BDLabs主管Mark Caplan谈使IP游戏大受欢迎的行业趋势

原作者：Brendan Sinclair 译者：Vivian Xue

BDLabs的主管Mark Caplan多年来与IP游戏打交道，期间他见证了不少流行IP和游戏开发商的结合，效果天差地别。当他在1993年加入福克斯的特许经营与周边产品销售部时，该公司刚完成了一个两年计划，制作了不下八款辛普森游戏。在Mark职业生涯早期，他制作了一些广受好评的IP游戏（发行于早期家用游戏机雅达利猛虎上的《异形大战铁血战士》）以及一些……不太理想的游戏（同样在雅达利猛虎上发行的《黑白游龙》）。

最近，Caplan在GamesIndustry.biz的采访中谈到，昔日的IP授权现象在行业内越发普遍。如今的一些热门游戏都是IP游戏，比如《蝙蝠侠》、《星球大战》、《指环王》、《行尸走肉》或《蜘蛛侠》。大IP对于消费者来说不再像几十年前那般引人注目了。

“从前，游戏往往被当作人们的一种爱好，”Caplan说，“而制作人、导演和创作人对游戏行业秉持不同的观点，他们认为‘噢，这或许是另一个能让孩子们迷恋上我的角色的领域。’但那时他们还未真正意识到社区的价值。我觉得如今一切都反了过来，在粉丝效应的影响下变成了玩家牵着游戏走。如果你观察现在的游戏，你会发现玩家的批判意识更强了；他们期待游戏能带给他们良好的体验。”

一路走来，Caplan见证了人们态度的转变。在福克斯工作了几年后他跳槽到索尼公司，参与制作了《蜘蛛侠》、《捉鬼敢死队》以及《蓝精灵》等大型游戏。在索尼工作的第二十个年头他成为了公司全球消费产品部门副总裁，负责游戏IP授权以及大量其他工作。

然而，职责的拓宽使他脱离了游戏开发与发行工作，这个令他真正享受并能更好地施展才华的领域。因此几年前，他辞职加入了BDLabs。BDLabs将自己定位为一个全球娱乐业务发展公司，但简单来说，它的大部分业务围绕连接IP持有者以及被授权方，比如帮助《爆裂枪战》（Guns of Boom）的开发商Game Insight寻找游戏IP，以及与玩具公司Spin Master合作将他们的核心品牌之一打造成游戏。

那么是什么使得IP游戏变得更为优质呢？尽管它们并没有全部被认可，但其中某些因素被公认为对游戏开发起了积极作用。

“随着游戏主机的更新换代，开发成本上升了，风险也随之升高，”Caplan说，“比起上个世纪90年代，2000年后的游戏开发成本急剧上升，开发预算超过了1000万美金、2000万美金……对于主机游戏，把所有的开发和营销资金压在IP上有点冒险。”

由于投资门槛提高，IP游戏的数量下降。但与此同时，一些大型IP游戏发行后获得了丰厚的回报，这让高昂的成本显得合理许多，于是一些电影和电视剧创作者开始对游戏的商业价值改观，认为这是一个值得他们投入时间和资金的产业。Caplan参与了其中的一些项目，比如Tobey Maguire主演的《蜘蛛侠》三部曲同名游戏。从制作第一部由2002年电影改编的游戏开始，Caplan对电影制作人们的高度参与感到震撼。

“我们开了无数场会议，不仅同游戏的制作人，还有《蜘蛛侠》导演Sam Raimi，电影《阿维阿拉德》制作人Kevin Feige以及其它人进行会谈，向他们宣传介绍游戏的制作理念，”Caplan说。

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显然电影界的人士格外重视这个游戏项目。在说服下，Raimi才同意扩大角色阵容，在游戏版本中加入其它的反派例如秃鹫、蝎子和惊悚。开发者们还受邀参观了电影中一些关键场景的拍摄地点以了解电影的风格和基调。甚至连电影主演Tobey Maguire都参与进来为游戏配音，并且他对这份工作十分投入。

“他完全沉浸在其中，”Caplan说，“在我们和制片人的指导下，他在录音棚里完成了对角色的演绎，过程很自然。这让我感到演员和导演们是真正想要参与到制作中。因为他们非常在意产出的效果……他们让我看到了游戏的潜力。当Sam Raimi说‘我了解这个游戏行业，我了解游戏镜头将呈现的质量’时我充满了信心。”

