Iterating on Community

from flickr

The past few years have been a period of growth and change for the video game industry. The validation and success of social games have created a frenzy amongst big game publishers to venture out into the blue ocean and grasp for the potential “casual” market. The initial success of social games acted as a sign of coming change for the industry. The importance placed on community by social game companies is influencing the structure of today’s triple-A game communities. As big name games are starting to model themselves after social games, the effect of social games is now becoming apparent.

No one foresaw the overnight success that social games would become. Zynga, the global leader and highest valued social games company garnered an estimated 30 million DAU (daily active users) with  its top 5 games in the month of September. In the last month, Cityville, Zynga’s most successful game, has reached more users than Call of Duty, 2010’s best selling game has reached in the last year. The company’s ability to exploit the social network set-up in Facebook is how Zynga’s market valuation rose above that of game giant Electronic Arts, and is tailing the current market leader, Activision. The industry was sure to take notice of social game’s rampant success. That’s when it became clear that games would head toward social.

Holding a game controller may not be universal, but wanting to be a part of a community is. “Games should be accessible to everyone, anywhere, anytime,” is Zynga’s main philosophy; it epitomizes the most sought after aspect of social games, their incredible reach. At their start, Zynga did what triple-A studios didn’t: use the community to expand the game’s reach. Social games are the most successful on Facebook because of the already present communities. Zynga saw the marketing value of having one user tell a friend about a game, and designed systems to inhibit that occurrence. This cross-pollination of marketing is how the average Facebook games manages to break 10 million DAU every month.

Large-scale developers are reevaluating when their users can give and receive from their community. 2011’s biggest FPS games, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Battlefield 3 now have browser-based social services. Activision-Blizzard’s believes that social platforms like CoD:Elite “addresses the growing market shift towards social, casual and mobile gaming”.1 DICE commented on Battlefield 3’s social platform by saying, “social platforms for games will make a huge difference in how people perceive where the game starts and ends”.2 These sentiments are seemingly only continuing to be popular amongst industry professionals as more and more games begin to implement social platforms.

The social games template is not a bubble that is about to burst. In 2009, EA acquired Playfish (a social games company) for an estimated $400 million. Two years later, EA’s first Playfish game, Sim’s Social pierced Facebook’s top 5 games and ranked number two game in terms of DAU. Zynga is going public (filed for IPO valuation in July 20113) and will possible become the highest valued games publisher in the industry. Social games are a proven endeavor, and the industry will continue heading towards a more social future.

The games industry is a naturally evolving medium; it’s well-versed in iteration and change. It will constantly be searching for ways to make the medium more prevalent in today’s society. As far as the industry should be concerned, the adoption of the social games template is just another step taken to help grow the industry. In terms of popularity, games can take the place of movies, and in terms of creating communities, games can be like nothing we’ve ever seen before.

1) Bach, Patrick. Interview by Ben Strauss. “Battlefield 3 Producer Talks Attention to Detail“. Industrygamers.com. EuroGamer Network LTD. October 17, 2011. Web. October 19, 2011. http://www.industrygamers.com/news/battlefield-3-producer-talks-attention-to-detail/
2) Ward, Brian. Interview by John Kennedy. “Activision studio boss: console games have a social future”. Siliconrepublic.com. Silicon Republic Publishing LTD. October 14, 2011. Web. October 19, 2011. http://www.siliconrepublic.com/new-media/item/24064-activision-studio-boss-con
3) United States. Cong. Senate. Securities and Exchange Commission. Form S-1 Registration Statement with Zynga Inc. Washington: GPO, July 1, 2011. Web. http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1439404/000119312511180285/ds1.htm