对比分析不同Zynga游戏及相似者运营情况编辑本段回目录
Nimblebit不久前刚指控Zynga的《Dream Heights》抄袭了自己的热门游戏《Tiny Tower》（刚被苹果评选为年度热门iPhone游戏）。随后在本周，Buffalo Studios更是指责Zynga模仿了自己旗下bingo游戏的用户界面和设计细节。
Zynga首席执行官Mark Pincus曾在12月份的IPO路演中表示：“Zynga内部有自己的概测法。对于我们所发行的任何类型的游戏，我们都希望其规模能够比该类游戏原来的先驱大出3至5倍。”
他还在本周的公司内部备忘录中重申了这一观点：
谷歌并不是第一个搜索引擎创造者。苹果也并未创造出第一台mp3播放器或平板电脑。Facebook也并不是第一个出现的社交网站。但是这些公司却创造性地引领着这些产品类别的发展。它们都是互联网不可多得的珍宝，因为它们肩负改变世界的重大任务。
“我们不需要执拗于是否最先进入市场。能否成为市场最优者更加重要。我们还需要尝试不同游戏类型，因为我们知道玩家对此感兴趣，而我们也希望始终迎合玩家的需求。我们通过不断地创造免费、社交、易上手且高质量的游戏而不断发展这些类型的游戏。”
Zynga着眼于主流游戏并进行市场调查，设计一些无需额外学习的游戏，利用其现有的数据优势进行优化，并有效地依赖交叉推广从而获得盈利。
尽管Zynga游戏与其它游戏很相似，但该公司却不会轻易陷入抄袭的麻烦中，因为它不但拥有雄厚财力，而且已拥有丰富的讼诉经验。很少有小公司能够支付起高额的诉讼成本，他们对那些一向热衷于通过指控别人盗取商业机密或者侵权谋利的公司更是束手无策。
除此之外，知识产权系统的分裂性也给Zynga带来了一定的优势。版权涵括了艺术以及潜在的源代码，而商标则侧重于品牌和标识。但是专利对于游戏开发者来说是最没有成效的保护形式，因为它只能覆盖游戏代码和机制。
我们需要在此探究的一个有趣的问题是，Zynga在手机平台上是否也能取得与Facebook上一样出色的成绩？不论是在Android还是iOS平台，Zynga都还尚未推出真正意义上的巨作。虽然它现在拥有1300万的DAU，这是一个非常惊人的数字，但是却还不足以完全打败排行前10的其它游戏。Zynga与Facebook签订了5年的协议，但是苹果却并不需要给予Zynga足够的特权以帮助其获得更多用户。并且，比起Facebook，智能手机平台更加重视多元化。从过去一个月来看，像Imangi Studios等独立开发商也能够以免费模式获得更多竞争优势。
以下我们将根据AppData数据以及App Annie排名历史，列举出早前几款Zynga社交游戏和手机游戏及其相似者的运营表现：
《Mafia Wars》和《Mob Wars》：
《Mafia Wars》的发布也让Zynga陷入了诉讼麻烦。开发者David Maestri及其公司Psycho Monkey LLC指控Zynga模仿了他们的游戏《Mob Wars》，据称还获得了700万-900万美元的赔偿（游戏邦注：需要注意的是，Maestri也不得不与前公司SGN清算这笔赔偿，因为这款游戏是Maestri还在SGN任职时发布的，当时SGN名称为FreeWebs）
Zynga发布了《Mafia Wars》后，在短短的半年时间内便获得了1000万的MAU，而与之相比，Maestri的游戏仅占有250万至300万MAU。
mafia wars comparison(from insidesocialgames)
MAU comparision(from AppData)
MAU comparision (from AppData)
《PetVille》、《Happy Pets》和《Pet Society》：
发布于2009年12月的《PetVille》是一款照顾动物的休闲游戏，这种游戏类型的诞生甚至早于Facebook平台。但这款游戏出道晚于《Pet Society》（由Playfish发行于2008年秋天）和《Happy Pets》（比《PetVille》早1个月问世的Crowdstar游戏）。《PetVille》、《Happy Pets》刚发布时增势明显，但随后开始趋于平缓，而《Pet Society》仍在持续发展。
pet comparison(from insidesocialgames)
MAU comparision (from AppData)
MAU comparision(from AppData)
MAU comparision (from AppData)
《Cafe World》和《Restaurant City》：
Zynga餐馆模拟游戏《Cafe World》发布于2009年9月，这是在Playfish的《Restaurant City》累积了1600万MAU之后推出的游戏。但《Cafe World》添加了支持玩家切割食材，添加好友以扩展餐馆等新元素。《Restaurant City》的用户数量在Zynga发行了《Cafe World》后两个月达到了最高值，随后便开始平稳地下降。《Cafe World》不久之后也达到了3200万的MAU最高值。
