say this was a great deal that enabled DeNA to become the global leader.

ISG: You own 20 percent of [social platform developer] OpenFeint, but as you mentioned Ngmoco has its own Plus+ network that you plan to turn into an Open Mobage development kit. Are you now competing with Aurora Feint?

TN: Plus+ and OpenFeint might be in competition. We’re just a passive investor in OpenFeint, and we’re making Plus+ a central part of our strategy.

ISG: How important was Ngmoco’s in-house development engine to the acquisition?

TN: It’s still under development. We’ve taken the prototype, and we really liked it. I think it was the single biggest reason that we acquired them. The engine allows you to develop a game with one code for iOS and Android. That’s essential.

ISG: What will [Ngmoco CEO] Neil Young do at DeNA?

TN: Of course I’d like Neil to run Ngmoco, but in addition I’d like him to join our top management. I need his proactive participation in global strategy development and execution. DeNA is mainly going to be leading the Eastern part of the world. Neil is going to lead the Western part, in terms of strategy and execution. Of course, we’ll make joint efforts.

ISG: Which international markets look attractive, beyond the US and Japan?

TN: Of course in the Western hemisphere, there are the US, South America and Europe. In the Eastern world, China and India. For the Western part of the world, if we deploy services in the US, it easily gets to the other areas.

The Eastern part is more fragmented. We’re in Japan but we’ll have to develop a new set of services for China, and that won’t be accepted as-is by the Indonesian market. There’s a lot of localization effort involved. We need to prioritize, and our priority right now is China for the Eastern world.

ISG: How important is Ngmoco’s publishing business? What about DeNA’s? How much room is there for external developers?

TN: DeNA’s focus is really the platform. We’re not a social game development company, we’re a virtual community. We’re developing games in-house to enrich the platform. As the platform developer, it’s more important to invite outside developers.

ISG: Will you have a version of Mobage Town for the Western market?

TN: I think we still have to get together and examine what elements to port into Plus+. My hypothesis right now is that I’d like to make Plus+ stronger by enhancing the community functions,

ISG: Is free to play the right model for mobile worldwide?

TN: I think so. There are some payment collection service limitations, depending on the market, but that’s the way to go. We’ve been trying various models and observing it in the US too.Freemium with virtual goods sales is the way to go, although there’s much potential for advertising too.

ISG: Where do you see DeNA in two years?

TN: By 2014, DeNA wants to have $4 billion in revenue, 50 percent in Japan and 50 percent in the rest of the world. This is not a formal announcement of a plan, but what I aspire to is a $40 billion market cap company, four times bigger than today. The essential elements that we talked about are what’s necessary to do that. That’s my personal aspiration.

ISG: And what should other companies expect over a shorter time period — say, three to six months?

TN: We’d like to polish the engine and the platform — maybe that will take us three months or so — and open it with a stronger platform and engine, then we’ll welcome the third parties. That’s what I have in mind, but Neil and I will get together soon to come up with a realistic plan, so it may end up taking even less time.(source:insidesocialgames)


上一篇:

下一篇: