在Facebook的社交游戏江湖中，世界领先的游戏巨头育碧公司（Ubisoft）却甚少作为，不但没有重量级的作品，每月活跃用户也只是区区230万人而已。虽然远落后于美国劲敌艺电公司（Electronic Arts，简称EA，收购Playfish公司后其社交游戏成绩斐然），不过却比另一竞争对手THQ占优，因为后者至今还没有向该市场发力。

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为打破僵局，成为这一领域的主将，育碧正加大扩张步伐。目前该公司发行的游戏包括《Party Central》、《Castle & Co》等单机游戏，以及《Assassin’s Creed ：Project Legacy》、《Petz World》等跨平台游戏。

另外还结合现实元素，与CBS（美国哥伦比亚广播公司）共同推出了一款以热门电视剧《犯罪现场调查》（CSI: Crime Scene Investigation，全世界收看观众超过7000万人）为脚本的Facebook游戏《CSI: Crime City》，玩家可以根据个人喜好，在游戏中重新设定原有的电视情节。比较罕见的是，该游戏的主要剧情也由同名电视剧的编剧亲自操刀。

日前，育碧数码发行副总裁克里斯·尔力（Chris Early）在insidesocialgames记者的采访中，谈到了育碧在社交游戏市场的发展情况。下文为访谈内容：

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问：育碧的社交游戏发展情况如何？

从跨平台发展角度来讲，育碧一直很有创新，敢于冒险，不惧新挑战。在这一领域，我们已经尝试了多款游戏，但多数都不是很成功。社交游戏与传统硬核游戏开发确实不同，但我们已经有26个内部开发工作室了，所以不会走收购社交游戏公司的捷径来实现市场目标。

问：会打造专门用于开发社交游戏的工作室吗？

我们工作室各不相同，但拥有共同的知识产权，所以不会建立一站式的开发工作室。所幸我们规模宠大，所以在分工协作效率上占有优势。比如说Blue Byte工作室专注于《工人物语》系列（Settlers）的开发，那么他们就会继续在该领域发挥作用。

问：你们曾参表示育碧推出的跨平台游戏发展策略比较独特，与这一领域的多数公司大有区别。请问育碧关注的重点是什么？游戏营收、用户规模还是其他要素？

我们的跨平台游戏发展策略确实不同，我们要求每款跨平台发展的游戏都能独立提供游戏体验。比如说《刺客信条》（Assassin’s Creed）或《仓鼠群》（Hamsterz）两款游戏，都已自成体系，不会影响游戏体验。它们是单机游戏时，玩起来很有趣，如果你从来没有玩过这一类型的其他游戏，也仍然可以通过这款游戏消遣、娱乐。让游戏更新鲜有趣，这就是我们推出跨平台发展策略的初衷。不过如何实现这一目标，如何让每款游戏创收，就是另一回事了。每款游戏都有可能是创造利润或导致亏损的起源。

问：是否有意通过Facebook将《刺客信条》的硬核游戏版本介绍给更多社交游戏玩家，还是说希望将该游戏的Facebook版本推荐给更多《刺客信条》的铁杆粉丝？

我们的目标不是为Facebook造势，而是扩大育碧游戏品牌的影响力，为用户提供丰富的游戏体验。如果你不了解《刺客信条》的有关情况，那么这款游戏无论开发什么版本，对你来说意义都不大。

问：对那些非跨平台发展的育碧游戏，比如说《Wine Country》和《工人物语》系列，你有何看法？这些游戏大多不算成功，是否认为育碧已经落后了呢？

并不是所有的工作室都能破解Facebook社交游戏的成功开发秘诀。育碧旗下的工作室都是传统游戏开发团队，之前主攻硬核游戏，不过现在也都在学习新领域的知识。回想当初，不少游戏工作室开发手机游戏时，虽然创造了真正重量级的手机游戏作品，但事实证明根本行不通，因为他们只是将硬核游戏生硬地搬到了手机平台，不过最后大家还是开窍了。

