Kabam公司首席執行官周凱文 如何打造一款熱門遊戲

A game that feels seamless and easy to play is often far from easy to make.

一款看起來流暢好玩的遊戲，在開發的時候往往沒那麼簡單。

That’s the idea behind the addictive mobile games developed by Kabam, which has harnessed the “free to play” model of offering free games but while layering on extra content for a fee. In eight years, co-founder and CEO Kevin Chou has taken the company from a tiny startup to $360 million in revenue and a $1 billion valuation. Last month, the company reported a $120 million investment from Alibaba.

這也正是Kabam公司開發令人愛不釋手的手遊時遵循的理念。Kabam公司通過免費模式提供遊戲，然後通過額外的付費內容賺錢。8年時間裏，在聯合創始人兼CEO周凱文的領導下，Kabam已經從一家名不見經傳的小公司成長爲一家年收入3.6億美元、估值超10億美元的大企業。據報道，就在上個月，Kabam還獲得了一筆來自阿里巴巴(Alibaba)的1.2億美元投資。

Just days after landing at no. 25 on our 2014 40 under 40 list, Chou spoke to Fortune about nearly going under during the 2008 financial crisis, the secret sauce to a great game, and how the company is setting its sights on China for future growth.

周凱文位列《財富》“40位40歲以下商業精英”榜單第25名。在該名單發佈幾天後，他接受了《財富》專訪，暢談了他挺過2008年金融危機的經歷、開發一款成功遊戲的祕訣，以及該公司準備如何將中國作爲下一個增長點。

Fortune: Not every gaming executive is a gamer themselves. Have you always been one?

《財富》：並非每個遊戲公司高管自己都愛玩遊戲。你是個遊戲玩家嗎？

Kevin Chou:I’ve loved games since I was a little kid. In high school, I was a world-ranked StarCraft player. It’s funny, just the other day, my wife was showing me this YouTube video where a dad took all his son’s games and threw them out on the lawn in a big pile and drove a lawn mower over them. When I was a kid, it wasn’t quite that bad, but certainly my parents wanted me to do something productive. So it’s been a great dream come true to turn something I loved into a great business.

周凱文：我從小就很喜歡遊戲。高中時我還是一個有世界排名的《星際爭霸》(StarCraft)玩家。它很有意思，就在前幾天，我妻子讓我看了一段YouTube上的視頻：一個父親把他兒子的所有遊戲光盤扔到了草坪上，然後開着割草機碾過去。當我還小的時候，情況並沒那麼糟，不過我父母當然希望我做一些有意義的事。所以現在我把自己喜歡的事情變成一筆大生意，也算是美夢成真了。

What was Kabam’s first big hit?

Kabam的第一款熱賣遊戲是什麼？

The first game to become a runaway success was Kingdoms of Camelot [distributed over Facebook]. It was a medieval strategy game about being a knight—it was the type of game I love. There were complications back then, in terms of the technology of delivering a game over the Internet. You couldn’t create the type of games you would expect to see on an Xbox or PlayStation. So we couldn’t create a sports game. We couldn’t deliver that level of graphic capability over the Internet. So we went with a strategy game because, if you think about playing Settlers of Catan, or Risk, there aren’t a whole lot of cool graphics you need. It’s much more about making decisions, working through consequences of those decisions, and battling against other players.

第一款特別成功的遊戲是通過Facebook分銷的《亞瑟王國》(Kingdoms of Camelot)。它是一款描述中世紀騎士的戰略遊戲——也是我喜歡的那種。當時也生出了一些枝節，尤其是在通過互聯網交付遊戲的技術方面。我們當時不可能開發出你在Xbox或PlayStation上看到的那種遊戲。所以我們沒法開發體育競技遊戲。我們當時無法通過互聯網交付那種水平的圖形能力。所以我們選擇了即時戰略遊戲。比如你可以想想《卡坦島》(Settlers of Catan)或者《風險》(Risk)這種戰略遊戲，它們不需要很多很酷的圖形效果，而更多的是決策，然後經歷這些決策的結果，並且與其它玩家進行對戰。

You’ve said your decision to move into the pay-to-play environment was influenced by the 2008 financial crisis. Can you talk about that?

