Yesterday, Ubisoft unveiled three new social games based on TV shows in addition to announcing a fourth project with social game developer Loot Drop. Here, we interview Ubisoft VP of Digital Publishing Chris Early on the French video game publisher’s broader social strategy in the next year.

Inside Social Games: You’ve announced three new games based on TV show brands — CSI: Miami, NCIS: Major Crimes, and House, M.D.: Critical Cases. Have you bet big on TV social games because of the past success of CSI: Crime City or because other companies are also entering this genre of game on Facebook?

Chris Early, Ubisoft VP of Digital Publishing: We saw the power of how CSI performed for us. We saw that again with Smurfs, but even long before that we were engaged in signing a bunch of brands because brands are good for us. People know and recognize brands, so it helps with acquisition — you see on Facebook The Smurfs & Co. and “Little Blue Person Village” and which one are you going to play?

ISG: Help us understand how the licensing process works for Facebook games based on TV shows. We know that CSI: Miami is licensed by CBS — but CBS also licenses The Vampire Diaries to Warner Bros. Interactive, which recently launched a game based on the show for Facebook.

Early: I’m sure NBC Universal or CBS has a variety of things that they’re going to license out to different people. The good news for us that we’ve been developing games for licenses for years. We have a reputation for making that kind of IP, and we’ve been a licensee for CSI for almost 10 years now. So for [CBS], it makes sense to talk to us [about CSI], but if we said we weren’t interested, they could easily go and find someone else because their job is to get the most out of their brands.

ISG: How much of the development on your TV games is being done in house?

Early: We do about 40% of all our social development externally. We just announced Loot Drop as a partner on an undisclosed title. We did Area Code with CSI: Crime City — and then they got acquired. Smurfs was internal for us. CSI: Miami is also being developed internally [by Ubisoft Shanghai and Ubisoft San Francisco].

Editor’s Note: The press release announcing Ubisoft’s new TV games also names Method as a developer, but does not indicate to which games the independent studio is assigned.

ISG: What about your newest companion Facebook game, Ghost Recon Commander? Is that also being done exclusively in-house?

Early: The console game is being done internally both in Paris and at Red Storm in North Carolina studios. Ghost Recon Online is being worked on in our Singapore studio and Ghost Recon Commander is being worked on out of [the San Francisco] office.

ISG: So all of these games are being made internally with 40% influence from an outside developer…?

Early: It’s really a mix. Especially on Commander and House and on our other Facebook titles we haven’t announced yet, we’re not talking about who worked on those [outside of Ubisoft] until the release gets closer.

Editor’s Note: The implication here is that these unnamed developers might be acquired by a competitor if Ubisoft draws attention to them — much like Area Code was bought by Zynga four months after launching CSI: Crime City with Ubisoft.

ISG: A couple of months ago, you talked with us about the deeper level of content unlocks and integration between this game and its console and PC siblings. You had hinted at a mechanic where Ghost Recon Commander players on Facebook could somehow contribute content unlocks or bonuses to their friends that play Ghost Recon: Future Soldier on consoles — without themselves having to play the console game. Is that feature a reality or just an idea?

Early: That’s actually the main feature of Ghost Recon Commander — building a support team. For example, you’re a Ghost Recon Online player. You can have a [network] of friends that earn consumables for you to use from their play in Ghost Recon Commander.

ISG: You seem pretty confident on Facebook these days between CSI and Smurfs. Does this mean you’re ready to try other social network platforms again? We know CSI: Crime City launched on Orkut and heard it didn’t go very well…

Early: We’re going to see. It was an experiment with Orkut and we learned some things. It’s not doing the best that it could do. But, like, if we were to launch CSI for Facebook again now — it would be better than we did when we launched it a year ago. It’s going to be an evolution; we’re not a one-platform publisher.

ISG: What about Google+’s games platform? Have you looked into that?

Early: The biggest challenge for them is going to build a recurring traffic pattern. A bunch of people flooded in, tried it, and then haven’t gone back. To be a good gaming platform, regardless of whether it’s Google+ or anything else, you have to [draw] audiences on a regular basis. That’s what we’d need.

ISG: Speaking of audiences — we saw your female-oriented massively multiplayer online game, Imagine Town, today. That title is a fashion game built entirely in Flash; so why isn’t that on Facebook with all the other fashion games that draw a large female audience.

