Social Gaming Summit 2010 impressions

Two weeks ago I was given the opportunity to attend this year’s Social Gaming Summit at the Chelsea FC stadium in London. Although I was only able to attend half of the programme, the impressions and insights I gained there are worth sharing. Currently, social gaming is gaming’s most dynamic and perhaps most interesting market segment from a business perspective. Social gaming is the industry’s market segment in which a lot of gaming’s consolidation is taking place as well as where developers have a high sense of strategic direction. What follows is some of the impressions I gained during the summit.

Playfish’ future of social gaming

The opening keynote of the day was given by Kristian Segerstrale (@ksegerstrale) general manager and VP of Playfish, recently acquired by EA. Since the advent of Facebook apps in 2007 there has been a shift in games from boxed to digital, from products to services, from standalone to social and from upfront monetization to ongoing monetization. Social games perfectly fit in this transition. The first three years of advergaming have been great, especially for Playfish. The market segment has matured at rapid pace and is facing severe changes at the moment.

When looking forward, a few trends can be distinguished. As Facebook is becoming stable as a distribution platform innovation needs to come from within the games. Social games need meaning through true and immersive social interaction as well as through real world connections. The later can be established by tapping into passions of people (football), communities (niche games) and places (location based). When combined, having a social game around one of EA’s biggest franchises, Fifa, seems as a logical next step for Playfish.

PopCap’s transition from casual to social

Another industry leader and executive vice president of a very successful company spoke later during the day. Dennis Ryan of PopCap talked how PopCap’s main IP, Bejeweled, enabled the company to shift from casual gaming to social gaming. Besides rather impressive numbers of the company’s growth, the success and diffusion of Bejeweled Blitz and PopCap’s proprietary gaming platform PopCap world, the most interesting finding from David’s presentation was the notion that in social gaming, if you have the possibility, wait as long as you can with making money. First you should focus on getting reach and engagement and establish ease of payment. Afterwards you can focus on making proper money.

Facebook’s vision on games and mobile

Perhaps the most holistic presentation of the morning came from Facebooks games and mobile platform manager Gareth Davis (@garethdavis). Gareth’s main message was in congruence with broader industry notions that social gaming is going mobile as well as that it is going cross platform. Currently, Facebook has over 250 million daily users who spend on average 55 minutes on the platform. More than 200 million of Facebook’s 500 million users access the platform using their mobile phones. 200 million people also play games on Facebook each month of which the bulk come from the USA and EU.

Facebook’s games and mobile platform is carefully developed to benefit both players and developers. Facebook Connect help web games integrate online profiles where Facebook Credits allow for ease of payment and therefore monetization. In 2011 Facebook will emphasize mobile access to the platform, games included. Single sign-in and location based API’s will facilitate and smoothen out the transition to mobile social gaming.

Gareth ended his presentation by giving seven key success factors for success in social games:

1.       Analytics, implement them and use them to base decisions upon;

2.       Iterative development, implement new features based on analytics on a regular basis;

3.       Design for distribution and discovery;

4.       Design for engagement;

5.       Retail level merchandising, virtual goods and its embodying game are comparable to retail businesses, make sure you understand its mechanics;

6.       Global deployment, aim global, act local;

7.       Social design is the secret sauce!

Panel discussion, view from the top

The most off the beaten track insights came from the panel discussion in which Disney Playdom, RockYou and Trial play were represented. Putting together high level company leaders with some interesting questions from the audience led to more realistic and less obvious remarks. Social games are becoming more and more complex and strategic services, this makes it more difficult for independent developers to succeed. A way to financially succeed is by having brand integration in social games. Currently there is massive interests from big brands to get involved in social games due to the ease of measurement, critical mass and engagement offered by these games.

Nevertheless, the market is getting more competitive. An outlet to expand and grow in is mobile, and as the major players are at the moment not yet ready for bespoke mobile solutions, here lay chances for smaller actors to be successful. A possible strategy to succeed could be to partner with other organizations to allow for huge advertisement budgets as marketing is key in social gaming. Other platforms for expansion are Android, Apple and non-Facebook social networks that have a solid mobile proposition. In game expansion can be sought in new genres such as sports games and games that have a connection with real life.

I would like to thank Newzoo for giving me the opportunity to attend the Social Gaming Summit 2010.