The consumer media’s obsession with World of Warcraft’s subscription numbers often makes it difficult to hear above the din. Nexon’s MapleStory was eight times larger than Blizzard’s behemoth before it ever left American shores; KartRider dwarfs them both combined. Yet Nexon, for all its success in creating massively multiplayer online games, has been conspicuously absent in the social games scene. This is particularly notable for a company that was a pioneer in the dual-currency model.

Later this year, MapleStory Adventures and Kart Rider will come to Facebook correcting what Vice President of Social Games Operations Soo Min Park feels has been a long-standing missing piece to the Nexon portfolio. By re-imagining MapleStory as a less complex title authored in Flash, and building KartRider in Unity with a front-facing playable element during download, Park feels this barrier can be overcome.

“We wanted to expand our web presence to other platforms,” explained Park. “We have expertise in micro-transactions that no one else does and we want to bring that to the social networks. Once our existing IP is launched, original titles will be created to further our efforts.”

Players of the original MapleStory will find MapleStory Adventure familiar but simplified. There will be fewer classes, items, monsters… fewer of everything. And the game will be asynchronous. Due to the use of Unity, players of KartRider should feel more at home with its racing mechanics.

Later this month, KartRider Rush iOS  (and this summer for Android) will launch beginning the campaign to enter the social platform market. Rush features short, Mario Kart-like play against multiple synchronous opponents in a speed or item mode.

The stream of new hires in the social gaming world may have slowed down last week, but that trend didn’t last long. This time around, 12 developers have brought on new members based on data from LinkedIn as well as what companies have shared with us.

The companies of GamesAnalytics, Kabam, and DoubleDown Interactive made some major hires as well. In terms of the first, the stealth game analytics firm brought on former Activision co-founder Alan Miller as its strategic advisor and director of North American operations. As far as Kabam goes, the social game maker has announced the hiring of Kent Wakeford as their new executive vice-president of corporate development and general counsel. DoubleDown Interactive, on the other hand, has appointed Glenn Walcott as its new president.

As always, if your company is hiring new people or making a notable promotion, please let us know. Email editor (at) insidesocialgames (dot) com, and we’ll get it into this or next week’s post. Also, please note that most new hires presented are based directly on company updates from LinkedIn.

Looking for new opportunities? The Inside Network Job Board presents a survey of current openings at leading companies in the industry.

Here’s this week’s full list:

Booyah

• Tracy Espeleta — Espeleta joins Booyah as a lead producer this week. Prior to this, she was a producer for Electronic Arts.
• Grant Rodiek — A former lead producer from Electronic Arts as well, Grant is now a senior designer for Booyah.

DoubleDown Interactive

• Glenn Walcott — As noted, Glenn Walcott joins DoubleDown Interactive as their newly appointed president. Prior to this, Walcott was CFO of Big Fish Games.

Gaia Online

• Monique Vu — Now a project manager for Gaia Interactive (Gaia Online), Vu was previously a marketing and PR intern at Poketo.

GamesAnalytics

• Alan Miller — As stated already, Alan Miller joins the folks over at GameAnalytics as their new strategic advisor and director of North American Operations. He is best know as the co-founder of Activision and its VP of product development.  He is also known for co-founding Accolade, serving as VP of product development and both chairman and CEO, before it was acquired by Atari.

Happy Elements

• Julian Cassimiro — Happy Elements makes its first hire in awhile as Cassimiro comes on board as a Portuguese interpreter. He was previously a Portuguese translator at China Railway Construction Corp. Ltd.

Kabam

• Kent Wakeford — As noted prior, Kent Wakeford joins Kabam as their new executive vice-president of corporate development and general counsel. Wakeford was, in the past, co-founder and president of AdSafe Media.
• Jason Lee — Formerly a manager of strategic partnerships for Zynga, Lee joins Kabam as a producer.
• David Chang — Chang joins Kabam as a senior development director for Kingdoms of Camelot. Before this, he was an engineering manager at Hi5.
• Kam Cheung — Kabam gains a new 2D artist with Cheung, a former teaching assistant at the Academy of Art University.
• Victoria Kennedy — Previously a business development associate at Martini Media Network, Kennedy is now a player experience associate for Kabam.

KlickNation

• Joshua Bell — KlickNation fills us in on two new hires, starting with Bell, there newest associate software engineer. Before this, Bell was a Flash developer for Pandamonium Games.
• Jovana Milenkovic — Previously a compliance analyst at Kaiser, Milenkovic joins the KlickNation team this week as their newest recruiter.

MindJolt

• Michael Ritter — A single hire for MindJolt this week as Ritter is now part of mergers and acquisitions at the company. Prior, he was owner and publisher of Saturday Night Magazine.