Early: Because it targets girls younger than 13.

ISG: Wow, that was easy for you. Let’s try something harder: With more Ubisoft brands aiming for annual releases on console, can we expect to see a larger number of branded companion games on Facebook?

Early: By the time we came out with Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood and Project Legacy [for Facebook] and we saw the results of that last November, we ran out of time in our development cycle to do more games for this season. We did it with Ghost Recon because we started early. So keep an eye out next year.

ISG: Still too easy. Let’s talk about revenues. Will Ubisoft differentiate between the different types of social games it published? Like will Ghost Recon Commander be broken out with console and PC titles with its siblings while the TV games are lumped into a digital revenues category?

Early: First of all, I can’t talk about financial numbers because we’re in a quiet period. Second, I can’t talk about them because I actually don’t know. I know how we look at it internally — we see each game as something that needs to be profitable [on its own]. But I’m not sure how we report that… I probably should.

ISG: You should. The timing of releases can have a significant impact on revenue cycles, especially with social games where the first few months show the best traffic and the next six have the users with the highest lifetime value. How do you plan your release schedule for social games?

Early: We don’t want to release any bad games — so first it needs to be done. And then it needs to be done in a sensible manner. So when we launched Project Legacy six weeks out from Brotherhood, it was awesome because people were able to build up a starting advantage in Brotherhood [from playing Legacy]. If that game had been late for some reason, would we have not launched it? No, I don’t think so — we just wouldn’t have had the optimal [time frame] for the player.

ISG: For the TV games, aren’t you more vulnerable to time because the shows adhere to a season and interest wanes when the show stops airing?

Early: You know, I thought so — but I don’t think so anymore. We launched CSI last year to coincide with the start of the new season. But what we found was it didn’t really matter. We actually experienced more growth after the season ended. I don’t know if people were [missing] the TV show or what. But I thought the [show] would generate more buzz for the game, but it didn’t. Then you look at Smurfs where we timed it to the release of the movie — and it did really great. But I think we drove more traffic to the movie site than the movie site drove to us. Maybe that helped the buzz overall, but we continue to have a fairly strong growth and the movie is gone at this point.

ISG: And you still haven’t spent anything on user acquisition for Smurfs & Co.?

Early: We’ve been doing a little bit of experimenting with tens of thousands — just to see where we’re getting responsiveness and testing out some of our ads. I expect we will [spend on user acquisition] at some time to keep the growth going, but not really significant yet.

ISG: And the DVD is coming out soon, so you’re expecting that to drive some growth?

Early: Yes. I hope we’ll get more from the DVD sales. But I think what’s most interesting is when we’ve been able to actually link them together in some meaningful fashion. For example, when you look at Smurfs, we gave people a movie theater to put in their village if they watched the trailer and liked the movie. Awesome results. We also did something in CSI for sweeps week where the writers — we have the writers for the show write for the game — wrote cases for us that related to [the plot] of CSI the show that week. Our case was kind of the backstory of something going on in the show — so you wanted [people] to play the game at kind of the same time. We had unlocks in the Facebook game based on questions we asked where you had to watch the show to get the answer. It did work out well. People were watching the show with their laptops out.

ISG: Will you do that for House?

Early: I can’t see why we wouldn’t do it for everything. It’s kind of up to the license holder to agree to do it with us. They have to trust us to let us know things about the show ahead of [the air date] — but I think we’re long past that point with our license holders.

Fall is a make or break time for TV shows where new shows need to quickly make an impression and old shows have to fight to maintain their market share. TV networks are increasingly focusing their marketing budgets on Facebook and social game tie-ins in order to engage viewers even after they’ve left the couch.

Whether you prefer comedy, drama, reality, fantasy or game shows, there is probably a Facebook game for you. Join us for a quick look at the titles that tie into this fall TV season.

2 Broke Girls – Based on CBS’ new comedy about two poor waitresses working in a Brooklyn diner to make ends meet, the Facebook version of 2 Broke Girls takes its lead from Diner Dash, asking players to control the main character Max as she buses tables, pours coffee and racks up tips. Players earn points they can use to upgrade their equipment and menus, allowing them to earn even more during their shifts. 2 Broke Girls currently has just over 4,000 monthly active users and was developed for CBS by Game Salad.

