Is FarmVille changing everything? Games biz bigwigs speak out

To say the game industry is undergoing a transformation would be an understatement. The entire playing-games-on-one-system paradigm is rapidly shifting, as more people play games on multiple devices -- consoles, PCs, and increasingly the iPhone, iPad, or even the favorite medium of the Games.com - The Blog! crew, Facebook (along with other social networks). And, more people are starting to play games, period.

    ... Not only are there a lot of new customers showing up and becoming gamers for the first time, but we're seeing really big behavior changes by traditional gamers that used to just camp on one platform like the PlayStation and now they're using a diversity of media, and they're engaging with friends, so they're doing a lot of things that are more casual.

    Trip Hawkins, Digital Chocolate

In this new video series, Game Theory, video game industry bigwigs like Sims creator Will Wright and Fable creator Peter Molyneux talk about the tectonic shifts in the industry and, of course, social games come up more than once.

    "It's changing... and we can feel it. We're literally on the bow of the ship and the waves are crashing and the wind is in our face and we're like holy sh*t."

    Chris Taylor, Gas Powered Games

This pair of videos might be too 'inside baseball' for most of you, but if you dabble in gaming trends, this might be worth a few minutes of your time. I am still amazed at how much of an impact that FarmVille, Pet Society and others have had on the traditional video game console business. Social games might be classified as "casual," but there's nothing casual about the wake up call these non-traditional games are giving the traditional game industry.

PetVille nears 1 million players in four days

PetVille, the new Facebook game from Zynga, quietly launched on December 3. The pet simulation game lets you custom create a pet, their home and then set out to earn as many coins as possible by performing different tasks, such as cleaning your pet and visiting neighbors.

petville zynga reaches 1 million players in four days

Over the weekend, we noticed that Zynga turned on the publicity machine, running ads for the game on Facebook and in its other games, and the number of players climbed from a modest 22K to nearly one million in the past few days, according to AppData.

appdata

The question remains, will this game take over Pet Society's position as top pet game on Facebook? The rival Facebook game has been holding steady at around 21 million players for the past month, so PetVille still has a ways to go before it's in barking distance.

MyBookie for Facebook allows for make-believe, real sports bets

If you're into sports - NFL, NCAA Football, NBA, NCAA Basketball, NHL or MLB - you might want to check out MyBookie, a new Facebook "game" from the folks at Psydian Interactive. The game combines the real with the imaginary, by allowing you to bet fake money on real world games.

Depending on the sport you choose, you'll be able to view upcoming games, the spreads, over-unders and other general betting information, just as if you were betting on the games in Vegas, but from the comfort and (and monetary safety) of your own home. In no way are you playing with real money, and that's something your imaginary bookie will make incredibly clear to you as your first step in gameplay. From there, the game is incredibly simple. Pick a sport, pick a particular game, choose your bet type, and then choose which team you think will win. What happens in the real world affects what happens in the game, so the more you know about the real-world sports, the better you'll likely do with these fake bets (that is, unless you're generally really lucky at guessing games).

You'll be able to alter your winnings by allowing MyBookie to automatically post your bets to your wall (a permission you have to grant the game upon sign-up, but which can be revoked just as easily), and you'll earn bonuses just for logging in. As you continue to play the game, your Reputation level will also rise, allowing you access to "Favor" items, which can also alter your winnings should you correctly place a bet.

MyBookie is both a simplistic and a complex sports-betting game that we're guessing most sports fans would appreciate, so if you'd like to take a look, make sure to play MyBookie on Facebook.

Buzz! maker Relentless Software snags EA staffer for social games

Are hits like The Sims Social and (supposedly) SimCity for Facebook on the way not enough? Another EA employee has left the nest to take a crack at social games elsewhere. Relentless Software, best known for the Buzz! quiz game series for consoles, announced that it has hired former EA staffer James Wright as executive producer of its new social games division.

