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[Translation from English to Japanese ] My, how things change. A few years ago, anyone proposing that Facebook games ...
Original Texts
My, how things change. A few years ago, anyone proposing that Facebook games would turn into a wildly profitable multi-billion dollar industry would probably be met with some pretty strange looks. Yet now market-leader Zynga has a higher valuation than Electronic Arts. Some might say the gold rush has passed, and that the entrenched players are going to be impossible to beat, but now a new wave of companies has set its sights on a related, but fundamentally different genre: casual mobile gaming.
Today, a startup called TinyCo (formerly known as Brooklyn Packet) has closed an $18 million funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz, and they’re setting out to become the most successful mobile gaming company out there. It’s a lofty goal and TinyCo has some steep competition, but their thesis — that mobile gaming is about to take off in a huge way — seems right on the mark. Oh, and they now have Marc Andreessen on their board, which isn’t a bad start.
TinyCo founders Suleman Ali and Ian Spivey started working on Facebook games two years ago, focusing on games that included virtual currencies and persistent worlds (like FarmVille). Unfortunately while they learned a lot about game mechanics, none of their games got much traction.
Then in Spring 2010 the team started working on an iPhone game called Tap Resort Party — a resort sim that prompts gamers to check back in every few hours to collect their earnings and reinvest them. The game quickly took off and the TinyCo team realized they were onto something, so they began to focus exclusively on mobile gaming. Tap Resort Party has since gotten over 5 million downloads, and has hundreds of thousands of active players per day. The company released Tap Galaxy several months later to a more tepid response, but the founders explain this was primarily because the game was just a reskinned version of Tap Resort Party. So they want back to the drawing board and cooked up an entirely new game.
In November 2010 they released their next game — a restaurant management sim called Tiny Chef. Again, they struck gold, reaching as high as the number two top grossing spot on the App Store, and over 5 million downloads overall (Tiny Chef also has hundreds of thousands of daily active players).
Which brings us to today. Spivey and Ali say that mobile gaming is about to see a huge leap, driven by a combination of the introduction of in-app payments to Android and an estimated 150 million iOS and Android devices that will ship in the next year (and those numbers are only going to grow higher). The company now has 40 employees, many of whom are veterans from the likes of Playdom and Digital Chocolate.
I asked Marc Andreessen why the fund decided to choose TinyCo as one of their big bets in mobile. The answer, he explains, has a lot to do with their technical focus.
“It’s the strength of their vision. In particular, they really have a deep product vision, though most of it isn’t public yet. They want to make a first class tech company that wants to make games. We’ve been looking at companies like this for two years, and this is the first time that we’re seeing first-class technology entrepreneurs.”
Andreessen also explained why his firm is so optimistic about mobile in general.
“There have been mobile gaming startups for 15 years. The opportunity didn’t exist before because you didn’t have real smart phones — they weren’t real computers in your pocket. It’s only in the last year or two that the opportunity has opened up. We think that opportunity is going to expand. There’s 100 million smartphones, right now — great. In three to five years there’s going to be 2 billion. Everyone in the developed world will upgrade to smart phones, and the developing world will follow in five to seven years — everyone who has a feature phone will have a smartphone. It’s going to be one of the greatest market opportunities that we’ve ever seen.” Of course, TinyCo isn’t alone on its mission to dominate mobile gaming. Pocket Gems raised $5 million from Sequoia, and SGN is focusing on this space as well. And who can forget the established Facebook game companies like Zynga, which doubtless have their eyes on mobile as well.
Today, a startup called TinyCo (formerly known as Brooklyn Packet) has closed an $18 million funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz, and they’re setting out to become the most successful mobile gaming company out there. It’s a lofty goal and TinyCo has some steep competition, but their thesis — that mobile gaming is about to take off in a huge way — seems right on the mark. Oh, and they now have Marc Andreessen on their board, which isn’t a bad start.
TinyCo founders Suleman Ali and Ian Spivey started working on Facebook games two years ago, focusing on games that included virtual currencies and persistent worlds (like FarmVille). Unfortunately while they learned a lot about game mechanics, none of their games got much traction.