The Big Bang Theory: Mystic Warlords of Ka’a – A collectible card game in the vein of Magic: The Gathering, Mystic Warlords of Ka’a gives fans of The Big Bang Theory a chance to play the same game the show’s main characters enjoy. Featuring many of the cards mentioned on the show, Mystic Warlords of Ka’a is a strategy game where players attempt to win a game by out maneuvering their opponents in card duels and battles. While the game is a light take on collectible card games with simplified rules, players can still customize their decks by trading for and purchasing new cards. The Big Bang Theory: Mystic Warlords of Ka’a currently has more than 80,000 MAU and was developed by Dire Wolf Digital. Read our review.

CSI: Crime City - One of the most popular TV related games on Facebook, CSI: Crime City still boasts more than 1.7 million MAU just under a year after it launched. Developed by Ubisoft and Area/Code (now Zynga New York), the game challenges players to solve murder mysteries by gathering evidence and getting it back to the lab for analysis. Players can purchases their own lab equipment, or use equipment their friends own, which adds a cooperative element to the game. Read our review.

Deadliest Catch The Social Game – Reality TV is also well represented in the TV tie-in Facebook game genre. Discovery’s Deadliest Catch The Social Game puts players in charge of their own boats, sailing the dangerous Bearing Sea in a quest for crabs, dollars and domination of the game’s leader board. Players can either upgrade their boats, equipment and staff the hard way – catching and selling crabs – or by using real money to buy Crab Coins, a premium currency that unlocks specialty items and deckhands from the show. Deadliest Catch was developed by Hive Media and currently has just over 47,000 MAU.

Dexter: Slice of Life - Unlike many of the TV tie-in games on Facebook, Ecko Code’s Dexter: Slice of Life stands apart from the field, thanks to its stealthy gameplay and close ties to the TV show. Each Monday the Facebook game updates with new content based on the episodes that aired on Sunday night, allowing players not only to recreate the events of the episode, but to explore them in even more detail. Currently Dexter: Slice of Life has just under 100,000 MAU. Read our review.

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition Game – Fans of Extreme Makeover who have always dreamed of designing a home for a family in need can finally get in on the action, with the Facebook version of Extreme Makeover. The game ties directly into the show, allowing players to build the a dream house for both virtual and real families. The focus of the game is clearly on the act of designing a virtual house — everything from the floor plan to the kind of furnishings can be customized. Premium decorations can be bought with Facebook Credits. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition Game currently has 168,000 MAU and was developed by Quebec based Frima Studio. Read our review.

Jersey Shore - Anyone who has ever wanted a taste of the hard-partying G.T.L (gym, tan, laundry) lifestyle espoused on MTV’s popular reality TV show Jersey Shore are no doubt big fans of Jersey Shore for Facebook. The game lets players live out their trashiest fantasies by completing missions based on events from the TV show and fighting other players for control of the boardwalk. The Jersey Shore game allows players to purchase clothing, accessories and energy drinks for their virtual guidos and guidettes. While the game’s user base is dropping from the 1.7 MAU it boasted this March, more than 360,000 people still log in every month.

Pawn Stars: The Game – The History Channel has also jumped into the Facebook game arena, releasing Pawn Stars: The Game as a promotion for their popular reality TV show Pawn Stars. The game lets players set up their own pawn shop, and allows them to haggle, bribe and negotiate with customers in order to get the best deal they can. Players can use Facebook credits to purchase premium appraisal services, which offer more information than ones purchased with the free in-game currency. Pawn Stars has reached nearly 900,000 MAU. Read our review.

Spartacus: Gods of the Arena – One of the older TV games on Facebook, cable network Starz launched Spartacus: Gods of the Arena in January to promote the six episode prequel series of its show Spartacus: Blood and Sand. While based on gladiatorial combat, the game is actually a management sim. Players train and equip their own stable of gladiators, and then send them into battle. Players can’t control combat or the outcome, but they can cheer for their gladiators (and boo the competition), which may help convince the crowd to spare a defeated gladiator. An important distinction, because if a gladiator is killed in the game he remains dead. The game can be rigged in the player’s favor by using Influence, which can be bought for Facebook credits. Spartacus: Gods of the Arena was created by Large Animal Games and currently has more than 450,000 MAU.