你說過你進軍付費遊戲是受了2008年金融危機的影響，你能談談這方面嗎？

We lost 90 percent of our revenue from 2008 to 2009. That’s a lot of salaries you can’t afford to pay anymore. We said, “We’re not going to recover our advertising revenue anytime soon. So what do we do about this?” Meanwhile, “mini games” were driving a lot of engagement. And we saw a broader trend that gaming was coming to Facebook and using this free-to-play model. That is kind of when we went all in on gaming. We decided to just build games and not depend on on ad revenue—just ask the players to pay for the (premium content) on the games. And it turned out to be a great business over time.

從2008年到2009年，我們損失了90%的收入，都沒錢發工資了。我們說：“我們的廣告收入短期內沒法恢復，該怎麼辦？”與此同時，所謂的“迷你遊戲”正在吸引很高的參與度。而且我們發現了一個更大的趨勢，那就是很多遊戲正在涌向Facebook，並且採用免費模式。當時我們把所有賭注壓在了遊戲上，決定只開發遊戲，不依賴廣告收入——也就是隻讓玩家爲遊戲（的高級內容）付費。時間證明，這是一筆很好的生意。

How did you end up working with Hollywood on some of your games?

你後來怎麼會和好萊塢合作開發遊戲？

The gaming business used to work a lot with Hollywood, but more recently the companies are more focused on their own games. So a lot of the big Hollywood companies were looking for new types of gaming companies to do deals with. When they launch a movie, they generally want a game to go with it. So they started coming to us, noticing we were making good Facebook games. After a couple of those kinds of calls, we actually said, “let’s explore what this looks like.” We started with The Godfather. In the beginning, we were really concerned because, if we made a game ourselves, we could make money and not have to share it with anybody. We were tiptoeing our way into it. But The Godfather was a great deal for everyone because it wasn’t that premium sort of title where the legal team felt like they needed to extract every last pound of flesh to do a deal. We loved the I.P. involved. We love games about crime and houses fighting with each other. So we made that game a huge success with Paramount. Warner Brothers started calling us, and then MGM. That is when we did a Hobbit game. Universal gave us a call, and we did Fast and Furious 6. We just announced we are doing a big Marvel project. We understand the model now, we understand what we can bring to the table.

遊戲行業過去一直與好萊塢有很多合作，不過最近很多遊戲公司都把重點放在了自己的遊戲上，所以很多好萊塢大公司也在尋找新的遊戲公司來合作。當他們推出一部電影時，基本上都希望有一款遊戲和它搭配。所以他們找到我們，說我們在Facebook上做的遊戲很不錯。接了幾個這樣的電話之後，我們才說：“讓我們嘗試一下，看看會怎麼樣吧。”我們首先嚐試的是《教父》(The Godfather)，一開始我們很擔心，因爲如果我們自己開發一款遊戲的話，我們完全可以自己賺錢，不必跟任何人分賬。第一次做電影遊戲時，我們真的有如履薄冰的感覺。但是《教父》對各方來說都很成功，因爲它不是那種律師團隊想榨乾你最後一滴血來籤協議的高端遊戲。我們喜歡犯罪和家族恩仇的遊戲。所以我們那次與派拉蒙影業（Paramount）的合作獲得了巨大成功。後來華納兄弟（Warner Brothers）也給我們打來電話，然後是美高梅影業（MGM）。那時我們開始做《霍比特人》(Hobbit)遊戲。環球電影公司（Universal）也給我們打了電話，然後我們開始做《速度與激情6》(Fast and Furious 6)。最近我們剛剛宣佈，我們將與漫威影業（Marvel）合作一個大項目。我們現在已經理解了這個模式，也知道我們可以給玩家帶來什麼。

Is the goal of these games to mimic the movie, or go further?

