Comments on: Social Gaming Is Not the “Next Big Thing” – It’s Been Here For Decades

By: Juuso

Juuso — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 05:33:24 +0000

games launched on social platforms… heh. I don’t even bother to mention anything about the crappiness of that definition.

Maybe I need to define social games. I have a blog and all.

(joking)

;)

By: Jake Birkett

Jake Birkett — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 03:50:41 +0000

[quote]Games launched on social platforms? ;) [/quote]I agree, that is the current industry definition. Taken in a wider context, yes “social” can mean a whole bunch of different things. It’s a bit like “casual” to someone in the casual game industry means games like you get on Big Fish Games, but outside of the industry people call flash games with zombies in casual just because they can be played for 5 mins with the mouse.

By: Maurice

Maurice — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 22:36:57 +0000

Games launched on social platforms? ;)

I don’t know if they’re the ‘next big thing’, but definatly are a big deal. I agree with Jake that the ‘next big thing’ is not necessarily a new thing. I mean, you really think the Wii/Motion control wasn’t there before for example? :) But they kinda made it the ‘next big thing’.

In terms of revenue I think its comparable with iPhone: Only a small portion will actually make profit, let alone good profit. Simply because the entry barrier is very low and making crap games is also easy.

I currently work at a social website, and try to follow the progressions/developments (even though its not my main responsibility there). And there is a lot of potential in these games :)

By: Juuso

Juuso — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 19:31:21 +0000

Yeh… these are interesting figures.

I still think the definition of “social game” is bit of a buzzword… since how you define them? Browser based games have been here for long… Oh well.

By: Jake Birkett

Jake Birkett — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 18:19:56 +0000

Some source: http://www.insidesocialgames.com/2009/09/29/when-will-social-gaming-company-zynga-go-public/

Turns out I mangled the facts and Zynga as a whole is making $200 million this year, not the Farmville game on it’s own, but it is the no.1 facebook game and probably a huge part of their revenue.

By: Juuso

Juuso — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 06:01:27 +0000

@Chad: I ended up updating the about page - that might help you to draw some conclusions. By the way, you might find this article about authority pretty interesting. By the way, by saying rat's bottocks I didn't mean that it wouldn't be a legitimate question. I assume people should automatically question whatever I say... to some extent. My misunderstanding. As for "is author a game producer", I would like to give this link: click clik

By: Juuso

Juuso — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 05:42:35 +0000

@Chad: Very legitimate question. In fact. I think I’ll blog about this in a minute.

@Jake: 200M – that’s nice. :) Would be nice to know more figures behind Zunga. like what sort of fundign they had, since the company is so new and has got great success. Where did this figure come from?

It’s left to see how much room there is for other facebook apps. (If it’s in facebook, it’s social – right? ;)

I’ll cancel that “moneywise” argument of mine :)

By: Jake Birkett

Jake Birkett — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 03:29:30 +0000

“moneywise” Farmville is on track to make $200,000,000. I’d appreciate even 1%, or even 0.1% of that. I’d say it’s a “big thing” when compared with any casual game or iphone game and compared with plenty of AAA titles.

By: Chad

Chad — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 02:20:56 +0000

It’s good that you don’t give a rat’s ass. I’m just wondering if a blog with the title of gameproducer.net is written by someone who has had the real experience of producing a successful game.

I think it’s a legitimate point (I can’t be the only one asking this).

It’s kind of like if there’s a moviedirector.net blog and the author has only done youtube videos.

By: Juuso

Juuso — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 19:33:04 +0000

@Chad: money making: yes. successful: no (in my scale, dunno what scale you guys use).

“weight behind”: like I’d give a rat’s a*** of what people think of me or my opinions. :)

@Brian: checked that timeline, it was pretty interesting actually. Good catch on 3D. I’d suppose the game world was close to 3D, but in the presentation it was using 2D sprites. Same thinking probably goes for Duke Nukem.

@hermitC: agree on that last bit ;) They sure require extra effort…

@Reverend: That’s kind of my thinking as well.