原文標題：
Video game
Storm forming
As gaming grows, it is eating the media
視頻游戲
風暴形成
隨著游戲業(yè)的發(fā)展，它正在侵蝕媒體業(yè)

The games business has lessons for other industries and for governments
游戲業(yè)為其他行業(yè)和政府提供了啟示

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WARNER BROS released a new Harry Potter title last month and took $850m in two weeks.
華納兄弟上個月發(fā)布了一款新的《哈利波特》游戲，兩周內(nèi)創(chuàng)收8.5億美元。

That made it the second-most-successful Potter launch in the film studio’s history.
這使得它成為該電影公司歷史上第二成功的哈利波特系列作品。

But “Hogwarts Legacy”, the title in question, was no movie: it was a video game.

但作品《霍格沃茨的遺產(chǎn)》不是一部電影，而是一款視頻游戲。

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Warner’s hit is an example of how gaming is besting older media, both as a business and as a way for people to entertain themselves.

華納兄弟的成功是游戲在商業(yè)上和娛樂方式上超越傳統(tǒng)媒體的一個例子。

Consumers are forecast to spend $185bn on games this year, five times what they will spend at the cinema and 70% more than they will allocate to streamers like Netflix.

預計今年消費者將在游戲上花費1850億美元，是電影支出的5倍，比用在網(wǎng)飛等流媒體平臺上的支出多70%。

Once a children’s hobby, gaming has grown up. Console players in their 30s and 40s now outnumber those in their teens and 20s.
游戲曾經(jīng)是孩子們的愛好，現(xiàn)在是成年人的愛好。如今30多歲和40多歲的游戲機玩家比10多歲和20多歲的玩家數(shù)量多。

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Yet as gaming matures, it is not just rivalling other media. Rather like a ravenous Pac-Man, it is gobbling them up.

然而，隨著游戲業(yè)發(fā)展成熟，它不僅與其他媒體是競爭關系，而像貪吃蛇一樣，游戲業(yè)正在吞并其他媒體。

While such intellectual property as Harry Potter may be finding success in game form, game franchises have themselves become the most in-demand kind of IP in other media.

雖然像《哈利波特》這樣的知識產(chǎn)權可能在游戲形式中取得成功，但游戲特許經(jīng)營權本身已成為其他媒體中最受歡迎的IP類型。

Apple’s “Tetris” movie, due out later this month, is the latest (and perhaps oddest) instance of Hollywood mining games for ideas as audiences tire of comic-book heroes.

蘋果公司即將于本月底推出《俄羅斯方塊》電影，這是好萊塢從游戲中汲取創(chuàng)意的最新（也許是最奇怪的）例子，因為觀眾厭倦了漫畫英雄。

Amateur creators are doing the same. After music, gaming clips are the biggest content category on YouTube.

副業(yè)創(chuàng)作者也在做同樣的事情。僅次于音樂類別，游戲剪輯是油管上第二大的內(nèi)容類別。

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At the same time, audiences are increasingly consuming old media through games.
同時，觀眾們越來越多地通過游戲消費傳統(tǒng)媒體。

The latest season of “The Walking Dead”, a long-running television drama, took the form of an interactive game on Facebook. Musicians such as Ariana Grande perform concerts in “Fortnite”.
長篇電視劇《行尸走肉》最新一季采用了在臉書上的互動游戲形式。愛莉安娜·格蘭德等音樂人在《堡壘之夜》中開演唱會。

The fitness video is giving way to the fitness game. Even social networking is partly migrating to the gaming arena.
健身視頻正逐漸被健身游戲取代。甚至有部分社交網(wǎng)絡也遷移到了游戲領域。

Platforms like Roblox provide children with a place to play—but also to hang out, chat and shop.
Roblox等平臺不僅為孩子們提供玩耍的地方，也成為了聊天和購物的場所。

In so far as anything resembling a metaverse yet exists, it exists in games.
就目前而言，如果說有任何類似元宇宙的存在，那么它一定存在于游戲中。

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Expect more growth. Smartphones put a powerful console in people’s pockets and unlocked hours of playtime on the commute and at the back of the lecture hall.
預計游戲業(yè)還會有更多增長。智能手機里的游戲直接裝在人們的口袋里，通勤時和教室里都可以玩游戲。

The next boost may come from smart TVs and streaming, which bring high-fidelity games to living rooms without the need for dedicated hardware.
下一個增長可能來自智能電視和流媒體，它們將高保真游戲帶到客廳，且無需專門的硬件設備。

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New business models are another source of growth.
游戲的新商業(yè)模式是另一種增長來源。

Gaming’s latest boom was propelled by free-to-play games, which suck users in before monetising them with ads and in-game purchases.
免費暢玩游戲吸引更多用戶，推動了游戲的最新熱潮，然后再通過廣告和游戲內(nèi)購買裝備獲取利潤。

A new phase of expansion is coming from game-library subscriptions, which already show signs of increasing consumption and accelerating discovery, much as the cable bundle did in television.
新的擴展階段來自于游戲庫訂閱，已經(jīng)顯示出消費和發(fā)現(xiàn)加速的跡象，就像有線捆綁計劃一樣在電視上發(fā)揮作用。