這些遊戲的目標是模擬電影情節，還是讓故事進一步發展？

There are other game companies that have tried to mimic the movie, where the appeal is to relive the movie and immerse yourself in it. There are certain types of games that do well with that. That is not our strategy. Our strategy is always to explore another element of the movie that you may see touched on a little bit in the movie or the book. We basically take that and create a whole new storyline around it. We still obviously want to use the characters and story and environment that made the movie so great. But we don’t want to be limited to the content that is in the movie. Ideally, a big success for us is to have a game that is still running for five to 10 years. Our very first game that we released almost five years ago, Kingdoms of Camelot is still going very strong today with hundreds of thousands of people playing it every month. If you just follow the script of a movie, you can stretch a two-hour movie into a hundred hours. But you can’t make a game that lasts for years.

有些公司的遊戲試着模擬電影情節，它們的吸引力在於把電影重演一遍，讓你產生沉浸於情節之中的感覺。有些遊戲在這方面做得很不錯，但那並不是我們的戰略。我們的戰略是開發電影的其它元素，這些元素可能只在電影或原著中體現了一部分。我們基本上可以圍繞這一點創造出一個全新的故事線索。顯然我們仍然希望採用這部電影的精華，比如一些讓它非常成功的角色、故事和環境，但是我們不想被限制在電影的內容裏。對於我們來說，最理想的情況是，一部遊戲可以風行5到10年。我們的第一部遊戲《亞瑟王國》差不多是5年前推出的，現在它的表現依然非常搶眼，每個月都有幾十萬玩家在玩。如果你僅僅按照電影的腳本走，你可以把一部兩小時的電影延伸到100個小時，但它的吸引力維持不了幾年。

Are there any types of movies that you wouldn’t turn into a game?

有沒有哪些電影是你不想改編成遊戲的？

Certainly, we think about the demographics of a movie. Documentaries are not something that we would create a game around—that’s probably super obvious. Something like a comedy would be harder to create a game play around. Game of Thrones is good example: there’s a lot of sexual content and extreme violence in that show. If we made a game about it, those things probably wouldn’t appear in our games. Or The Godfather is a good example. We will show a horse’s head in a bed, but we won’t go through the actual, more graphical parts.

當然，我們會考慮一部電影的受衆羣體。首先我們不會把紀錄片改編成遊戲——原因是顯而易見的。相對來說，像喜劇之類的也難以改編成遊戲。《權力的遊戲》(Game of Thrones)則是一個很好的例子：該劇有很多性和暴力的場面。如果我們把它改編成遊戲，這些東西可能不會出現在遊戲裏。《教父》是另一個很好的例子。我們會展現一張牀上放着一個馬頭，但我們不會展現更真實、更生動的畫面。

Has there been any character or storyline that got you into trouble?

有沒有哪個角色或故事讓你陷入麻煩？

When you are trying to sell a video game for $60 dollars at Best Buy, you see more of that. “Wow, did you hear you can go into an airport and mow down a bunch of civilians in this game,” or something. Everyone gets up in arms about that, but guess what? It makes people go to Best Buy and pay $60 to see what it’s all about. With our games, it’s very different. We turn the model around. You can download the game for free, so it’s easy to check out the game and start playing it, see if you like it or not. But it’s our job to kind of make sure we are doing really cool stuff within the game to keep you coming back tomorrow and the day after that. It doesn’t really serve us that well to create this crazy thing in the game that causes an uproar. We have to do the math in terms of whether it might turn off our current player basis or not.