Playdom

• Markus Krichel — Playdom gives us the heads up on Krichel, who joins the team this week as a senior producer. Prior to this, Krichel was a producer for LEGO Systems, namely the LEGO Universe MMO.

PopCap

• Heather Kulawiak — PopCap also makes a single hire this week with Kulawiak, who joins as an HR/finance project coordinator. She was previously an HR and benefits administrator at WhitePages.

Wooga

• Freya Poulsen — The folks over at wooga let us know of some new hires this week, starting with Poulsen who joins as their newest game artist.
• Stephan Pohl — Also joining wooga as a game artist is Pohl, a former freelancer.

Zynga

• Neha Joshi — Joshi joins Zynga as a QA engineer. Before this, she was a research scientist at McAfee.
• Sach Steffel — Formerly an artist at Namco, Steffel is now a senior artist at Zynga.
• Aaron Jones — Zynga gains a new mobile software developer with Jones, a former iPhone application developer intern at Bernard Johnson Corp.
• Vaibhav Bajpai — Now a software engineer at Zynga, Bajpai was previously a senior software engineer at Yahoo!.
• Bilal Bajwa — In an internal shift at Zynga, Bajwa changes from revenue product manager (Poker) to a director of business.
• Stanislav Komsky — Another internal Zynga change as Komsky moves from product management intern to product manager.

Over the past year, there have been a number of Facebook games that advertise themselves as a “Facebook MMOG” or employ MMO features. Only recently have these social games have begun to feel like traditional titles in the genre. The most recent to cross our plate is one from Junebud AB called MilMo, an attempt to hybridize both traditional social and MMOG mechanics with the help of the Unity engine.

A synchronous MMOG with a casual play-style and a bright and cutesy visual, MilMo seems like it could appeal to younger audiences as well as many of the older social gamers on Facebook. Easy to get into and mess around a bit, its quaintness tends to lose its charm rather quickly. All too soon, comes the realization that there is little point what one is doing.

Players control a young adventurer of their own design, traveling around a series of themed islands and completing the “adventures” involved within them. Essentially, this boils down to doing quests for non-player characters. Thus far, however, none of the quests we have seen have gone beyond the standardized “kill X amount of this” or “find Y amount of that.”

Completing the actual tasks is no real challenge. Combat, for example, consists of simply clicking to swing a weapon. Eventually, players appear to earn abilities, and will gain special potions to aide them in battle (though early “battles” mainly consist of crabs and chickens).

As games such as Treasure Isle have shown, exploration and discovery can become a tremendous draw for users. That in mind, MilMo does have an alternative to fighting. One still must do so to complete quests, but there are also times where users can dig for treasure, catch butterflies, and other such non-aggressive activities. There are even exploration tasks where players must search the islands for special tokens.

Actually, this is one of the few parts of interest, as doing so requires the use of special power-ups and environmental items. Scattered about the world are different boosts that allow characters to jump exponentially higher, run faster, and so on. These alone are surprisingly fun to just mess around with, even without the objective of finding items. Pair this up with environmental items that can sometimes be interacted with (e.g. shooting yourself out of a cannon), and this part of the game can potentially be fun.

The word “potentially” is the big qualifier here. There reason is that the only real objective to playing is the quests at hand, which are short-term and small scale. There is no overall purpose for playing, not even a noticeable leveling system. Beyond this, there were no noticeable stats to upgrade, no easy way to spend the in-game currency collected (the game never tells you where to find a store), and no rewards other than said currency. This all equals no sense of progression.

For some, the point might be the social aspects of MilMo, at which it does do a decent job. Beyond the ability to share achievements and discoveries on their Facebook wall, players also get a personal profile that they can use to set status updates, show their mood, and display their in-game accomplishments. There are also specified chat areas, free of monsters, that users can visit any time.

As for our complaints, some might be thinking (or saying) something along the lines of “it gets better later on.” But this is an invalid argument. For a Facebook MMO, even moreso than a standard game in the genre, the hook should come quickly. Though MilMo is still very young, its MAU and DAU data is already starting to reflect this issue, with the former reaching about 261,000 and the latter now declining, having peaked at about 24,674.

In the end, MilMo is an MMOG that utilizes some decent social mechanics, but ultimately comes down to “get quest,” “kill/collect X,” and “get no reward.” There are parts present that could make a decent, free-to-play, MMOG, but as it stands, MilMo has a long way to go.

One of the reliably recurring themes of social gaming is pirates. Appearing frequently on both the mobile and Facebook platforms, it’s a concept that has grown better with each new title. The latest on this list is Pirates Saga from Can’t Stop Games, published on Facebook by 6 Waves.

A social game with a MMOG feel, Pirates Saga is clean and well put together app. Of course, being a MMOG means mixing asynchronous social features with synchronous ones, which creates some design tension. From a social game perspective, the game is more interesting than most, deviating away from the common farming mechanics. But from an MMO perspective, the game comes off as repetitive.

