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."