當你試圖在百思買（Best Buy）裏以60美元的價格賣一張遊戲光盤時，你可能會聽到諸如“哇，你聽說了嗎，這個遊戲可以讓你闖進機場，用電鋸掃倒一片人”之類的話。人人都反對這種暴力，但你猜怎麼着？它真能吸引人們到百思買花60美元買張光盤一探究竟。但我們的遊戲不一樣，我們的模式是相反的，你可以免費下載遊戲，安裝和上手都很簡單，然後再看你是否喜歡玩。我們的職責就是做出非常好的東西，確保你今天玩了明天還會回來。在遊戲裏做那種噱頭對我們來說用處不大。我們必須計算的是，它是否會讓我們現有的玩家羣體流失。

What makes a great game that people will want to pay for?

開發一款人們願意掏錢來玩的遊戲有什麼訣竅？

You have to create a game with what we call chase. You want to pick up the game and be able play it within a few minutes. There needs to be something about the game that hooks you. From there, you need the chase: you feel like you really want to do whatever it is you’re doing in the game. Maybe you want be the most badass superhero, a certain type of superhero that you love. That is what we are doing for Marvel. We want to create something that makes you say “wow” and leaves you willing to play the game for several months to get that thing in the game. We want it to be exciting from the very first few minutes. We aren’t expecting people to pick up a game and play it for two hours and never play it again. To make our business work, we have to build a long-term relationship with the player.

你的遊戲必須要有我們所謂的“追求感”。你安裝一款遊戲，能夠玩上幾分鐘。但是遊戲裏必須有能夠勾住你的東西。然後你就產生了想要追求的感覺：你非常想完成你在遊戲裏要做的事情。可能你想當一個不好對付的超級英雄，因爲你就喜歡這樣的超級英雄——我們正在做的漫威項目就是這樣的。我們想做出一些讓你驚歎的東西，然後讓你願意花幾個月的時間來追求那個東西。我們想要它在頭幾分鐘裏就非常振奮人心。我們不想做那種人們上手兩個小時就不想再玩的遊戲。爲了使我們的生意成功，我們必須與玩家建立長期關係。

Where is the next big market you need to conquer?

你下一個需要征服哪個大市場？

To become a truly global gaming company, especially with the assets we have and talent that we have, we look at Asia. My family grew up in Asia and it’s an area where you have to understand the cultural aspects. You have to understand how to do business there. You have to understand how to build and manage a studio there. Those are all things we have done. We’ve put together some great partnerships with Alibaba, plus a few others that we should be announcing soon. So you will see us putting a huge amount of focus on that region of the world.

爲了成爲一家真正全球化的公司，尤其是考慮到我們目前擁有的資產和人才，我們把眼光投向了亞洲。我的家人是在亞洲長大的，在亞洲你必須要懂文化層面，你必須搞清楚如何在那裏做生意，必須要懂如何在那裏建立和管理一個工作室。那些事情我們都已經做好了。我們已經與阿里巴巴建立了很好的合作關係，另外我們也和其他夥伴建立了合作關係，下一步很快就會對外宣佈。所以你會發現，我們把很大一部分精力放在了這個地區。

What types of games do you plan to roll out in the future?

下一步你打算推出什麼類型的遊戲？

We have been really focused on strategic games. We’ve done a racing game. We’ve done a couple of sort of light action games. Now you will see us expand to a few other categories of games beyond our core. It’s almost like we have been making comedies our whole life and we are now going to make action movies, or something like that. We feel very confident about moving into a few other types of games. One of the big ones will be a fighting game. Our Marvel game will be a fighting game: your superhero against another superhero, kind of Street Fighter 2 style. We are really excited.

我們對即時戰略遊戲投入了很多關注，我們也做過一款賽車遊戲和幾款動作遊戲。以後我們會擴展到核心業務以外的其它遊戲類別。這就好像我們拍了一輩子喜劇片，現在開始拍動作片了一樣。其中的重頭戲之一是一款戰鬥遊戲。我們的漫威項目就是一款戰鬥遊戲，由你的超級英雄對戰其他超級英雄，有點像《街頭霸王2》(Street Fighter 2)的風格。我們對此非常興奮。