Inside Social Games

It is a new year, and that means that everyone has a fresh start for 2009. So what do the charts look like for MySpace? Well, we’ve had our look and here are the numbers for the start of 2009!

As you can see, MySpace games continued to grow at a good pace in December, though there weren’t many changes in the overall rankings. The highest change in users out of all of the titles this month was just slightly over 300,000 (though that number can be dwarfed by the millions of users that can change in Facebook).

• No major surprise, but Mobsters and Mafia Wars continue to remain in the Top 2 positions respectively with well over 10 million users each. However, it is still Mobster’s that dominates all competition with over 2 million players more than the #2 position.
• Zynga still remains the primary developer within these charts claiming a third of the games within the Top 25. Gang Wars and Dragon Wars swapped places in popularity (at #10 and #11) with Gang Wars emerging on top.  YoVille in the meantime moved up from #17 to #16 with a gain of 206,113 users.
• Fashion Wars went up from the #20 position to the #18 spot, and Special Forces dropped a level, falling to #19.
• Also, a game that breached the Top 25 last month, My Green Garden, continues to hold on to its inclusion into the charts, by actually moving up to #24 with a gain of 117,191 players.

Overall, the Mobsters games continue to do very well on MySpace, with penetration even reaching into older demographics we hear. We’ll keep tracking the latest here on ISG.

It’s a new year, and that means new beginnings, right? We’ve sorted the numbers for the start of the year. Here’s where the top Facebook games are sitting in 2009.

During the last month, there was a lot of swapping amongst the Top 25 as four titles gained over a million (one over two million) and the long time leader was dethroned.

• That’s right, the long time leader of the Facebook gaming charts, Lil Green Patch, has finally dropped from the #1 spot with a loss of almost 200,000 players. Green Patch not only dropped from #1 but fell to #3 as Texas HoldEm and, surprisingly, Pass A Drink surpassed the titan for the first and second spots respectively. Teax HoldEm from Zynga gained a hefty number of users with 1,404,733 users, but Pass A Drink shocked all with a tremendous increase of 2,086,148.
• The Playfish suite remains on top with its popular games, keeping all of them securely within the Top 10.
• Out of left field swept in Snowball Fight for the holidays. The game from AppSynchInc moved up seven places from #17 to #10 with an impressive gain of 1,344,104 users last month.
• Meanwhile, classic apps such as Friends for Sale and Owned! continued to slip in the charts.

In general, December was a mixed month, as many apps saw declines over the holidays. We’ll see who rebounds and who continues to grow in January!

Earlier this month, PlaySpan announced the launch of its virtual goods marketplace. The site will be comprised of items from dozens of different online games, and bring them together all in one place instead of creating separate virtual marketplaces for each specific game.

This new “PlaySpan Virtual Goods Marketplace” will sell the items from games such as EVE Online, Saga, War Rock, Knight Online, and others. Players will be able to visit the new marketplace regardless of the game they play and purchase each game’s virtual currency or the items they desire directly.

PlaySpan also announced recently that it had raised a $16.8 million round of funding. According to PlaySpan chief executive, Karl Mehta, this new site will be simple, secure, and offer plenty of payment methods with a potential customer base of over 100 million users. Furthermore, since the site sells items and currency directly with the permission of the game developers it supports, they can avoid the much of fraud, scams, and theft that can come in ad-hoc secondary markets.

As it stands now, supporting publishers include Aeria, CCP, GamersFirst, InixSoft, NHN, Ntreev, and Saga. A number of these are based in Asia where the virtual goods movement is strongest and most mature, thus making up a large portion of an industry now worth approximately $1.5 billion (based on Strategy Analytics).

[via VentureBeat]

It’s the end of another year folks, and with the coming holidays it means parties, food, drink, gifts, resolutions, more food, and, of course, reflections on the time that has past. With that spirit in mind, and since the iPhone has been a rather interesting space for social games lately, it is only fair to see how social games are doing on the iPhone charts. Apple has been gracious enough to make this easy by releasing the Top 10 iTunes App Store Downloads of 2008.

There are a number of categories to look at, but what is of most interest here is the overall applications and the games (of course). If, however, you are interested in the other categories, MobileCrunch has a nice compilation of all of them.

Coming in at #2 in overall paid applications is the title, Texas Hold’em.  The accomplishment gives Texas Hold’em a great badge of honor and greatly displays the popularity of such card type games. Many of the other top 10 paid apps overall are games as well.

Top 10 Paid Apps (Overall):

1. Koi Pond
2. Texas Hold’em
3. Moto Chaser
4. Crash Bandicoot: Nitro Kart 3D
5. Super Monkey Ball
6. Cro-Mag Rally
7. Enigmo
8. Pocket Guitar
9. Recorder
10. iBeer

Top 10 Free Apps (Overall):

1. Pandora Radio
2. Facebook
3. Tap Tap Revenge
4. Shazam
5. Labyrinth Lite Edition
6. Remote
7. Google Earth
8. Lightsaber Unleashed
9. AIM
10. Urbanspoon

That brings us to the Top 10 lists for the games category itself. So how did social games do?

