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每日观察:关注鲸鱼玩家更乐于分享游戏等消息(9.29)

发布时间:2013-09-29 11:31:28 Tags:,,,

1)芬兰开发商Supercell日前低调推出Android版《Clash of Clans》,该游戏iOS版本自2012年8月发布以来,一直位居iOS游戏收益榜单前列。

值得注意的是,Android版《Clash of Clans》问世的消息源是一名评论员,他自称是从Supercell社区经理Stephen Rosenshein得到这一消息。许多论坛用户不解为何Supercell不开公宣布关于该游戏Android版本的详情。

Clash-Of-Clans(from mobilesyrup.com)

Clash-Of-Clans(from mobilesyrup.com)

2)据venturebeat报道,前Rovio和Supercell开发者Michail Katkoff日前加入Scopely工作室(游戏邦注:代表作包括《Wordly》和《Mini Golf Matchup》),他表示Scopely在iOS平台连续发布过3款名列第一的游戏,他将在Scopely致力于开发“下一代消费者娱乐游戏网络”(一个手机游戏盈利和分销平台),合作伙伴包括Double Fine Productions(The Cave)、Big Cave Games、Rocket Jump Games以及Zupcat Games等公司。

3)据venturebeat报道,谷歌在本周确定变更一项政策,将移除那些含有伪装成软件更新或重要通知的垃圾广告,Google Play中至少有2万款应用需要变更自己的广告策略。

谷歌在8月底变更了两项重要的开发者政策,要求开发者在30天内更新应用,否则其应用中所包含的违规广告将被禁用。

google-play-policy-update-bans-certian-ads(from i4u.com)

google-play-policy-update-bans-certian-ads(from i4u.com)

移动广告平台NativeX联合创始人Rob Weber指出,有成千上万款Google Play应用使用了一种推广垃圾信息的广告平台Airpush,它们的收益超过1.5亿美元,估计有50-80%的收益是来自这类垃圾广告平台,谷歌这一措施将极大影响这些应用的收益。

4)据venturebeat报道,发行商Kixeye产品副总裁Alan Patmore在最近的Login Conference大会上分享了公司向移动领域转型的经验,他称开发者不应该直接将网页或Facebook游戏设计搬到移动平台,而应根据触屏设备重新设计游戏,要简单化用户界面,以便用户在更小的智能手机屏幕上也能看清楚,并点触不同的按钮。

alan-patmore-kixeye(from businessinsider)

alan-patmore-kixeye(from businessinsider)

开发者必须不断迭代,简单化游戏机制,针对手机游戏容易被打断的情况设计游戏回合,但同时Patmore也表示,Kixeye并没有针对“零食化”的简短游戏玩法创造内容,因为他们相信玩家愿意体验持续数小时的游戏回合。

Patmore称他们的玩家愿意体验更具沉浸感,高质量的游戏,也愿意长时间玩游戏,并且这正是Kixeye的主要盈利方式之一。

5)市场调研公司EEDAR日前发布信息图表指出,手机游戏高消费玩家(即鲸鱼玩家)更愿意分享游戏信息。

在3000名自称为手机和平板电脑游戏玩家的受访者中,有94%鲸鱼玩家会在口头上向好友介绍自己所玩的游戏,而低消费玩家的分享比例仅为65%;91%鲸鱼玩家会向好友展示玩法视频,普通付费玩家的这一比例为42%。至少有76%鲸鱼玩家会给予游戏星级评价,撰写评论,或者通过不同论坛讨论游戏内容。

EEDAR指出这些付费玩家分享游戏内容是为了炫耀自己的技能和对某款游戏的了解,也有更多害羞的玩家是为了通过分享游戏使自己更为融入游戏社区。值得注意的是,当前手机游戏领域的鲸鱼玩家数量仍然十分稀少,北美手机游戏玩家平均每月投入仅为2.3美元。

big sharers(from EEDAR)

big sharers(from EEDAR)

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)Supercell set to launch Clash of Clans beta on Android

by Wesley Copeland

Finnish developer Supercell has quietly rolled out a beta version of iOS juggernaut Clash of Clans on Android.

The news was broken by self-styled Clash of Clans ‘commentator’ and YouTube poster ‘Chief Pat’, who claims he received word of the beat from Supercell community manager Stephen Rosenshein.

Pat spoke to Rosenhein at a recent event by the developer in San Francisco, with the Supercell man claiming that Clash of Clans on Android had entered beta phase.

Quietly does it

Clash of Clans, which has consistently been one of the top grossing games on iOS since launch, hit Apple’s platform over a year ago, back in August 2012.

