Facebook games manager is eyeing your grandma
And the rest of your family, for that matter. In a recent interview with VentureBeat's Dean Takahashi, program manager for games in Facebook's platform marketing division Gareth Davis had a lot to say about their burgeoning social network/"gaming platform." According to Davis, the network has accrued more than 5,000 games since opening up their platform in 2007 and those games are coming from small fish and enormous whales alike. Davis says the demographics for game players are changing as well, "Our fastest growing demographic now is over 30. Now it's grandparents playing games with grandchildren. You don't see that anywhere else." Hit the jump for more!
According to him, Facebook offers the largest installed base and the lowest barrier to entry for independent developers. "There is no cost to develop on Facebook or distribute. You keep 100 percent of the revenue," Davis says, continuing, "Electronic Arts did an incredible job of owning distribution for a very long time. The exposure to an audience was very restricted. You had to have a great budget, do a lot of marketing, and get retail space. The internet has dis-intermediated that." Creedence is lent to his words with the success in recent years of games like Club Penguin and Habbo Hotel, offering free-to-play experiences with microtransactions set up as the revenue model.
When asked if Facebook will become crowded with so many games that developer's games won't be seen, Davis remains confident in his medium, saying, "The [past] retail model meant there were 200 slots in a store. With the internet, there can be infinite games. There can be successful niches. The cost of distribution is virtually zero. You can have a successful business with 300,000 users. You can make targeted applications that you could not do in a retail store." So, what do you think? Are you folks still playing Scrabulous or getting excited for Free Realms? Let us know in the comments!