Well, no surprise, after seeing the overall charts,  Texas Hold’em hits #1 in the paid category. As for free games, we find a familiar company: SGN. Popping in at the #4 position is the ever so talked about iBowl application that turns the iPhone into a Wii-like remote. This motion based game lets players go through the motions of actual bowling and most certainly went over well with the public (so long as they didn’t look too strange playing it, and didn’t drop their phone in the process!).

Top 10 Paid Games:

1. Texas Hold’em
2. Moto Chaser
3. Crash Bandicoot: Nitro Kart 3D
4. Super Monkey Ball
5. Cro-Mag Rally
6. Enigmo
7. Air Hockey
8. Bejeweled 2
9. Flick Bowling
10. Line Rider iRide

Top 10 Free Games:

1. Tap Tap Revenge
2. Labyrinth Lite Edition
3. Sol Free Solitaire
4. iBowl
5. Pac-Man Lite
6. Touch Hockey: FS5
7. Cannon Challenge
8. Audi A4 Driving Challenge
9. Sudoku
10. reMovem

Although 2 social games broke into the top 10 lists on the iPhone this year, it’s encouraging to see just how many games are succeeding on the iPhone platform - particularly paid apps. We’re looking forward to 2009, as the social infrastructure of the web and mobile web gets increasingly mature.

With hundreds of applications on Facebook it can be hard to tell which ones are worth even opening. Okay, granted, you can almost always be certain of the quality of games from the big names, but what about the rest? Or what if you are new to Facebook?

Well, we decided to have a little fun and take a look around to bring you the Top 10 games we love to hate. These are some of the most ridiculous concepts out there and you can’t help but grin and smirk at some of them. You can usually tell right away by the name, but sometimes you just have to check it out for yourself. In fact, some apps are so funny we had to go beyond just games. Also, please note that just because its on this list doesn’t mean it is bad, it just means it is so ridiculous that we love it, or we love hating it. That said, some are really funny and some are so bad that they are even funnier.

10. HairMixer
Okay, this was both funny and “interesting” at the same time. This application basically does exactly what the title says. It lets you take two images and swap the hair. That’s pretty much it. Look for hairstyles you want to try out and put them on your own photograph. The problem with these types of programs is that often times things just look ridiculous: Colors don’t match, hues are off, etc. Regardless, you can have some fun making some friends look very funny with hair that just doesn’t suit them.

HairMixer certainly isn’t “bad” it’s just a little a very “different” concept.

9. Pirates vs. Ninjas
Pointless game because we all know Ninjas would win. When you play this game you choose your side (ninja of course), and battle others. It’s not anything extravagant but if you are one of the many that enjoy this epic battle, then you will get a kick out of this app. People will especially enjoy the ranking system, considering that the top ninja rank is “Chuck Norris-Level Ninja.”

8. Send a Stripper
With a respectable number of users, this isn’t a bad app at all. Heck, most probably wouldn’t even “hate” it, but it is still funny as hell to use. It doesn’t even matter if you are a guy or a girl. There’s a stripper for you. Sadly, the selection is rather limited, but as far as gift giving programs go, this has got to be one of the funniest gifts out there; especially if you know someone who is very conservative or introverted. The look on their face will be absolutely priceless.

Don’t worry though about the rating. All the pictures are sexy, but they’re still clothed… sort of. Most of the pictures look like those sexy Halloween costumes for the women, and Chippendales type outfits for the men.

7. Human Pets
Typical virtual pet kind of game, except that the pets are you. There’s not a whole lot to be said about the game, but the idea is… interesting and kind of funny. Of course, once you check it out it becomes a little weird once you realize that other people can feed, pet, and comb you…. Yeah… just a little creepy….

6. BBQ Fight
Okay, so should be rather self-explanatory, but this Facebook RPG has you fighting other BBQs….. Yeah, you heard it right - battling grill equipment. It’s certainly amusing to see it the first time, but it loses that charm very fast. The game is just like any other RPG, except this time you’re a grill and your upgrades are grilling equipment.

5. Sheep Launcher
Quite possibly one of the dumbest things out there. In this app you select images of your Facebook friends or celebrities and “launch” sheep at them. It seemed like a funny concept at first, but the result was enormously underwhelming. Sure, they make a fun baa and splat noise, but you get to throw one sheep, and it consists of clicking on the picture and disconnecting the same sheep icon from your mouse. Oh… so exciting.

