The lights are on
Facebook is filled with nothing but farmers and mobsters. While games like Mafia Wars and Farmville are insanely popular on the social networking site, Gareth Davis, platform manager for Facebook, expects a killer app to arrive for the social gaming space soon.Offering a brief glimpse of his GDS 2010 keynote apeech, Davis told Forbes “What we're about to see is the next level of social game play. The language of social gaming is being invented and we have a few of the building blocks, but many more are about to be discovered.“There will be a killer app for social games in the same way that Mario was for Nintendo, Sonic was for Sega and Halo was for Xbox. We're going to have our Halo, our Mario, soon.”Don’t expect this “Halo” will come in the form of Farmville 2, however, as Davis is certain that the future game will be different. “I think FarmVille is a great game, but it is a light simulation that has mass appeal. I think that we will see a new kind of game that people have not really seen before. It may have a traditional IP on it, it doesn't have to be completely out of left field, but we're expecting those great experiences to show up.” Davis points out that Facebook has acquired 400 million monthly users, 100 million of which play games on a monthly basis. Is it possible that these millions of gamers could soon be playing games from big-name publishers? With Madden and Civilization already heading to Facebook, Davis also reminds that more is coming.“This year you'll be seeing some more major Triple-A brands - console and PC brands - come to Facebook.com,” Davis concluded.Do you think Facebook could feasibly become a contender in the hardcore gaming market? Or are its users forever destined to harvest crops and gift fedoras?
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i like that its focus is casual,but variety is the spice of life.
I see a lot of potential for Facebook and gaming, but not in it's current form. Flash sucks and everyone knows it. What Facebook needs is some official work with developers like Microsoft and Valve. Competitive highscores on your Wall, cooperative achievements on Steam or even some extra help on that boss you're stuck on. Think about it.
Facebook is popular, but it will NEVER replace home consoles or PCs
I have a Facebook, but refuse to play it's games. And I had no idea that there was a Civilization game coming to Facebook! When's it coming out?!?1?
But yeah, consoles & PC will stay hardcore kings. Facebook can't compete.
I don't think Facebook will ever be too much more than for casual gaming. Of course, that doesn't mean casual gaming isn't fun, just that I think Facebook itself will be limited with what will work and what won't. While I'm looking forward to Civilization on Facebook, I just worry that it'll end up as some other brand-name apps (I'm looking at you, Spore Islands!) and be crap to play.
I think Facebook isn't made for the hardcore gaming market. But I'm always up for an interesting surprise in the gaming industry.
gimme dat mousehunt, its all i need for facebook gaming
Well imo hardcore gamers will stick with the games meant for hardcore gamers, not Facebook games, and that Facebook gamers will stick with the casual games that are on Facebook (MAFIA WARS FTW). A great hardcore game on Facebook that draws crowds in on the game might be possible, but that would cost a lot more money, which might mean some kind of service fee or paying for something in-game, which will make a lot of people turn away from the game.
No thank you, I'm good.
I want Facebook to quit
I think Facebook should stick with the casual market.
every game i have played on facebook boars me to death.
lame
If they put some decent flash games or something, I wouldn't hate it.
it's definitely not going to be a contender with Microsoft for sure
Coming in 2010 Facebook will release Call of Doody "Year of The Prune" 43 year old women everywhere will be pwning each other for the title of Super Bad A** Granny of Death. Imo casual games are a giant bore, ok maybe not all casual games but all the ones on Facebook certainly qualify in the "I have no more good games to play so I am stuck with this crap" category. I would rather play a mow the lawn or take your fat "sit in the car and try not to gag from the smell" stinky mother-in-law to the airport simulator.
I hate how the games alienate the hell out of your profile, which is why I don't play FB games. If they make apps more like a game and not an application that does things on your account like spyware, then I'll definitely play some. But for now, FB games are silly and outright retarded, especially if I have a console to play on instead.
P.S. Wtf? Civilization? I might have to give that a try, then... Only FB game I'm considering.
facebook games arent fun, they are too casual/too much like flash games