Social Games: The Next Juggernaut?

Social games are all the rage these days. Zynga has flipped Facebook on its head with Farmville. Mafia Wars has half of my friends asking me to join their side so they can get a sub-machine gun. And, I get notifications of people crushing hugely high scores in COLLAPSE! at least once a day. The point is social games are everywhere. Isn’t that so…social of them?

So, what’s the big deal? The fact is, right now there are 82 million monthly active users of Farmville on Facebook. 82 million! And that’s just one game! There are a few gaming companies that are currently dominating the market. Zynga has a strong-hold on the market with Farmville, Petville and Mafia Wars. Mindjolt is a big winner with their suite of games on Facebook and just under 20 million monthly active users. And  Slide, Inc has several games in the top 20 on Facebook.

What is it that makes these games so appealing? For starters, they’re (duh) social. They require you to interact with other friends on social networks to achieve certain goals. You need neighbors to help tend to your plots of land and milk your cows in Farmville. In Cafe World you hire your friends to help you run your business and vice versa. In Uno, you can play against your friends or strangers from halfway around the world. There’s a hint of friendly competition involved. The game “How Fast Are you? PROVE IT!” is nothing more than typing the ABC’s as fast as possible and comparing how you do relative to your friends. Seriously, that’s it.  And it’s crazy how hard it is to get an awesome time. (I got 4.85 seconds. Take that!) The point is, there is interaction with other people involved in these games,an inherent desire people have when they play. They’re flocking to social games because they want the company provided by the games.

While social games have been dominated by companies you may have never heard of, some big name game companies are jumping into the arena now, too. Sony just released PoxNora for Facebook, which tends to play a bit more like a hardcore game in that it’s not overly social, doesn’t spam your friends with “join my mob,”  ”I just planted some soy beans!” It allows users to play in single-player or multi-player mode and it already has 2.5 million users. Electronic Arts also recently tossed their hat into the arena by purchasing Playfish, a successful social games startup for $400 million. Not chump change.

What does this mean for the social games industry? One thing is for sure. It’s not just a fad. Facebook isn’t going away anytime soon and neither are the games. They are serious money-makers. The ability to purchase “virtual goods,” (items that you buy with real currency that you can use in the game to buy supplies, weapons, etc) has made social games into a billion dollar industry. Hundreds of millions of monthly active users aren’t going away. They’re growing every month, along with the real dollars they spend. Social games are the focus of major gaming conferences worldwide, and entire business units are being created to focus just on this genre.

Which social games do you play? Are you addicted to Farmville? COLLAPSE!? Text Twist? Personally, I’m a big fan of Bejeweled Blitz, mostly because of the hypnotic voice within the game. We’d love to hear what you think of social games. Do you think they’re going to stick around or is it another passing game trend?