Indeed, the following April saw Supercell reveal that, combined with Hay Day, Clash of Clans was pulling in $2.4 million a day in revenue.

Btw…. THERES ANDROID BETA FOR CLASH OF CLANS!!!!!!

— Chief Pat (@Chief_Pat) September 26, 2013

Many forum users have already commented on the announcement, and expressed their confusion as to why a company of Supercell’s standing would reveal something as important as a new platform, so furtively.

Supercell is still yet to officially announce details regarding an Android beta, or whether this will be a public or an internal beta.

We’ve reached out to Supercell and will update if we hear anything.(source:pocketgamer

2)Former Angry Birds, Clash of Clans partnership lead joins mobile studio Scopely

Mike Minotti

Michail Katkoff has previously worked for mobile developers like Rovio and Supercell, where he helped create Angry Birds Rio and Clash of Clans. He’s now heading to Scopely, the mobile studio behind iPhone hits like Wordly and Mini Golf Matchup.

“Scopely has launched three consecutive No. 1 games on iOS, and I’m even more excited about the products coming down the pipeline,” Katkoff wrote on a blog post regarding his new job. “

In my new role, I’ll still be working with partners, but now I’ll be back to doing what I love the most; working with game teams to take their games to the next level and sharing my expertise in free-to-play mechanics.”

Scopely is working on a “next-generation consumer entertainment games network,” a platform for monetizing and distributing mobile games with partners like Double Fine Productions (The Cave), Big Cave Games (Orc: Vengeance), High Line Games (W.E.L.D.E.R.), Rocket Jump Games (Get to the Chopper), and Zupcat Games (Race Town).

“Michail is one of the industry’s leading voices in free-to-play game mechanics,” Scopely CEO Walter Driver told GamesBeat. ”His blog, Deconstructor of Fun, has rapidly become required reading for game designers and product managers. We’re thrilled that he’s now able to bring his unique expertise and the experience acquired working on some of the world’s largest mobile titles like Clash of Clans and Angry Birds to Scopely’s partner developers, working alongside them to make great games even better.”(source:venturebeat

3)Google just killed $150M in Android developer payments (and it’s a good thing)

John Koetsier

Love may just be a few clicks away, Taco Bell has a “happier” hour, and you — yes you! — have one brand-new Apple iPad unclaimed at this very moment.

This week Google finalized a change that will clear spammy, ridiculous ads like those that pretend to be software updates or important notifications on your phone, and at least 20,000 apps will have to change their ways and stop abusing their users — or risk being kicked off Google Play.

“The ad market has been a gray area, and some ad networks became very spammy,” Rob Weber, the cofounder of native ad network NativeX. “Up to this point Google didn’t take a stand, but now they’re really stepping it up.”

Google made two critical changes to its Google Play Developer Policies in late August, giving developers 30 days to update their apps, or else. The first is that ads within notifications are now banned, and the second is that adding an ad-focused new icon an Android user’s home screen is also banned.

For both of these, it wouldn’t necessarily be clear to users which app was causing the spammy alerts, or how they could easily remove them.

In the early days of Android, Google didn’t make a big fuss over these clearly annoying practices, perhaps partly because developers were having a difficult time monetizing on Android.

Now, however, the Android user experience is catching up to Apple’s at the same time that Android monetization is making big strides — and Apple never allowed these kinds of ads.

In the process, however, Google will be sucking as much as $150 million of developer revenue out of the ecosystem.

“Tens of thousands of Google Play apps were using Airpush [one of the ad networks that promoted spammy ads like these],” Weber says. “They had over $150M in revenue, and we think 50-80 percent of their revenue was from this … and that’s just one of the networks.”

That’s revenue that developers who want to continue to monetize will have to replace, and NativeX is happy to oblige with native ads, as are other ad networks. But developers will have to hurry — this week is the first week of the new Google Play guidelines, and non-compliant apps risk being booted from the most important Android app store. After all, it wouldn’t be difficult for Google to track which apps have these types of ads and demand that they be removed — or else.

It may be tough for some developers initially, but ultimately, it’s all good for users, and it’s all good for Android. A better user experience will lead to more usage, and more apps, and more trust.

“This is an awesome move by Google, and will clean up all this mobile spam,” Weber says. (source:venturebeat

4)How Kixeye is adapting its social games to mobile

Dean Takahashi

SAN FRANCISCO – Publisher Kixeye has generated big revenues from hardcore social games on Facebook, and it’s a new phase of investing heavily in mobile games as players shift to tablets and smartphones and away from playing PC-based games on Facebook or the web.

But it hasn’t shipped any mobile games yet because it is being very deliberate about how it moves into mobile, said Alan Patmore, vice president of product at Kixeye, in a talk at the Login Conference, an event that focuses on the video game industry.