自那时起，顶尖创意人才参与游戏制作的热情高涨。在2009年的《捉鬼敢死队》（Ghostbusters）同名游戏制作过程中，Caplan帮忙争取到了电影的原班人马。由于当时这个电影系列在市场上销声已久，在主演Dan Akroyd, Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, Ernie Hudson和Annie Potts对前两部中角色的重新演绎下，这款游戏基本相当于第三部电影。演员们甚至得到了原始导演Ivan Reitman的祝福。

“据我回忆，鼓励其他主演加入游戏制作的其实是Dan Akroyd，”Caplan说，“游戏制作方表示他们只有在获得演员的前提下才会制作这款游戏，因此我们需要做的就是说服演员经纪人们，使他们相信这是一次让《捉鬼敢死队》阵容回归的大好机会。‘我们知道这不是电影，《捉鬼敢死队》多年来一直以电影的形式出现在大众视野中，但是我们可以把它做成一个游戏，并且我们可以把它做好。’”

Akroyd, Murray和Ramis都为故事线的发展做了贡献或是编写了剧本，Caplan认为与以往那种授权方抛下一句“嘿，把它做成个游戏吧18个月后见”相比，这种参与程度更加有分量。

事实上，这些影界大咖们对项目的重视度超越了发行商。《捉鬼敢死队》一开始是Sierra Entertainment的项目，但2008年Sierra被并入动视暴雪后，这个游戏就被他们搁置了。（后来Atari从动视暴雪手中买走了这个游戏以及另一个被遗弃的游戏《超时空战警：暗黑雅典娜》的改编权，并在2009年发行了这两个游戏）

并非所有Caplan合作过的授权方都能清醒认识到IP与游戏捆绑的重要性。他遇到的第一批能够充分了解游戏改编可能性的IP持有者是Wheel of Fortune 和Jeopardy的制作方。（二者均为美国著名的电视游戏节目，游戏邦注）

“电视节目的制作人们对这部改编游戏充满了激情，我不得不为之赞叹，”Caplan说，“他们不断鼓励我们和开发者去还原节目中的每一个元素，包括提问的节奏、答案以及所有在Wheel和Jeopardy中出现的谜题。我认为这促使我们把游戏做得更好。”

创意人士加入游戏制作自然是IP游戏领域发生的一个重大变化，但它只是其中之一。所有重塑整个游戏行业的周期性趋势明显也影响了IP游戏。并且这改变了开发商和IP持有者们对待彼此的方式。

“新平台数量的增长使更多开发者有机会进入市场并创作自己的IP，或者使发行商能够内部投资自己的IP，”Caplan解释道，“市场上的机会越来越多，然而真正需要通过获取IP来推动商业发展的公司是有限的……IP的数量成千上万，但是由于自主开发和持有的情况变多了，如今的公司对IP更加挑剔。”

本文由游戏邦编译，转载请注明来源，或咨询微信zhengjintiao

Over the course of his career working in licensed video games, BDLabs principal Mark Caplan has seen some of the best and worst of what the union of a popular brand and a game developer can produce. When he started on Fox’s licensing and merchandising team in 1993, the company was just coming off a two-year span in which it produced no fewer than eight licensed Simpsons games. Early on in his career, he worked on licensed game projects that were particularly well regarded (Alien vs. Predator on the Atari Jaguar) and ones that were… less so (White Men Can’t Jump on the Atari Jaguar).

Speaking with GamesIndustry.biz recently, Caplan said the former type of licensed project has become far more common in the industry. Some of the biggest franchises in gaming now are licensed projects, whether it’s Batman, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, The Walking Dead, or Spider-Man. Big licenses are no longer the red flag for consumers that they were several decades ago.

“At that point in time, the games industry was looked at more as a hobby for people, in my opinion,” Caplan said. “And I think producers, directors, and creators looked at the game industry much differently then. ‘Oh, it’s another area where perhaps kids are going to engage my characters.’ But they didn’t really see the value of the community back then. I think now everything has been flipped on its side. It’s all a continual evolution in terms of where fans went. If you look at the games that are made now, there’s a lot more critical awareness from the consumer; they expect the game to be a great experience.”

Caplan has seen those attitudes change every step of the way. After a few years at Fox, he jumped to Sony Pictures Entertainment where he helped produce games for big names like Spider-Man, Ghostbusters, and The Smurfs. At the end of his two-decade stint there, Caplan was senior vice president of global consumer products and in charge of a lot more than just game licensing.

However, that broader remit also took him away from working with game developers and publishers, an area he personally enjoyed that was also where he felt he had the most to offer. So a couple years ago, he left to join BDLabs. It bills itself as a global entertainment business development company, but in plainer terms, much of its work involves connecting IP owners and licensing partners, whether it be helping Guns of Boom developer Game Insight find IPs to use in their games or working with toy company Spin Master to bring one of their core brands to games.

