Facebook Strategy Games Played by 80 Million -- Another Example of Gamers Moving to Web & Social

Strategy games on Facebook have a playerbase of over 80 million, as I note in my latest report for SocialTimes Pro. That includes my two personal favorites on Facebook, Army Attack (which top game developers like BioShock's Ken Levine also dig), and Backyard Monsters, a game I wrote about last year, which has since become about as popular as Starcraft II, and which just helped earn its developer, Kixeye, a new funding round on a company valuation of nearly $200 million. (Interesting side note: Two ex-Linden friends of mine are now working at Kixeye.)

Looking at the big picture, this is yet another example of gamers moving away from their traditional platforms (PCs and consoles) to spend more time and money on web-based gaming, especially in Facebook. This isn't to say Facebook is the ideal platform for web gaming; when Google launches its much-rumored game platform for Google+, Facebook is in serious, serious trouble. Looking at it from the Second Life perspective, this kind of activity is why I'm so enthused about the upcoming Second Life/OpenSim wrapper plugin for Facebook -- not because Facebook is the ultimate platform (it's not), but because for the next year or two at least, it's where a lot of gamers are going for their online entertainment.

Comments

[Metacam Oh]

Eh, I'm not too sure that this is a sign gamers are moving away from anything, maybe more of a sign that more people in general are using the internet and playing these dinky games from work.. I don't know any console gamer who says "Im trading in my xbox to play Frontierville."

[Hamlet Au]

Empires & Allies, a Facebook strategy game, is actually much more popular than FarmVille. And yes, a lot of gamers play it. Me, I keep getting E&A requests from friends who work at Blizzard, Red Octane, Linden Lab, etc. I wish they'd all switch to Backyard Monsters, it's so much better.

[Metacam Oh]

Well yes you can play these games from work. It is not very easy to play Call of Duty in a hidden web window at work :)

[Curious]

Yes, fischer-price games are all the rage now, for all those hardcore gamers that got their iPad at walmart.

[Ann Otoole InSL]

those are not gamers. those are bored housewives with credit cards. would be nice to lure them to SL but they just want to click click click.

[qarl]

OMG guys - i just had an idea. is it possible to embed SL into freecell?

[Ananda]

You do realize that time after time, you're essentially telling people that derive deep satisfaction from their pottery, or their basement covered in a fantastic model train set... that their hobby is stupid and needs to change because not everyone in the world likes to do it.

Eventually, there's nothing left to do but keep yelling at you for being a bully or going in the corner and being sad.

[Arcadia Codesmith]

First developer to impement a cash shop for Solitaire wins.

Seriously.

[Hamlet Au]

"those are not gamers. those are bored housewives with credit cards."

Ann, do you have cites for this claim about Facebook strategy games? By all means, please post them.

[Scree Raymaker]

Hamlet, do you have cites for your claim about gamers moving away from console and PC to web-based games?

I consider myself a hardcore PC gamer and the only web game I played for any considerable amount of time was Dragon Age Legends on Facebook, and that was only to unlock items in Dragon Age 2. My brother has a Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, DS and PSP and he never plays any web games either.

I bet if you look at the profiles of people playing games on Facebook, at least 90% of them won't be console or PC gamers but the kinds of people Ann refers to. Regular gamers have far too many exciting, complex games to play on their platforms to bother with limited web-based games.

[Gary Hayes]

It is unlikely "this is yet another example of gamers moving away from their traditional platforms (PCs and consoles) to spend more time and money on web-based gaming, especially in Facebook." - a bit of a generalisation and one I avoid in presenting.

Statistically the KZero report shows 1st quarter of this year biggest growth in two years for VWs http://www.kzero.co.uk/blog/?p=4625 1.4 billion - AAA games titles as disks are roughly down 10% from last year but there is significant increase in games delivered online to consoles as expected.

Positive perspective - As one commenter said with a nearly 1billion user Facebook eco-system it is a no brainer to say there will be growth in FB users dabbling in casual games but they are not the same user base - these are new players, for many getting used to online games for the first time. Trying out a 5 minute a day puzzle game, progressing to an avatar based exploration game and god forbid a couple of years later end up in Second Life :) Oh and then after being super social in one of Nick/Kzero social worlds will of course progress into a 'proper' game - 1 billion playing LA Noire 4 anyone?

[foneco zuzu]

Ok, so i must be the one who works on a company that firewalled facebook, right?
And many still play solitaire so what?
Agenda post this one!

[Hamlet Au]

"Statistically the KZero report shows 1st quarter of this year biggest growth in two years for VWs http://www.kzero.co.uk/blog/?p=4625 1.4 billion"

Gary, KZero's figures are highly misleading -- that number is accounts, not active users. The real figure is roughly 10% of 1.4 billion. If it really was 1.4 billion, that would basically be EVERY SINGLE PERSON ON THE INTERNET. In any case, the growth in virtual worlds is primarily from kids, not gamers as they're usually defined (18-34 males, mostly.)

[Gary Hayes]

Re: accounts vs actives - Yes I know Hamlet, been working in the area for 20yrs! Point was that accounts are up across VWs (which in turn means actives are up even with churn) - and where did you get 18-35 males as gamers definition? Thats so 1990s Hamlet - from ESA late last year "Forty-two percent of all game players are women. In fact, women over the age of 18 represent a significantly greater portion of the game-playing population (37 percent) than boys age 17 or younger (13 percent)" http://www.theesa.com/facts/index.asp - oh and while we are on the topic, apparently women enjoy playing games more than sex http://on.msnbc.com/oDzgMQ - and don't tell me this is Farmville or Sudoku! I suspect it may be Second Life...

[Hamlet Au]

Women comprise most of the casual gaming segment, yes. But "game players" are not "gamers", in terms of the genres they play and the amount of time, money, and attention they spend on them. Far as players and purchasers of discrete genres of action/strategy/RPG/etc., those are gamers (often called "hardcore gamers" or "core gamers") as the industry defines them, and they're almost all young men. Second Life is a very rare exception where these segments are both represented, which is partly why it's so interesting.