Players take the role of a pirate’s son, or daughter, out to fulfill their father’s legacy. With a ragtag crew of pirates, users set sail on the high seas in search of treasure, battle, and glory — or, more realistically, new levels and the ability to build larger, more powerful vessels.

Most of the game is based on quests. Acquired around the world or from one’s own crew, players accomplish basic tasks in order to garner experience and reward. There are two very common types of quests: delivery and combat. The former is the easiest, asking players to harvest some item (e.g. fruits) and bring it back to the quest giver. The only catch is that once the cargo is secured, any nearby non-player pirates become aggressive and will attack on sight.

The combat type of quest is a bit more interesting, as it does utilize simple combative mechanics. In some of the early quests, players have to sink imperial ships, which is done by merely clicking them and hitting a cannonball button. Once this is done, the ships will automatically fight, with the user choosing different abilities from an action bar. These abilities can be the basic cannonballs, high-damage cannonballs bought with virtual currency, healing potions, and so on.

As players complete quests, items and treasure chests will spill out onto the ocean (treasure chests can also be found floating about randomly). These chests are of particular import as they can contain items called “tools” that are required to upgrade one’s ship with more fire power and defense. Also, as players level up, they will be able to upgrade the ship, as a whole, which can boost speed, fire power, health, and cargo space (for picking up items in delivery quests).

It’s also important to upgrade one’s crew. As players complete quests, they will pick up crew members that will boost their ship in some way. For example, during the tutorial missions, players pick up a gunner who increases the effectiveness of the ship’s guns. As players perform specific actions and quests, their particular crew member will gain experience and get even stronger. In order to level said gunner, it’s necessary to sink ships, while leveling, say, a fisherman, means collecting fish from fishery buildings.

There is plenty to do in Pirates Saga. However, every action is gated through the standard energy mechanic, with some consumed with every action. This is where friends start to come into play, as the game does utilize basic gifting of items such as energy potions. Friends are also able to send various tools to each other in order to expedite the ship upgrade process (as opposed to searching treasure chests constantly). Beyond this, the game often has more challenging enemies to fight, such as “pirate towers” that friends can help one another defeat.

This is where the game takes more of an MMO turn. Players can synchronously see every Facebook user in their area along with their name and portrait. Complete with chat and emoticons, it’s actually a very nice addition. Furthermore, players can participate in player versus player combat in specific zones, and can earn special trophies that friends can see on the leaderboard. Unfortunately, the basic combat makes it a little average feeling compared to the MMO genre.

That’s really the big problem in judging Pirates Saga. From a social perspective, the game is significantly more interesting than the more repetitive city-builders and farming games. In that regard, Facebook game players ought to enjoy the title. However, the quests and combat feel heavily repetitive, and using an MMOG colloquialism, makes the game feel very “grindy” (meaning, players just repeat the same thing, such as fighting monsters, to level up). Nevertheless, it’s a game that’s easy to get into and play casually, making it well worth a try.

It’s also worth noting that Pirates Saga joins our list of games doing something special for Christmas. Can’t Stop Games has actually added in an entire map for Christmas décor and quests that reward players Christmas tickets. This then becomes a currency for purchasing special items to boost one’s health, damage, energy, and so on. There are even special snowball shots for the cannons that one can find and use in this snowy region.

All in all, Pirates Saga is a well made game. It does a nice job of combining traditional social mechanics with friends with the synchronous elements of an MMOG, and is quite addictive early on. That said, the game feels very repetitive from an MMO perspective and the addictiveness may wear thin for some people as time goes on. Nevertheless, Pirates Saga is still a well made title that is definitely worth checking out.

Since 2001, Electronic Arts has quietly operated a site that few in its core gaming audience know about called Pogo.com. It has only recently started moving the property onto other platforms, starting with Facebook this April and now moving on to the iPhone and iPad.

Pogo’s new iDevice app will look like a limited version of its destination site, with just five games to start — one of those being Poppit, which EA got press for yesterday when it released an HTML5 version for the Chrome Web Store. Other titles include word and card games.

Like other companies, Pogo is hoping that its audience (about 10 million monthly unique visitors to its web site, and about 900,000 monthly active users on Facebook) will adopt as many platforms as it rolls out, playing the games wherever they go.

There are some differences between the platforms, though. Some are technical, like the ability to use the iPhone’s accelerometer for Poppit. The more important differences may be the social mechanics, though.

On Pogo.com, users play with others that they don’t know, which creates more of a cooperative environment. Facebook creates competition between friends, while mobile will offer some combination. Like Facebook, mobile will also tend toward asynchronous play, since users will just want to slip into games for a few minutes at a time.