On Facebook, Kixeye launched free-to-play games like Backyard Monsters, Battle Pirates, and War Commander, getting relatively small but loyal audiences that spent money on virtual goods.

Basically, the company became very good at “monetizing revenge” as players launched counterattacks on those who attacked their bases.

Now the company wants to follow those gamers as they move to mobile. It’s late in doing so, as some competitors like Supercell are already making millions of dollars a day with games that are not so different from Kixeye’s strategy of giving players “combat in your pocket.” And that has given the company even more reason to be deliberate. Kixeye isn’t giving up on the existing games, and the revenue from those games enables it to move slowly.

But Patmore said that you can’t just take a game designed for the web or Facebook and move it to mobile. You have to redesign it to take advantage of the touchscreen. You have to simplify the user interface so that players can see it on a smaller smartphone screen and touch the various buttons.

“You have to get these things right and then iterate, iterate, iterate,” said Patmore.

Developers also have to simplify game mechanics. Play sessions have to be open to interruptions, Patmore said. But he said the company’s designers aren’t trying to create deliberately shorter “snack-like” sessions. Rather, Kixeye believes that its players will play for longer sessions that can last hours.

“One of the first things the team discussed when we started moving into mobile was session length,” Patmore said. “We kept hearing that on mobile you had to shorten the play session.

That play sessions and game loops needed to be snackable. Mobile gamers don’t want to play anything longer than a few minutes We think this is BS.”

He continued, “Our hypothesis is that players will sit down and play a game on their tablet for hours at a time just like they consume movies or tv on their tablet. Players are becoming increasing sophisticated in their appetites and expectations and are demanding a more immersive, polished, high quality game experience. Our players want to play longer. As a matter of fact this, is one of the key ways we monetize.”

Patmore said that the company has taken its time in getting these concepts right by continuous iteration. But it’s not just spinning its wheels. Kixeye plans to ship three mobile games in the next quarter or two, he sad.

“We are taking minnows, the light touch unengaged players and getting sharks out of those players,” Patmore said.(source:venturebeat

5)New study shows that gamers who spend more also share more

By Joe Jasko

A new study this week from specialty research firm EEDAR has revealed an insightful connection between how much a person is active in an online mobile game community, and how much they actually end up spending in the game itself. The study also comes hot on the heels of a recent poll conducted by Applifier, which revealed that the highest sources of discovery for a mobile game include reading a user review, hearing about it from a friend or family member, and seeing a friend or family member playing the game.

In essence, EEDAR’s study of 3,000 people who refer to themselves as mobile and tablet gamers has shown a direct correlation between gamers who spend more (referred to as “whales” in the findings) and gamers who share more: that these two gaming habits have simply become one and the same in the mobile games space. In every single category of sharing that was examined for the study, EEDAR found that the heavy-spending mobile gamer’s tendencies to share about a game were at a significantly larger margin than other casual players and non-spenders.

For instance, a whopping 94% of big spenders were likely to tell their friends about a game verbally, as compared to the 65% of low-spending players. Conversely, 91% of big spenders were prone to show their friends gameplay footage, over the 42% of more casual spenders. Other categories of sharing included giving a star rating in a storefront, writing a review on a storefront, and discussing the game online via various forums: each of which brought in a high showing of 76% and above for these “whale” gamers.

All of these findings lead to the further conclusion that “Mobile gamers [who] share heavily through channels that reach a mass audience spend even more.” In addition to these eye-opening figures, EEDAR’s study also determined that big spenders were more likely to share about a game in order to show off their skills and knowledge about a specific title, while more timid spenders would share to feel more involved in the overall community of games. However, it should still be noted that “whales” are much more of a rare thing in today’s mobile industry, and that the average gamer in North America only tends to spend around $2.30 per month on mobile games.

So to the developers themselves, EEDAR poses this very simple question: “Are you creating ways for your gamers to show their skills and build a community?” Because if you are, then it would seem like there’s no finer way right now to help monetize your game and encourage your big players to spend a little more for something they already enjoy. As Patrick Walker, the Senior Analyst at EEDAR states, “Mobile Game companies need to reframe how they view their heaviest spenders. These gamers are not just the ‘Whales’ who spend the most money; these loyal users are the evangelists that spread the word about your game and the best source of new low cost, high quality users.”

Do you consider yourself a “whale” in any mobile game community? Does that mean the low-spending opposite is considered a “shrimp”? So many questions and more! You can scope out the full EEDAR infograph report on these findings just below this paragraph, and be sure to keep the discussion going down in the replies.(source:gamezebo


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