Vampire Diaries: Get Sucked In - One of the newest TV games on Facebook, The Vampire Diaries: Get Sucked In casts players as a new high school student in the strange town of Mystic Falls. Players help out characters from the show and uncover the town’s mysteries by finding objects, completing mini-games and answering trivia about the show. The game was developed for Warner Bros by Arkadium and while still in beta has still racked up an impressive 118,000 MAU. Read our review.

Weeds Social Club – Last but not least is Like Showtime’s other Facebook game,  Weeds Social Club. The game was also developed by Ecko Code along with Mytopia but is much less connected to the plot of the game, instead following the lead set by other TV social games and bringing in subtle connections to the series. The the game, players are brought into the “business” by Andy Botwin and must learn the ins-and-outs of marijuana, collecting different strains, raising crops and then selling them on the black market. Weeds social club currently has more than 147,000 MAU. Read our review.

Did we miss a game? Let us know in the comments with a link so that we can play it for ourselves. And keep an eye out for “TV & Film in the Age of the Social Game,” a panel we hope to share with you at SXSW 2012.

Zynga is launching a CityVille campaign next week that integrates singer Enrique Iglesias into the game to promote his Euphoria Tour.

Starting October 4th, players over level 6 can interact with an Enrique Iglesias avatar within their city. Themed reward and collection items like clothing and a Miami high-rise are also part of the campaign, along with quests that net the player Enrique Iglesias posters. The main feature of the integration is a Euphoria Arena structure that players can complete to unlock an in-game preview of Iglesias’s latest music video, “I Like How it Feels.”

At face value, the Enrique Iglesias-CityVille integration seems to be on a smaller scale than Zynga’s springtime GagaVille campaign for Lady Gaga. For example, players aren’t getting early access to multiple songs and there’s no secondary integration with other Zynga titles like Words With Friends on mobile. Additionally, there’s no contest elements for players to win merchandise or concert tickets.

On the other hand, CityVille has the larger audience, which translates to more reach for the campaign. The campaign is also more demanding of players, which could lead to higher player engagement. It’ll be interesting to see if it also leads to an influx of players similar to what GagaVille drove to FarmVille. In that instance, however, the real spike in traffic came when unreleased Gaga tracks were made available in-game.

According to our AppData traffic tracking service, CityVille currently enjoys 71.3 million monthly active users and 13.1 million daily active users. The game launched in December of last year, quickly becoming the largest social game on Facebook. Traffic for the game has been in steady decline since March.

Facebook’s new App Ticker that is displayed on the games Canvas page and lists news of friends engaging with games will also show abbreviated versions of Sponsored Stories, Facebook’s social ad unit. Sponsored Stories bought by advertisers are now eligible to inform users about the app their friends use from within the App Ticker as well as from their regular spot in Facebook’s ads sidebar. This is currently the only way that ads are mixed into any of Facebook’s content streams

This additional placement of Sponsored Stories will improve the ability of advertisers to reach gamers, which could be especially useful for developers looking to gain new users. However, to make the ticker’s sponsored app discovery stories as appealing as possible, Facebook will need to show them about friends that users trust as wise, active gamers.

Reaching the Right Audience

Facebook released Sponsored Stories in January as a new way for advertisers to serve highly relevant ads promoting their Facebook properties. The ads show which of a user’s friends have recently Liked a Page or Page’s updates, used an app or game, or shared content from a Facebook-integrated website, amplifying the reach of what were news feed stories.

Until the launch of the App Ticker earlier this month, Sponsored Stories only appeared in the ads sidebar to users browsing Facebook. Now, gamers will see entries in their App Ticker marked “Sponsored”. These are in fact the same Sponsored Stories, albeit in a condensed format that just shows the name and face of a user’s friend and the title of an app or game they’ve used, but no image of the app or game. Sponsored Stories about Pages and websites may also appear in the App Ticker, though we’ve only seen ones about apps and games so far.

Previously, developers could try to gain new gamers through App Used, Game Played, and App Share Sponsored Stories, but these would be shown to all users including those who rarely or never played games. They could target Sponsored Stories about one of their apps to users of another app they controlled, but otherwise trying to reach gamers was less predictable.