Then in Spring 2010 the team started working on an iPhone game called Tap Resort Party — a resort sim that prompts gamers to check back in every few hours to collect their earnings and reinvest them. The game quickly took off and the TinyCo team realized they were onto something, so they began to focus exclusively on mobile gaming. Tap Resort Party has since gotten over 5 million downloads, and has hundreds of thousands of active players per day. The company released Tap Galaxy several months later to a more tepid response, but the founders explain this was primarily because the game was just a reskinned version of Tap Resort Party. So they want back to the drawing board and cooked up an entirely new game.
In November 2010 they released their next game — a restaurant management sim called Tiny Chef. Again, they struck gold, reaching as high as the number two top grossing spot on the App Store, and over 5 million downloads overall (Tiny Chef also has hundreds of thousands of daily active players).
Which brings us to today. Spivey and Ali say that mobile gaming is about to see a huge leap, driven by a combination of the introduction of in-app payments to Android and an estimated 150 million iOS and Android devices that will ship in the next year (and those numbers are only going to grow higher). The company now has 40 employees, many of whom are veterans from the likes of Playdom and Digital Chocolate.
I asked Marc Andreessen why the fund decided to choose TinyCo as one of their big bets in mobile. The answer, he explains, has a lot to do with their technical focus.
“It’s the strength of their vision. In particular, they really have a deep product vision, though most of it isn’t public yet. They want to make a first class tech company that wants to make games. We’ve been looking at companies like this for two years, and this is the first time that we’re seeing first-class technology entrepreneurs.”
Andreessen also explained why his firm is so optimistic about mobile in general.
“There have been mobile gaming startups for 15 years. The opportunity didn’t exist before because you didn’t have real smart phones — they weren’t real computers in your pocket. It’s only in the last year or two that the opportunity has opened up. We think that opportunity is going to expand. There’s 100 million smartphones, right now — great. In three to five years there’s going to be 2 billion. Everyone in the developed world will upgrade to smart phones, and the developing world will follow in five to seven years — everyone who has a feature phone will have a smartphone. It’s going to be one of the greatest market opportunities that we’ve ever seen.” Of course, TinyCo isn’t alone on its mission to dominate mobile gaming. Pocket Gems raised $5 million from Sequoia, and SGN is focusing on this space as well. And who can forget the established Facebook game companies like Zynga, which doubtless have their eyes on mobile as well.
