Last month, Gamesindustry.biz conducted a live stream summit of experts from around the gaming industry, focusing on the effects of COVID-19, what gaming looks like around the globe, and what the future holds. One of the presenters was Candice Mudrick, Head of Market Analysis at Newzoo, a leading site/platform for games industry market data and insights. Candice graciously agreed to interview with us as a follow-up on the topics she presented in her talk. The result is a fascinating look at how there’s more than one way to have a “gaming” career, and what the near future holds for next-gen consoles and gaming at large. We hope you enjoy it!
大号 AST月, Gamesindustry.biz 专家进行实时流峰会来自全球游戏产业,重点COVID-19的效果,有什么游戏看起来像世界各地,和什么样的未来持有。 演讲者之一是Newzoo市场分析主管Candice Mudrick, Newzoo是游戏行业市场数据和见解的领先网站/平台。 Candice慷慨地同意接受我们的采访,作为她在演讲中提出的主题的后续活动。 结果令人着迷地看待如何有多种方式从事“游戏”职业,以及下一代游戏机和整个游戏的近期发展。 我们希望你喜欢它!
Note: Due to the vagaries of scheduling, a few weeks passed between submitting the questions and the completion of the interview, during which time both Microsoft and Sony reaffirmed plans to release their next-gen consoles in 2020.
注意:由于时间安排的变化,在提交问题和完成采访之间经过了几个星期,在此期间,微软和索尼都重申了在2020年发布下一代游戏机的计划。
SUPERJUMPGood morning Candice, thank you for joining us for this interview! I have to ask first, are you a gamer? If so, what games have been getting you through the pandemic, and what upcoming titles are you most anticipating?
SUPERJUMP早上好,Candice,感谢您加入我们的访谈! 我首先要问,你是玩家吗? 如果是这样,那么哪些游戏让您度过了这场大流行病,您最期待哪些即将推出的游戏?
CANDICENaturally, I’m a lifelong gamer! Right now I’ve been loving Paper Mario: The Origami King, and during lockdown I clocked many hours on Animal Crossing: New Horizons in addition to spending time on several mobile titles including Archero. As for upcoming titles, there are too many to name but Cyberpunk 2077 is up there as well as Baldur’s Gate III.
CANDICE自然,我是一个终身玩家! 现在,我一直爱着《 纸上马里奥:折纸之王》 ,在锁定期间,除了花时间在包括Archero在内的多个移动游戏上,我还在《 动物穿越:新视野》上投入了许多时间。 至于即将推出的游戏,名字太多了,但是《 赛博朋克2077》和《 博德之门III》就在那儿。
SUPERJUMPSo many of the SUPERJUMP authors and readers are in the games industry or want to get into it, but the focus is typically on development. People don’t necessarily realize that there are a lot of ways to have a career in the gaming industry without being in development. Can you share what your path was like in becoming the Head of Market Analysis for Newzoo?
SUPERJUMPSo许多SUPERJUMP的作者和读者都在游戏行业中或想涉足游戏行业,但重点通常是开发。 人们不一定认识到有很多方法可以在游戏行业中谋生而无需发展。 您能否分享成为Newzoo市场分析主管的路途?
CANDICEI think there’s no “one right way” to enter games. When I was young, I thought I wanted to “make video games” but after a summer school course in 3D animation, I realized that I didn’t want to do that at all. It put me off the idea of working in the games industry for a bit, but like you said, there are so many other ways to have a career outside of development, which I only discovered later on.
CANDICE我认为没有“正确的方式”进入游戏。 小时候,我以为自己想“做视频游戏”,但是在暑期学校学习了3D动画课程后,我意识到我根本不想这么做。 这让我离开了在游戏行业工作一段时间的想法,但是就像你说的那样,有很多其他方法可以从事发展以外的职业,我后来才发现。
I’ve always been a computer geek, so I did my bachelor’s in electrical engineering and then worked in program management for Qualcomm’s Snapdragon GPU team for several years before deciding to pursue my MBA. During the course of the program, I became more certain that I wanted to pursue gaming but in a business context. I was lucky to work on a short project with a VR startup in London (Dream Reality Interactive) and then spend my MBA summer with Blizzard Entertainment in business operations for StarCraft II / Heroes of the Storm. I had discovered Newzoo during my time at Blizzard and knew that I wanted to work there. There wasn’t a job opening, but I sent an email to them telling them why they should hire me, more or less. Thankfully Peter (our CEO) took a chance on me!
