Maxwell Zierath

During EA’s latest conference call to investors it talked briefly about the kind of money it was making in the social game sphere. EA said the average money spent per paying user over the user’s entire lifetime (specifically in the Superstar lineup) was $56. That’s surprisingly a considerable amount of money, considering social games usually see player numbers in the tens of millions. Of course, EA’s definition of lifetime spending is currently unclear, so that value may be subject to change. Unfortunately, that figure doesn’t show how many users are actually paying, which would reveal the kind of money EA is really making on these games. Luckily, we can start to derive that amount using various information sources available.

A new study by Visa’s PlaySpan and VG Market Study came out showing that roughly one third of all players spend money on virtual games. That gives a rough number on how many players are willing to pay.

We can pull some revenue numbers out on these games. If we look specifically at the Superstar lineup of games (as that is what our $56 figure applies to), data collection website AppData shows roughly 3.8 million users for those games (Madden Superstars, Fifa Superstars, and World Series Superstars). If one third of those users are paying customers, it means 1.26 million users that are buying virtual goods.

Finally – by putting these numbers together we can see that EA is making roughly $70.56 million from the Superstars lineup. A good chunk of change to be sure, considering all three of those products probably cost less money and time to develop combined than a single AAA title.

How does that stack up against EA’s overall revenue though? Well, EA reported their yearly revenue at approximately $1 billion right now. That means the money coming from their social games only accounts for 7% of revenue. However, that figure represents lifetime revenues, not yearly, so 7% is still inflated.

Anyone still want to contradict Activision Publishing’s CEO and his statement regarding consoles maintaining their position as the driving factor behind the industry? I thought not.

A little over one year ago Google decided to invest nearly $100 million into Zynga, a company who, up until that point, had exclusively made games on Facebook, their competitor. Obviously Google knows Zynga is going places, and in the year since, it’s held true. Just a couple weeks ago Zynga filed their IPO, and it’s showing a much higher valuation that most had predicted. Estimates say the company could be looking at a $15-20 billion valuation. After spending 4 years conquering Facebook, it looks as though they’re being set up to dominate Google’s new social platform, Google+.

A few weeks ago Engadget uncovered code in Google+’s platform that made calls to an unannounced service called Google Games. Google isn’t going to release this platform without any games on it, and who better to get to lead off a social games platform than the largest social game developer? Google’s $100 million investment into the company almost seems like an introduction rather than an investment, and an opportunity for Zynga to have access to this platform for a year before any other developer knew of its existence.

But then why does this mean Zynga will beat their competitors on a brand new network? Because being first is what matters in the social game sphere. Zynga was the first company to fully utilize all of Facebook’s features to create virality within games by mastering Metcalfe’s Law. This, combined with sound game design, led to an explosion of users in the early days of the Facebook App platform. In the 3-4 years since then Zynga’s userbase has exploded to ~240 million users.

With Google standing behind them, Zynga is looking to do a repeat of their Facebook performance. They have the inside access to, and likely say, in what Google’s platform can do in regards to social interaction. By being with them every step of the way, they open themselves up to the opportunity to utilize the platforms full potential immediately at launch, whereas other developers will only get access to near launch, and will need to scramble to make up lost time. This leaves Zynga nearly unopposed in its launch on Google’s platform, allowing them to grab as many users as possible and has left little room for other games to make a stand.

Unfortunately for Google+’s userbase, it means that they won’t be avoiding the spam from Zynga for much longer. However the more unfortunate part is that users won’t have the opportunity to explore new games because Zynga’s will have the opportunity to take up the most valuable resource first, users. As usual though, there is always chances that another developer may take this opportunity to make a stand against Zynga, and I sincerely hope someone does. The question then becomes, how do you catch Google’s attention with such a giant looming over you?

Finally after months of the game being out, I got my hands on a copy of the new Pokemon White. I decided it’d be fun to post a couple blogs about my journey through the game, so that’s what I’m going to do. Hopefully I’ll be able to move through it at a decent pace.

The Black/White games, other than being racist, are the fifth generation of Pokemon games (not to be confused with the fifth game). This means its the fifth set of new Pokemon introduced, and presents the next leap forward for the series. The game brings along not only 100 some new Pokemon (up to a total of ~600), but a new engine, items, world, and gameplay tweaks. Because of this, the majority of the game only includes the new Pokemon, meaning me and everyone else are going into this completely fresh.

Before I start, I do want to mention that I bought this game used, which is an important detail coming up. I feel a bit bad, because the guys at GameFreak are gods for working on this, and only this, IP for 15 years straight.

With the boring stuff out of the way, let’s begin this.

Read More…

I’ve worked on a few ‘games’ here or there. Small projects and personal things that I never felt very attached to. Usually these took the form of pen and paper games or mods of existing things, but never anything too large. Never once during those had I ever thought of putting my name on it and having others view my work.

Just a second ago, I created the credits page on my first ever game. It was a very surreal moment. I’ve been looking to make games for years, and here finally, is my first ever game. In 10, 20, or even 30 years, this moment will be something I should remember. I could look back an reminisce on this project and be amazed. On top of that, here is a project I’ve been working on with my team for 11 weeks, and doing the credit page just signals that we’re close to finishing.

But there it is, my name alongside my teams’ names, on a screen in a game, that others can play.

Of course, that game is unlikely to see larger release other than being shown in our portfolios, but still, it’s a very meaningful moment to me.