the social gaming tipping point

1
(No Transcript)
2
the social gaming tipping point
Brian Reynolds Austin GDC9.18.09
3
Quick History of Me

• 18 years in traditional games
• Civilization II, Alpha Centauri, Rise of
  Nations, Catan
• Founder of Firaxis and Big Huge Games

4
I Came from Traditional Videogames

• Console Games - Presently a Shrinking Pond
• Six months of shrinking sales in 2009
• 25 decline in hardware sales from 2009
• Few publisher investments in new IP
• Game development costs rising geometrically

source GamesBeat, 9/10/09
5
Social Games Are Growing. Fast.
source InsideSocialGames, 9/1/09
6
30M today!
DAUs (How about that for growth?)
millions
15
10
5
0
Q1 08 Q2 08 Q3 08 Q4 08 Q1 09 Q2 09
7
Totally new space!
TOP FACEBOOK GAMES BY MONTHLY ACTIVE
GAME MONTHLY ACTIVE DEVELOPER LAUNCHED
1 FARMVILLE 33,439,207 ZYNGA June 2009
2 MAFIA WARS 18,720,406 ZYNGA June 2008
3 FARM TOWN 18,298,995 SLASHKEY February 2009
4 MINDJOLT GAMES 16,490,304 MINDJOLT.COM 2008
5 PET SOCIETY 16,022,779 PLAYFISH August 2008
6 TEXAS HOLDEM 15,552,004 ZYNGA March 2008
7 YOVILLE 14,104,241 ZYNGA May 2008
9 RESTAURANT CITY 11,527,478 PLAYFISH March 2008
10 BEJEWELED BLITZ 6,817,188 POPCAM GAMES March 2008
source InsideSocialGames, 9/1/09
8
Social Gaming Also Outpacing Casual
9
The Opportunity

• Young space - rules still being written!
• Largest genre (Farm) mostly didnt exist until
  Spring
• Current number one game launched June 2009
• Costs are cheap barriers of entry are low

10
Welcome to the Web

• Reach, Retention, Revenue
• Real metrics, often available in real time
• Can push new versions easily and quickly
• Most game development happens after launch!

FARMVILLE DAU 6/09 to present
MAFIA WARS DAU 6/08 to present
source DeveloperAnalytics, 9/13/09
11
Completely Different Model

Traditional Games Cost 10M-40M Timeframe
2-4 years Support maybe a patch
Social Network Games Cost 100k -
300k Timeframe 4-12 weeks Support weekly
features
12
three pillars
Play light interactions with social graph via
game
Invest put time into game to progress
customize
Express its fun and efficiently generates
social capital
13
Social Gaming Means Your Real Friends

• Facebook 250 Million active users
• Friend networks represent real relationships
• Gaming can be social but safe
• Players build social capital with real friends
• Rapid viral growth from friend to friend

14
Whats Social Capital?

• People you actually care about see your feed
• People looking for ways to stand out, get
  attention
• Games give you a way to express yourself
• Stay connected with friends in a fun, light way

15
Metric-Driven Game Design

• Unlike regular games we have a quick feedback
  loop
• Correlate player clicks to metrics we want to
  drive
• Quietly try out new features on a subset of
  players
• Compare new features metrics to old one in real
  time!
• New features released when proven not when
  cool

MAFIA WARS Feature Analysis for CUBA
16
What Makes a Good Social Feature?

• Really simple (my aunt will like it!)
• Aligned with at least one key metric
• Virality user-to-user and one-to-man
• Engagement come back regularly
• Revenue something worth paying for

WIN! Easy drives DAU
FAIL! Lots of work, doesnt drive any metric.
17
Examples of Features That Work Well

• Not zero sum I win and you win
• Gifting Free social capital for coming back
• Collections Collecting and trading together
• Harvest Return compulsion

18
So How Do You Make Money?

• Most players play for free
• Some will pay small amounts for extra turns
• Others will pay for exclusive items collecting
• Social Capital drives the desire to spend

FARMVILLE Tractor Fuel
MAFIA WARS Crates and Cellphones
19
How Do I Get Me Some of That?

• Retention is easiest metric to drive with better
  design
• Humility very important to transition to this
  space
• Must forget all you know of intuitive game
  design
• You cant port a traditional game to the
  social space
• Start with proven social features then add
  gameplay

• FAIL!
• Started with Diablo-style game
• Tried to find social features from there
• Never managed to get it to catch fire

20
Whats Next?

• Social games potential billion dollar market
• Virtual goods already huge in Asia, growing here
• Possible mass market inflection point on FB
• Big players will attempt to enter the space
• Social games will need good game design
• Zynga the first with the most and best of
  breed

21
Mission
connect the world through games
22
Were Hiring!