Going cross-platform with a property like Pogo may be a no-brainer these days, with Facebook going strong and mobile devices proliferating. “Overwhelmingly people wanted it, even if they don’t have an iPhone. Just given the amount of iPhone and iPods out there, we hope to have even more people who aren’t familiar with Pogo download it,” says Michael Marchetti, Pogo’s general manager.

But Pogo is also an aging site. Its Facebook portal has over a dozen competitors, and there are many more casual apps vying for space on the various iDevices. To succeed, Pogo will have to get its cross-platform distribution strategy just right, with few role models to steer by.

Black Friday Hits Social Games — It’s the biggest shopping day of the year, and more than just marketers are using Facebook to make a sale. Along with the sales noted yesterday in City of Wonder and It Girl, companies such as Playdom, CrowdStar, RockYou, Zynga, and Nexon have announced more.

Many other Playdom games, such as Social City, are having 50 percent off sales on virtual currency; CrowdStar is hosting half-off many virtual items in games such as Zoo Paradise; RockYou is running Flash Deals all day for Zoo World, offering up to 80% specific items; Zynga has specials such as The Black Friday Raid, in Mafia Wars, where players will receive discounts in the Marketplace on both Black Friday and Cyber Monday; and according to Engage Digital, Nexon is hosting specials for Maple Story, Mabinogi, and Dungeon Fighter Online with discounts ranging from 20 percent to 50 percent off.

RockYou CEO Steps Down — Lance Takuda, founder and CEO of RockYou Lance Tokuda is no longer running the social developer, says TechCrunch. According to statements from COO Lisa Marino, his role is now being filled by an “Office of the CEO” team that includes herself, CFO Steve Van Horne, and SVP President of Technology & Engineering Shamik Sharma.

Pocket God Coming to Facebook — Frima Studio and Bolt Creative announced, earlier this week, that the popular iPhone title Pocket God will be coming to Facebook. Though an exact date is not known yet, the announcement states it will be ready “later this fall.” [image via Pocket Blog]

Gaia Online Lays Off 15-20 Employees — Teen virtual world creator Gaia Online has laid off 15 – 20 of its employees, says VentureBeat. For context, Gaia’s staff was around 110 back in June.

EVE Online to Add Virtual Goods — Another subscription-based title, the MMOG EVE Online, is adding virtual goods into the mix. That said, the items are said to be decorative and not effect the game’s “merit economy,” which is made up of items that affect gameplay.

iOS 4.2 Available for iPad, iPhone, & iPod Touch — Apple has released iOS 4.2, this week, for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch. As noted two weeks ago, Game Center comes to the iPad with the update.

Lionside Raises $1.6 Million – Based on an SEC filing, social sports games developer Lionside has raised $1.6 million in a first round of funding. Their first title was Lionside Football on Facebook.

Rixty Announces Holiday Bonuses — Alternative payment platform Rixty has announced that starting today, and continuing until December 31st, users that purchase $40 or more in Rixty will instantly receive $10 extra for free.

Foursquare Adds TSA “Baggage Handler” Badge — Spoofing the current changes to TSA security measures, Foursquare has added a “Baggage Handler” badge, says About Foursquare. To unlock the badge, one must check in at any airport with the shout “TSA”, “grope,” or “Don’t touch my junk, bro!”

Disney’s Graham Hopper Resigns — According to VentureBeat, Disney’s General Manager of Disney Interactive Studios, Graham Hopper, has resigned. Thus far, no reasons for the departure have been stated.

Social Game Universe Creates Cross-Promotion Bar — Toronto-based developer Social Game Universe is announcing the launch of its Inter-Game API (IGAPI) this week with the idea of turning a cross-promotion bar into a sort of social game of its own. Using their own Hollywood Tycoon as an example, SGU lets players interact with friends in other games and applications without leaving the one they are currently playing. Using IGAPI “Action Cards,” users will be able perform social actions like gifting. The news is especially alongside this week’s acquisition of cross-promo bar AppStrip by TapJoy.

Judge Declines Dismissal of Zynga Class Actions — Zynga continues to spend time in court over advertising scams in social games, as U.S. District Judge Sandra Armstrong has refused to dismiss a class action lawsuit against the company. The case involves the usage of offers and advertisements to earn virtual currency, leading to the plaintiffs being “duped” into giving out their phone and credit card numbers and, inevitably, unknown charges.

Rixty Expands Retail Distribution — Alternative payment platform Rixty is expanding this week with the rollout of Rixty branded gift cards into the retailers of Kmart, JCPenney, Kroger and Kroger Co. across the U.S.

Game Center on iPad — The iPad is getting a major software update with iOS 4.2, according to ReadWriteWeb. In the update, Apple’s social gaming hub, Game Center, adds a feature that surrounds player scoreboards with the top Game Center games.

