14 DAY TRIAL // Social gaming is one of the biggest trends in the industry at the moment but at least one leading analyst believes that they will soon have to evolve in order to keep players engaged in the long term and continue to get increased revenue.
Speaking to IndustryGamers Jesse Divnich, who is an analyst watching the video game industry for EEDAR, has stated, “What we’ve seen over the last 3 years should be classified as the ‘first generation’ of social games. I believe we are going to witness some of this evolution when Zynga launches its new 3D Mafia game in the coming months, which may propel social gaming into its second generation.”
The analyst believes that in many ways social games are performing more and more like AAA releases, with marketing playing an increasingly important role and much of the revenue created during the first weeks after launch.
Divnich believes that this means that those titles that are exclusively based around time management will soon need to evolve in order to give gamers a satisfying experience.
The EEDAR analyst added, “I believe that all the major publishers in the social space have realized this and as we move forward we will continue to see Facebook and social game publishers invest and experiment with new technologies that will ultimately give rise to new genres or evolve current ones.”
It's interesting to note that the move away from time management games and the pay in order to not wait concept might mean that Zynga, who at the moment dominates the market, might lose its supremacy in the coming years.
Big publisher like Electronic Arts have launched Facebook titles, like The Sims Social or Dragon Age: Legends, which offer actual gameplay challenges to the gamers and might gain their loyalty in the long term.