4. How Sexy is YOUR Name?
What’s in a name? While not a game, this is certainly an interesting app to look at out of pure curiosity. The question that comes to mind though: Who honestly cares? Granted there are some exotic, foreign names that could be deemed sexy, but there doesn’t seem to be much of a point. Normally applications like this are meant to judge sexual appeal, attractiveness, kissability and other traits meant to feed one’s ego. However, how much can a name really add to that?

3. Pimp Fight
Charming. Build your own pimp and fight against your friends. First off, pimps are comically funny; at least the purple suit, big hat ones are. Sounds interesting, but the real fun comes in when you get to fight way through the dozens of built-in advertisements so you can play. Oh, and a lot of them ask for financial information - cute.

2. Which Spice Girl Are You?
Really…? Obviously it’s not a game, but it is most certainly a rather ridiculous app to have lying around nonetheless. Does anyone even care what Spice Girl they would be? Also, this quiz should have the option of “none” as most probably wouldn’t want to be any of them.

For that matter, what is the point of most of these “which celebrity” are you games and quizzes? Perhaps it stems from the absurd worshiping of them that people gravitate too, but it really shouldn’t be the case. Believe it or not, they are real people too. *End of Rant*

1. Chuck Norris
This is not a bad application. It is in fact the greatest application ever conceived and everyone reading this should feel honored at the presence of Chuck Norris. Fear his mighty countenance and relish in the power of his roundhouse kick.

Okay, to be honest for just a second, this app is hilarious, especially if you are in to the whole Chuck Norris joke movement. It’s not a game by any means, but it is funny nonetheless. The idea though behind the jokes is so absurdly stupid that it makes it amazing. However, that is not why this app is #1. It is #1 because Chuck Norris willed it to be so.

Since September, Social Gaming Network has been releasing a suite of games that make use of the iPhone and iPod Touch’s accelerometer capabilities that turn the mobile device into a Wii-like remote. To date, the company has released five applications: iBowl, iGolf, iBaseball, iBasketball, and iFun. While it was known that these free to download apps were doing well, it was only just recently that SGN released some of the numbers.

As of today, the five games that began coming out three months ago have had well over 4.5 million downloads. In fact, iBowl, released back in October was dubbed by Apple the #4 most downloaded free iPhone game of 2008. For those that are curious, the numbers 1 - 3 spots went to Tap Tap Revenge, Labyrinth Lite Edition, and Sol Free Solitaire respectively (and let’s face it, everyone loves solitaire). Furthermore, outside of the top games of the year, SGN’s iBasketball is also currently sitting pretty at, ironically, the #4 spot for the currently most popular free iPhone games.

Evidence would suggest that the majority of the company’s resources has been focusing on the iPhone platform as its number of active Facebook users nets around 4.7 million with a growth that has been rather stagnant as of late. Also, considering that 50+% of downloaded applications for the mobile devices are, in fact, games, a shift in focus isn’t necessarily a bad idea, especially considering the rate in which SGN has been making these new games. While this is no claim as to what the company will be doing in the future, it does feel like a very strong avenue for the social developers.

The MySpace social gaming world was a little more stable this month than with its Facebook counterpart. While none of the applications saw a decline in users, none of them broke the 1 million mark in new users like many of their Facebook brethren. Moreover, MySpace has displayed a rather different trend in the genre of games making the Top 25 - as most of them are RPGs with about a third of them belonging to Zynga.

• The top three games this month have held on pretty solidly, consisting of Mobsters, Mafia Wars, and Own Your Friends, with the #1, #2, and #3 positions. Surprisingly, the unknown developer of Mobsters, known simply as “The Godfather,” still continues to lead the competition with its Mob Wars-like title. This merely goes to show that you don’t have to be Zynga, Playfish, or SGN to make a hit game - but from what we hear, “The Godfather” is focused on what they’re doing and hiring out a team.
• Despite the fact that there are significantly more unknown developers for MySpace games than on Facebook, Zynga’s RPGs still continue to envelop the Top 25 with about eight (10 if you count the ones labeled “By Christina”) titles. Furthermore, each of these titles has grown and risen in the ranks over time - such as Street Racing that was once #17 back in September, yet is now #8 two months later with nearly 2.5 million players.
• The classic Werewolves and Zombies from Blake Commagere are no longer to be found as they continue to lose ranking, only to be replaced by some newer titles such as Prison Lockdown, Dog World, and My Green Garden.
• Also, Special Forces and Fashion Wars continue to do well since their appearance last month on the charts, and sit pretty at #18 and #20 positions respectively.

Overall, the major titles have stuck around in the Top 25 for a while and while their ranking tends to fluctuate, it is never anything too unexpected. This applies particularly to anything by Zynga, which has had several titles steadily in the top 25 for months now.

On the other hand, the lower ranks continue to shift to some degree as new apps by unknown developers surface each month. While none of these new apps have breached the Top 10 and usurped the reigning kings, the opportunity still awaits!