restaurant city comparison(from insidesocialgames)
MAU comparision (from AppData)
MAU comparision(from AppData)
《Gardens of Time》和《Hidden Chronicles》：
在Disney Playdom的《Gardens of Time》连续近五个多月蝉联最快增长游戏排行榜首后，我们便猜到Zynga也将踏入寻物解谜游戏中。虽然我们也很好奇为何Zynga迟迟未尝试这类型游戏。在《Gardens of Time》发行后三个月，Zynga引进了寻物解谜游戏设计师Cara Ely，并直到2012年1月才最终推出《Hidden Chronicles》。除了类似的故事元素，《Hidden Chronicles》也仿照了《Gardens of Time》的装饰进程系统。
HOG comparision(from insidesocialgames)
MAU comparision (from AppData)
MAU comparision(from AppData)
再看手机游戏领域，Playforge的《Zombie Farm》以及Storm8的《Restaurant Story》都是属于Facebook上所盛行的社交游戏类型，并且都在iPhone上取得了不错的成绩。Zynga之所以能够在年底前达到1300万的DAU主要归功于其收购了《Words With Friends》的开发商Newtoy，以及它向手机平台引进原有游戏作品的决心。
《Zynga Poker》和《Texas Poker》：
扑克是拥有超过150年历史的游戏，所以我们无法明确定义哪家公司才是所有者。但是在去年年初，俄罗斯开发商Kamagames却声称Zynga抄袭了其热门游戏《德州扑克》的用户界面。
去年以前，《德州扑克》仍然远远超过于Zynga的《Poker》高居于iOS畅销游戏榜单前十名。但是在2011年春天，《Zynga Poker》开始稳步爬升，并最终赶超Kamagames的游戏。
poker-pokerist(from insidesocialgames)
texas-poker-ranks(from App Annie)
zynga-poker-ranks(from App Annie)
《Tap Zoo》，《Tiny Zoo Friends》和《Dream Zoo》：
去年，当《Tap Zoo》持续一年稳居10大畅销游戏排行榜单后，Pocket Gems无可非议地成为了收入最高的游戏开发者。Zynga也注意到了这点，并在感恩节前发布了《Dream Zoo》。虽然都是以动物园为主要理念，但是后者添加了更多复杂的机制，如喂养或洗刷动物，以及每种动物都拥有更多关卡。预料到Zynga的行动后，Pocket Gems逐步停止了旧款游戏《Tap Zoo》的运营，并发布了名为《Tap Zoo 2: World Tour》的新版游戏。
但是这两款游戏都未能进入排行榜的前十名。实际上，另外一款来自开发商TinyCo的动物园游戏是现在该游戏排行最靠前的一个（第17名）。而《Dream Zoo》排名44，《Tap Zoo2》只排到77名。如此看来这几家公司都不能有效占据这类型游戏市场。
Pocket Gems并未对此抱怨，其首席营运官Ben Liu说道：“没错，有许多许多公司仿效了我们的游戏。但是我们之所以能够领先于Zynga是因为我们听取了用户的意见，并将最合适的功能添加到游戏中。而用户自己能够判断哪一款游戏具有真正的价值。”Pocket Gems在过几周时间里发布了一些新游戏，包括《Tappily Ever After》和《Zombie Takeover》等。
dream-zoo(from insidesocialgames)
tap-zoo(from insidesocialgames)
dream-zoo-ranks(from App Annie)
tap-zoo-ranks(from App Annie)
tap-zoo-2-ranks(from App Annie)
tiny-zoo-friends-ranks(from App Annie)
（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译）
Clones, Schmones: Buffalo Studios, Nimblebit’s jabs at Zynga garner publicity and not much more
Twice in the last month, we’ve seen studios come forward to criticize Zynga for being too inspired by their work.
