The end of Facebook games?

By Andrew Wee, a Singapore-based Internet marketer and business consultant.

Is 2013 the year that the industry shifts from the social web to the mobile web as a gaming platform?

It might seem so, going by the number of sessions focused on mobile game development at Casual Connect Asia 2013, which took place from May 21-23 in Singapore.

While many major gaming networks and startups at the conference zoomed in on Apple’s iOS or Google’s Android, a number of stalwarts continued championing the likes of Facebook and Chrome’s webstore.

Arthur Chow, chief operating officer of game publisher 6waves, outlined developments which might at first glance point to a decline of social games platforms:

At the peak of the craze, Electronic Arts (EA) bought game development studio Playfish for US$300 million.

Today, EA has or is in the process of closing the web-based versions of Sim City and Sim Social.

On an industry level, the exodus of Zynga and other publishers from Facebook, following its IPO, has been seen as a leading indicator that saw several independent and small game studios shift their focus to iOS and Android.

But it’s not all doom and gloom, according to Chow.

Facebook’s Q1 results reported a 12% growth in game revenue with payment volume increasing 60%.

Developers on Facebook’s app platform can now leverage on better promotion opportunities with tweaks in Facebook’s app recommendations, homepage banner and improved newsfeed (which increases the visibility of games that your friends are playing).

Chow mentioned two Facebook games which are doing particularly well now.

They are: Criminal Case, a high-quality hidden object game, and Dragon City, which was launched 6 months ago and is still  popular.

He acknowledged that while mobile development presents great opportunities due to the relatively high demand for apps and low development costs, the field is becoming very crowded.

The key issues for mobile developers are:

1) Mobile discovery: Developers need to make sure their apps are noticed otherwise they’ll sink without a trace.

In the US, the top 25 mobile developers account for 50% of app store revenue. The front runners are the usual suspects: Rage of Bahamut, Candy Crush Saga, and more.

2) Cross-platform functionality will be key, both in growing an application’s user base as well as monetization.

Candy Crush is a great example, initially launching on Facebook and later introducing a mobile version.

Once the mobile version was launched, the Facebook version also saw a jump in daily active users (DAU) and the developer has continued to bank on that.

The game has built-in incentives for players to jump between platforms and a number of viral features where players can received boosts from their Facebook friends.

Crossing the border

Chow points to data showing that the majority of users for some apps could be non-English speaking, so focusing beyond North America is likely to pay huge dividends.

Each country has a dominant social network and it might not be Facebook.

With a strong gaming culture, Japan is great because they don’t have a “jailbreak culture” and instead they “pay for stuff”, particularly quality products and services.

Because they are willing to pay for game upgrades and premium content, it also means they consume game content very quickly. In a week, a Japanese player could consume content that might last for a month for gamers in other markets.

Developers hoping to succeed in Japan would need a lot of content and have sophisticated and polished products, Chow said.

The icing on the cake is that the average revenue per user (ARPU) is about 3 to 5 times higher in Japan compared to the US.

Going by the amount of time the Japanese spend on subways and the social taboo regarding speaking loudly on your phone in public, Chow suggested that this might fuel the demand for mobile games.

The big BUT

But to succeed in foreign markets requires more than just language translation: better developers will adapt to the cultural aspects of the game for each market.

For example, artwork for female characters in a roleplaying game could be redrawn to match the Japanese preference for doe-eyed avatars and kawaii or manga-inspired designs, versus the Western audience’s preference for anatomically correct features.

Closing the session, Chow said that while social games had been very competitive before, it is becoming a blue ocean again. Meanwhile, mobile games will continue to be very hot and ultra competitive for some time, so developers need to mitigate their expectations of potential revenue and brace themselves for a fight.

For more coverage of Casual Connect Asia, you can check out: WhoIsAndrewWee.com