问：是否认为育碧是一个创新者？

我个人认为，以育碧目前的实力，我们还可以进行大量的创新尝试。

问：《CSI: Crime City》这款游戏进展如何？与电视剧有何联系？

我们与CBS的合作很有意思，CSI是一个拥有成百上千万名观众的知名电视品牌，所以我们比较担心游戏的流量，在网络基础设备方面做了大量准备。

这款游戏的脚本作者就是电视编剧，目前他们仍独立于该电视剧。游戏玩家可以将电视剧情或内容套用到我们这款游戏中。

问：对其他社交游戏公司来说，玩家行为和数据的分析非常关键，育碧在这方面有何对策？

首要步骤就是找到了解这方面情况的行家。在此之前，分析师和经济家都不是传统游戏公司的必备人员，但我们的工作平台现在正招募这类人才，软件开发离不开分析平台。

问：你们的游戏似乎并不太关注互动共享和病毒式传播渠道，是不是育碧开发者有意回避了这一营销手段？

我们没有一款游戏的推广是采用不请自来的侵入性传播手段，但这并不是我们约定俗成的政策，而是取决于设计者本人的理念。如果从整体角度来看这些游戏，问题就来了，怎样才能为这些游戏创造一个与用户相关的互动渠道？比如说，你向我发送了《刺客信条》中的最新情报，那么这个操作对我来说就是积极有意义的，但如果发送给我妈，那就是另一回事了。

不过随着时间的推移，我们会在《Project Legacy》游戏中增加更多病毒式传播、营收渠道等元素。我们认为每款游戏都要有一个可靠的运营计划，和社交游戏的本质一样，这款游戏本身还会不断升级进化。

问：和多数Facebook游戏不太一样，《Project Legacy》因为有不同的游戏目标，所以看起来似乎更有趣，请问你们的玩家有何反应？

我们的调查显示，用户在每一个游戏环节都使尽浑身解数勇闯难关。所以对我来说，这也意味着我们确实为玩家创造了一款优秀、具有吸引力的游戏。

问：《Project Legacy》和《Hamsterz Worldwide》这两款跨平台游戏之间有何区别？

这些游戏的跨平台运行主要是针对个人用户而言，比如说我要在掌机、Facebook还是在手机平台玩游戏，选择权都在我自己手里。《Petz World》这款MMO游戏的目标用户是8到14岁的少儿群体，但现在我们扩大了用户群体，爷爷奶奶、爸爸妈妈、兄弟姐妹等都可以参与游戏。但我不会为这款游戏开发出采用同种跨平台机制的Facebook版本，因为它的主要目标用户并不聚集在Facebook网站上。

问：家长是否可以通过《仓鼠群》游戏监察孩子在《Petz World》中的活动？

我比较喜欢称为“了解”而不是“监察”。比如说，我的儿子Alex在游戏中放出自己的宠物，从金字塔中救出了一只小猫。他就可以从中学到，金字塔的建造者是谁，埃及的有关史实，猫在埃及如此盛行的原因等知识。游戏的意义在于向儿童介绍了相关知识，也为成人与子女创造了彼此沟通的话题。例如，我可以对Alex说，你在电脑上用了多长时间开启了我的金字塔，你在比赛中的表现很棒之类的话。我还没见过其他采用这种互动机制的游戏。

问：育碧目前已开发的作品是什么？

育碧已经发行了10款左右的游戏，这当然不是我们开发的所有作品数量。对我来说，这10款作品已经足以表明我们拥有大量的用户群。这不是一股盲目跟风的冲动，我们在手机和Facebook领域都会保持冲劲。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译）

Interview: Ubisoft’s Chris Early on Moving Into Social Games

In the odd world of Facebook, gaming giant Ubisoft is small fry. With just 2.3 million monthly active users and no big hits, Ubisoft is substantially behind competitor Electronic Arts, which boosted its own figures by acquiring Playfish, but ahead of competitors like THQ that haven’t yet put significant effort into social gaming.

Ubisoft is working hard on furthering its strategy, though, with an eye toward becoming a major player. Its releases so far include both stand-alone games like Party Central and Castle & Co, and “companion” games for core titles like Assassin’s Creed (Project Legacy) and Petz World (whose companion will be the upcoming title Hamsterz).

Yet another initiative is gaming with real-world tie-ins. Ubisoft’s newest title, CSI: Crime City, allows players to reenact the plots of the popular CSI series of television shows, which has over 70 million viewers worldwide. In a unique twist, the game’s episodes are created by the show’s writers.

We sat down with digital publishing head Chris Early to hear more about where Ubisoft is headed in the social game market.

ISG: Where does Ubisoft stand with social gaming?

Chris Early: Historically, Ubisoft has been very innovative from a platform standpoint. They’ve consistently been risk takers, and willing to go forward with new platforms. With this space, we’ve tried a number of games so far, and most of them haven’t been that successful. It’s a bit further afield from core game development. We’re not taking the route of buying a big player, since we’ve got 26 internal studios.

ISG: Will you have specialized studios that focus on social games?

CE: In many cases you’ll see that we develop an IP across multiple studios based on their expertise, so I don’t think we’re going to see one-stop shops in development. Fortunately we’re at the scale where we can have some efficiencies of scale. Blue Byte in particular is particularly focused on the Settlers franchise, so they’ll keep developing expertise in the space.

