With revenue on the decline, many market analysts have begun to declare the death of Facebook social gaming in lieu of the expanding mobile market. For at least one developer, this proposed future has become a reality. In an interview with AllThingsD, longtime social gaming success CrowdStar announced a complete end for Facebook game development.
With revenue on the decline, many market analysts have begun to declare the death of Facebook social gaming in lieu of the expanding mobile market. For at least one developer, this proposed future has become a reality. In an interview with AllThingsD, longtime social gaming success CrowdStar announced a complete end for Facebook game development.
“We are maintaining the old games, like Happy Aquarium, but we don’t build new Facebook PC games any more — we are 100 percent focused on mobile,” CrowdStar CEO Peter Relan said. While the change is certainly drastic, it hasn’t exactly been unexpected.
Back in 2010, CrowdStar was one of the top three largest Facebook game developers, but those numbers have been on steady decline for months. Considering that they ended last year with 50 percent of their total revenue in mobile, it’s not so surprising that they’ve decided to make the switch.
CrowdStar’s popular Girl franchise has seen nothing but success in its adaptation for iOS and Android. Top Girl, Social Girl, and Modern Girl have seen a combined 20 million downloads since their introduction to the mobile market. CrowdStar hopes to capitalize on the rapidly expanding female 13-30 gamer demographic.
As the mobile market continues to expand, it’s not surprising to see more and more companies make the switch over to the next big platform while they can. Smartphones continue to sell at an unbelievable rate: Apple sold 35 million iPhones in just this last quarter alone.
Like any smart business, CrowdStar is hoping to maximize its strengths while looking forward to the future. While cutting ties with Facebook limits the diversity of CrowdStar’s demographic, they’re hoping a more focused approach toward a younger generation of gamers will prove to be more successful.
With the rise of the mobile market, we wouldn’t be surprised to hear more Facebook game developers following CrowdStar’s path in the near future.
