10 years ago, our impression of social gaming was limited to the simple online turn based games such as Yahoo Pool or card games. Certain social games are still characterized by physical board games i.e. Monopoly, Scrabble and Chess. However, much has evolved since then. No doubt online social gaming has taken away a lot of face time and the personal touch associated with traditional board games, it has made up with the ability to connect people at different ends of the world with interesting games and forming close knit communities around each game. Traditional handheld gaming platforms i.e. PSPs, Nintendo DS, have suffered as a result of their inability to add the human aspect to their games.
Reasons for the Rise
1. Powerful Mediums
The increased adoption of the online social games has to be credited to the rise of social networks such as MySpace and Facebook. In fact, social gaming and social networks complement each other well. People are spending a lot more time on Facebook and its pageviews has already exceeded Google. Social gaming is partly responsible for the reported drop in office productivity.
Secondly, the introduction of smartphones have also provided another wide-reaching medium for social games. Global smartphone sales is rising close to 50% year on year, and in some markets, it is outselling feature by phones four to one. Mobile gaming is a successful off-shoot of social gaming due to its nature of the games which are quick and easy to play. Almost all the blockbuster social games like Farmville and Mafia Wars have a corresponding smartphone application.
2. Show off your Virtual Achievements
Another lure factor of social games is the opportunity to display your achievements for all to see. I am always fascinated by how colorful and vibrant the farms, hotels and restaurants are developed by my nephews. It has become a competition between the gamers to see who can build the prettiest house or earn the highest virtual income from their assets. Oh, did I miss out the possession of rare virtual items that will truly differentiate the owner from the rest?
3. Simple and Engaging
First of all, social games are by their nature, simple and engaging. It doesn't take a lot for one to master the game with its simple interface and colorful buttons. Gamers's age range from six years old to those their 40s. It has also become easier for parents to relate to their children since they are playing the same games. Somehow, it is this simplicity and attractive gameplay that got most people addicted and constantly upgrading their online property.
4. Easy to develop
The game development model is different for social games and traditional handhelds. The latter depends on prominent studios investing multi-million dollars to develop blockbuster games......and success is not guaranteed. On the other hand, developing social games is much easier faster with less resources required per game. The games do not have a linear storyline and instead gives gamers the opportunity to shape their gameplay. The key to social gaming is the innovation. Who would have thought that the simple rearing of farm animals and planting crops could make Farmville a 100 million user base. Any unknown garage studio can make it big overnight if they hit the jackpot.
Making Money in Social Games
Social games is now the new gold mine which everyone is rushing into. Studios with early success are already snapped up by incumbents who have been too slow to venture into this space.
Electronic Arts kicked off this buying spree with the acquisition of Playfish. Cost: $400 million. Disney followed that up with the purchase of Playdom. Cost: $763 million.
Google, with its intention to set up its own social network, bought SocialDeck and also invested $100 million in the No.1 social games developer Zynga.
Besides earning their revenues by selling virtual world goods and currency, there are many other ways to monetize the social games. Users of social games are usually very engaged in the virtual worlds. Therefore, Ad impressions will have the biggest effect. Recently, Honda paid for an Ad to publicize its latest car model in the game, Car Town. Global Advertising in social games will be at least $300 million next year.