"We're serious about social and mobile games and that's why we have taken the logical step to separate these activities from the console business," Relentless Software executive director Andrew Eades said. "We've hired James Wright as Executive Producer who has a decade of experience in developing and publishing mobile games and has been involved in a number of top ten tittles including Draw Race 2. Our original IP will be steered from the Digital division and already includes Blue Toad Murder Files and Quiz Climber."

In short, Relentless Software wants to get into social games in a big way, and it wants Wright at the forefront of its initiative. The UK-based developer already has brief experience on Facebook with games like Quiz Climber. "The formalization of the Digital Division is a valuable starting point to take over from Relentless' self-publishing strategy," Wright said. "It will bring more fun, accessible and ground-breaking titles across several platforms for non-gamers."

It's that "non-gamers" bit that hangs us up. Perhaps Relentless Software has a different view of the 300 some million social gamers on Facebook and even more on mobile devices. Are the games currently available on social and mobile platforms not really games in the studio's eyes? At any rate, Relentless might want to get Buzz! on Facebook and mobile fast--it would kill it.

Do you think a studio like Relentless Software find more success on Facebook and mobile with a dedicated division? Would you like to see Buzz! on social and mobile game platforms?

Shocker: Zynga didn't have the most popular Facebook game in 2011?

Finding things that are hidden was the most popular game activity on Facebook this year, followed by controlling a person's every move and running an entire city. Facebook has released its take on the most popular social games of 2011, and Playdom's Gardens of Time beat out both The Sims Social by Playfish and Zynga's CityVille for the number one spot.

Facebook organized the list based on "which [games] drew the most active users and received the highest user recommendations," according to a post on the Facebook blog. Other than that, it's not 100 percent clear how Facebook came to its conclusions, as AppData's findings (as of this writing) are quite different. Perhaps user recommendations were weighed more heavily in Facebook's list. It's also possible that the recent change to how Facebook calculates monthly active players in its games affected this list.

With The Sims Social and CityVille in second and third place, respectively, the list contains a number of unexpected winners. For instance, DoubleDown Casino, Bingo Blitz and Slotomania all made the overall top 10 list. This isn't to say that these games aren't deserving of such acclaim, but none of these games performed as well as, say, Zynga Poker in 2011.

This leads us to believe that user recommendations were weighed more heavily than active players in Facebook's calculations. Who knows, perhaps recommendations are a better metric than simply the number of players when rating a game's popularity. Facebook made a point to include a bunch of other notable mentions from 2011, so check out the full list below:

Most Popular Games in 2011:

    Gardens of Time (By Playdom)
    The Sims Social (By EA)
    Cityville (By Zynga)
    DoubleDown Casino (by DoubleDown Interactive)
    Indiana Jones Adventure World (By Zynga)
    Words With Friends (By Zynga)
    Bingo Blitz (By Buffalo Studios)
    Empires & Allies (By Zynga)
    Slotomania-Slot Machines (By Playtika)
    Diamond Dash (By wooga)


Top Up-and-Comers:

    Battle Pirates (By Kixeye)
    Dragons of Atlantis (By Kabam)
    Gourmet Ranch (By RockYou!)


Top Games with 50,000-100,000 Users

    Super Slot Machines (By Davy Campano, David Livingston Kirby and Robby Campano)
    WestWars (By Innogames)
    MouseHunt (By HitGrab)


Top Casino Games in 2011

    Zynga Poker (By Zynga)
    Slotomania – Slot Machines (By Playtika)
    DoubleDown Casino (By DoubleDown Interactive)


Top Sports Games in 2011

    TopEleven – Be a Football Manager (By Nordeus)
    Pool Live Tour (By Geewa)
    EA Sports: FIFA Superstars (By EA)


Top Fashion Games in 2011

    Mall World (By 50 Cubes)
    ItGirl (By CrowdStar)
    Coco Girl (By Metrogames)



Do you think Gardens of Time deserves to be on top? What do you think of the conclusions Facebook came to?

