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为何手机游戏在韩国如此盛行?

发布时间:2013-10-23 16:34:55 Tags:,,,

作者:Abel Acuña

今年韩国的手机游戏产业赢利有望达到14亿美元。玩手机游戏《Anipang》已经成为这个国家的文化现象。上至坐地铁的六旬老太,下至等校车的小学生都在玩游戏。我认为,手机游戏在韩国掀起热潮很大程度上是因为如下几个因素:

1、KakaoTalk提供社交平台

KakaoTalk的手机信息服务已经覆盖了超过1亿用户,每天发送的信息量达5亿条。在韩国,KakaoTalk的视觉效果炫目,提供独特的体验,实际上已经取代了手机短信。

“Great to hear from you, Thanks to Anipang。”

anipang(from advancedtechnologykorea)

anipang(from advancedtechnologykorea)

上面这条简短的句子在韩国已经家喻户晓,从中我们可以看出多亏了KakaoTalk,某些韩国手机游戏得以在全国范围流行开来。当《Anipang》这款简单的益智游戏于2013年第一季度首次发布时,它的月活跃用户就达到1200万,因为它成功地利用了Kakao平台。

当玩家在《Anipang》消耗完所有命数时,他们可以购买更多“心”或通过邀请好友安装该游戏换到更多游戏时间。结果是,玩家通过KakaoTalk给亲朋好友发送信息,为了获得额外的游戏时间,甚至旧情人们都互相找上自己的前任。

在韩国大热的游戏基本上是KakaoTalk游戏。Kakao评估和挑选独立工作室的游戏,并把它们放在应用的游戏中心。这个挑选过程每天把为数不多的游戏放在3000万玩家面前,这有力地带动了游戏和KakaoTalk本身的下载量。

另外,因为KakaoTalk提供的主要是手机信息服务,它的平台上的游戏可以利用现有用户行为。朋友和家人习惯于通过KakaoTalk互发信息,所以分享游戏邀请或高分榜自然而然地成为该应用的额外功能。

事实上,KakaoTalk的用户更可能发送游戏请求,这使Kakao游戏获得强大的病毒传播力。根据App Annie整理出的全球应用排名(Android平台,2013年8月),前10名应用中有3款是Kakao独占游戏——《Everybody’s Marble》、《Cookie Run》和《Anipang》。它们与KakaoTalk的密切关系大大提高了应用“发现率”,使它们持续走红,带动销量。

2、地铁系统普及高速WiFi

城市基础设施在手机游戏的全国流行中也扮演了重要角色。韩国的地铁和列车系统很普遍,且使用频繁。在韩国5000万人口中,有半数生活在首尔和它的地铁沿线地区。首尔地铁系统的客流量据说达到每年24亿,每日670万。难怪首尔的地铁系统会成为世界上第二繁忙的地铁系统(第一名是东京)。

subway-smartphone-users(from phys.org)

subway-smartphone-users(from phys.org)

客流量大只是一部分原因。首尔的现代化、配备LTF和WiFi的地铁成为理想的游戏空间。日常通勤是一段漫长无聊的时光。儿童和职业人士打发这些难熬的时间不是通过读书,而是玩游戏和通过KakaoTalk与朋友聊天。因为韩国地铁配备有世界上速度最快的通信技术,乘客的游戏、聊天或视频永远不会遇到延迟或暂停的情况。韩国的LTE速度达到每秒150M,是美国的近3倍。

当世界上的其他地铁乘客只能靠不用联网的活动如读书、听音乐或看预先下载好的内容打发通勤时间的时候,同样坐地铁的韩国人却可以快乐地联网玩游戏。

3、智能手机普及率高

玩手机游戏需要智能手机。韩国的手机行业太幸福了,因为韩国是世界上智能手机普及率数一数二的国家;据谷歌2013年的调查表明,这个普及率达到73%。据韩国通信委员会报告,甚至在6-19岁的人群中,智能手机普及率也高达65%。此外,世界上最大的智能手机制造厂三星电子就在韩国,它通过各种广告渠道在韩国推广它的产品。

为什么预期韩国游戏进一步发展?

