行业人士分析游戏开发商如何逆向推动平台进步

行业人士分析游戏开发商如何逆向推动平台进步

原作者：Dean Takahashi 译者：Vivian Xue

昨晚，《精灵宝可梦Go》的开发商Niantic宣布参投DigiLens，一家AR全息显示器制造商。游戏开发商和发行商投资新兴技术公司并不常见，不过Niantic此举是有意义的，因为公司CEO John Hanke坚信AR设备将使他们的游戏更出众。

我们都知道游戏推动了技术进步。但Niantic用行动证明了游戏开发商能够成为技术进步的推动者，有时他们的力量甚至超过了提供游戏设备的大公司。在这个案例中，一家足够强大的开发商能够自己推动技术发展。

2000年初，《半条命》开发商Valve不满于电子分销流程，决定建立他们自己的数字分销服务和在线商店Steam。多年后Steam成为了巨头平台，为开发商提供接触庞大的PC玩家群体的机会。他们扩大了PC游戏市场。

Team Fortress 2(from steamcommunity)

同时，为了摆脱微软Windows系统，Valve曾经尝试过生产自己的游戏主机Steam Machine，不过这款被寄予厚望的产品从未成功过。

但在Steam商店里，Valve仍然坐享30%的游戏收入分成，而在steam建立16周年后，开发者们正讨论着如何利用区块链避开支付全部或大部分费用，并且使数字下载和支付更加便捷。

Epic Games在《堡垒之夜》安卓版的发行中展现出了同样的态度。他们选择跳过谷歌商店，利用安卓的侧载功能，直接让用户在他们网站上下载《堡垒之夜》。通过这种方式，Epic无需向谷歌支付30%的抽成。

同时Epic降低了虚幻商城的抽成，将开发者的分成从70%提升到88%。

“《堡垒之夜》最成功的地方是它为Epic带来了巨大的数字化商业，” 当我今年八月采访Epic公司的CEO Tim Sweeney时他说道，“如今我们能够高效地运作这种商业。我们能够处理好付款流程，提供用户支持，足够的下载带宽。我们把节省下来的钱通过虚幻商城让利给开发者。我们改变了传统的30/70收入分比，如今开发者可以拿到88%的收入。这对开发者来说是一大福利。”

他补充道，“我真心希望行业内的分销的经济效率可以进一步提升。万事达卡或维萨卡每笔交易只收取2.5%至3.5%的手续费，这些应用商店却要30%的分成，这有点过分了，他们能获得4倍甚至更多的利润。”

在上述这些案例中，开发商们都通过一个热门游戏获得了巨大的成功，从而推动全体开发者前进。Valve利用他们的收入创造了Steam、Steam Machine 和Steam VR等平台，回馈了所有开发者。

Niantic将《精灵宝可梦Go》产生的20亿美元收入投资到AR领域，这将为广大的游戏公司带来一个新平台。Epic正在利用《堡垒之夜》的销售收入做着类似的事情。

游戏开发商能掌控自己的命运是一个吸引人的想法，并且少数几个公司似乎能够做到了。 这是件好事，鉴于平台公司的消息并不总是鼓舞人心。平台制造商往往没有分享足够的财富，或者无法足够快速地创新。

但即便是最成功的开发商也很难不为自己的利益着想。许多独立开发者认为Valve通过Steam掠夺了过多的财富，他们应该和Steam上的游戏公司分享更多的利润。如今Valve就像一名“在位者”。

并且很多人希望推翻他们的统治，因为就像在政界一样，这些人不想再被踩在脚下。他们知道必须把权力掌握在自己手中，这样才能推动自己发展，为自己谋利，保住他们辛勤工作的成果。

Epic希望能开创Metaverse时代，在Metaverse中所有虚拟世界和游戏将通过开放平台彼此相连。Epic的对手，Unity Technologies同样希望开发者能够做更多的事，并且“实现游戏开发民主化”。暴雪建立了他们自己的在线游戏平台Battle.net。这样的例子还有很多。

让我们祈祷每个开发商保持纯洁的愿景，不忘初心。否则情况只会像英国老牌摇滚乐队The Who的歌曲中唱的那样，“见了新老板，跟旧的一个样” 。

不过这里还有另一个想法。也许这些开发商应该联合起来建立一个对大家都有益的平台。我昨晚碰巧参加了半导体行业协会的年会。半导体已经发展成了一个价值4500亿美元的产业，部分原因是整个行业聚集在一起，共同预测平台未来的需求、绘制技术路线图，然后他们会思考如何创造这样一个平台。Dan Hutcheson，一位来自VLSI研究公司的资深的芯片分析师告诉我，5G等其它的技术行业也在尝试做同样的事情——联合起来创造一个为共同利益而生的生态系统。

