And I think that, like EA buying Playfish, the major publishers will acquire new markets.
The game has been a collaboration between EA and Playfish out of London.
FORBES: EA's The Sims Social Debuts to Almost 5M Active Users
Most of these friends were added to increase her status in the social-network game "Pet Society, " from developer PlayFish.
Playfish gave Pet Society players further incentive to buy the flowers by offering them free virtual currency with each purchase.
FORBES: EA's Playfish: Big Real-World Sales In Virtual Goods Game
Playfish and others will have to proceed cautiously here, however, as too many ads could easily turn players off from the game.
FORBES: EA's Playfish: Big Real-World Sales In Virtual Goods Game
Kristian Segerstrale, co-founder of Playfish, sees a further advantage in Europe's diversity.
In the past few months, most of the major social games developers have partnered with Facebook to use Credits, like Zynga, Crowdstar and Playfish.
FORBES: Book: Facebook Expects Credits To Provide Up To 30% Of Revenue
To reposition itself for the future, in quick succession, Electronic Arts acquired Playfish, a social-games developer, Chillingo, a mobile-games publisher, and Firemint, a mobile-games studio.
FORBES: This Spring's Epochal Upheaval in the Global Gaming Industry
Game developers like Konami, Playfish and Zynga participated in the beta, but now other developers and publishers will also be able to apply to the program.
That might be a strategy for Playfish, who dropped hints that 2010 and beyond would see the entry of some top titles ported onto to Facebook.
FORBES: EA's Playfish: Big Real-World Sales In Virtual Goods Game
More fundamentally, collecting small sums from millions of users is expensive, says Simon Levene of Accel Partners, a venture-capital firm that has investments in both Gameforge and Playfish.
Online games, in particular the social kind, are hard for firms steeped in this model to make, argues Kristian Segerstrale, the boss of Playfish, the number two in social gaming.
AdSense for Games is "an extension of the Google content network that allows advertisers to very easily gain access to in-game inventory, " says Sebastien de Halleux, chief operating officer at social games developer Playfish.
De Halleux, whose company has been involved with AdSense for Games since its early stages, says Google's platform appealed to Playfish because social games scale quickly and Google has a large ad sales team.
This combination has resulted in the rapid rise of social gaming properties like Zynga (now in registration for an IPO), Playfish (acquired by Electronic Arts), Playdom (acquired by Disney) and Crowdstar.
"SimCity Social will entice a new generation of urban planners with its easy-to-use tools that allow anyone to expand and grow their own unique sprawling metropolises and watch as it comes to life in fun and unexpected ways, " said Jami Laes, Vice President of Global Studios for Playfish.
ENGADGET: EA opens SimCity Social on Facebook, really, really hopes you'll 'like' it
应用推荐