我一直是计算机极客,所以我在电气工程专业获得学士学位,然后在高通公司的Snapdragon GPU上进行程序管理 团队几年后才决定继续攻读MBA。 在该计划的过程中,我更加确定自己想从事游戏,但要在商业环境中进行。 我很幸运在伦敦的一家虚拟现实初创公司(Dream Reality Interactive)从事了一个简短的项目,然后在暴雪娱乐公司度过了我的MBA暑假,在《 星际争霸2》 /《风暴英雄》中开展业务。 在暴雪期间,我发现了Newzoo,并且知道我想在那里工作。 没有职位空缺,但我给他们发了一封电子邮件,告诉他们为什么他们或多或少地雇用我。 值得庆幸的是,彼得(我们的首席执行官)抓住了我一个机会!
SUPERJUMPFollowing up on that, can you tell us a bit of what a typical workday is like for you?
接下来,您能告诉我们一些典型的工作日对您的感觉吗?
CANDICEThe market analysis team wears many hats, but key responsibilities include delivering our flagship market forecasts/reports, scoping and executing custom/consulting projects, advising our clients, and driving our games thought leadership forward.
CANDICE市场分析团队戴着很多帽子,但主要职责包括提供我们的旗舰市场预测/报告,确定范围并执行定制/咨询项目,为客户提供建议以及推动游戏思想领导力的发展。
Here’s what a typical day looks like for me: Review the latest report forecast, scope a new project to guide a brand’s gaming strategy, respond to a press inquiry about Apple vs Epic, explore the Newzoo Platform for new insights, join a call with clients or potential data partners.
这对我来说是典型的一天:回顾最新的报告预测,确定一个新项目以指导品牌的游戏策略,回应有关Apple vs Epic的新闻询问,探索 Newzoo Platform提供了新的见解,可以与客户或潜在的数据合作伙伴联系。
SUPERJUMPAh yes, Epic vs. the world, or so it seems. Given that this is now part of your daily routine, could you give us your take on what the resolution of this fight may look like?
SUPERJUMPAh是的,Epic对世界,或者看起来如此。 既然这已经成为您日常工作的一部分,那么您能否告诉我们这场战斗的解决方案会是什么样子?
CANDICEMicrosoft just now filed a statement to support Epic’s request to retain access to the Apple SDK for Unreal Engine, though avoided commenting on the larger antitrust case (Microsoft also has a 30% platform fee).
CANDICE微软现在刚刚发表声明,支持Epic要求保留对Unreal Engine的Apple SDK的访问权限,尽管避免对更大的反托拉斯案发表评论(微软也要收取30%的平台费)。
I’ll leave the legal analysis to the legal experts, but the case has the potential to shake up much more than just the games industry depending on the outcome. We might see new business models popularized (beyond a flat 30% fee) as a result of this.
我将法律分析留给法律专家处理,但根据结果,此案有可能动摇的不仅仅是游戏业。 因此,我们可能会看到新的商业模式得到普及(不收取固定的30%费用)。
SUPERJUMPA good bit of your presentation was about the next-gen console release, so I wanted to dig into that a bit more. Based on both Microsoft and Sony’s reticence to give price and release date information, do you think a delay of the launch into 2021 is possible? Or would it behoove them to get the systems out in the wild sooner rather than later?
SUPERJUMPA您的演讲的大部分内容是关于下一代控制台版本的,所以我想进一步探讨一下。 基于微软和索尼对提供价格和发布日期信息的保留态度,您认为是否有可能将发布时间推迟到2021年? 还是应该让他们早日在野外发布这些系统?
CANDICEBoth Microsoft and Sony have confirmed that the hardware will launch this year, with Sony reiterating confirmation a few days ago. However, it’s the games themselves that are seeing delays, such as Halo: Infinite on Xbox Series X and Deathloop on PS5.
CANDICE微软和索尼都已确认该硬件将于今年推出,而索尼几天前重申了这一确认。 但是,正是游戏本身出现了延迟,例如Xbox 360 X上的Halo:Infinite和PS5上的Deathloop 。
![Image for post](https://i-blog.csdnimg.cn/blog_migrate/0f231d094d48f559a4c922e426e19d50.png)
SUPERJUMPFans and industry watchers always talk about who will “win” each console generation. What do you think winning would look like to Microsoft and Sony this time around? Will Microsoft be happy only selling, say, 20 million Series X units if they also have 20 million Game Pass Subscribers? Does Sony need to sell 75+ million PS5’s to be happy with their efforts?
超级粉丝和行业观察者总是谈论谁将“赢得”每一代游戏机。 您认为这次微软和索尼的胜利会是什么样? 如果他们也拥有2000万个Game Pass订户,微软会不会很高兴只出售2000万个X系列产品? 索尼是否需要出售75+百万台PS5才能满意他们的努力?
