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预测今后5年的四大手机游戏趋势

发布时间:2015-04-14 15:40:38 Tags:,,,

作者:Ivan Vorobeychyk

5年之前,手机和平板电脑游戏很简单。它过去的许多游戏并未被视为高端或复杂的产品,而只是一种日常生活打发时间的消遣。在2010年,分析公司Gartner曾估计有70%至80%的移动消费者应用下载量来自游戏产品。市场调研公司Mintel曾预测由于智能手机和平板电脑的普及,2010年手机和平板电脑游戏在美国销售额将达8.98亿美元。

cats-playing-fruit-ninja(from gamezebo)

cats-playing-fruit-ninja(from gamezebo)

这其中的一些流行代表作包括《愤怒的小鸟》和《水果忍者》这类休闲游戏——即你可以在地铁上或排队等着看牙医的时候体验的游戏。手机游戏行业并没有高质量的图像或处理能力,无法支持丰富的背景故事或一些更为“成熟”的游戏元素。这意味着硬核游戏玩家多数时候还是得粘在AAA主机游戏上。但今天这一切已经发生了显著变化,许多新手机游戏已经拥有电影般的音效和过去只有传统游戏才能呈现的现代图像。

过去5年手机游戏惊人的成熟发展表明未来5年这一行业将获得更巨大的创新和突破。事实上,据移动游戏营销公司AppLift及市场调研公司Newzoo预测,到2017年手机游戏收益将翻倍增长,届时将超过350亿美元。可以说随着更多用户涌入这一市场,手机游戏收益也将水涨船高。那么未来5年这一行业将出现什么趋势呢?

IP不再局限于主机领域

IP即知识产权(intellectual Property)的缩写,是指像《超级马里奥》或《光晕》那种过去仅局限于主机领域的单款游戏或系列。但是,手机游戏的未来掌握在那些优先瞄准移动设备的原创之作,而非社交或主机游戏的衍生/移植版本手中。这个趋势已经开始出现了,华纳兄弟在旧金山公司就成立了一家F2P游戏工作室,漫威也携手Kabam制作“漫威英雄”手机游戏。包括任天堂、迪士尼、EA、育碧和Square Enix在内的其他开发商也已经开始支持手机游戏业务。现在移动领域已经成为游戏行业发展最为迅速的部门,它将成为直接向用户推出新颖原创内容的默认平台。

marvel contest of champions(from gamezebo)

marvel contest of champions(from gamezebo)

手机游戏本土化更为普遍

由于智能手机和平板电脑在全球的普及,以及手机游戏在非英语地区的普遍,本土化在开发新游戏的过程中将更为重要。一款游戏要想吸引韩国、埃及等多种地区的用户,就很有必要牢记每个地区用户需求的差异,最为成功的游戏会根据当地用户群特点量身订制内容。每个国家和用户群都是独特的,手机游戏也会因此呈现更多分裂性。

成功的手机游戏将采用更多本土化操作来吸引广泛的用户群。这方面的一个例子就是针对中国市场的本土化处理,除了语言和图像之外,开发者还需要考虑到网络带宽限制和文化敏感性。成功的本土化案例包括《QuizUp》这款问答游戏,它最初只推出英语版本,后来又翻译了4种语言(德语、西班牙语、法语和葡萄牙语),该游戏也因此立即收获了2000万国际用户。

图像质量和游戏玩法更出色

graphic(from gamezebo)

graphic(from gamezebo)

智能手机近来在质量上已经开始追赶主机设备,对用户的硬件要求更少,更强大的视觉效果已经成为手机游戏的必需元素。游戏玩家也开始对自己的手机和平板电脑图像质量提出了更高的要求——这些设备的每次迭代都走向了宽屏趋势,拥有更高的屏幕分辨率,因此也能提供更优质的游戏体验。iPhone 6屏幕的清晰度就已经赶上了最新主机设备。若手机游戏未能满足这个用户期望,就有可能在未来5年处于下风。要知道手机游戏的未来与移动硬件密切相关,只要用户智能手机继续走向高端趋势,人们对拥有主机质量的手机游戏需求就不会中止。

移动设备上的虚拟现实

Virtual Reality(from gamezebo)

Virtual Reality(from gamezebo)

智能手机的普及和市场规模令手机和掌机之间的界线开始模糊。掌机持续升级并向市场推出新的迭代设备——这正是任天堂3DS的做法,移动设备显然已经成为设备投入领域的赢家。毕竟,多数人都有必要持有智能手机。主流的第三方开发者已投身手机游戏领域,常机设备的一个主要优势就在于它们仍有高级的控制方式。在未来5年里,我们将看到耳机领域所提供的虚拟现实体验取得飞速突破,最终缓解了移动设备在控制方式上的劣势。事实上,谷歌在去年就已经发布了它的虚拟现实纸盒,其功能类似于苹果最近发布的适用于iPhone的VR Headset专利。随着更为成熟和复杂游戏的出现,我们体验手机游戏所使用的设备及其提供的粘性,无疑也将随之得到发展。

有人认为手机游戏最终会取代主机游戏,在这个预言成真之前我们将看到移动设备与传统宽屏主机游戏设备之间的无缝连接。移动领域的许多创新将因更为多样化的游戏集资环境而诞生。过去政府才是市场调研和创新的推动力量,但今天推动市场变化的却是Kickstarter等集资平台及娱乐公司。影视领域之外的娱乐行业持续发展与繁荣,推动游戏产品创造大量收益,这也正是未来的游戏获得集资的方式。(本文由游戏邦编译,转载请注明来源,或咨询微信zhengjintiao)

What to Expect: Mobile Gaming in 5 Years

Ivan Vorobeychyk

Five years ago, mobile and tablet gaming was simplistic. Incredibly popular as it was, many of the games weren’t considered high-end or sophisticated but rather served the purpose of killing time between daily activities. In 2010, analyst firm Gartner estimated that 70 to 80 percent of all mobile consumer applications downloaded are mobile games. Market research firm Mintel forecasted that mobile phone and tablet gaming sales in the U.S. reached $898 million in 2010, more than doubling since 2005, primarily due to the ubiquity of smartphones and tablets.

