Introduction: The Friday issue of foreign media said that the game has become an important part of the Facebook business. This year, Facebook's focus in this area will be on "fever-level games" such as action games, shooting games and instant strategy games.
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Fever-Level games rise
San Francisco startup, game developer Nway last year launched a sci-fi-style fighting game, "Chronoblade", on the Facebook platform. The company thought the game would be a big success. NWay CEO Dave Dave Jones, who has been involved in the development of the famous game "Grand Theft Auto", said: "First people will feel," Wow, I can't imagine developing this quality game on Facebook. ”
But Jones admits that potential investors and partners have questioned: on Facebook, a picture-like action game attracts players accustomed to casual games such as Farmville. Others ask how "Chronoblade" builds a player group on social networking platforms and gets revenue.
But Facebook believes Nway and other game developers will have the ability to get action games out of the mainframe platform and into Facebook's social network this year. In 2013, Facebook plans to launch 10 high-quality games developed by third-party companies aimed at "fever-level players". Previously, many of the casual games introduced by Zynga and other companies ignored the player group.
Facebook started work last year, and 2013 will be a year of accelerated projects. Facebook is trying to ensure that its more than 1 billion users spend more time on the site, boosting its advertising revenues, and that such games are part of the strategy. Facebook will also be split from the revenue from these games.
In January of this year, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden met with a number of companies developing first-person shooter games to discuss how to combat gun violence after the Connecticut State school shootings in the United States. According to the experience of the host gaming industry, a fever-level player is usually 18-30 years old and spends more time mastering game skills. Such games include shooting games such as Microsoft's Halo and instant strategy games like Blizzard StarCraft.
"In the next two quarters and even this year, you will see a series of games that will change the concept of Facebook," said Sean Ryan, head of Facebook's game co-Sien Rien. He says Facebook will offer a variety of types of games, such as first-person shooter, MMOGs, and instant strategy games, which will involve more interaction between players.
Mr Jones says Facebook can promote gaming by promoting the formation of players ' communities from a social level, as they interact more online and form alliances in multiplayer games, such as Xbox Live.
Large player Group
Facebook currently has 1.06 billion active subscribers, with more than 1/4 users playing games. This is the largest player group in the industry, and Facebook wants the game to continue to grow on the platform.
Facebook plans to get more revenue from games. In Wednesday, Facebook said revenues from the gaming business remained flat in the fourth quarter of last year. Many Facebook games earn revenue from selling virtual goods, and Facebook collects 30% of the revenue from those sales.
David Ebersman, the Facebook CFO, said in a Wednesday earnings call that Facebook's "game ecosystem continues to show a David Ebersmann of health signals". He believes Facebook will get more gaming revenue as the user's participation increases.
To drive the growth of the game business, Facebook must invest time and resources in working with game developers, Leon said. Since last summer, U4ia launched the first-person shooter, offensive combat, on the Facebook platform, while Plaruim launched the instant strategy game Stormfall:age of War.
"This does not mean that we will give up other types of games, but there is no doubt that our 2013 focus will be on providing a better platform for a fever-level game and its developers," he said. ”
To help users discover these games, Facebook added "action and strategy game" types to the app center and showed friends the Games the user was playing. In addition, Facebook also provides the ability to notify in-game messages. This feature has been annoying to users, but Facebook has limited functionality to avoid spamming by game developers.
Game developers can also use Word-of-mouth campaigns and Facebook advertising platforms to lure potential players. Gabi Shalel, chief marketing officer at Plarium, says Stormfall now has 4.5 million players, while the Fever-level game is proving more appealing. He points out: "Fever-level players spend more money, play more games, compared to traditional casual gamers can bring higher average revenue per user." ”
Kixeye, the developer of the strategy game War Commander, says the company spends 20 times times more money on its gamers than social gamers, making it profitable for the past 3 years.
Nway's Jones says Facebook will have to launch a decisive game in the future, making it a truly important choice for a fever-level player to play the game. "It's like Super Mario to Nintendo and Halo to Microsoft, and I think Facebook has to launch such a game to make it all the basis," he says. ”