The Sine Wave Company Creates New Online Games Platform — London and Shanghai-based developer The Sine Wave Company has developed a new 3D virtual world and MMOG platform by combining the Unity3D web player with OpenSim. Having already created three virtual worlds (one for art, one for music, and one for the Indian market), the platform is now available for new virtual worlds with Unity’s signature high quality visuals and the ability to support between 200 and 400 concurrent users per server.

Bon Jovi Sells Digital Music in CrowdStar Games — Bon Jovi is getting into social games through a partnership with CrowdStar, according to TechCrunch. In Happy Aquarium, Happy Island, and It Girl, players can purchase The “Bon Jovi Greatest Hits Bundle” which includes a digital download of the music, Facebook Credits, branded virtual goods with in-game benefits, and a coupon code for the Bon Jovi online store.

More Social Games Come to Hi5 — Social entertainment site Hi5 has added four new social games for its network this week. The games include Club Galactik, Crazy Cars, Farm Frenzy Neighbors, and Caesary.

Hip Venture Shifts to Social Games — Virtual world developer Hip Venture has announced that it is shifting from making virtual worlds to developing social and mobile games, as noted by VentureBeat. The company plans to publish games on platforms including Facebook, Orkut, Hi5, iPhone, iPad, and Droid. Its first tile, HipChicas, is slated to be ready by quarter one of 2011.

It’s been some time since we last came across any fantasy role-playing games on Facebook, but we recently got the opportunity to look at an up-coming RPG called Endless Chaos, from Peerflux. Still in closed testing, Endless Chaos is far from finished, but brings some new, or at least rare, concepts to the genre.

While Endless Chaos is text-based, like Facebook’s early RPGs, the game is based around more than just leveling up and growing a “mafia,” or any fantasy equivalent. Rather, it’s centered on an evolving, linear storyline of quests, with a choice and morality element spun into it. Along with more deeply customizable characters, choice appears to be the big seller here.

Players are presented with an important choice right from the get go, with the ability to choose the race in which they will start. It’s hard to say if the story changes depending on race, as we only got the chance to pick one, but users can select from the naturalist Kaal, steam punk humans called the Madoch, and an ethereal arcane type called the Ohmron. As it stands, these choices could more aesthetic than not, but with different classes to choose from, the next set of decisions are not.

We went with the Kaal, and next had to choose from the standard RPG classes of, essentially, warrior, mystic, and ranger. These in turn offer different sets of spells one can earn.

Along with improving raw stats, upon leveling, players can also train and improve different spells. Initially, these are all the same, doing a set amount of damage, but over time, players can visit a trainer inside “The Town” and for a fee, learn a new spell over a few days. Once acquired, spells then appear to augment battles with both players and monsters (e.g. doing damage and reducing magical resistance).

As far as the battling goes, it’s automated with the player’s avatar, using whatever skills are within their repertoire. Battling, however, also comes with a very MMOG feel to it, in that players must venture out into “The Wilderness,” which, for all intents and purposes, is the world map. From here, they can enter specific zones (should they be high enough level) and battle monsters for experience and loot. This is where one of the core social mechanics comes into play.

Beyond adding friends as Allies — which will help the player in battles — the player versus player aspect is done with a little more respect to traditional, online RPGs. In order to attack other users, players don’t go to just a page called “Battle,” but can actually see every user currently within a Wilderness zone and can attack them right then and there. Sadly, since Endless Chaos is still in testing, the feature wasn’t something we got to try out.

Moving on to the quest system, this is the primary focus of Endless Chaos. Players don’t get a half a dozen missions to complete, but, thus far, one heavily story oriented quest at a time. Players are sent out to zones in the wilderness where they must defeat certain enemies, collect items from slain monsters, or simply explore the region in search of loot. As an aside, players click a button to simply explore a region like a gathering profession in traditional MMOGs.

Each quest starts with a moral choice asking the player how they will accomplish the quest, with the decision making them either more good or more evil. At the moment, it’s too early to tell if this has an effect on quests, abilities, or anything, but it would be surprising, and disappointing, if it didn’t.

Overall, Endless Chaos looks like it could be a very high quality RPG. Of course, as an early test version, a lot of the noted features have yet to reveal their purpose or have any sort of payout, but they hold a lot of potential over other Facebook RPGs that don’t have  them. The moral choice system, in particular, could be interesting, and the player versus player element could also turn out to be very fun.

With an up-to-$750 million acquisition of Playdom by Disney, an up-to-$400 million acquisition of Playfish by Electronic Arts, the acquisition of Tapulous by Disney, and hundreds of millions of dollars in venture investments, virtual goods are impacting businesses across the media landscape. Virtual goods, and the companies that create them, may be bringing the largest disruption entertainment, communication, and e-commerce infrastructure businesses have seen in years.