We have just compiled the latest numbers and here are the Facebook gaming charts for December 8, 2008.

There were a number of huge shifts in numbers as some of the major games dropped in ranking this last month. You can also see that a number of new apps have made it on the scene as we begin to incorporate a more open view of the term “game.”

• Lil Green Patch still clings to its #1 spot, but lost nearly half a million users this past month. Part of the reason may be due to a migration over to Green Patch’s sister title Lil Blue Cove, that made its appearance on these charts for the first time at #15 with 2.1 million users.
• Playfish’s Pet Society made a significant jump from #9 to #4 gaining close to 1.5 million active users. Moreover, the relative new comer, Geo Challenge premiered on the Top 25 at #6, while the other classic Playfish titles stayed relatively static in their ranking despite their gains in players. The one exception, however, is Bowling Buddies that dropped to #10.
• Zynga is still going strong with three titles now in the Top 25, though growth for its top games is slowing. Texas Hold Em’ still solidly holds the #2 spot. This month, both YoVille and Texas Hold Em’ saw gains, and Mafia Wars made its way onto the list for the first time at #14.
• Despite the battle of the titans, there is still plenty of new stuff coming out. A number of new apps appeared this month such as Snowball Fight, Optical Illusions Challenge, and myFarm. Each of these titles were unseen in the Top 25 before, and have made impressive impact on the Facebook community with well over 1.5 million users this month respectively

Despite the relative consistency of the top games from Playfish and Zynga, more and more newer games are giving them a run for their money, and as the social space continues to evolve, they will need to continue to do so as well in order to keep up. Nevertheless, this is a good thing as more competition between the two as well as newer games nipping at their heels means more new games and less stagnation for players.

We all know China has a lot of people - 1.25 billion approximately. Of that 1.25 billion citizens, about 40 million play online games, and 80% of those have purchased virtual goods. According to 5173.com, this market has grown to about 9.36 billion yuan annually, which is about $1.37 billion in US currency. And that was just last year - a pretty impressive number by anyone’s standards.

Virtual World News recently posted that the Chinese government had imposed a 20% tax on any income generated through the trading of virtual currencies earlier this month. Apparently, this latest came about after the failed attempt two years ago to simply ban people from profiting off of virtual transactions. Of course, details on how this type of levy will be enforced are unclear.

For those that may not know, this all refers to the concept of virtual goods which are generally inexpensive, non-tangible items sold on the web. They range from avatars, virtual game items, animated gifs, game currency (i.e. gold), music themes, etc. They are often used by people to add personality, or an edge to the games and social networks they are a part of, and have skyrocketed in popularity over the past few years.

However, this new tax is affecting an enormous number of users. For example, any seller of a virtual currency (a subset of virtual goods) transaction must report to the Chinese tax agency and pay income taxes within seven days of the sale. However, based on the most recent post on Virtual World News, “officials are still unsure of what exactly should be taxed or how….”

Regardless, the platform providers seem to be loving the idea, as it discourages the sale of goods within their virtual worlds by third parties (such as reselling virtual currency in an MMO). The players, on the other hand, are not as pleased with the result (increased costs).

One of the major titles in which virtual currency is sold is Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft. There are a number of gold selling companies that do nothing but acquire large sums of gold and sell it to players for profit. How are the WoW markets being affected? In a recent article in the Shaighai Daily, one WoW player states, “The price of gold has surged recently and its difficult to purchase enough gold even if you have the money sometimes.”

With well over 17 million users every month, Top Friends, by Slide, has made itself one of the more dominant applications on Facebook today. In addition to the core Top Friends functionality, users are able to completely customize their profiles with music, videos, and skins. Moreover, you can even show your mood as well as track the things your friends do. Everything is very personal, and gives users the ability to really show who they are.

Nevertheless, as popular as Top Friends already is, it has recently added a new feature that called “Ownd,” which, as one might expect, is more or less identical to its social game counterparts: Owned! and Friends for Sale.

Just like in the actual game, Slide has created a means for you to buy and sell your friends, put yourself on the market, and see what you are “worth” to people. With this new feature you can see who owns you, how much your profile costs, and how much cash you have, but there isn’t really too much beyond that.

Is this a step for Slide further into social gaming? Definitely. Although at this point, this is just a simple test to see how much this improves the user experience for Top Friends’ users. Is it a game? No, not quite yet: It is game-like, but this is a feature that is still a smaller part of a greater whole. Could it be turned into a game? Yes - Owned and Friends for Sale, while not much deeper, are fully designed around the concept of buying and selling your friends.

Ultimately, this is not a bad idea. Even if Slide chooses not to go further down this road, they can at the very least, expect to see increased traffic coming their way soon. And if you believe that games are “somewhat” recession proof, it is a pretty wise investment as well.

[via Bret Terrill]