Nintendo has ventured into a scary world
为任天堂狂热还为时尚早
广州游戏翻译公司：加普：《口袋妖怪GO》席卷全球让投资者希望这家公司能再次华丽转型，但移动平台毕竟是任天堂不熟悉的领域。
There is nothing like a craze. Pokémon Go, the augmented reality video game that uses smartphones to overlay Nintendo’s pocket monster characters on real-life locations, is taking over the world. Since its release last week in the
没有什么比得上这样一股热潮了。使用智能手机将任天堂(Nintendo)的口袋妖怪叠加在现实生活场景之上的增强现实视频游戏《口袋妖怪GO》（Pokémon GO，又译“精灵宝可梦GO”）正在征服世界。上周在美国和其他国家发布之后，玩家们聚集在公园，涌入餐厅，扑捉皮卡丘和其他小精灵。广州游戏翻译公司。
Investors are also going a bit crazy. Nintendo’s shares have risen by 50 per cent in a week on hopes Pokémon Go can rescue the company from dependence on lacklustre consoles such as the Wii U, and propel it into a world of growth in casual games on smart devices.
投资者也变得有些狂热。任天堂的股价在一周内上涨50%，人们希望《口袋妖怪GO》能够将这家公司从依赖Wii U等业绩平平的游戏主机的处境中解救出来，将其推入智能设备上的休闲游戏的增长世界。
Calm down, everyone.
每个人都需要冷静下来。
If any company can make the transition, it is Nintendo. It has done so before, notably when it transformed itself from a maker of arcade machines into a console company and games publisher in the 1980s. When it was in trouble a decade ago, it invented the original Wii, outsmarting Sony’s PlayStation 3 and Microsoft’s Xbox 360.
如果有哪家公司能做到这样的转变，那就是任天堂了。任天堂以前曾经做到过这样的事情，尤其是上世纪80年代任天堂从街机制造商转变为游戏主机公司和游戏发行商。10年前当任天堂陷入困境的时候，它发售了比索尼(Sony) PlayStation 3和微软(Microsoft) Xbox 360更为智能的初代Wii游戏主机。广州游戏翻译公司。
The creative genius behind much of this success is Shigeru Miyamoto, who came up with Donkey Kong and Super Mario, and has overseen the company’s mission to “put smiles on people’s faces around the world”. Nintendo has an uncanny ability to invent characters that not only do so but also keep on doing so — the Pokémon franchise marks its 20th anniversary this year.
这一成功背后的创意天才是宫本茂(Shigeru Miyamoto)，他是大金刚(Donkey Kong)和超级马里奥(Super Mario)的创造者，掌管这家公司“让全世界的人脸上带上微笑”的使命。任天堂有一种不可思议的能力，创造出不仅能够让人微笑，而且能够一直让人微笑的游戏角色——《口袋妖怪》今年迎来了20周年。
This inventiveness has enabled Nintendo to avoid the fate of Sega, its former rival that lost its way in the 1990s with the Saturn and Dreamcast consoles before dropping out of the console business altogether. Even now, Nintendo hopes to bounce back in the sector next year with the NX, which is under wraps.
善于创新让任天堂避免了世嘉(Sega)的命运，这个任天堂曾经的竞争对手因为世嘉土星机(Saturn)和Dreamcast游戏主机在上世纪90年代迷失了方向，之后彻底退出了游戏主机业务。即使是现在，任天堂依然希望在明年凭借目前处于保密状态的新主机NX在这个领域重振雄风。广州游戏翻译公司。
When a games console company is on song, its creative strength in coming up with new and absorbing games feeds into sales for its latest technologically advanced machine. Sony is enjoying this virtuous circle with PlayStation 4, which has sold more than 40m units since 2013 — although it relies more than Nintendo on third-party games publishers such as Activision Blizzard.
当一家游戏主机公司运作顺畅，其开发富有吸引力的新款游戏的创造力能够促进其技术先进的最新主机的销售。现在索尼就依靠PlayStation 4主机享受着这样的良性循环，自2013年以来索尼已经卖出逾4000万部PlayStation 4主机——尽管该公司比任天堂更为依赖动视暴雪(Activision Blizzard)这样的第三方游戏发行商。
The key to endurance in a volatile and cyclical technology business has been the link between games and machines. A popular video game may be a shortlived craze but it stimulates consumers to buy consoles and then to buy more games. Creativity was always Nintendo’s driving force.
在这样一个波动性和周期性兼有的技术行业领域，保持耐久力的关键在于游戏和主机之间的关系。一款流行的视频游戏可能只是风靡一时，但其促使消费者购买游戏主机从而购买更多游戏。创新一直是任天堂的驱动力。广州游戏翻译公司。
So what could be better for Nintendo than a new, younger generation of iPhone and Android phone owners chasing around the world, trying to identify Pokémon and throwing Poké Balls at them? Surely this must have put smiles on executives’ faces at the company’s Tokyo headquarters?