CANDICEI think the idea of a console war for this generation is less relevant. The landmark partnership between the two companies last year indicates that they no longer view each other as existential threats. Microsoft is more in direct competition with Google or Amazon than it is with Sony, at a company level. Given that they are the cloud technology partner for Sony, Microsoft will be a winner either way, and their ecosystem-first approach implies that Xbox accounts (rather than only hardware sales) are the key metric. So, “winning” in the long term is not just about hardware but about the users in your ecosystem, and being a user in one ecosystem doesn’t exclude you from the others. There are plenty who might buy a PS5 but also keep a Game Pass subscription.
CANDICE我认为这一代游戏机之战的想法不那么重要。 去年两家公司之间具有里程碑意义的合作关系表明,他们不再将彼此视为存在的威胁。 在公司层面,微软与谷歌或亚马逊的直接竞争比与索尼的竞争更为激烈。 考虑到他们是索尼的云技术合作伙伴,微软无论哪种方式都将是赢家,而他们的生态系统优先方法意味着Xbox帐户(而不仅仅是硬件销售)是关键指标。 因此,从长远来看,“获胜”不仅与硬件有关,而且与您的生态系统中的用户有关,而且成为一个生态系统中的用户并不能将您与其他生态系统隔离。 有很多人可能会购买PS5,但还会保留Game Pass订阅。
SUPERJUMPWith Microsoft going all-in on the idea of getting people to play their games no matter where they are, do you think we will ever see Game Pass on PlayStation consoles? Phil Spencer threw water on that idea last week after seeming open to it previously, but how long can they ignore that pile of cash?
随着微软全力以赴,无论人们身在何处,都可以让人们玩游戏,您认为我们会在PlayStation主机上看到Game Pass吗? 菲尔·斯宾塞(Phil Spencer)上周似乎对这个想法持开放态度,但上周对此提出了质疑,但是他们能忽略多长时间呢?
CANDICEPlatform agnosticism is a growing trend, but I’d listen to Phil Spencer if he says it’s not happening. One thing I’ll say here is that it’s actually Sony who has been the slowest to the cross-play party.
CANDICE平台不可知论是一种日益增长的趋势,但是我要听听Phil Spencer的话,如果他说这没有发生。 我在这里要说的一件事是,实际上,索尼是跨派派对中最慢的。
SUPERJUMPYour presentation talked a lot about COVID accelerating the trend to adopt cloud gaming and subscription services due to their lower price point and value proposition. Faced with that reality, and the popularity of Game Pass, do you think Sony will make any adjustments to the PS Now service in order to compete? Maybe bundling it with PS Plus, or bringing new titles to the service more quickly?
SUPERJUMP您的演讲谈论了很多有关COVID的问题,因为它们的价格低廉和价值主张低,从而加速了采用云游戏和订阅服务的趋势。 面对现实,以及Game Pass的普及,您认为索尼将对PS Now服务进行任何调整以竞争吗? 也许将其与PS Plus捆绑在一起,或者更快地将新标题引入该服务?
CANDICEDespite early investment in-game streaming technology, Sony has taken a more conservative approach with it, prioritizing hardware up until recently. This is shifting, signaled by last year’s price drop and added content, and more changes are rumored to be around the corner. With a few key additions (including what you mentioned, adding new titles more quickly) their offering could become very compelling.
CANDICE尽管早期对游戏流技术进行了投资,但Sony还是采取了更为保守的方法,直到最近才对硬件进行优先级排序。 去年的价格下跌和增加的内容标志着这种情况正在发生变化,并且有传言称即将有更多变化。 通过添加一些关键的内容(包括您提到的内容,更快地添加新标题),他们的产品将变得非常具有吸引力。
SUPERJUMPThere has been much speculation about the future of physical game sales, as opposed to the digital download model. With Sony releasing data this week that shows the immense success of the PS Store, do you foresee a future where Sony or Microsoft go completely digital? Or if they did continue to make physical copies, could they just distribute through Amazon and bypass store shelves completely?
与数字下载模式相比,人们对实体游戏销售的未来有很多猜测。 随着索尼本周发布的数据显示了PS Store的巨大成功,您是否预见了索尼或微软将完全数字化的未来? 或者,如果他们确实继续制作物理副本,是否可以仅通过亚马逊进行分发并完全绕开货架?
CANDICEThe future of games content is largely digital, as we’ve seen with music, movies, books, etc.
CANDICE正如我们在音乐,电影,书籍等中所看到的,游戏内容的未来将主要是数字化的。
SUPERJUMPWe’d like to thank Candice for the fantastic insights and for making time to give us her expert opinions. We are looking forward to catching up with her after the release of the next-gen consoles.
SUPERJUMP我们要感谢Candice出色的见解,并感谢他们抽出宝贵的时间给我们她的专家意见。 我们期待在下一代游戏机发布后赶上她。