Activision Blizzard's Call of Duty takes cue from social games in China

Call of Duty
And here we though the day would never come: The pinnacle of hardcore gaming, Call of Duty (CoD), has succumbed to the pressures and potential profits of Facebook games ... in China. VentureBeat reports that Activision Blizzard announced a new CoD game today, though the game will be a free-to-play affair for Chinese audiences only (at the moment). The company made the announcement in an earnings call today, and said that it will create a "best in class digital platform" to support the game.

"Today, Call of Duty is part of the cultural landscape," said Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing, in the earnings call. But to succeed in foreign lands, the game will have to adapt to cultural landscapes as well. Free-to-play games supported by micro-transactions are what Chinese gamers expect these days, and Activision plans to deliver. Not to mention that the company also created a studio known as Beachhead to make an online community for CoD players worldwide. The platform has been in development for two years already, and Activision expects it to be ready in time for the expected fall release of the next CoD.

According to VentureBeat, details on the next CoD developed for Western audiences will surface in the coming weeks. And Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick promised that this next CoD will be the best experience that the company has ever made. If the company is aware of what resonates with Chinese gamers, surely it's considering the massive social games movement in the US. In fact, with EA already offering free-to-play versions of its Battlefield franchise, Kotick has at least mulled it over.

[Image Credit: G4TV]

Do you think CoD will adapt to a more social games-esque distribution model in the states as well? Would you be more interested in the franchise if it was presented like this?

Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and that red thing just might get a social game

You know, that thing that looks like a walking, furry Valentine? Wait, that thing has a name, and it's "Gossamer?" (What kind of name is that?) Anyway, Fusible has tracked down a lengthy list of domain names registered by Warner Bros. Entertainment on Nov. 29, nearly all of which seeming to refer to an online game that could be in the works: Looney Tunes Cartoon Universe.

Of course, the game could be named anything. But it's a safe guess for now that domains like "CartoonUniversegame.com", "Playtheuniverse.com" and "Looneytunescu.com," refer to a game titled at least similarly to that. There are other domains that WB registered this week, like "Toontokens.com" and "Wbcash.com", that suggest the game would be supported by in-game purchases using a currency like Toon Tokens.

A Looney Tunes Cartoon Universe game would make a whole lot of sense both on Facebook and elsewhere. Disney is arguably WB's biggest competitor, and the company has already stated plans for its cast of characters to enter Facebook games through developer Playdom. The company has even release a console game titled "Disney Universe." Perhaps WB is eying up a piece of the same pie.

While this game--if it even is a game--could appear on any platform, it's also important to consider the audience. Looney Tunes have always been the more mature cartoon troupe, and the majority of Facebook gamers are adults. Who knows, maybe Bugs, Daffy (and Gossamer) can beat Mickey and crew to the punch.

Would you play a Looney Tunes game on Facebook or elsewhere? Who do you think would be more successful in Facebook games: Disney or Warner Bros.?

Half of all U.S. social gamers own a game console, RockYou study says

As if we already didn't know: Some social gamers are more "hardcore" than we thought. But the next study released that attempts to drive this point home is courtesy of Zoo World creator RockYou and conducted by Interpret, a media research firm. Titled the "Social Gamer Thought Leadership Research Study," it finds that 50 percent of U.S. social gamers own a traditional gaming console.

The study, which polled over 2,00 social game fans living in the U.S. aged 18 and older with a 60-40 women to men split, also found that social gamers are more "sophisticated." To back up the claim, the study reports a quarter of social gamers prefer games with quests, and that 22 percent admit that score-sharing drives their urge to play more. Oh, and these players also spend quite a bit of time with the games.

Of the over 2,000 people polled, RockYou and Interpret found that the average social gamer spends an average of 9.5 hours playing out of the 13 average hours they spend on networks like Facebook. The average social game player, according to the study, has just over 16 real-life frieds playing these games with them and has made 20 new friends through social games. Of course, the study doesn't get into how deep said friendships are, but how could you?