也许游戏行业也应该采取同样的做法。

本文由游戏邦编译，转载请注明来源，或咨询微信zhengjintiao

Last night, Pokèmon Go developer Niantic announced that it was investing in a round of funding for DigiLens, a maker of holographic displays for augmented reality. It was rare for a game developer and publisher to invest in a tech startup, but it made sense because Niantic CEO John Hanke really believes its games will shine on AR devices.

We all know that games push technology forward. But Niantic’s move was an interesting development because it means that game developers can be the ones doing that pushing, sometimes more so than the incumbent companies that operate the platforms upon which games are played. In this case, a game developer became so successful that it could push its own agenda forward.

Valve also tried to circumvent Microsoft Windows and create its own Steam Machines, but that effort never took off the way that Steam did.

But on the Steam store, Valve still takes a 30 percent cut of revenues, and some 16 years after its launch, developers are saying they can use blockchain-enabled digital stores to get rid of all or most of that tax and make digital downloading and payments more efficient.

Epic Games demonstrated a similar attitude when it launched Fortnite on Android mobile devices. When it did so, it chose to skip the Google Play store and instead used the side-loading capability of Android to direct users to Epic’s own web site, where they could download Fortnite. This way, Epic didn’t have to share 30 percent of its revenue with Google.

Epic is also operating its Unreal Engine Marketplace, where it allows developers to keep 88 percent of their revenue, rather than just 70 percent.

“The awesome thing about Fortnite is it’s brought a huge volume of digital commerce to Epic,” said Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic, when I interviewed him in August. “We can now do that very efficiently. We can handle payment processing and customer support and download bandwidth with some great deals. We’re passing the savings along with the Unreal Engine Marketplace. We’ve changed the royalty split from the 30/70 you see everywhere to developers getting 88 percent. We find that’s a great boon for developers.”

He added, “I really hope there’s a better trend in the industry toward economic efficiency in distribution. Mastercard or Visa will process payments for 2.5 percent or 3.5 percent per transaction. These stores taking 30 percent is just out of line. There’s a 4X profit margin or more.”

In each of these cases, a developer became successful enough because of a big game, and it allowed them to push the collective cause of developers forward. Valve has used its revenues to create platforms such as Steam, Steam Machines, or SteamVR. It has given back to developers.

Niantic is using some of the $2 billion in revenue from Pokémon Go to make investments in augmented reality technology that could usher in a new platform for all game companies. Epic is taking its wealth from Fortnite do do something similar.

The idea that game developers can control their own destiny is a compelling one, and it feels like it is within the reach for a few. That’s good, as the news about platform companies isn’t always inspiring. The platform makers often don’t share enough of the wealth or innovate fast enough.

But it’s easy for even the successful developers to look out for their own interests. Many indies feel that Valve has reaped too much money for itself from Steam, and it should have been sharing more of those profits with game companies selling their games on Steam. Now Valve is painted as an incumbent.

And a lot of people want to unseat the incumbents, because, just like in our political world, these people are tired of being trod upon. They know they have to take power into their own hands in order to push their own agendas, look out for their own interests, and keep the rewards for their own hard work.

Sweeney wants to usher in the age of the Metaverse, or a whole universe of virtual worlds and games, all connected to each other on open platforms. Epic’s rival, Unity Technologies, also wants to enable developers to do more and to “democratize game development.” Blizzard has its Battle.net online gaming platform. We can see many examples of developers with power.

Let us hope that everyone’s vision remains pure, and they don’t forget where they came from. Otherwise, in the immortal words of The Who, it will be a case of “meet the new boss, same as the old boss.”

But here’s another idea. Maybe these developers should band together to create platforms for the common good. I happened to go to the annual dinner for the Semiconductor Industry Association last night. It has grown to a $450 billion industry, and that is due in part because the entire industry gets together to forecast the requirements of the future platform — a technology roadmap — and then they all figure out how they will create that platform. Dan Hutcheson, a longtime chip analyst at VLSI Research, told me that other tech industries like the 5G community are learning to do the same thing — banding together to build an ecosystem for the common good.

Maybe gaming should do the same thing. （source： VentureBeat ）