ああ、物事は変わり行く。何年か前に、フェイスブックゲームはやたら利益を得るグローバル産業になるのではないか、と言う人がいたとしたら、その人は、人々のかなり奇妙な視線を味わうことになったのではないか。が、今では、マーケットリーダーのZyngaは、エレクトロニックアーツ（EA）よりも高い評価がついている。ゴールドラッシュは既に過ぎ去ったと言う人も、強固なプレイヤーはもはや負け無しと言う人もいるだろうが、今また新たな企業の波が押し寄せてきており、関連分野とは言っても本質的には違う分野であるカジュアルモバイルゲーミングにその照準を定めた。
本日、TinyCo（旧Brooklyn Packet）と言う操業開始の企業が、Andreessen Horowitzによる1800万ドルの財政支援交渉を締結し、これら２企業は、最も成功したモバイルゲーミング企業となることを目指している。それは高遠な目標で、TinyCoは手強い競争相手がいる、が、彼らの命題である、モバイルゲーミングが今まさに大きく成長しようとしていること、は、まさしく的を得てると言えよう。あああ、そして、悪くないスタートと言える。現在Marc Andreessenが彼ら側にいるのだから。
TinyCoの創業者、Suleman AliとIan Spiveyは、フェイスブックゲームを２年前にやり始め、仮想通貨やFarmVilleなどの根強いゲームに焦点を絞っていた。
TinyCoの創業者、Suleman AliとIan Spiveyは、フェイスブックゲームを２年前にやり始め、仮想通貨やFarmVilleなどの根強いゲームに焦点を絞っていた。
残念ながら、彼らがゲーム機械学よく学んでいたのにもかかわらず、彼らのゲームは全く牽引力がなかった。
そして2010年9月、彼らのチームは、ゲーマー達が数時間毎に収入をチェックしたり再投資したりするためにログインするリゾートシムのiPhoneゲーム、Tap Resort Party、の構築に取り組み始めた。このゲームは楽々好発進し、TinyCoチームは何かを嗅ぎつけたと気づき、そしてモバイルゲーミングに限定して集中し始めた。Tap Resort Partyは、その後、500万以上のダウンロード数を誇り、毎日数百数千人のアクティブプレイヤーをカウントしている。
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そして2010年9月、彼らのチームは、ゲーマー達が数時間毎に収入をチェックしたり再投資したりするためにログインするリゾートシムのiPhoneゲーム、Tap Resort Party、の構築に取り組み始めた。このゲームは楽々好発進し、TinyCoチームは何かを嗅ぎつけたと気づき、そしてモバイルゲーミングに限定して集中し始めた。Tap Resort Partyは、その後、500万以上のダウンロード数を誇り、毎日数百数千人のアクティブプレイヤーをカウントしている。
、
企業は、数ヵ月後に、Tap Galaxyをリリースし少し熱も冷め気味な反応を得たのだが、創業者は、本質的な原因は、このゲームがTap Resort Partyの再製バージョンだったからだと説明する。そのため彼らは、図面に戻り全く新しいゲームを作り上げた。
2010年11月、彼らは次作ゲームをリリース、Tiny Chefと言うレストランマネジメントシムだ。App Storeの売上げ上位2位という高いスポットにつき、彼らはまたもや金塊を掘り当てたのだ。そして、合計500万以上というダウンロード数もカウントした。（Tiny Chefも、毎日数百数千のアクティブプレイヤーがいる。）
2010年11月、彼らは次作ゲームをリリース、Tiny Chefと言うレストランマネジメントシムだ。App Storeの売上げ上位2位という高いスポットにつき、彼らはまたもや金塊を掘り当てたのだ。そして、合計500万以上というダウンロード数もカウントした。（Tiny Chefも、毎日数百数千のアクティブプレイヤーがいる。）
そして今日。SpiveyとAliは、彼らにとってのモバイルゲーミングとは、アンドロイドへとおよそ1.5億ドルのiOSへのインアプリペイメントの導入、そして来年出荷のアンドロイド機器（そしてそれらの金額は上方向と上がるのみ）などの要素が合わさって起こりうるであろう大きな飛躍的進歩を見ることだと言う。企業は、現在、40名の従業員がおり、そのほとんどがPlaydomやDigital Chocolateのベテランである。
Marc Andreessenに、なぜモバイル分野での彼らの選んだ大きな策のひとつがTinyCoだったのかを尋ねてみた。答えは、彼らのテクニカルな面での焦点が大きな決め手となった、と彼はそう言った。
Marc Andreessenに、なぜモバイル分野での彼らの選んだ大きな策のひとつがTinyCoだったのかを尋ねてみた。答えは、彼らのテクニカルな面での焦点が大きな決め手となった、と彼はそう言った。
"彼らのヴィジョンの威力です。しいていえば、まだそのほとんどが公にはなっていないのだが、彼らは深い製品のヴィジョンを持ち合わせているのです。彼らは、ゲームを作るトップクラスのテク企業を作りたいと思っています。我々は、2年もの間、このような企業を探し続けていたのです。そして、我々は初めてトップクラスのテクノロジー企業家を見ているのです。"
Andreessenもまた、なぜ彼の企業がモバイル全般に対して楽観的なのかを説明した。
Andreessenもまた、なぜ彼の企業がモバイル全般に対して楽観的なのかを説明した。
"モバイルゲーミングの発起者は15年もの間いたのだ。が、以前は本当のところのスマートフォンというものがなく、チャンスが存在しなかったのだ。それらは、ポケットの中の本当のコンピューターではなかったのだ。ここ最近1～2年の間に、ようやくチャンスが切り開き始めた。我々は、このチャンスは広がっていくと考えている。現在、1億ものスマートフォンがある。最高だね。3～5年の間に、それは10億にまで増える。先進国の人々は皆スマートフォンへアップグレードするし、発展途上国もそれにまた5～7年のうちに追いつくだろう。フィーチャーフォンを持つ人々は皆スマートフォンを持つことになるだろう。これは我々が見た中で一番素晴らしいマーケットチャンスのひとつになるだろう。
もちろん、モバイルゲーミングの世界を牛耳る使命につくものは、TinyCoだけではない。Pocket GemsはSequoiaから500万ドルを獲得した、そしてSGNもこの分野に焦点を絞っている。また、既にその地位を確立しているフェイスブックのゲーム企業であるZyngaを誰が忘れようものか、彼らもモバイル分野に目をつけていることは間違いない。
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