作为竞争激烈的手机应用行业中的领袖,韩国开发者们必须不断地打磨他们的游戏机制和商业模式,以保持先进性。所以他们在游戏如何将玩家转化为消费者方面做了大量创新。

以游戏《Cookie Run》为例,这款韩国工作室DevSisters制作的游戏名列App Annie全球排行排的第6名。《Cookie Run》的玩法类似于其他流行的“无尽奔跑”类游戏如《神庙逃亡》或《Robot Unicorn Attack》。玩家角色不断往前跑,通过收集沿路的道具获得积分,不仅要跑得快,还要避开障碍、敌人。尽管《Cookie Run》的机制与美国工作室出品的游戏雷同,但它的赢利策略是大不相同的。

《Cookie Run》是免费下载的且没有广告。与《神庙逃亡》一样,玩家可以更新自己的角色或购买特殊的增益道具,但关键的区别是《Cookie Run》的付费玩策略。

《Cookie Run》限制玩家的持续游戏次数。玩家有一个“心脏银行”,表示玩家还可以奔跑的次数。一开始,玩家有5颗心,每次开跑前要消耗掉1颗星。一旦玩家消耗完所有的心,就面临3个选择:一是购买更多心(即更多游戏时间),等待7分钟(可以产生一颗新的心),或发送游戏邀请给朋友换取心。

Cookie Run(from ellinforest.com)

Cookie Run(from ellinforest.com)

这款游戏的开发者基本上是寄希望于《Cookie Run》的玩法足够致瘾,迫使玩家分享游戏或购买IAP以继续玩下去。这是一个有趣的做法,既有助于提高应用发现率,也能拉动销量。在其他游戏都专注于吸引玩家尽可能长的时间的时候,《Cookie Run》却通过限制游戏时间给最活跃的玩家创造了一个“痛点”,因为玩家可能就差一个心就能把好友从第一名上拉下来了。

乍一看,《Cookie Run》在排行榜上名列第六可能与种付费玩的策略关系不大。然而,如果我看再仔细地看看排名前10的其他游戏,其中有5款是由韩国游戏工作室开发的(游戏邦注:《Pokopang》和《Wind Runner》也是韩国工作室的作品),每一款都利用了付费玩的赢利策略。

因为韩国游戏采用付费玩策略大获成功,看到其他欧美游戏工作室跟风就不足为奇了。尽管大部分欧美开发者仍然主要通过初次下载收费或出售IAP获得赢利,但我们已经看到大型开发商如King.com在《Candy Crush Saga》中也采用了这一策略。在欧美市场,《Candy Crush Saga》自2013年2月起,就牢牢地占据销量排行榜的第3名。虽然欧美开发者偏爱其他赢利方法,付费玩显然让King尝到了甜头—-玩家为了保证无限的游戏时间而持续消费。如果付费玩在其他类型的游戏中也成为趋势,那么欧美发行商就要密切关注韩国游戏是如何利用新策略推广游戏和带动赢利的。(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

Why is mobile gaming so popular in South Korea?

by Abel Acu?a

Mobile gaming is expected to generate $1.4 billion in South Korea this year, and mobile games like Anipang have become a cultural phenomenon within the country. It’s as common to see older women in their sixties playing games in the subway as it is to see younger children playing games at the bus stop. We at Ultra believe the mobile gaming craze in Korea is largely a result of the following factors.

1. KakaoTalk’s Social Graph

The KakaoTalk mobile messaging service has blossomed to more than 100 million users and 5 billion messages sent daily. It is visually attractive and it has effectively replaced text messages in South Korea. And it has generated unique experiences.

“Great to hear from you, Thanks to Anipang.”

This short, telling, and now famous Korean poem provides insight on the massive, nationwide popularity some Korean games have been able to achieve thanks to KakaoTalk. When Anipang, a simple puzzle game, debuted in the first quarter of 2013, it managed to capture 12 million monthly active users because it successfully leveraged the Kakao platform.

When Anipang players run out of lives, they can purchase more hearts or invite their friends to install the app in exchange for more game time. The result was massive spamming across KakaoTalk, as relatives, distant friends, and even former lovers exhausted their contact lists in search of extra game time.

Blockbuster hits in Korea are almost always KakaoTalk games. Kakao reviews and selects games from independent studios to host within the app’s game center. This selection process puts a relatively small number of games in front of more than 30 million active users every day, which leads to many downloads in and of itself.

(For a more in-depth analysis of KakaoTalk, read our article: What is KakaoTalk’s Business Model?)

Additionally, because KakaoTalk primarily serves as a mobile messaging service, the games built on its platform get to piggyback on existing user behavior. Friends and family are accustomed to sending messages back and forth via KakaoTalk, so the sharing of game invitations or high scores comes as a natural extension of the app’s usage.