These new distribution mechanisms and business models promise more choice for consumers—which is why regulators should allow Microsoft’s $69bn acquisition of Activision Blizzard, a big gamemaker whose titles Microsoft would make available for streaming and subscription.
這些新的分銷機制和商業(yè)模式為消費者提供了更多選擇，這就是為什么監(jiān)管機構應該允許微軟以690億美元的價格收購大型游戲制造商“動視暴雪”，這樣它的游戲就可以在微軟流媒體和訂閱服務中出現(xiàn)。

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All this holds lessons for other industries—chiefly that, if you are in media, you need to be in gaming.
以上這一切都給其他行業(yè)帶來了啟示，即如果你從事媒體行業(yè)，你需要參與游戲行業(yè)。

Apple and Netflix are scrambling to complement their streaming offerings with games.
蘋果和網(wǎng)飛正在竭盡全力通過游戲來補充它們的流媒體業(yè)務。

Others are already there. In August Sony Pictures will release “Gran Turismo”, a film based on a Sony game which features songs by artists from Sony Music.
其他公司已經(jīng)進入了這個領域。今年8月，索尼影業(yè)將有一部電影《頭號賽車手》上映，這部電影是基于一個由索尼開發(fā)的游戲，其中包含來自索尼音樂的歌曲。

Media firms that ignore gaming risk being like those that decided in the 1950s to sit out the TV craze.
忽視游戲行業(yè)的媒體公司，會像那些在 1950 年代對電視熱潮袖手旁觀的公司一樣，面臨出局的風險。

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Governments should also pay attention. Their main concern so far has been whether games rot young minds (almost certainly not, especially if playing diverts them from social media).
政府也應該關注到這一點。到目前為止，他們的主要關注點是游戲是否會腐蝕年輕人的思想（幾乎可以肯定地說“不會”，尤其是如果游戲能分散他們的注意力，讓他們遠離社交媒體時）。

As gaming grows, bigger questions loom. Film and television, the engines of popular culture in the 20th century, are dominated by Hollywood. The contest in new media is more open.
隨著游戲的發(fā)展，更大的問題浮出水面。20世紀流行文化的引擎是由好萊塢主導的影視業(yè)。新媒體領域的競爭會更加開放。

Western governments are waking up to the implications of the world’s hottest social-media app, TikTok.
西方政府開始意識到全球最熱門的社交媒體應用TikTok所帶來的影響。

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When video games were just electronic toys, this might not have mattered.
當視頻游戲只是電子玩具時，這可能無關緊要。

But as games expand and spill into other formats, it is becoming clear that whoever dominates gaming is going to wield clout in every form of communication.
但隨著游戲的擴展和涉及到其他格式，顯然是誰掌握了游戲，誰就能在各種形式的交流中發(fā)揮影響力。

In every sense, the future of the media is in play.
從各個方面來看，媒體的未來都在游戲中。

（恭喜讀完，本篇英語詞匯量707左右）
原文出自：2023年3月25日《The Economist》Leaders版塊。

精讀筆記來源于：自由英語之路

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【補充資料】（來自于網(wǎng)絡）
《霍格沃茨的遺產(chǎn)》Hogwarts Legacy是一款即將推出的電子游戲，由Avalanche Software開發(fā)，由華納兄弟發(fā)行。這個游戲基于J.K.羅琳的小說《哈利波特》系列，將在同名學?；舾裎执哪Х▽W校中展開。

貪吃蛇Pac-Man是一款經(jīng)典的街機游戲，由日本游戲公司Namco于1980年發(fā)行。在游戲中，玩家通過控制一個圓形角色Pac-Man在迷宮中吃掉所有的小點，同時避免四個鬼魂的追擊。游戲非常流行，成為了80年代最知名的游戲之一。

俄羅斯方塊Tetris是一款經(jīng)典的俄羅斯方塊拼圖游戲，最初于1984年由蘇聯(lián)設計師阿列克謝·帕基特諾夫創(chuàng)建。游戲中，玩家需要使用不同形狀的方塊組成完整的行，當一行完全被填滿時，該行會消失并為新方塊騰出空間。隨著時間的推移，方塊的下落速度會不斷加快，直到無法繼續(xù)游戲為止。

【重點句子】（4 個）
Yet as gaming matures, it is not just rivalling other media. Rather like a ravenous Pac-Man, it is gobbling them up.
然而，隨著游戲業(yè)發(fā)展成熟，它不僅與其他媒體是競爭關系，而像貪吃蛇一樣，游戲業(yè)正在吞并其他媒體。

In so far as anything resembling a metaverse yet exists, it exists in games.
就目前而言，如果說有任何類似元宇宙的存在，那么它一定存在于游戲中。

Gaming’s latest boom was propelled by free-to-play games, which suck users in before monetising them with ads and in-game purchases.
免費暢玩游戲吸引更多用戶，推動了游戲的最新熱潮，然后再通過廣告和游戲內(nèi)購買裝備獲取利潤。

Media firms that ignore gaming risk being like those that decided in the 1950s to sit out the TV craze.
忽視游戲行業(yè)的媒體公司，會像那些在 1950 年代對電視熱潮袖手旁觀的公司一樣，面臨出局的風險。