Some of the most popular titles included casual games like Angry Birds or Fruit Ninja – games you could play on the subway or while waiting to see your dentist. The mobile game industry didn’t have the quality graphics or processing power to allow for fully-fleshed back stories or some of the more “mature” components of gaming. This meant that hardcore gamers, for the most part, tended to stick with AAA console titles. That’s changed considerably now, with many new titles being released with assets like theatrical soundtracks and current-gen graphics that were once reserved only for traditional gaming.

The dramatic maturity of mobile gaming over the last five years is a good indication that the next five years promises to bring about an even bigger explosion of innovation and growth. In fact, according to a report from mobile game marketing firm AppLift and market researcher Newzoo, mobile games revenue is expected to double to more than $35 billion by 2017. It’s safe to say that the prestige of mobile games will only increase as more people flock to it and the revenue flows in. So what should be expected in the next five years?

IP’s aren’t just for the consoles

No, this isn’t Marvel vs Capcom — it’s an original mobile game from Kabam tied to a huge IP.
An IP, or Intellectual Property, is an individual franchise or series like Super Mario Bros or Halo that have historically played in just the console space. However, the future of mobile gaming lies with new and original titles coming exclusively to mobile first, rather than being ports or spin-offs of social or console games. This trend has already begun, with Warner Brothers opening a F2P studio in San Francisco and Marvel partnering with Kabam to produce the “Contest of Champions” mobile game. Many other developers such as Nintendo, Disney, EA, Ubisoft and Square Enix, have already pledged support for mobile moving forward. Now that mobile is the fastest-growing sector in the game industry, it will become the de facto platform to bring new and original content straight into the hands of users.

More Localization for mobile games

With the ubiquity of smartphone and tablet use worldwide and the extreme popularity of mobile gaming in non-U.S. countries, localization will become even more important when producing new games. If a game wants to attract users from regions as varied as South Korea to Egypt, it’s imperative to remember that each user base is looking for something slightly different, and the most successful games will tailor games to the local user base.  Each country and each audience is unique, and mobile games will become more fragmented to reflect that.

Successful mobile games will implement more localization into their titles to appeal to a vast array of audiences. An example of this happening is China, where localization is extremely important because not only do language and graphics matter, but so do factors like bandwidth limit and cultural sensitivity. An example of successful localization includes QuizUp, a trivia game that started off with just English and then localized into four languages (German, Spanish, French and Portugese), and immediately, its user growth jumped to 20 million international users. This kind of growth means that other games will follow suit, many of which already have begun.

Quality of graphics, game play will all get much better

AG Drive might be gorgeous, but imagine where we’ll be in five years.
Enhanced visual effects have become de rigueur in mobile games, as smartphones have recently been able to keep up with consoles in terms of quality and offer less hardware commitment for the consumer. Gamers now expect quality graphics on their mobile phones and tablets – as they get bigger and continue to improve screen resolution with every new iteration, resulting in an even better gaming experience. The clarity of an iPhone 6 screen, for example, is already up to par with the latest consoles. Mobile games that do not keep up with this newfound customer expectation will be left behind in the resulting 5 years. Considering that the future of mobile gaming is inextricably tied to mobile hardware, the quest for console-quality mobile games will continue to increase as user’s smartphones become more sophisticated.
Virtual Reality on Mobile

samsunggearvr

With the immense size and popularity of smartphones today, it isn’t much of a stretch to say the line between mobile phones and handheld consoles are blurring. As handheld consoles continue to improve and launch new iterations into the market – a maneuver Nintendo has famously perfected with the 3DS – mobile is the clear winner in terms of device investment. After all, most people feel they need a smartphone in this day and age. With major third-party developers committing to the mobile games space, the one key advantage that handhelds still have are superior controls. Over the next 5 years, we’re going to see major leaps and bounds in the segment of headsets offering a virtual reality experience; ultimately alleviating the stigma of mobile’s control-based shortcomings.  In fact, last year, Google released its cardboard headset that also holds a smartphone in front of the eyes in a similar way to Apple’s recently uncovered VR Headset patent which is built to specifically accommodate an iPhone. With more mature and complex games on the horizon, the devices we use to interact with our mobile games and the engagement they deliver, will surely have to evolve accordingly.

Some believe that mobile will take over console gaming, but before that can happen we will see  the seamless connectivity between mobile devices and traditional devices such as large screens and console gaming devices. A lot of this innovation on mobile will likely be bolstered by a more varied funding environment for gaming. Government used to be the driving force of research and innovation, but today it’s happening on funding platforms like Kickstarter and from entertainment companies. As entertainment continues to grow and flourish beyond movies and TV, millions of dollars are generated toward gaming franchises, and that’s how the future of gaming will likely be funded.(source:gamezebo


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