In practice, Kakao users are more likely to send out game requests, lending Kakao games a strong viral advantage. Of App Annie’s Global Top 10 (Android, Aug. 2013), three are exclusively built for Kakao: Everybody’s Marble, Cookie Run, and Anipang. Their close connection with KakaoTalk ultimately leads to greater discovery, which goes on to help them reach massive popularity and drive sales.

2. Seoul’s expansive, WiFi-equipped subway system

City infrastructure also plays an important role in the country’s widespread consumption of mobile games. The Korean subway and train system is vast and heavily used. Of Korea’s 50 million population, half live in Seoul and its metro area. Ridership for the Seoul subway system is reportedly 2.4 billion riders per year with 6.7 million daily riders. This ranks the Seoul subway system as the second busiest in the world (Tokyo ranks first).

Heavy ridership is just part of the story. Korea’s modern, LTE and WiFi-equipped subway cars provide an ideal space for gaming. Daily commutes can be long and uncomfortable. Children and professionals escape the shoulder-to-shoulder morning rush, not by reading books, but by gaming and chatting with friends on KakaoTalk. Because Korean subway cars are equipped with the world’s latest in telecommunication technology, travelers never miss a beat from their games, chats, or streaming TV shows thanks to LTE speeds pegged at up to 150 megabits per second — nearly triple that of speeds in the US.

When other subway commuters around the world might be limited to offline activities such as reading, listening to music, or engaging with pre-downloaded content, Korean commuters can pass the time playing simple, competitive games all the while remaining connected online.

3. South Korea’s exceptionally high smartphone penetration rate

Mobile games are reliant upon the smartphones needed to play them. Fortunately for the Korean gaming industry, Korea is a global leader in smartphone adoption with a 73 percent penetration rate according to a July 2013 survey conducted by Google Korea. This puts Korea as No. 1 or No. 2 (depending on the research institution) in the world for smartphone adoption. For children ages 6-19, the rate remains high at 65 percent (Korea Communications Commission). Furthermore, Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest smartphone manufacturer, is based in Korea and heavily promotes its products across a vast range of Korean advertising channels.

Why to expect more growth for Korean games

As leaders in the highly competitive mobile app industry, Korean developers must constantly hone their game mechanics and business models to remain relevant. So they are innovating at how games convert players into paying customers.

Take, for example, the game Cookie Run. Cookie Run is No. 6 on App Annie’s Global Top 10 list and was made by the Korean game studio, DevSisters. Cookie Run is similar in gameplay to other popular endless running games such as Temple Run or Robot Unicorn Attack. A gamer’s character continuously runs forward, gains points via collecting items along the way, and must get as far as possible before succumbing to obstacles, enemies, or time. Though Cookie Run’s game mechanics are similar to its counterparts in the U.S., the monetization strategy is markedly different.

Cookie Run is free to download and is ad free. Gamers can upgrade their characters or purchase special power-ups as they would in Temple Run, but the key differentiator is Cookie Run’s pay-to-play strategy.

Cookie Run limits the number of consecutive games a user can play. Gamers have a “heart bank”, which represents the number of runs a player has left. Players start with 5 hearts and one heart is consumed prior to each run. Once a player has spent all of his or her hearts, they have three options: buy more hearts (i.e. more game time), wait 7 minutes for another heart to generate, or send a Cookie Run invite to a friend in exchange for a heart.

The game developers essentially bank on Cookie Run’s gameplay to be so addictive that it pushes its users to share the game or make in-app purchases to continue playing. This is an interesting approach that benefits both discovery and sales for the game. While other games focus on keeping users plugged in as long as possible, Cookie Run creates a pain point for its most active users by limiting access just as a player might be one run away from beating their friend’s top score.

At first glance, it may appear a reach to correlate pay-to-play with Cookie Run’s position as 6th on the Global Top 10 list. However, if we take a closer look at the 10 games on the list, 5 are games developed by Korean game studios (Pokopang and Wind Runner are also the work of Korean studios), and every single one utilizes a pay-to-play monetization strategy.

Based on the success of pay-to-play for Korean game publishers, it wouldn’t be surprising to see this strategy adopted by other Western and Asian game studios. And though most Western developers have focused on monetizing via the initial download or on powerups and items, we already see major player King.com utilizing this strategy in Candy Crush Saga. In Western markets, Candy Crush Saga has held a top 3 sales position since January 2013. While Western developers have favored other monetization methods, pay-to-pay is clearly working to King’s Benefit, and gamers are making purchasers to ensure unlimited play time. If this trend catches on with other arcade and puzzle makers, it would be wise for Western publishers to keep an eye on Korean games for new strategies in viral growth and player monetization.(source:venturebeat)


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