Casual stroll into Social Gaming

Recently, I have had the pleasure of working with one of the top Casual Gaming companies, co-developing several exciting titles.  As many others, this company is looking at Social Gaming as a new 'fad' which may create some side revenue by driving users from Facebook and MySpace over to their own portals.  Unfortunately, this approach really misses the bull's eye of Social Gaming potential.

Social Games Revenues in 2009 exceeded $700 million and will almost double in 2010 to a staggering $1.3 billion (yes, billion with a B).  This revenue is primarily achieved though selling in-game virtual goods and, to a much smaller extent, advertising.

The big POW is that Facebook users monetize very well, but they do so within the comfort of the environment they choose and with a game they like.  Getting them to play is the hard part.  Once that's done, monetizing is relatively easy.  Whatever you do, do not take them out of their comfy sandbox by driving them to another site.  Taking a player out of the game and out of the social network to convert them to a game on your portal is a big waste.  The user, which was so close to monetizing, is now in a new environment with an altered product proposition.  You have to redo all the work of getting them comfortable, getting them to play, getting them to come back.

Leave players where they chose to play.   Find ways to monetize them right there and then.