Inside Network is proud to announce the release today of a new original research report by Justin Smith and Charles Hudson that presents a comprehensive examination of the size and future of the virtual goods market in the United States, entitled Inside Virtual Goods: The US Virtual Goods Market 2010 – 2011. This is Inside Network’s second annual edition of the US Virtual Good Market report. The big picture? The US virtual goods market will reach $2.1 billion overall in 2011.

Where will the virtual goods market go in 2011 and what are the biggest opportunities left unclaimed? How will existing players fare as Facebook continues to reshape the social gaming landscape, and larger and more sophisticated players enter the market? Inside Virtual Goods: The US Virtual Goods Market 2010 – 2011 provides deeper insight into monetization, development, and the key questions facing the space in 2011 than you’ll find anywhere else.

Get the Annual Membership Get Annual Membership (Includes Report + 3 Additional Quarterly Issues): $2,495 OR Buy Single Report: $995

About the Report

Inside Virtual Goods is a new report researched and created specifically for entrepreneurs, investors, and analysts interested in the growth of this exciting new category of online commerce that is fueling the growth of games-as-a-service businesses. During a research phase spanning the last few months, co-authors Justin Smith and Charles Hudson have spoken with dozens of executives and entrepreneurs from all parts of the ecosystem in order to form what we believe are the most detailed estimates, analyses, and predictions for 2010 and 2011.

We focused and organized the report around the following areas:

1. Social Networks, Applications, and Games - The explosion of the virtual goods market on social networks is one of the biggest stories of 2010. We delve deeply into the trends, stats, key players, opportunities, and challenges facing the space this year and next.
2. Casual MMOs and Virtual Worlds - Virtual worlds and casual MMOs continue to grow as a meaningful share of the virtual goods opportunity in the United States. Our study breaks down the key drivers for success in this segment, trends in monetization and engagement, and the prospects for the future.
3. MMOs and Free-to-Play Online Games – Developers in the MMO / MMORPG space have been among the earliest adopters of the free-to-play model. We explore why free-to-play MMOs are succeeding, revenue and user trends, and the key issues facing this space as we head into 2011.
4. Console Games – The console market is one of the most interesting new areas where microtransactions are beginning to establish a meaningful foothold in the market. Our study looks at the key opportunities and challenges facing this emerging space going into 2011.
5. Mobile Games – Mobile application developers that have been early adopters of the free-to-play model are now seeing significant growth in 2010. Our study breaks down the key opportunities and challenges facing this emerging space going into 2011.

Each section contains:

1. A brief history on the evolution and growth of this space in the US, including a description of key players.
2. Estimates on the size of the US virtual goods market in 2010 in that area.
3. A diagnosis of the key opportunities and issues facing the growth of that space, including our outlook and projections for 2011.

In addition, prior to delving more deeply into each market segment, we’ve provided an overview of the emerging payments ecosystem that is growing to serve these new businesses. Traditional e-commerce infrastructure providers only offer a partial solution, and the virtual goods payments layer is currently in a major state of flux. In the report, we describe the variety of solutions that have been brought to market to date, and the key challenges facing the industry from a payments perspective as a whole.

For more details, check out the full table of contents below.

The annual membership, which includes the report and three additional quarterly updates, is USD $2,495. Alternatively, you can obtain just this report for USD $995.

The annual subscription brings you a total of four comprehensive reports comprising months of original research. Recent reports have covered:

1. The Future of Social Gaming. Social games make up over half of the US virtual goods market. This report provided detailed coverage of exactly how this industry has managed to thrive, who its most valuable players are, and deeper insight into monetization, development, and customer acquisition than you’ll find anywhere else..
2. The Spending and Usage Patterns of the Social Gaming Audience. Who are the millions of users whose time, money, and engagement have made social games into household names and their developers into technology industry celebrities? This report presented the only independent, original research into user profiles, behaviors, and attitudes toward social games and virtual goods.

We are looking forward to continuing to cover the evolution of the space over the coming year. We look forward to hearing from you!

Table of Contents

Get the Annual Membership

The annual membership, which includes the report and three additional quarterly updates, is USD $2,495. Alternatively, you can just download this report for USD $995.