ISG: With companion gaming you’ve indicated a different direction from most companies in the space. What’s important to Ubisoft? Is it revenue, large player audiences, or something else?

CE: I think it will be somewhat different [for us]. When we talk about companion gaming, each game has to be an experience on its own. When we look at Assassin’s Creed or Hamsterz, each will be experiences on their own. They’re stand alone, fun to play, and if you never play any other game in that franchise you’ll still gave a good time. That’s our primary mission, to make a game that’s fun. How do you go from there, how do we monetize each game? Each game is looked at as a profit or loss center.

ISG: Do you aspire to bring new players to the core Assassin’s Creed franchise through Facebook? Or the opposite, to bring Assassin’s Creed players to Facebook?

CE: Our objective is not to increase Facebook’s reach, it’s to increase your experience of the brand and have something meaningful in the experience. If you don’t know the Assassin’s Creed lore, that game doesn’t mean as much.

ISG: What about the titles that aren’t companion games, like Wine Country or Settlers? Most haven’t done well so far — do you feel like Ubisoft is behind?

CE: Not every studio has unlocked the secrets of how to most effectively make games based on the Facebook social mechanic. These are traditional dev teams that have been working on core games,

and they’re learning something new. Think back to when studios tried to make mobile games, and you had all these folks who made real heavyweight mobile games that just didn’t work, because they were trying to make a core game on a mobile platform. But eventually they figured it out.

ISG: Do you see Ubisoft as an innovator?

CE: From my standpoint, the beauty is that with our size we can try a bunch of different initiatives.

ISG: What’s happening with CSI: Crime City? Are there tie-ins to the show?

CE: The fun thing from our standpoint is that we have a great partner in CBS. [CSI] is a significant brand with tens of millions of worldwide users. We’re a little worried about the traffic, so we’re taking significant preparations on the infrastructure side, because we don’t know how fast things will go.

The people writing the game’s cases are the writers from the show. To date they’re independent from the show. Where do we go from here? It would be great for players to learn something from the show that they can apply in the game.

ISG: Analytics and understanding player behavior are key for other social companies. How is Ubisoft handling that?

CE: The prerequisite first step is to find people that understand that. If you look back historically, analysts and economists aren’t part of a traditional game company. If you look on our job boards, we’re hiring for those. There’s definitely software development going on in the background [on an analytics platform].

ISG: I’ve noticed that your games so far haven’t been very pushy about sharing and viral channels. Do your developers shy away from that?

CE: If you look at our games, not one of them is excessively intrusive. That’s not a corporate policy, it’s about who designed them. If you want to look at them from a corporate standpoint, the question is, how do we create relevant communications? You want to send me information about what’s going on in my Assassin’s Creed games, that’s relevant. I don’t know that my mom wants to see that.

To be fair, I think you’ll see more viral elements in Project Legacy as time goes on, and monetization elements. Every game we look at has to have a viable business plan as part of it. But the game will continue to evolve as is the nature of social network games in itself.

ISG: Project Legacy seems interesting because it has different aims than most Facebook games. What sort of behavior are you seeing from players?

Our metrics show that people are using their energy completely in each play session. So to me that says, we’ve provided a good, engaging experience that’s kept by the energy element.

ISG: What’s the difference between a companion game like Project Legacy and Hamsterz Worldwide?

CE: So far we’ve talked about companion gaming from an individual standpoint. I’ll play on my console, Facebook, phone, but it’s all back to me. With Petz World we’re extending it to related people as well. Grandma and grandpa, dad and mom, brother and sister become part of the experience. It is all focused around Petz World, the core MMO targeted at eight to 14 year old kids, and it branches out from there. Do I want to create a Facebook game about the same mechanics? I don’t, because those kids aren’t on Facebook.

ISG: So will parents use Hamsterz to have oversight of what their kids are doing in Petz World?

CE: I’d call it being informed, but not having oversight. [For example,] Alex, my son, took his pet out and rescued a cat from the pyramids. Here’s the thing your child learned: they learned who built the pyramids and what some of the facts were around Egypt, why the was cat so popular in Egypt? It’s meant to introduce a point of information that can create a conversation relevant to the game moment. It moves gaming from, Alex, you spent how long in front of the computer, to thanks for unlocking my pyramids, you did great on your quizzes. The child chooses when to transmit it to the adult. I don’t see that interaction anywhere else.

ISG: What does Ubisoft have in development now?

We’ve released I think ten or so titles at this point, and that’s certainly not all the titles we have in development. If you think about the fact that ten titles have been released, I’d say it’s a significant number of people. It’s more than a passing fad. We’re doing a strong push on both mobile and Facebook.（source:insidesocialgames）