The study also reports that 42 percent of social gamers would play a social game more, if offered real world rewards like coupons or gift cards. (But isn't the idea to get them to pay up?) It was just recently that Raptr discovered that a number of Zynga fans may be Halo and Grand Theft Auto fans, too. And before that, Kabam found in its own study that the hardcore crowd on Facebook is growing.

What should you take away from this influx of studies and reports? Regardless of whether you still dig tending to virtual crops or running a shanty town, many developers--even the "casual" ones--seem all but done with your farms and cities of yore.

What do you think of the numerous reports on the growing hardcore crowd in social games? How do you think this will change the industry in the long run? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment

Microsoft Research releases Facebook game for 'research'

Sure you are, guys--we're onto you. The Research division at Microsoft has released its first Facebook games, Project Waterloo, in order to find out how people interact and negotiate with one another across social networks. The game is a turn-based combat simulator in which players allocate 100 generic troops across five locations. In a way, Project Waterloo works a lot like Zynga's Words With Friends.

Of course, we're referring to the one-on-one, turn-based gameplay, not the words. Players challenge friends with allocations of 100 troops either using a slider or directly entering a number in each location on the battlefield. Said friends can then respond with their own strategic positioning using 100 troops, and if they don't currently play the game, they will be invited prior to responding.

So, it might help to think of Project Waterloo as a cross between games like Words With Friends and the classic board game Battleship. Players can also start games with random players, regardless of whether they're Facebook friends. Project Waterloo, according to a post on the Microsoft Research website, is the start of the "Facebook Game Theory Lab." This will serve as a platform through which Microsoft Research explores concepts of strategic human interaction within "resource allocation and negotiation games." The team of four researchers wrote:

    The goal of the project is to test the behaviour of real people in game theoretic interactions, and especially those that take place in social networks. Some example questions are: how do people negotiate with one another? How does such negotiation take place in social networks? How can we aggregate opinions of individuals to arrive at high quality decisions? In what ways do people reciprocate other people's actions?

Project Waterloo in action
While it doesn't appear that Project Waterloo will be a source of revenue for Microsoft Research's parent company, the team does use words like "viral marketing" to explain how it will reach new players. Ultimately, we don't see a game like this taking off commercially, but it is another step in that direction, as Microsoft has already expressed interest in entering the space. Just recently, the company began to offer support to developers through its Windows Azure service. Perhaps Project Waterloo and the Facebook Game Theory Lab represent Microsoft further testing the waters.

Click here to play Project Waterloo on Facebook Now >

[Via ZDNet]

What do you think of Microsoft's very scientific foray into Facebook games? Do you think the company would ever dive into the industry like Google or Facebook has? Sound off in the comments. 2 Comments

Sims Social survey lets you sound off on item prices, favorite features and more

It's that time folks - time to let your collective voices be heard! EA wants to know how much fun (or not) you're having with the Sims Social on Facebook, and they've released a fairly long survey to help you tell them. This survey contains all sorts of questions, ranging from the basics of how often you play the game, to allowing you to rate your opinion on item pricing (are they too cheap? too expensive?) and what some of your favorite features are in the game.

Of course, the point of all of this is to gather enough opinions to actually sway the way the game develops in the future. Hopefully, with questions dealing with how much we like to "build" items with parts (bookcases, double beds, etc.), and the option to say that you don't like it at all, we may actually see a lessening in those kinds of items, if enough users agree. You can even rank various gameplay features (decorating your house, visiting friends, customizing your Sim, etc.) in the order that you like them. In this way, perhaps we'll see more focus being placed on the most (overall) liked feature, and you'll be able to say you helped to make that happen.

Unfortunately, this isn't the kind of survey that will allow you to give your opinion on future item sets, but there are plenty of blank text boxes for you to say exactly what you want to the developers in a place that you know they'll see it. Again, this survey is prety lengthy (when compared to other Facebook game surveys anyway), so you'll want to make sure you have around 5-10 minutes to set aside to take it.

We've taken this survey as well, and if we start to notice any gameplay changes arising because of options listed here, we'll make sure to let you know. In the meantime, head over to this link right here to take the survey for yourself.