Comments on: Playfish: Using Facebook As Its Gaming Console

By: willcode4food

willcode4food — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 12:26:35 +0000

“So what are the big players waiting for to invest some serious money in these novel forms of gaming and change the future?”

I think the problem is that many developers have now found that they will make more money in monetization developing games at home and using a rev-share ad program in flash pre-loaders, than selling the rights off or working 9-5 for someone taking all the credit. I mean hell.., if I could sit around programming games all day and submit them to the millions of game portals and get on facebook, myspace and bebo, with big social applications like Mindjolt ( which is free ), and make a living off it why wouldn’t I? I know there are tons of developers out there making a killing off simple, well made games with excellent engagement without any funding. Why would I work for someone like EA developing games? That is probably why they have not dumped money into casual gaming because the talent realized they could make the $$ on his/her own. I’ve seen more well made casual games developed by independent programming groups and designers, than from the big corporations. We all know how hard it is to hire a good, reliable flash developer… you can’t.

By: vozome

vozome — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 10:10:13 +0000

Major publishers and console manufacturers could dominate online gaming, including casual/social games. but they don’t believe in this and cling to their 30-years-old business models. They are inexistant on social networks and mostly continue to target core gamers. they despise simple flash games because they can do more sophisticated, full-3d games. they also look down on free gaming on social networks because they can sell theirs for $50.

yet a large part of the recent growth of the game industry (which is now 5x the size of what it was in 2000) came from the non-gamers. this trend is clearly not stopping.

So what are the big players waiting for to invest some serious money in these novel forms of gaming and change the future?

By: flash games rock

flash games rock — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 09:18:27 +0000

forgot to tell, same is the difference btw facebook and friendfeed that is difference between flashgames and other games. That is girls will hang out more. And except few nerds, boys are where girls are

By: flash games rock

flash games rock — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 08:13:15 +0000

If it is social, if it is mmo, and if it is for common man – it has to be flash game. Currently i’m loving bowling buddies by Playfish. Nice to see TC looks into smaller companies, which had recently skipped YoVille until it has sold out to bigger company. Now that facebook widened layout, we can see richer and bigger graphics.

Also, all those sophisticated xbox or any other games are dominated by male users. Flash games are handy, and girls would love it My take is flash games with mouse input than keyboard input are the future!

By: BetterThanTC

BetterThanTC — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 06:32:06 +0000

Not so. Microsoft is now letting XNA publishers sell games in XB Live. All you need is Visual Studio and a dream, and the games have depth and breadth. They are games that you can sell sequels on.

Our new writer reported on it here
http://tinyurl.com/xnareport

Good job to the indy flash devs though. Way to capitalize on a trend.