Nimblebit, which recently won Game of the Year from Apple, said a forthcoming Zynga title called Dream Heights unfairly cribs from their hit Tiny Tower. Then this week Buffalo Studios said Zynga copied some user interface and design details from their bingo game.
Frustrating as it may be to indie studios, this has always been part of Zynga’s strategy. It’s almost silly to address it. As long as games from proven genres earn outsized returns compared to ones from unproven categories and the cost of losing or settling lawsuits remains low, developers will keep doing copycat games.
Zynga’s chief executive Mark Pincus even euphemistically referred to the practice in December’s IPO roadshow by saying: “We have a rule of thumb inside Zynga. For any category we launch a game in, we expect it to be three to five times the size of the then category leader.”
He reiterated again in an internal memo this week that:
Google didn’t create the first search engine. Apple didn’t create the first mp3 player or tablet. And, Facebook didn’t create the first social network. But these companies have evolved products and categories in revolutionary ways. They are all internet treasures because they all have specific and broad missions to change the world.
We don’t need to be first to market. We need to be the best in market. There are genres that we’re going to enter because we know our players are interested in them and because we want and need to be where players are. We evolve genres by making games free, social, accessible and highest quality.
Zynga does market research by looking at leading titles, designs similar games that don’t require a learning curve, optimizes them for monetization with its data prowess and then spends and cross-promotes relentlessly.
If Zynga’s titles appear too close to other games, it’s hard to take the company to task because of its deep pockets and fearsomely litigious history. Few small studios have the resources to pay for lawyers, especially against a company that has been so historically eager to sue others for theft of trade secrets and copyright infringement.
It also helps that the intellectual property system is quite fragmented for protecting games. Copyright covers the art and potentially the underlying source code while trademarks covers the brand and logo. Patents, the weakest form of protection for game developers, can cover code and mechanics.
Another factor is that as the gaming industry has moved away from a packaged goods model toward a highly iterative and serviced-based one, it makes less sense to pursue protection like patents. Like in the broader consumer Internet industry, waiting at least two to four years for a patent is absurd considering that a hit game can flame out in months.
The more interesting question to ask here is whether Zynga’s approach can do as well on mobile platforms as it has on Facebook. Zynga does not have an outsized lead on either Android or iOS. It has 13 million daily active users, which is very respectable. But it’s not enough to produce network effects that would shut out rival games from the top 10. Unlike Facebook, which signed a five-year agreement with Zynga, Apple does not have a vested interest in seeing Zynga achieve user growth targets. Smartphones also support more diversity than Facebook. The past month has proved that indie developers like Imangi Studios can nail freemium in more than casual sim or mafia games too.
Here we take a look back at various Zynga social and mobile titles, and whether they worked or not according to AppData statistics and ranking history from App Annie:
Mafia Wars and Mob Wars: Launched in August of 2008, Mafia Wars triggered one of the several lawsuits Zynga went on to become ensnared with. Creator David Maestri and his company Psycho Monkey LLC went onto sue Zynga for infringing on his creation Mob Wars and settled for a reported $7 to 9 million. (But it’s also worth noting that Maestri had to settle with his former employer SGN because he launched the game while working for them when they were called FreeWebs.)
