Upgrade to Pro — share decks privately, control downloads, hide ads and more …

The Social Gaming Revolution

The Social Gaming Revolution

2009 will be remembered as the year that casual gaming stormed social platforms and changed the way millions of people socialised with friends online.

Federico Cargnelutti

April 30, 2010
Tweet

More Decks by Federico Cargnelutti

Other Decks in Technology

Transcript

  1. The Social Gaming Revolution
    Innovations Team, BSkyB

    View Slide

  2. 2009 will be remembered as the year that casual gaming
    stormed social platforms and changed the way millions of
    people socialized with friends online.

    View Slide

  3. “Casual Gaming is the Arcade business
    rising from the ashes of the 1980s”
    Nicholas Carlson, Business Insider

    View Slide

  4.   Arcade games were usually played in a social
    environment. Online games are played on
    Facebook, a virtual social environment.
      Arcade games made money by addicting
    people to simple games, introducing friction into
    these games by making them harder after each
    level.
      Arcade games charged small amounts of
    money to ease that friction by allowing gamers
    to buy lives.

    View Slide

  5. Four major developments are driving the growth of Social Gaming
      The opening up of more social networking platforms for third
    party developers.
      An increase in social games on websites outside of social
    networking platforms.
      Growing interest in mobile social gaming.
      Entry of further big players into the social gaming industry.
    The Rise of Social Gaming

    View Slide

  6. The Rise of Social Gaming
      Playfish was recently acquired by Electronic Arts (EA) for £260
    million.
      News Corp. acquired Irata Labs, a developer of social games
    across Twitter and Facebook.
      Playfish generates revenues of £50 million from selling virtual
    goods on Facebook and other platforms.
      Virtual goods are expected to reach revenues of £1 billion in 2010,
    according to a report by Inside Network.

    View Slide

  7. Zynga hits 100 million users with FarmVille

    View Slide

  8. “Who would have guessed, in an age of
    rapidly advancing technology, that one of
    the most popular online games would be a
    game about good old fashioned farming?”
    Ronny Kerr, Vator News
    Zynga hits 100 million users with FarmVille

    View Slide

  9.   When a game is built on top of an existent platform, eg. Facebook,
    it has the opportunity to connect a user with their entire network of
    friends.
      Zynga will create a game as quickly as possible, distribute it to its
    audience, and go and optimize each part of the game based on user
    feedback.
      Social games evolve and grow with user feedback.
    Zynga hits 100 million users with FarmVille

    View Slide

  10. Social Platforms

    View Slide


  11. South By Southwest Interactive
    Developers showed off demos of games that had Facebook Connect built in,
    allowing you to share scores, statistics and even a personalized gaming
    highlight reel to your Facebook profile, direct from your Xbox 360 or
    Playstation.
    The latest generation of games on Apple's iPhone include the same sort of
    features, designed to let you share your achievements with friends.
    Social Platforms

    View Slide

  12. Social Platforms

    View Slide


  13. “Our motivation is simple – we want to provide the most advanced and
    innovative platform to our developers, and we want them to stand directly on
    the shoulders of this platform and create the best apps the world has ever
    seen. We want to continually enhance the platform so developers can create
    even more amazing, powerful, fun and useful applications. Everyone wins – we
    sell more devices because we have the best apps, developers reach a wider
    and wider audience and customer base, and users are continually delighted
    by the best and broadest selection of apps on any platform.”
    Social Platforms
    Steve Jobs, April 2010

    View Slide


  14. Social Platforms

    View Slide

  15. Social Platforms

    View Slide

  16. Social Platforms - Consoles

    View Slide

  17. Social Platforms - Game Portals

    View Slide

  18. Social Platforms - PC

    View Slide

  19. Social Platforms - Mobile Phone

    View Slide

  20. Social Platforms - Mobile Phone

    View Slide

  21. Social Platforms - Mobile Phone

    View Slide

  22. Social Games

    View Slide

  23. Social Games
    Zynga
    237.1 million users
    Electronic Arts
    53.3 million users
    CrowdStar
    49.2 million users
    Playdom
    37.1 million users

    View Slide

  24.   FarmVille is the most popular game application on Facebook, with
    over 82.4 million active users.
      FishVille had 875,000 users within two days of launch.
      World of Warcraft is currently the dominant MMO in the world
    with 12 million monthly subscribers worldwide.
      World of Warcraft has generated over £1.4 billion since 2005.
    Social Games

    View Slide

  25. Top reasons people play social games:
    1.  Fun and excitement (53%)
    2.  Stress relief (45%)
    3.  Competitive spirit (43%)
    4.  Sense of accomplishment (23%)
    Social Games

    View Slide

  26. Appeal of social games beyond social interaction:
    1.  Competition
    2.  Interactive game play
    3.  Opportunity to win prizes
    4.  Cooperative game play
    5.  Regularly scheduled tournaments
    Social Games

    View Slide

  27. Micropayments

    View Slide

  28. Micropayments

    View Slide

  29. Micropayments

    View Slide

  30. Apple has already built out the basic
    payments platform through iTunes. Adding
    in payments for services won't be that
    much additional work.
    Micropayments

    View Slide

  31. Micropayments

    View Slide

  32.   When a Facebook friend has a birthday, users are encouraged to
    spend £1 on a gift, posted to their profile page for all to see.
      Micro-payments are expected to steadily grow in popularity in
    major markets over the coming years.
      Recently, the Financial Services Authority (FSA), responsible for
    implementing the European Union's Electronic Money directive in
    the United Kingdom, relaxed the guidelines that determine what can
    be purchased via a mobile device.
    Micropayments

    View Slide

  33.   The majority (41%) of those playing social games work full-time,
    followed by 13% who are retired and 11% who are homemakers.
    9% work part-time and another 9% are not currently working.
      22% of the UK social gamers earn less than £15,000 annually,
    19% earn between £15,000 and £25,000, 20% earn £25,000
    and £38,000 and 23% earn £38,000 or more.
    Micropayments

    View Slide

  34. The Future of Social Gaming

    View Slide

  35.   Social gaming is still in its very early days. A unique idea can
    quickly capture the social gaming audience.
      There are substantial opportunities for social game developers
    with virtual goods revenue models, but the market is still evolving
    rapidly.

    View Slide

  36. Games today are so flashy and expensive
    to make that they almost seem to miss the
    point.

    View Slide

  37. It doesn't take a great deal of imagination to connect the dots

    View Slide

  38.   2010 Social Gaming Research – Information Solutions Group
    http://bit.ly/bJ9hBl
      Virtual Goods: The Future of Social Gaming 2010
    http://www.insidevirtualgoods.com/future-social-gaming
      Smartphone Adoption Shifting Dynamics of U.S. Mobile Gaming Market
    http://bit.ly/cgxhyG
      Social Games Observer
    http://www.socialgamesobserver.com
      Inside Social Games
    http://www.insidesocialgames.com
    Sources

    View Slide