With placement in a new channel that only reaches gamers, these types of Sponsored Stories are now more likely to reach their intended audience and drive installs from users with better monetization potential down the line.

Promoting Usage of Trusted Gamers

Inexperienced gamers might be lured to try out a new app just because any of their friends have installed it. However, developers are trying to draw hardcore social gamers with the most monetization potential. These users know which of their friends are actually active players that can be relied upon to accept requests and cooperate in games, in other words which friends’ implicit game recommendations through Sponsored Stories can be trusted.

Therefore, Facebook may need to refine its targeting and display algorithms for App Ticker Sponsored Stories so that game usage of these trusted gamer friends is more frequently displayed. These might not necessarily be a user’s closest friends with regards to social signals such as Likes of each other’s news feed posts or tags in the same photos. Instead the App Ticker Sponsored Stories should highlight friends who accept a user’s game requests, frequently interact in-game through gifting, visiting, and competitive activities, and play the most games.

Along with determining what friends have Sponsored Stories about them appear in the ticker, these algorithm tweaks could determine which friend’s photo is displayed in Sponsored Stories when the names of multiple friends that have used an app are listed.

If Facebook can surface trusted gamers in App Ticker Sponsored Stories, developers buying them will see better performance. This could make the ticker an important paid growth channel in addition to driving free, organic growth, leading developers to spend more on the social ad unit.

Josh Constine contributed to this article.

Walk-throughs and strategies for using Facebook’s Sponsored Stories ad unit can be found in the Facebook Marketing Bible, Inside Network’s comprehensive guide to marketing and advertising through Facebook.

Turner Broadcasting Europe Partners with TeePee Games — Games discovery platform for social, mobile, and online titles, TeePee Games, has announced a new partnership with Turner Broadcasting Europe. Through the partnership, TeePeewill both receive funding for the platform’s development as well as gain access to Turner’s digital games content.

Wooga is 4th Largest Social Games Developer After 20 Months — According to our AppData service, German outfit wooga has become the fourth largest social games developer on Facebook 20 months after its debut. The company, who recently released its newest title, Diamond Dash, currently hosts just almost 21 million monthly active users and just over 3.6 million daily active users.

“Foursquare Day” Proclaimed in New York — Mayor Mike Bloomberg has announced that April 16, — 4/16, the fourth sixteenth of the year - to be “Foursquare Day” in New York City. Events include a myriad of check-in events from around the world.

GREE & mig33 Announce Partnership — Japanese mobile social gaming platform GREE and mobile community mig33 have teamed up this week. With the partnership, GREE has opened its GREE Platform for smartphone, which mig33 will make use of, allowing games to be easily deployed on the platforms of either company.

Google Checkout Purchases to Get More Seamless — Google Checkout is slated to become more seamless according to an interview between Vikas Gupta and Google Checkout Blog. He states that in the near future, they will be bringing Jambool’s — which was acquired by Google seven months ago — Social Gold technology to web applications purchases on Google.

We City Adds Century 21 Brand Promotions — Social-mobile city-builder, We City, from developer ngmoco, is adding in a promotion from real estate agent company, Century 21 (with the help of appssavvy). Until April 26th, users can purchase branded Century 21 buildings for their virtual cities.

Free-to-Play Style Games Could Come to Xbox Live — Proven successful in the social space, IGN has reported a rumor from a “trusted source,” that Microsoft will begin making free-to-play games available through their Xbox Live service. Users will then be able to purchase additional content for these games at their own convenience.

When Kiip announced its $4 million round of funding last week, we were wondering what new could be added to the mobile advertising table if it wasn’t incentivized installs, classic mobile banner or interstitials ads or branded virtual goods.

But Kiip’s take is very novel indeed. The San Francisco based mobile advertising network gives gamers real-world rewards when they hit certain achievements in a game. Companies like group deals startup Homerun.com can offer free goods from local businesses while Sephora can give make-up samples to gamers when they level up. The company has rounded up other big brands like popchips, Sony Dash, Vitamin Water, 1-800-Flowers, Dr. Pepper, GNC, Carl’s Jr and Hardee’s.

It’s a nice way to capitalize on the psychological boost a gamer gets when they unlock a new item or level up.

