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DFC: 88 percent of gamers have bought virtual goods
According to a recent study, 88 percent of gamers have purchased digital content over the last several years. The study was conducted by market research firm DFC Intelligence using a survey of 5000 gamers from the US and Europe during the first two months of 2010. The study also looked at data from several different countries -- including South Korea, the U.S., Japan, Germany, Vietnam and the Philippines -- gathered over the last seven years. The worldwide data was provided by Live Gamer, a company that helps developers and publishers monetize their products. It's worth noting that the content described by the survey includes music and movies as well as in-game content. Still, 60 percent of those surveyed have purchased in-game items, most of which were offered as part of free-to-play games. DFC analyst David Cole notes that the free-to-play model gives games distinct advantages over traditional single releases, saying that "a single product can have a lifespan of years online as opposed to a few months on the retail shelf." According to DFC, free-to-play games like Farmville and Combat Arms, which the firm refers to as "MMOG Lite," are expected to grow substantially over the next few years. DFC sees what it calls "MMOG Lite" products growing substantially in the next few years. Specifically, DFC predicts that the MMOG Lite market in Europe and North America will grow from $800 million in 2009 to over $3 billion by 2015. But don't feel left out, core gamers, these finding apply to all kinds of games. Live Gamer's Andrew Schneider points out that core gamers are "increasingly engaging in the purchase of virtual goods" and adds that the study illustrates "the market potential as traditional Western game publishers migrate towards microtransactions as the central monetization method." Frankly, the study's findings seem just a little far-fetched. Now, if you'll excuse us, the crops need tending. [Via Gamasutra]
Study: Average social gamer age is only 29 in the US
If you think that those silly social games like Farmville and Mafia Wars are full of teenagers, you're only half right. The average player of social games is actually younger than previously believed, according to a new study, but a little older than teenage: 29 in the US and 27 in the EU. That's an interesting conclusion, especially since the average gamer is actually a little older than that (s/he was 30 a few years ago and has been getting steadily older since then), and most people believe that social gamers on Facebook tend to skew even older. This survey by GamesIndustry.com, however, goes against that grain, and claims that while there are more females playing these games than males, they tend to be younger than expected. Peter Warman of that site says that the reason for this is that most such surveys don't poll any lower than age 18: "It is therefore not at all surprising that their average age is extraordinarily high ... Data from kids and teens is vital and should always be taken into account." If these surveys aren't representing anyone below age 18, then it's possible gamers, especially those playing social games on Facebook and elsewhere, are even younger than anyone's guessed previously.
Zynga selling pre-paid cards for those who can't mainline
Zynga, casual freemium enabler of FarmVille, MafiaWars and YoVille!, announced that pre-paid game cards recently arrived at real-life retail. Available in $10 or $25 denominations, the cards "make it easy for consumers who don't have access to credit cards or bank accounts to buy in-game items." No bank account, really? Well, maybe if they weren't obsessively buying in-game spice racks they'd still have a bank account. The Zynga cards will be available at 12,800 locations, including 7-Eleven, Best Buy, GameStop, Target and doctors who deal in "prescription painkillers."
The Fringe: Farming games
Welcome to The Fringe, where we totter on the edge of MMOs with a guide for playing Facebook games. If you aren't one of the millions playing games on Facebook and aren't interested in joining the throng, that's ok. We won't judge you. But we'd appreciate you returning the favor. In before all the "you got Facebook in my Massively again!" complaints: GDC was full of Facebook game announcements and with all the money being made by Zynga and others, we have a long future of Facebook MMOing ahead of us. With massive amounts of people playing and interacting in these online games, it's time to take off the blinders and check out what's going on in your peripheral gaming vision. Or not. That's fine. If you don't want to read about Facebook games, you can skip to all of the other great content here on Massively. But unlike my last column, where I let the haters vent their frustrations in the comments, only constructive criticism will be allowed from now on. I was going to write up a guide to Country Life next, but it has been going through much development over the past few weeks. So even if illness hadn't delayed my writing about it, the information would have been obsolete soon after. There are many farming games to choose from, varying in features and popularity. So this week I'll be covering how to choose a Facebook farming game by giving an overview of three notable ones.
Will Wright predicts social games will grow to 25 percent of market
One of the big trends at this year's Game Developer's Conference is social gaming, thanks to wild success stories like Facebook-powered Farmville. While many see social gaming as the next big thing, Will Wright -- famed creator of SimCity, The Sims and Spore -- warned GDC attendees that expectations for the genre are unrealistic. "What people tend to do is apply a power curve to this," Wright explained using the above diagram. "And so when you make an extrapolation based upon that, you're really way off, when in fact, what we were really looking at was an S-curve." "It gets a lot of attention, of course, because investors, when they're looking to invest in something, they're looking to invest in the steep part of this curve. And so that's why there's so much business interest in this sort of platform," Wright hypothesized. But don't think your mom is going to suddenly lose interest in raising animals on her virtual farm any time soon. In fact, while the genre may not explode, it will ultimately represent a large percentage of the overall games business. "It's not that I don't think social games are going to be big ... I can imagine them doing about the quarter of the market, really." That's good news for Facebook, which is still looking for its Mario, its "iconic" game.
