Feature: Gaming The New Era Of Facebook

Author: by Staff

In Gamasutra's latest feature, Spry Fox CEO and Fuzbi consultant David Edery argues that there are opportunities for small-to-midsized developers to find success on the Facebook with targeted social games. Though much of the attention on Facebook games has been on casual-focused mega hits like CityVille and FarmVille that attempt to appeal to as many users as possible, some developers are finding that deeper, more strategic titles for traditional "core" gamers can also be profitable on the social network. "What we're seeing is the smaller, more targeted games growing considerably faster than the 'big mommas' that appeal to the large, general audiences," says Edery. "If you believe the statistics, the top five games seem to be losing users while the games ranked 51 to 175 are growing substantially over last year." He adds that promoting targeted games in relevant communities is important: "It stands to reason that if you make a terrific soccer game and you advertise it in blogs for soccer fans, you better damn well believe you're going to have a better pass-through and better retention than, say, a FarmVille that appeals to -- who, farmers?" The Fuzbi consutlant points to EA Sports/Playfish's FIFA Superstars -- from a major publisher but currently ranked #43 -- is getting around "594,000 daily active users, according to AppData, which is a pretty good number. With anything over a few hundred thousand, you can make some really significant money." Contrasting Facebook with other platforms, Edery says if a game is ranked #163 on Xbox Live, for example, "you are hosed. It means that maybe five people a day are playing you. Same with PSN. But, on Facebook, #163 might have a daily average user level (DAU) of 50,000, which means you have a good chance of making money." He adds, "So what I'm saying is that if that game is designed correctly, if it is monetized correctly, it can make $200,000, $300,000, even $500,000 a year. That's totally feasible. Facebook is one of the only ecosystems where you can be that far down on the chart, and still be making a good profit." For more on the opportunities for small-to-midsized social game developers on Facebook, read the full Gamasutra feature article, available now.