因此，对任天堂来说，还有什么是比更年轻的新一代iPhone和Android手机用户在世界各地四处奔走，试图辨认小精灵并朝着它们扔出精灵球更棒的事情？这一定会让这家公司东京总部的高管们脸上带上微笑吧？
Well, up to a point. The first thing to note is that Nintendo neither created Pokémon Go nor owns it. It holds a 33 per cent stake in the Pokémon Company, which licensed the rights to Niantic, a
只在一定程度上如此。首先要指出的一点是，任天堂既没有开发《口袋妖怪GO》，也并不拥有它。任天堂拥有Pokémon Company 33%的股权，后者向由前谷歌高管约翰•汉克(John Hanke)创办的美国增强现实游戏初创公司Niantic授予了许可。去年任天堂对Niantic进行投资，但任天堂只能分得收入的一小部分。
A minority stake in a phenomenon is better than no phenomenon or no stake but it reflects the wider context. While Nintendo designs its own consoles, and publishes many of the best-known Wii games itself, it has turned to partners to enter the smartphone world. Aside from Niantic, it is jointly working on five new smartphone games with DeNA, a Japanese games developer.
拥有一款现象级佳作的少数股权比没有现象级佳作或者没有股权好，但这反映出了一种更大的背景。尽管任天堂设计自己的主机，并且自己发布了许多最知名的Wii游戏，但现在这家公司转向合作伙伴以进入智能手机世界。除了Niantic以外，任天堂还和日本游戏开发商DeNA联合开发5款新的智能手机游戏。广州游戏翻译公司。
Until now, Nintendo has stuck within a “walled garden” of games for its own consoles. It weakens this by entering the smart device world, where it no longer controls its platform and must offer games for iOS and Android in competition with other publishers. That is unlike its past transition from one proprietary technology (arcade machines) to another (consoles).
直至目前，任天堂都被困在为其主机打造的游戏组成的“围墙花园”里。任天堂进入智能设备世界的举动弱化了这种情况。在智能设备上，任天堂不再控制平台，必须为iOS和Android平台提供游戏，与其他游戏发行者竞争。这可不像其过去从一项专有技术（街机）转向另一项专有技术（游戏主机）的转变。
New technologies are open and mobile, including location and mapping, and virtual and augmented reality. This gives the advantage to Silicon Valley software companies, including start-ups such as Niantic. Nintendo may be able to learn through partnership but it is unfamiliar terrain.
新技术是开放和移动的，包括定位、地图、虚拟和增强现实要素。硅谷的软件公司在这方面享有优势，包括Niantic这样的初创公司。任天堂或许能够通过合作学习，但这是它不熟悉的领域。
Second, the business model for mobile games is curious. Pokémon Go is an example: players download it free and then pay for additional items, such as “incense” to lure monsters and Poké Balls to hunt them. Many will not bother — King Digital, maker of Candy Crush, disclosed in 2013 before it was acquired by Activision Blizzard that 96 per cent of monthly users did not pay.
第二，移动游戏的商业模式很奇特。《口袋妖怪GO》就是一个例子：玩家能够免费下载游戏，然后为附加项目付费，比如能够引诱小精灵的“熏香”，以及用来捕捉小精灵的精灵球。很多人不会费事这么做——《糖果粉碎传奇》(Candy Crush)的开发商King Digital在被动视暴雪收购之前，曾在2013年披露96%的月度用户都不付费。广州游戏翻译公司。
Mobile can still be profitable — Activision paid $5.9bn for King last year because it had strong revenues and high margins — but is less reliable. Pokémon Go does not retail for $60, as big console game titles do in the
移动游戏依然有利可图——去年动视暴雪因为King Digital的强劲收入和高利润率斥资59亿美元收购该公司——但没那么靠得住。一款大型主机游戏在美国的零售价一般是60美元，而《口袋妖怪GO》没有这样的售价，这款游戏也无法直接转化为主机的销售。必须不断地推出新游戏，而且它们还需要持续地自掏腰包。
In some ways, Nintendo is ideally suited to the paradigm shift. It creates the kind of characters that demand to run wild. As Mr Hanke says, it has “wonderful intellectual property that is broadly accessible to men and women and spans all ages”. Who does not enjoy a cuddly monster hunt? But before Nintendo shareholders get too excited, they should examine the reality.
在某种程度上，任天堂非常适合这种范式的转变。任天堂打造出了需要向前狂奔的那种角色。就如汉克所说的，任天堂拥有“广泛触及男性和女性，横跨各个年龄段的绝妙的知识产权”。谁不喜欢捕捉可爱的小精灵呢？但任天堂的股东在变得过于兴奋之前应该看一看现实。
