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1、小编给你一个美联英语官方免费试听课申请链接：http:/ 提供：娱乐英语 电玩行业的数码分水岭随这个圣诞假期而至SEATTLE This holiday season could be remembered as a digital watershed for the games business, the moment when the old way of selling video games on discs in boxes finally gave way to downloads.西雅图这个圣诞假期可以被视为游戏行业的数码分水岭，以盒装光盘销售游戏的旧方式最终被下载取代。The
2、industry has been pointed in this direction for years. But the signs of a sharp turning point have piled up in the last month, as new data points have painted conflicting pictures of the game industry.多年前就有人指出，这是电子游戏行业未来的方向。但深刻变革的转折点一直在酝酿当中，直至上个月才真正到来。不过，新的数据为这一行业描绘了种种互相矛盾的画面。On one hand, recent mar
3、ket research shows that physical game sales declined in November, and GameStop, a leading retailer, reported disappointing earnings that made its stock tumble.一方面，最近的市场研究显示，11 月，实体游戏的销量显著下降，顶尖零售商GameStop 的盈利令人失望，导致其股价下跌。On the other, game companies swear that things are going great. Big titles are s
4、etting sales records, and Sony, the leading maker of game consoles, says the latest PlayStation has been selling at a faster clip than any previous generation of the hardware.另一方面，游戏公司说他们的生意非常好。大公司创下了销售记录，电视游戏设备的顶尖生产者索尼公司称，公司最新的 PlayStation 的发售比以往每一代的硬件都快。Why the disparity?为什么会有这种落差？A number of fact
5、ors are at play, but none as significant as the industrys march toward a future of games downloaded over the Internet rather than bought in stores, analysts said. All mobile games are delivered over the Internet, as are nearly all PC games. But the transition for console games the biggest segment of
6、 the business has been far slower. Large game files could take hours to download and quickly fill a consoles hard drive.分析师们说很多因素在起作用，但最重要的是行业的趋势是从互联网下载游戏，而不是从实体店购买游戏。所有手机游戏都是从网上购买的，大多数电脑游戏也是如此。但是电视游戏（这个行业最大的一块）的步伐一直较为缓慢。大型游戏文件需要花好几个小时下载，会很快装满电视游戏设备的硬盘。Now, faster broadband speeds and the bigger har
7、d drives in the latest generation of consoles are reducing those obstructions.现在，有了更快的带宽，新一代的电视游戏设备也有了更大的硬盘，这些障碍就消除了。“It finally feels like the inevitable is becoming the inevitable,” said Evan Wilson, an analyst who follows the game industry for Pacific Crest Securities. “It feels like this is the
8、holiday season where its finally having a big impact.”“最终，不可避免的变化好像真的变得不可避免了，”太平洋皇冠证券(Pacific Crest Securities)负责游戏行业的分析师伊万 威尔逊(Evan Wilson)说。“好像就是这个假期，变革终于产生了巨大影响。”Electronic Arts, the big games publisher behind Madden and Need for Speed, says about 20 percent of its new console games are now downl
9、oaded, compared with around 10 to 15 percent last year. For other publishers, the number may be 25 percent or more.游戏大厂艺电公司(Electronic Arts)曾经推出Madden系列和极品飞车(Need for Speed)，它声称，公司推出的电视游戏中，目前有 20%是通过下载购买，去年这个数字是 10%到 15%。其他公司的下载销售比例则占 25%或更多。As a result, it is becoming harder to judge the health of
10、the industry based on sales of physical game discs. NPD Group, a research firm that tracks retail sales in the United States, showed a 7 percent decline in November game sales from the same month a year ago.因此，要根据实体游戏光碟销量来判断这个行业走势是否良好，就变得更加困难。调查公司 NPD 集团研究了美国的零售数据，表明今年 11 月，游戏销量比去年 11 月下降了7%。Mr. Wil
11、son of Pacific Crest characterized the figures in the title of a research report: “Shockingly Bad NPD Data Shows Big Physical Challenges.”太平洋皇冠证券的威尔逊在一份报告的标题中概括了一下：“极糟的 NPD 数据表明实体销售面临巨大挑战”。A couple of weeks earlier, there was similarly grim news from GameStop, the big specialty retailer, which blame
12、d a disappointing earnings report for the period ending Oct. 31 on weak new game software and hardware sales.几周前，大型游戏业零售商 GameStop 也传来类似的严峻消息，它认为，盈利报表之所以令人失望，主要是由于截至 10 月 31 日，新的游戏软件与硬件都销量不佳。Executives at GameStop caused a further stir when they said one of the most anticipated games of the season,
13、Star Wars: Battlefront, had missed their internal sales forecasts during the quarter. The stock of Electronic Arts, the games publisher, fell 5 percent the day of the remarks.GameStop 的管理人员说，本季最受期待的游戏之一星球大战：前线(Star Wars: Battlefront)在本季的网络销售没有达到预期，这番话更加令人震惊。消息传出当日，该游戏的发行者艺电公司的股票就下跌了 5%。The numbers w
14、ere particularly striking because if game sales are ever going to grow, the time is now. The biggest games of the year have just landed on store shelves including Fallout 4, Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, and Star Wars: Battlefront and demand for them is running high among holiday gift buyers.这些数字之所以令人震
15、惊是因为，如果说游戏销量有所增长，那么时间就是现在。今年最大的几个游戏都已经上架，包括辐射 4(Fallout 4)、 12： 黑色行动3(Call of Duty: Black Ops 3)和星球大战：前线。为假日购买礼物的人正好需要买游戏。What is more, the industry is in the sweet spot of the hardware cycle, when the latest consoles from Sony and Microsoft are in plentiful supply and their prices have come down, a
16、nd game publishers are cranking out titles that better exploit their capabilities.此外，在硬件更新的循环中，这个行业正处于有利阶段，索尼和微软最新的电视游戏设备供应充足，价格有所下降，游戏生产商正在推出能尽量利用游戏机新功能的游戏。Sony, for one, says its console sales have never been better. The company reported that it sold 30.2 million PlayStation 4s worldwide as of late November, just days after the second anniversary of the product. By comparison, it