GDC: MySpace making a push into games, hoping it'll be as popular as music
While we've yet to meet those amongst you reppin' Farmville and swearing allegiance to Facebook, we worry that today's announcement of MySpace making a stronger push into the casual gaming market may stir those folks from their dismal, musty resting places. Alongside a revamped and relaunched gaming section on the site (the "MySpace Games Gallery"), co-president Mike Jones told GamesIndustry.biz that the company plans on pushing into the gaming world in the same way it's pushed into the music world. "Just as they use MySpace to discover and listen to music, I want them to use MySpace to discover and play games," he said in an interview this week. One of the ways that Jones plans on implementing the new initiative is by making game suggestions to new users at the same time the site normally suggests music a new user might like. "We're making sure that when users sign up to MySpace, on the first screen after sign-up they have recommendations, which include games and bands -- at the same time ... that's getting the user initially seeded with the content." Unfortunately, though, Jones didn't say a peep about games that go a bit deeper than the standard Mafia Wars fare we've come to expect from social networks and their free-to-play games.
GDC 2010: Ngmoco previews We Rule and GodFinger
We stopped by Ngmoco's suite at GDC 2010 on the afternoon of the first day of the show, and got a chance to preview two upcoming titles they're working on testing and releasing soon. Both of the games follow Ngmoco's popular (and yet much-maligned) "freemium" model, in which you download the game for free with the option to buy in-game items or currency that can change up or speed your gameplay. Still, while the model might turn some players off, the games we saw were the kinds of games Ngmoco is slowly becoming known for: polished casual experiences that bring an established genre squarely into their business model. The first game we saw was called We Rule -- it's currently "beta testing" in the Canadian App Store and will be available to users in other App Stores soon. It was described to us as "Farmville meets Age of Empires," but what we saw was much more like Farmville rather than the more combat-based RTS title. The game opens on a screen full of "realms," each one developed and grown by one of your Ngmoco Plus+ friends, and you can zoom into your own to start building it up.
Activision: Farmers Could Kill WoW?
No, not those kind of farmers, but rather the 82 million+ users currently growing the garden of their virtual dreams on Facebook's wildly popular Farmville sim. Activision-Blizzard's annual 10k report, filed on March 1 and analyzed by Robert Purchese over at Eurogamer.net, is chock full of worrisome anecdotes about the future of their massively multiplayer behemoth as well as some interesting tidbits regarding payment models. While the report stops short of painting a completely dire picture, Acti-Blizz clearly considers the growing social gaming scene a major threat to its stranglehold on the massive genre. "A substantial portion of our revenue and profitability will depend on the subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game category," proclaims the report. "If we do not maintain our leadership position in this category, our financial results could suffer." Sound like common sense? Maybe, but it should be interesting to watch the current market leader adapt to the rapidly expanding online gaming space.
FarmVille community surpasses 80 million players
According to information collected by AppData, the FarmVille player base passed the 80 million mark yesterday. We'll give you a second to soak that in. It might help you digest it if we present the number numerically: 80,920,421. Or, perhaps you need another point of reference: That's almost the population of Germany. If you tried to orally count the number of people currently playing FarmVille, it would take you close to four years. And God only knows how large the player base would be then. In related news, Zynga CEO Mark Pincus recently bought a yacht for his yacht. It's just a smaller yacht, that rests precariously on the bow of the larger yacht, in case the larger yacht breaks down. A lifeyacht, if you will. [Via Destructoid]
Dr. Phil lays the verbal smackdown on a FarmVille addict
Dr. Phil recently broke off a piece of uncomfortable truth for one of his show's guests in a sassy manner. This isn't exactly newsworthy – the mustachioed television personality is no stranger to telling things how they are – however, the subject of the intervention is definitely worth further examination: A mother who began to neglect her family in favor of her virtual plantation in FarmVille. We'll give you guys a second to let that sweet sorrow sink in. On a recent episode of Dr. Phil, a woman named Teresa was confronted by her daughter about her addiction to the casual crop-growing sim. Apparently, Teresa would regularly unplug the house's router to oust her fellow family members from the computer. This kind of thing doesn't fly in Phil's book, who remarked, "you unplugged it because you have a ridiculous addiction to a ridiculous computer game that's interfering with your ability to be a mother." Check out this off-screen preview of the episode containing the depressing exchange. *For the record, we joined FarmVille just so we could make the image above. We're definitely still not playing it, and we definitely don't need neighbors to come help out because, hey, those crops aren't going to fertilize themselves.
Zynga founder explains 'Facegroup' games to Charlie Rose
Now hang on just a minute before you head off to the next post in search of funny game-related desserts or screenshots from that hot new blockbuster game. Charlie Rose is no Kevin Pereira, but the man's a broadcasting legend, so let's give him his due. And Zynga just raised $180 million for their social gaming empire, so it can buy and sell any number of your Pokemons. When Zynga founder Mark Pincus appears on the Charlie Rose Show, you whippersnappers should take a little notice! After all, Zynga has not only been hiring up solid talent, but it also runs the bigger-than-you'd-believe Facebook games like Mafia Wars and FarmVille. Pincus tells the somewhat confused Rose that his company doesn't just want to roll in the venture cash; Zynga wants to create "an Internet treasure," and be recognized in the same way that brands like Google, Amazon, and Facebook are. You can watch the whole segment after the break. Bewarned: the video of two well-dressed men talking at a table doesn't feature any laser guns or girls in bikinis, but it does feature Rose holding up printouts of a virtual cafe created in his honor. Surreal.