Get Annual Membership (Includes Report + 3 Additional Quarterly Issues): $2,495

OR Buy Single Report: $995

List of Related Companies: 6waves, A Bit Lucky, Acclaim, Activision, AdParlor, Aeria Games, Amazon, Applifier, Appstrip, Artix Entertainment, Bebo, Bigpoint, Blackhawk, Boku, Boomerang Networks, Booyah, Challenge Games, CrowdStar, Digital Chocolate, Digital River, Disney, Electronic Arts, Facebook, Frogster, Gaia Online, Gala-Net, Gambit, Gameforge, GMG, Google, GratisPay, gWallet, HeyZap, Hi5, IMVU, InComm, iovation, Jagex, Kabam, Kontagent, Limasky, Lolapps, Meez, Metaplace, Microsoft, MindJolt, MySpace, News Corporation, Nexon, ngmoco, Nintendo, Offerpal Media, OMGPOP, Outspark, Papaya Mobile, PaymentPin, PayPal, PeanutLabs, Playdom, Playfirst, Playfish, PlaySpan, Rekoo, Riot Games, Rixty, RockYou, Rovio, Scoreloop, Second Life, SGN, Six Degrees Games, Slashkey, Slide, SocialGold, Sometrics, Sony, Sony (Free Realms), Sparkplay Media, SponsorPay, Sulake (Habbo Hotel), Super Rewards (Adknowledge), SupersonicAds, SurfPin, Tapulous, Tencent, TheBroth, ThreatMetrix, Three Rings (Puzzle Pirates), TokenAds, TrialPay, Turbine, Viacom (MTV), Viacom (Neopets), Viximo, WeeWorld, Wooga, ZipZapPlay, Zong, Zynga

With an up-to-$750 million acquisition of Playdom by Disney, an up-to-$400 million acquisition of Playfish by Electronic Arts, the acquisition of Tapulous by Disney, and hundreds of millions of dollars in venture investments, virtual goods are impacting businesses across the media landscape. Virtual goods, and the companies that create them, may be bringing the largest disruption entertainment, communication, and e-commerce infrastructure businesses have seen in years.

Inside Network is proud to announce a new original research report by Justin Smith and Charles Hudson that presents a comprehensive examination of the size and future of the virtual goods market in the United States, entitled Inside Virtual Goods: The US Virtual Goods Market 2010 – 2011. This is Inside Network’s second annual edition of the US Virtual Good Market report. It will be released on September 28, but is available for discount pre-order now.

Where will the virtual goods market go in 2011 and what are the biggest opportunities left unclaimed? How will existing players fare as Facebook continues to reshape the social gaming landscape, and larger and more sophisticated players enter the market? Inside Virtual Goods: The US Virtual Goods Market 2010 – 2011 provides deeper insight into monetization, development, and the key questions facing the space in 2011 than you’ll find anywhere else.

Get the Annual Membership Get Annual Membership (Includes Report + 3 Additional Quarterly Issues): $2,495 $1,995 USD* OR Buy Single Report: $995 $795 USD* * Pre-order discount ends September 27, 2010. All pre-ordered reports will be delivered on September 28, 2010.

About the Report

Inside Virtual Goods is a new report researched and created specifically for entrepreneurs, investors, and analysts interested in the growth of this exciting new category of online commerce that is fueling the growth of games-as-a-service businesses. During a research phase spanning the last few months, co-authors Justin Smith and Charles Hudson have spoken with dozens of executives and entrepreneurs from all parts of the ecosystem in order to form what we believe are the most detailed estimates, analyses, and predictions for 2010 and 2011.

We focused and organized the report around the following areas:

1. Social Networks, Applications, and Games - The explosion of the virtual goods market on social networks is one of the biggest stories of 2010. We delve deeply into the trends, stats, key players, opportunities, and challenges facing the space this year and next.
2. Mobile Applications and Games – Mobile application developers that have been early adopters of the free-to-play model are now seeing significant growth in 2010. Our study breaks down the key opportunities and challenges facing this emerging space going into 2011.
3. Casual MMOs and Virtual Worlds - Virtual worlds and casual MMOs continue to grow as a meaningful share of the virtual goods opportunity in the United States. Our study breaks down the key drivers for success in this segment, trends in monetization and engagement, and the prospects for the future.
4. Hardcore MMOs and Free-to-Play Online Games – Developers in the MMO / MMORPG space have been among the earliest adopters of the free-to-play model. We explore why free-to-play MMOs are succeeding, revenue and user trends, and the key issues facing this space as we head into 2011.
5. Emerging Areas: Console Games and Subscription MMOs – As the virtual goods business model becomes more well understood, it is beginning to show up in new and interesting areas of the games and entertainment landscape. We highlight a few of the more promising areas where virtual goods are emerging as a promising opportunity.

Each section contains:

1. A brief history on the evolution and growth of this space in the US, including a description of key players.
2. Estimates on the size of the US virtual goods market in 2010 in that area.
3. A diagnosis of the key opportunities and issues facing the growth of that space, including our outlook and projections for 2011.

In addition, prior to delving more deeply into each market segment, we’ve provided an overview of the emerging payments ecosystem that is growing to serve these new businesses. Traditional e-commerce infrastructure providers only offer a partial solution, and the virtual goods payments layer is currently in a major state of flux. In the report, we describe the variety of solutions that have been brought to market to date, and the key challenges facing the industry from a payments perspective as a whole.

For more details, check out the full table of contents below.

