Did Facebook Eat The Casual Game Market?

Did Facebook Eat the Casual Game Market?
Eric von Coelln
IGDA NYC PechaKucha Night
October 27, 2009
Blog: http://eric.voncoelln.com - Twitter: EVCinNYC

Who is this guy?
1997-2001
2001-2005
2005-2008
2008-2009

Casual Game Distribution: The Old Days
25%
Photo by Scott Harmsen, Kalamazoo Gazette

22 million daily active users
on Facebook
30% in the US
6.6 million daily active users
in the US on ONE application

Vs.
22 million daily active users
on Facebook
30% in the US
6.6 million daily active users
in the US on ONE application

Traditional Casual Gamer
Heavily Female
Skews Heavily older
Plays more in browser than Download

Facebook Quickly Getting Older, More Female

FarmVille
launches

Casual Download Game Spiral: Dropping Prices
Jan 2009
May 2009
Sep 2009

Casual Download Game Spiral: Fighting for Space
Market Saturation

Casual Game Distribution: Now
20% (more
Downward
Pressure)

Facebook Distribution Option
$25K/day
per million
Daily Users
-- Sean Ryan
Loki Partners

Don’t Get Me Wrong…
Different Type of Game
Take advantage of viral nature
Monetization has to be core part of design
Requires more of a Continual Service Model
Different infrastructure – scale, payments
Facebook changes rules sometimes
Frankly more like an MMO
Plus…

Zynga Dominates Everything…

They Used to Be Small Too
Social Game Sticky Factor
See more about the Sticky Factor at
http://www.insidesocialgames.com/2009/10/27/the-sticky-factor-creating-a-benchmark-for-social-gaming-success/

Key Learning From Zynga’s Quest

Cross Promotion Key to Success

Join Together to Cross Promote

Facebook a Direct Model to Explore
$25K/day
per million
Daily Users
-- Sean Ryan
Loki Partners

No New York Companies…Yet?
Twitter: @EVCinNYC
Blog:
http://eric.voncoelln.com