Well we all play games on Facebook while updating our status. Many new games are launched by Facebook recently which are in their beta versions. Recently there was a Games Conference in Los Angeles, with prior conversations about the state of the business of the gaming industry, also had a “debate” that argued whether Facebook is a gaming platform or not.
The organizers of the Los Angeles Games Conference described it as a structured formal debate about Facebook gaming world where panelists were divided into two teams which present arguments either pros or cons of Facebook as a gaming platform. Each team was given 5 minutes for initial arguments and then it was time for rebuttals. The audience was supposed to determine the winner via show of hands.
The debaters included:
-Mari Baker, the President & CEO of Playfirst
-Rick Thompson, the CEO & Co-Founder of Wild Needle
-Alex St. John, the President & CEO of hi5
-Geoff Cook, the CEO of myYearbook
The moderator is Mike Vorhaus, president of Magid Advisers, who started by describing the “rules.” The audience was asked, at the outset, whether we thought Facebook was a gaming platform or not. The consensus in the conference was that it is.
Cook says games are not the reason people log into Facebook. The number one reason is to connect with friends. It’s a social environment aimed at people you know, which is different than what most games are trying to do.
Baker vigorously suggested that if you don’t see Facebook as a massive revenue source, you’re nuts. If nothing more than for the 1.7 billion hits a month and nearly 90% market-share among social media sites vs. the falling numbers for most other social media sites.
St. John commented that on-line gaming haven’t started with Facebook and many brands & big shots have been immensely successful without all the funding Facebook has and without all the plans to be a game platform like a Yahoo Games experienced as it was just an add-on. He, also pointed out that it’s not the strongest revenue model as he cited his own company being a stronger revenue generator, with a fraction of the visitors.
Well I don’t know much about statistics but Facebook is a strong social media and if we get the games of all interests there only that’s too to play instantly…then Facebook coming up as a competitive gaming platform is quite possible.
