Wii-like social gaming on SNSes
Playfish is a London-based company that makes social games with a Wii-like aesthetic on social networking services. That's a longer way of saying cute games for Facebook, and techcrunch reckons they're making over a million bucks a month. When asked whether this was the case, the co-founder says:
"We don't really comment on our revenue numbers. I'm happy with how we're doing. But more importantly I think our experience so far shows a lot of promise in how we can reach a completely new audience for games and let people play together in ways theyâve never played before.
Monetization is in its infancy but we're all learning and I think you'll see a lot of innovation and experimentation in this area moving forward.
Social gaming is a very hyped area currently and there will be challenges ahead for sure, but I think the fundamentally new gaming behaviours we're creating today will make a profound impact on the $50Bn games industry over time. And it's that more than today's numbers is what makes me excited about it all."
At a guess, the "new audience" are probably people who don't consider themselves gamers but who play online games all the time. That's kind of everybody, these days. The aesthetic reflects this:
They're not going for originality, but I think a distillation - a simplification - of some well-used ideas and they're very good at getting noticed from within Facebook, which wields the same sort of power as television, really, when you think about it. Sitting duck audience.
(Thanks Matt!)
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