The annual membership, which includes the report and three additional quarterly updates, is USD $2,495. Alternatively, you can obtain just this report for USD $995.

The annual subscription brings you a total of four comprehensive reports comprising months of original research. Recent reports have covered:

1. The Future of Social Gaming. Social games make up over half of the US virtual goods market. This report provided detailed coverage of exactly how this industry has managed to thrive, who its most valuable players are, and deeper insight into monetization, development, and customer acquisition than you’ll find anywhere else..
2. The Spending and Usage Patterns of the Social Gaming Audience. Who are the millions of users whose time, money, and engagement have made social games into household names and their developers into technology industry celebrities? This report presented the only independent, original research into user profiles, behaviors, and attitudes toward social games and virtual goods.

Although the report will not be released until Tuesday, September 28, we are offering a special pre-order discount for those who purchase now. The pre-order price of US $795 for this report or US $1,995 for a one-year subscription is now available until September 27.

We are looking forward to continuing to cover the evolution of the space over the coming year. We look forward to hearing from you!

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

• How We Got Here: A Brief History of Virtual Goods Worldwide
• Defining Terms
  • Registered users
  • Active users
  • Average revenue per user (ARPU)
  • Average revenue per paying user (ARPPU)
  • How do different developers manage their businesses?
• Growing Virtual Goods Markets in the US
  • Social Networks, Applications, and Games
  • Casual MMOs and Virtual Worlds
  • Hardcore MMOs and Free to Play Games
  • Mobile Applications and Games
  • Emerging Areas: Consoles, Subscription MMOs
• Methodology

2. The Virtual Goods Payments Ecosystem: An Overview

• Large Payment Platforms
• Mobile Payment Providers
• Offer Providers
• Direct Payments vs Offers
• Pre-paid Cards
• The Arrival of Facebook Credits
• New Payment Providers
• Managing Fraud
• Related Companies

3. Social Networks, Applications, and Games

• Introduction
  • The Global Rise of Facebook
  • The Virtual Currency Payment Ecosystem Explosion – and Migration to Facebook Credits
  • Increased Optimization for Virtual Goods
• Social Networking Platforms Today
  • Facebook
  • MySpace
  • Twitter
  • Google
  • Others
• Significant Changes to Facebook Platform Dynamics in 2010
  • Distribution & Engagement
  • Monetization
• Social Application and Game Genres: How Do They Perform?
  • Role Playing Games and “Hardcore” Mini-MMOs
  • Simulation and City Building Games
  • Pet Games
  • Poker Games
  • Gifting Apps
  • Arcade Games
• Who’s Buying Virtual Goods?
  • Gender Breakdown
  • Age Breakdown
  • Geographic Breakdown
• How Are They Spending Money?
  • Item Type Breakdown
  • Payment Method Breakdown
• Market Size Estimate
  • Total Number of Monthly Paying Users
  • Total ARPPU Per Month
  • Total US Virtual Goods Revenues from Social Networks in 2010
  • A Quick Look at Revenues for Top Social Game Developers
• 2011 Outlook
  • Growth Rate
  • Major Risks that Could Hamper Growth
• Leading Companies

4. Casual MMOs and Virtual Worlds

• Introduction
• Demographic Breakdown
  • Gender
  • Age
• Payments
• Analyzing the Market Opportunity
  • ARPU
  • ARPPU
  • Market Size Estimate
• 2011 Outlook
  • Growth Rate
  • Key Challenges
• Leading Companies

5. Free to Play MMOs / Hardcore Games

• Introduction
  • History of free to play MMOs
  • Emergence of the free to play MMO market opportunity in the US
  • Major genres for free-to-play MMOs and hardcore games
• Analyzing the Market Opportunity
  • Total Player Base
  • ARPU
  • ARPPU
  • Payment methods
• 2011 Outlook
• Leading Companies

6. Mobile Applications and Games

• Introduction
  • History of virtual goods model in US
  • Major genres for free-to-play iPhone apps and games
• Analyzing the Market Opportunity
  • Total Player Base
  • ARPU
  • ARPPU
  • Payment methods
• 2011 Outlook
• Leading Companies

7. Emerging Areas

• Console Games
• Subscription MMOs

8. Conclusion

• Overview: 2010 Market Estimates
• Looking Ahead: 2011

9. Appendix: Company Index

Get the Annual Membership

The annual membership, which includes the report and three additional quarterly updates, is USD $2,495. Alternatively, you can just download this report for USD $995. Although the report will not be released until Tuesday, September 28, we are offering a special pre-order discount for those who purchase now. The pre-order price of US $795 for this report or US $1,995 for a one-year subscription is now available until September 27.

Get Annual Membership (Includes Report + 3 Additional Quarterly Issues): $2,495 $1,995 USD*

OR Buy Single Report: $995 $795 USD*