We hear it's somebody's birthday. Backyard Monsters, a real-time strategy (RTS) game on Facebook, officially turned 2 on March 14! To celebrate, KIXEYE has posted a timeline that chronicles the game's development and evolution. You can view exclusive artwork, archived footage, and take a look back at Backyard Monsters' milestones.
Recently at GDC, EA Playfish's Creative Director, Ray Mazza, talked a little about what drives Facebook users to try out the games that their friends are playing. To be more specific, Mazza pointed out that the now-defunct games ticker on Facebook was responsible for 93% of the early referral traffic that reached their popular Facebook game, Sims Social.
Because it wouldn't be a regular week in Silicon Valley without someone suing someone else we've just learned that a company called GameTek LLC has filed suit against a number of major social gaming publishers and platforms over US Patent # 7076445: "System and methods for obtaining advantages and transacting the same in a computer gaming environment." The lawsuit names 21 companies as defendants, including EA, Zynga, Facebook and Funzio.
IndustryGamers writer Mark Friedler recently took stock of what the developers of traditional games--previously the undisputed kings of the gaming landscape--have learned from social and mobile titles. It's an interesting read that outlines how much has changed in the industry over the past few years, and it gives you pause.
A new month is upon us and that means it's time for AppData to let us know what the most popular games are on Facebook. There are two separate breakdowns, Daily Active Users (DAU) and Monthly Active Users (MAU). We're not going to provide the full lists, but how about the Top 10 games by DAU to whet your appetite?
The announcement of Zynga's new platform has caused the company's stock prices to jump like an American bulldog leaping for a piece of steak. By the time the markets closed yesterday, Zynga's shares had climbed nearly ten percent, trading at $14.48 a share. That's up 50% from what the shares initially sold at when the company first went public.
Gaming is becoming more and more fragmented thanks to the availability of multiple consoles, phones, and handhelds, to say nothing of all the free stuff that's available on Facebook. It's enough to make a game lover ask, "Why can't we live in peace? Why can't console engineers just put some of their exclusive IPs on mobile platforms?" Surprisingly, Sony has said, "You know what? That's not such a bad idea."
If you happen to work for a company who believes their upcoming Facebook game is going to be a huge success, then you may want to pump the brakes. A new report from IHS Screen Digest Media Research seems to indicate that the party may be over for Facebook games. According to the report, Facebook gaming has taken a nosedive from its heyday in 2009 and 2010. Last year the percentage of Facebook users who were there for the games dropped precipitously from 50 percent to 25 percent, and things don't look to be turning around anytime soon.