Inside Social Games

Boku Gets New Partners, Features, Languages -- Mobile payment provider Boku announced 12 new service partners this week: Zoosk, 6waves, Snap Interactive, Cie Studios, GameDuell, Cyberstep Communications, IGG, King.com, NHN USA, Ntreeve, Outspark, and Perfect World. Boku lets users purchase virtual goods through its mobile payments service. Along with the partnerships announcement, the company also says it is making improvements to its technology. Now, the platform will be able to immediately recognize carrier providers for phone numbers as well as whether or not it is mobile or land. This cuts down on the number of steps needed to sign up for the service by removing the user need to manually identify it themselves, thus attracting more customers. Boku will also be localizing its service into 20 new languages.

iPhones see 35% In-App Purchase Conversion Rates -- The iPhone title, Homerun Battle 3D is seeing a conversion rate of 35% for in-app purchases (according to an interview with Pocket Gamer). Prices range from $0.99 to $19.99 and have thus far generated 30% of all revenues for the game. The company reports that the more expensive goods are higher sellers. Most players are buying the items to garner an advantage early on, or to make up for frequent loses while in competitive mode. Despite success, however, the company feels that Apple’s $0.99 minimum price for in-app transactions is too high and is hurting business.

Class-Action Offers Scam Lawsuit Now in Court — The law firm Kershaw, Cutter & Ratinoff LLP, the one that said it was looking into a possible class-action lawsuit against Facebook, Zynga and other companies over scams in offers, has now filed. The firm, along with Wexler Wallace LLP, is representing a class-action plaintiff who was tricked into signing up for a mobile subscription service. They’re looking for up to $5 million.

Zong and Jambool Announce Partnership - Mobile payment provider Zong announced yesterday that it has partnered with Jambool, the parent company of payment provider Social Gold. This will allow Zong’s mobile payments to be available through Social Gold’s Flash API (which is already being used by about 100 developers) for virtual goods purchases.

Flurry Launches iPhone App Discovery Platform, AppCircle - Analytics startup Flurry has launched AppCircle. With the platform, developers can track detailed analytics such as time spent on an app, what other apps users use, and how much they are spending. The platform is free to the developer, and Flurry sees nothing unless a sale is made.

The company says that around 14,000 developers using the system, and can track around 40 million unique users monthly. Flurry also says that it is tracking about 66% of iPhone and iPod Touch users and an equivalent percentage on the Android, meaning that the platform can recommend more relevant games to users for multiple devices.

Apps that make use of AppCircle can make recommendations to users about other games they can buy. The ad is a non-intrusive single line at the bottom of the screen that can be tapped and leads to where it can be purchased. Only then does Flurry take a cut. Currently, should an app be purchased, the developer receives 70% of the price (Apple gets the rest). Of that percentage, either $0.50 or 30% (whichever is greater) is shared with Flurry who divides it between itself and the app that hosted the recommendation link. Apple will also give 5% to Flurry via Linkshare.

iPhone Pirates – Piracy on the device continues, as this Gamasutra article details. Indie game developer Bram Stolk, said that his game, The Little Tank That Could, had 1,114 copies in circulation. Only 45 had actually been sold. A the recent Game Developers Conference in Shanghai, China, ngmoco said it was experiencing a 50%-90% piracy rate. Now, another indie developer, Smells Like Donkey, is reporting the same percentage for its iPhone title, Tap-Fu. Greg Yardley, CEO of the analytics company Pinch Media says that of the 8% of iPhone apps that utilize its software, around 60% of them are being pirated.

Fizzy.com Launches Game Developer Network – Online games developer 3RD Sense, operator of Fizzy.com, has launched a the Fizzy Game Developers Network (GDN). The new network will provide Flash developers a means to showcase, distribute, and earn revenue from their titles. Developers may upload their games to GDN as either free-to-play or pay-to-play with the former earning money based on the number of plays it receives. The latter, however, will earn 50% of all sales, plus further income from the number of plays. Currently, Fizzy.com sees around 1 million unique users a month, and distributes games across a myriad of partner websites as well.

uSocial Ordered to “Cease and Desist” — Facebook has sent a cease and desist notification to the marketing company, uSocial for violation of the social network’s terms of service. According to BBC News, the company sells Facebook friends and fans and was “letting people profit from their profile.” uSocial “violates its rights by sending spam, using web tools to harvest pages, getting login names and by accessing accounts that did not belong to the marketing firm,” according to the report.

Viximo Parnters with Interscope Records -This past week, virtual goods platform Viximo announced a team-up with Interscope Geffen A&M, allowing them to develop licensed virtual goods from Interscope artists. The first round of these new goods will be based around Lady Gaga and slated to release the same time as her album on November 23. In fact, the “Lady Gaga Line” will be attainable through a virtual gifts store on the Lady Gaga, Facebook Fan Page with all payments, analytics, and transactions handled by Viximo.