So what happened to make licensed games better? A few things, not all of them universally regarded as positive developments.

“As the console business evolved, the cost of development increased, and the risk factor grew,” Caplan said. “The cost of a game back in the ’90s is so much less than the cost of a game in the 2000s, when development budgets were going over $10 million, over $20 million… Licenses became a little too risky on the console side to pour in all the development and marketing dollars.”

With a larger buy-in required, the quantity of licensed projects dropped. But at the same time, there were just enough big licensed games that released and justified those spiralling budgets that film and TV creators began to see games as a valuable commodity worth their time and investment. Caplan worked on a few of those himself, like the Spider-Man games based on the trilogy of moves starring Tobey Maguire as the wall-crawler. Right from the beginning with the adaptation of the 2002 film, Caplan was struck by the way the filmmakers wanted to be involved in the process.

“We had countless roundtable meetings, not only with the game producers but with the film director Sam Raimi, producers of the film Avi Arad, Kevin Feige, and others to pitch the concept,” Caplan said.

It was clear the creatives on the film side were taking the game project seriously. Raimi needed to be persuaded to allow the game to go beyond the film’s cast of characters and bring in other Spider-Man villains like Vulture, Scorpion, and the Shocker. (He did.) The developers were invited to the set during the filming of some key scenes so they could get a feeling for the film’s temperament and tone. Even the on-camera talent got involved, as Tobey Maguire came in for a voice-over session and treated it like more than a contractual obligation.

“He was totally into it,” Caplan said. “It was totally natural for him to act as Spider-Man in a sound studio with some direction from us and the producers. That gave me the sense that yeah, talent and directors do want to be involved. Because they care about the output… I saw the potential with Spider-Man. I saw the potential of a Sam Raimi saying, ‘Yeah, I know this game industry. I know the digital lens that games are coming to in terms of quality.’”

The willingness of top creative talent to get involved with games grew from there. For 2009′s Ghostbusters: The Video Game, Caplan helped get the cast of the original on board. With the film franchise long-since dormant at the time, Dan Akroyd, Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, Ernie Hudson, and Annie Potts all reprised their roles from the first two Ghostbusters for a game that would essentially serve as a third movie. They even got the blessing of original director Ivan Reitman.

“From what I recall, it was really Dan Akroyd who pushed the rest of the group to get involved,” Caplan said. “The producers of the game decided they were only going to do the game if they had the talent, so what I had to do was go meet with the talent agents to convince them it was an opportunistic thing for the folks as well. We had to go back to the agents and convince them we had this really great opportunity to bring the band back together. ‘We know it’s not a movie, it’s been years since there was a movie, but we can do it in a game and we can do it right.’”

Akroyd, Murray, and Ramis all contributed to the storyline or wrote the scripts for the game, a level of participation that Caplan said “carried a lot more weight than just a licensor saying, ‘Hey just go make a game and we’ll see you in 18 months.’”

In fact, the big-name film talent turned out to be more committed to the project than the publisher. The Ghostbusters game was originally a Sierra Entertainment project, but when Sierra was subsumed in the 2008 Activision Blizzard merger, its new parent company dropped the game. (Atari scooped it up, along with another abandoned licensed title in Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena, and published them both in 2009.)

Not every big license Caplan worked with needed to have an awakening about the importance of its gaming tie-ins. The first IP holders he ever worked with that fully understood the possibilities of gaming adaptations were the people behind Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy.

“The producers of the shows have a very obvious passion for what their product is in the end, and I have to give them a lot of credit,” Caplan said. “They pushed us and the developers to really make sure every element of the game matched specifically what happened on the show, in terms of the cadence of the questions, the answers, the puzzles for both Wheel and Jeopardy. And it just really made for a better product, in my opinion.”

The willingness of creatives to get involved in games has certainly been a sea change in the field of licensed games, but it’s far from the only one. All of the trends that regularly re-shape the games industry at large are obviously impacting licensed projects as well. And that’s changing the way developers and IP holders deal with one another.

“The proliferation of all these new platforms has given the opportunity for more developers to come into the mix and create their own IPs, or for publishers to invest internally with their own IPs,” Caplan explained. “It’s a bigger ocean of opportunities, yet it’s a more finite group of companies that actually feel like they need a license to move their business forward… There are a ton of IPs but companies are a lot more selective in this day and age due to developing and owning their own a little bit more.”（source：GamesIndustry.biz ）