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MySpace launches Games Lab, aims to tackle social gaming
Like a pokey little puppy, social network MySpace has announced that it's starting up a Games Lab to try and beef up the gaming space on the site. A pilot program has been underway for a while now with TheBroth and Meez, and MySpace has now announced Playdom as a partner in building the platform. Rival network Facebook has been growing in leaps and bounds, especially in the gaming space, but now MySpace wants to leapfrog its success on the music side into social games. Will it work? There's a lot of money still to be made in social games, and there's no reason why MySpace couldn't grab its own piece of the pie. But MySpace is certainly coming late to the game, so if it can garner an audience, it'll likely be a fraction of what Facebook already has running.
Playdom adds Acclaim Games to its portfolio
Back in the way back when of 2006, a group of private investors got together and decided to purchase the Acclaim name. Resurrecting the company -- the name's built-in brand awareness was a major factor for the purchase -- the new Acclaim Games aimed to grab its own slice of the casual gaming pie. Since then, it's managed to accrue 15 million subscribers through its website, offering a plethora of free-to-play casual MMOs. And now casual gaming giant Playdom has gone ahead and acquired Acclaim. The press release (PDF link) highlights Acclaim as the perfect fit for Playdom's hefty catalog of social titles. "Joining forces with Playdom is a natural fit," said Howard Marks, Acclaim CEO and the man who will oversee Acclaim operations for Playdom and have an active role in the parent company's business development division. "Both companies share the vision of connecting people globally through quality social games. Our deep expertise in building multiplayer online games and Playdom's vast player community will help us bring out the next generation of social games." Exact figures for how much Playdom spent on Acclaim are currently not available. [Via Big Download] Source - Playdom announces acquisition of Acclaim Games Inc. (PDF)
Playdom acquires Acclaim Games
If there was any doubt that the world of Facebook social games and traditional MMOs are becoming further intertwined, this should hopefully silence it. Playdom, well-known as one of the three major powers in Facebook gaming (alongside Zynga and Playfish), has acquired Acclaim Games, owner of several free-to-play MMOs including Chronicles of Spellborn, 9Dragons, and 2Moons. Unfortunately for the business mavens in the audience, the exact details of the acquisition including price were not disclosed. In terms of management, there's going to be little changing on the ground for Acclaim Games, as previous CEO Howard Marks will continue to run the studio for Playdom. Playdom itself has been purchasing several smaller developers and studios, especially those focusing on Facebook development. No word on whether this will affect management of any of Acclaim's existing games, although it seems unlikely given the circumstances. What is certain is that it's another installment in the distance between social gaming and MMOs being shortened. [ Thanks to Animagnum for the tip! ]
Playdom CEO: 'Core gamers are playing this stuff'
Social gaming is bigger than ever. Playdom CEO John Pleasants gave an interview on stage at the LA Games Conference today, and said that while the western market for Facebook and social games currently pulls in over $750 million, it's going to balloon to as much as $4 to 5 billion in the next five years or so. His own company is developing at an extremely rapid pace -- it's purchased and acquired enough companies and studios to have ten different teams developing, and they plan to release ten games, "all original ideas," in just the next five months. So why aren't you "core" gamers playing these games yet? Pleasants says you are. He told Joystiq after the presentation that "If you look at something like Mobsters 2, and you go look at the boards where people are talking about it, they're like, 'Look, I love this game, but I have to go back and play Halo.' Core gamers are playing this stuff." He said that the numbers alone prove that traditional gamers are already on board with social games. "This business is bigger than that business, in terms of reach," he told us. "By definition, those circles overlap." Pleasants also believes that the core game companies like Sony, EA, and Microsoft already know that -- in the next year or so, he said, almost 20% of the social gaming market will be owned by bigger brands. "This space has gotten enough notice now that people believe it's real."
Game-related startups raise $600 million in 2009, down 36%
Game-related startup companies raised $600 million throughout 2009, according to GamesBeat's analysis. And while $600 million is a lot of money if you're, say, trying to sell a shooter based on the art of modern warfare, it's not quite that much when you're an up-and-coming game developer. Total investments in the field were actually down by 36% since last year. That's not a bubble bursting, but it does mean that startup investors might be a little more careful with their money in the year to come. The biggest winners in the scene include Zynga, makers of Mafia Wars and a few other popular Facebook titles, who nabbed a big $180 million investment from a Russian technology company, and Playdom. You may not have played Sorority Life, the company's MySpace hit, but Lightspeed Venture Partners must have, because it invested $43 million in the company. If there's a theme here, it's social networking and online games: PopCap is probably the highest traditional game developer on the list, but even its $22.5 million investment was marked for putting its games on the web, mobile platforms, and social networks. Of course, that pull doesn't include the buck we gave them for Peggle.
Former EA COO says EA is in 'investment mode,' focusing on digital distribution
Right before hitting the ol' dusty trail for Playdom, now ex-EA COO John Pleasants sat down with Reuters for an interview all about the future of EA. In it, he speaks to the multifaceted future of EA (especially with regards to business models), as well as the importance of EA's current "investor mode," saying the company will announce new deals with various social networking services "some time in the near future." Though we're not sure if the recent change in guard from Pleasants to Microsoft alum John Schappert will alter what the ex-COO said to Reuters, things like the recently announced Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online point to "not likely." This isn't exactly a dramatic change from statements that Pleasants has made in the past regarding the company's business strategy, so it remains to be seen whether or not Schappert will steer the EA ship in another direction or stay the course.[Via Edge]
The big business of selling virtual goods
It doesn't seem like it was that long ago that the entire concept of people spending real money on virtual items and currency was just bizarre. The first mentions of such a thing this writer ever came across were back in 2003, when Julian Dibbell told the story of Black Snow Interactive, rumored to have been operating virtual sweatshops operating in Mexico. Fast forward to 2009 and the notion of shelling out real world cash for the ephemeral has become commonplace. Moreover, these formerly arcane business models centering around virtual trading have ballooned into a huge business, much to the chagrin of many game companies and their players. However, not all companies attempt to fight this ever-increasing gravity of real money trading (RMT) that now permeates the MMO and virtual worlds industry, and some seek to make it an aspect of their business that they control rather than something they need to curb. Indeed, the profits of many (legitimate) businesses are largely derived from sales of virtual goods, as Rory Maher explains at paidContent.org in his article titled "From Pet Penguins to Flame Throwers: The Biggest Sellers In The Virtual World".Maher looks at three companies doing well for themselves in the virtual goods game, and what they're selling that's proven so popular. He points out Tencent, a Chinese IM provider that incorporates microtransactions into the service, allowing users to spend their "QQ" currency to enhance and customize their IM interactions, even buying virtual pets that exist on their desktop and run around inside their instant messages.