> Continue reading on Inside Mobile Apps.

Tapjoy, the little and increasingly pricey secret that many app developers use to power their way up the charts, said today that it’s launching a “self-publishing” program. Essentially, that means that the company is willing to offer tens of thousands of dollars in free credits in exchange for exclusive distribution rights to new mobile titles.

For background, Tapjoy is a pay-per-install advertising network: developers pay for enough app downloads so they can ideally crack the top of the iOS or Android charts, get visibility in front of consumers and then gain downloads from more valuable, long-term customers. Tapjoy gets these downloads for its advertisers by putting offer walls in hundreds or thousands of apps, which award gamers virtual currency if they download other apps. It usually costs north of $30,000 to break into the top 25, but it varies widely. If an app is good, it will be cheaper. If it’s poorly designed, it will fall off the charts quickly and no amount of spending will save it. The company’s network includes more than 7,500 Android and iOS apps and reaches 200 million customers (as measured by unique device IDs). It says apps that work with it earn more than $35 million a month.

At the beginning of the year, we wrote about how Tapjoy’s model resuscitated the company, which used to be known as Offerpal and was struggling with a less profitable landscape on the Facebook platform. But the field has dramatically changed in the last three months with about 10 new competitors rushing into pay-per-install advertising like Sponsorpay, OpenFeint and Adknowledge.

> Continue reading on Inside Mobile Apps.

Digital advertising technology company SocialVibe today announced a $20 million round of funding led by investor Norwest Venture Partners. The company plans to use the money on global expansion of its brand engagement advertising strategy.

SocialVibe has been a long-time advertiser partner for Zynga, running its ads as part of the offer walls in games like PetVille and CafeWorld. Like many other offer wall advertisers, users earn virtual currency in these games by watching a video, completing a survey or otherwise participating in a branded promotion; but SocialVibe distinguished itself with high-quality advertising, plain, easy-to-follow instructions and quick turnaround time on redeeming participation for virtual currency. Clearly, the approach worked as Zynga’s offer walls now offer dozens of advertisers instead of just the four we noted in PetVille last year.

SocialVibe has been expanding to interactive ads that reward participants with a sense of play or accomplishment. We’ve covered its Thanksgiving ad engagement Facebook app that drew in users by offering charitable donations to the United Nations World Food Programme in exchange for filling a virtual table with virtual food; the company has offered a range of similar types of ads, notably the Kia Motors engagement app that SocialVibe ran during Super Bowl XLV in February.

The Kia app allows players to pit one Zynga game against another in a mini-Super Bowl experience. Players select a Zynga game character set to form their team (e.g. FrontierVille’s avatars against the pets of PetVille) and one of three plays to run toward a touchdown in seven-second animations. A “halftime show” by Kia Motors presents players with a three-question survey and then returns them to the “game” portion for the second half.

The entire activity takes a little over a minute; SocialVibe claims that its engagements average around 63 seconds with an 80% completion rate. Of those totals, the company says, 41 percent click through to a Page or website, 30 percent show purchase intent, and 15 percent share the experience with friends for a viral effect.

In addition to Norwest Venture Partners’ participation in the round, SocialVibe also secured participation from existing investors Redpoint Ventures, Jafco Ventures and Pinnacle Ventures. Jeff Crowe of Norwest Venture Partners now sits on SocialVibe’s Board of Directors.

We’re seeing more and more social gaming titles build out a presence onto mobile devices. But we’ve yet to see one come to Facebook and mobile at once.

Electronic Arts’ EA2D, a younger studio focused on building cross-platform games, is bringing Dragon Age: Legends to Facebook and mobile devices through HTML5. The title has been in beta last fall, but is opening up to the public throughout this coming week.

With both the Facebook title and its mobile companion plus EA’s console and PC game Dragon Age II arriving on March 8, this amounts to an aggressive and fully cross-platform marketing play by the gaming giant. However, EA stresses that Dragon Age Legends doesn’t just exist to upsell gamers to the $60 console version.

“This is a standalone game. It’s seen as an extension of the franchise, not as a marketing tool for other Dragon Age products,” said spokesperson Cindy Lum. “This game is going to have a life of its own.”

> Continue reading on Inside Mobile Apps.