After Zynga launched Mafia Wars, it went on to reach around 10 million monthly active users in about half a year, while Maestri’s game stalled at about 2.5 to 3 million MAU.
PetVille, Happy Pets and Pet Society: Launched in December 2009, PetVille riffed on a long history of casual, animal care-taking games that have existed long before the Facebook platform even launched. It followed Playfish’s Pet Society, which came out more than a year before in the fall of 2008, and Crowdstar’s Happy Pets, which launched the previous month. Both PetVille and Happy Pets saw decent starts but then leveled off while Pet Society kept on growing.
Cafe World and Restaurant City: Zynga’s restaurant sim game Cafe World came out in September 2009 after Playfish’s Restaurant City had accumulated 16 million monthly actives. It added steps by making players chop up or dice ingredients before cooking dishes and requiring users to add friends as neighbors if they wanted to expand their restaurants. Restaurant City actually hit its peak usage two months after Zynga launched its game before it began a slow and steady decline. Cafe World also peaked shortly after at around 32 million monthly actives.
Gardens of Time and Hidden Chronicles: It’s not surprising that Zynga would want to get into the hidden object genre after Disney Playdom’s Gardens of Time topped growth charts for nearly five months in a row. It is a little surprising that it took Zynga so long to do it, however. Hidden object game designer Cara Ely was brought on at Zynga in July — three months after Gardens of Time’s launch — and it wasn’t until January 2012 that Hidden Chronicles saw the light of day. In addition to similar presentation of story elements, Hidden Chronicles also cribs Gardens of Time’s decoration-based progression system.
Mobile has been a more interesting story this past year because Zynga actually started out as the underdog on iOS. Several games like Playforge’s Zombie Farm and Storm8′s Restaurant Story were taking genres that social gaming companies had nailed on Facebook and were executing them well on the iPhone. Nevertheless, Zynga managed to accumulate 13 million daily active users by year-end, largely because of its acquisition of Words With Friends maker Newtoy, but also because it started getting its core franchises right on mobile.
Zynga Poker and Texas Poker:
Poker is a more than 150-year-old game, so it’s hard to say that any company could own it. However, Russian developer Kamagames said Zynga copied user interface details from its hit Texas Poker early last year.
Zynga started fading out non-active players on the board and added a vertical bar to raise and lower bets. Before last year, Texas Poker was trouncing Zynga’s Poker game on the iOS grossing charts and consistently had a top 10 ranking. But in the spring, Zynga Poker began a steady climb and now outranks Kamagames’ title.
Tap Zoo, Tiny Zoo Friends and Dream Zoo: Pocket Gems had an undisputed run as one of the highest-earning developers last year after Tap Zoo held on to a top 10 grossing spot for about a year. Unsurprisingly, Zynga took note and launched Dream Zoo just ahead of Thanksgiving. It took the same zoo concept but added some complexity with feeding and washing games along with more levels for each of the animals. In anticipation of such a move, Pocket Gems phased out its old game Tap Zoo and launched a new version called Tap Zoo 2: World Tour.
None of the games have managed to hold onto a top 10 ranking. In fact, a different zoo game from developer TinyCo is actually the highest ranked one in the genre right now at #17. Dream Zoo remains at #44 and Tap Zoo 2 holds at #77. It looks like all of these companies effectively split the market.
Pocket Gems hasn’t complained, with chief operating officer Ben Liu telling us, “Look. Our games have copied extensively by many, many companies.” He added, “The way we can stay ahead of Zynga is by listening to our users and putting the best features in our game. Consumers are going to judge what’s the best product.” Pocket Gems has been busy launching a number of new games in the last few weeks like Tappily Ever After and Zombie Takeover.(source:Inside Social Games)
