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It's been nine months since Google added games to its Google+ platform , and developers who are considering whether to get on the Googlegames bandwagon are surely inquiring from other devs what theirexperiences have been. They may find, however, that details areparticularly hard to come by. In an informal survey [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] of a handful of Google+ developers, Gamasutrafound them to be surprisingly closed-mouthed, reticent to discussspecifics - or to discuss anything at all. At Wooga, whose Diamond Dash is popular on Facebook and was one of 16 launch titles forGoogle+, a spokesperson responded that the Berlin, Germany-baseddeveloper "doesn't comment on Google+ games at the moment." Wooga's Bubble Island and Monster World were also launch titles . At PopCap Games, a spokesperson said "we're not really up for aconversation on that topic, I'm afraid." PopCap's Bejeweled Blitz was a Google+ launch title.
And at BioWare, where Dragon Age Legends was a Google+ launch title, a spokesperson reported that "the teamisn't doing interviews right now." In comparison, it was just last March at GDC 2012 that Punit Soni,lead product manager for Google+ games and mobile, was talking upthe young social network, stressing that it is games that have the most potential for driving itsinnovation and growth. "Games are key to the success of Google+," he said. So why then the reluctance of developers to discuss their Google+experiences? "I really don't know," said Chris Hinton, VP of Central GameServices at Playdom subsidiary of Disney Interactive Media Group. The online social network game developer currently has a hiddenobject game, Gardens of Time , that Facebook named its most popular social game of 2011, in addition to it beingnamed best social network game at GDC Online [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] 2011. It wassubsequently added to Google+ in January.
"I don't want to speak for the other developers," Hinton added,"but, for us, Google+ is still new and we're still in a learningphase. Looking back, when we were in a learning phase withFacebook, mistakes were made. And I think people are concernedabout making clear, declarative statements about a platform beforethe true story has been written." He chose not to elaborate, other than to offer this analogy: "Twoyears ago, people might have suggested that developers ignore theAndroid platform and stick with iOS. Well, we've learned thatthere's a lot of money you would have left on the table if you'dignored Android." Meanwhile, Hinton recalled that the decision to expand the game'saudience -- from Facebook only to including Google+ -- was an easyone.
He described the fledgling platform as "small, but ripe forthe picking, and we wanted to make sure we were part of it. We haveabsolutely no regrets joining them." But he was reluctant to compare audiences or to describe thedemographics of the Google+ platform. "We're just now getting a lot of the data back," he said, "and soit would be a little premature to go into that. I'm afraid we can'treally share specific numbers - on Google+ or on Facebook - otherthan to say that players spend an average 45 minutes per session onFacebook.
The Google+ players are just as active if not moreengaged. I just can't give you any metrics." The nature of the audiences are different, he said, with Google+attracting a slightly larger male component. He was unable to givedetails on age comparisons. Nor could he share information onretention or virality or monetization rates.
"That's information we're not addressing at this time," he said. What impressed Hinton [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] was that the team at Google+ recognizes thattheir Facebook competition has set the bar high and they are eagerto improve their product. And they are willing to accommodatedevelopers "in ways that Facebook doesn't necessarily have to doanymore. Especially in the area of testing new features andfunctionalities.
They believe in helping developers of all sizesbenefit from their testing, trying new things that, hopefully, willdrive installs and help the saturation and proliferation of theplatform." He described working with the Google+ team as enjoyable,"especially watching a new team kind of scratch and claw and fightits way for relevance in a space that's quite frankly dominated byFacebook." Similarly, Kabam also found Google+ to be a platform that workshard to please - in this case, to secure exclusively thedeveloper's new massively multiplayer social game The Godfather: Five Families . "Because we [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] had a major movie brand on our hands, we wanted to makethe launch [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] a big cultural event," recalled Andrew Sheppard, KabamGame Studio's president. "So we reached out to all the platformsand asked them what they could do for us. What I love about Googlepeople is they understand the value of content and they saw theopportunity they had with us." As a result, Kabam decided to go with Google+ exclusively (inaddition to its own Kabam.com site), launching its new MMSG inSeptember. While Sheppard said he's unable to be specific about the terms ofthe deal, he said Kabam was able to benefit from Google's "directpromotional support, which included game page placement and a lotof good public relations.
We were very happy with the results.We're a little bit shy to talk about how we're doing specifically,but let's just say that the game is one of our fastest-growing ofall times - that it is far exceeding our expectations -- and it wasin large part due to Google's support." He cited data that Google presented publicly recently indicatingthat Google+ has 50 million daily active users and 100 millionmonthly active users. But wouldn't Facebook's larger audience haveproduced even higher numbers for Kabam? Sheppard said that eventhough Facebook is an important partner on other Kabam titles,Google's team was the one that presented the best opportunity forwhat he calls "a really massive launch." "We tore apart both of their packages - Facebook's and Google's -and determined that it was Google's that made the most sense to us,that was most attractive, and that would generate the highestnumber of users and the greatest revenue," he said. There is, however, the [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] possibility that Godfather could end [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] up on Facebook as well in the future, Sheppard said;that decision [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] has not yet been made. But what of future launches? Sheppard revealed that Kabam is considering launching all itstitles on [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] Google+ and Google Chrome from here on out - but notnecessarily exclusively.
"We like the way Google carves out a specific channel [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] for games;people who want to find games on Google+ can find them very easily;I find that very compelling," he said. "Meanwhile, we are committedto Facebook; we love those guys. They're doing some great stuff.Bottom line: Each title will be assessed on a case-by-case basis.Our long-term plan is to have our games in as many [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] user's hands aspossible." Just as Playdom expanded its popular Gardens of Time from Facebook to Google+, San Francisco-based social gamedeveloper Funzio -- now owned by Japanese social and mobile giantGree -- did the same for its Crime City . It released the title on Facebook in September 2010 and it becameone of the top five Facebook games of the year with 7.5 millionmonthly active players at its peak and over 600,000 daily activeusers.
After almost a year, Funzio ported the social action gangster gameto Google+ -- and to iOS -- in August in keeping with the company'sstated goal of "delivering games to players on whatever platform ismost convenient for them," said Jamil Moledina, VP of businessdevelopment. What he's discovered is that the demographic is very similar onboth platforms, skewing largely male and in their 20s and 30s. Funzio is so pleased with its Google+ strategy, added Moledina,that last month it launched its Kingdom Age exclusively on that platform. He is not surprised, however, that developers are reticent aboutdiscussing their Google+ numbers.
"It probably has to do with the fact that Google+ is a much smallercommunity right now than, say, Facebook, and [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] to cite a number nowmay not be accurate moving forward because of the growth curve thatexists on Google," he explained. "So I think people feel it's justa little premature to cite numbers that could change prettyquickly." Moledina wouldn't discuss specifics about how well Crime City is doing on Google+ other than to say "its RPU is very comparableto Facebook. There are obviously fewer people on the platform, butit is monetizing at a pretty comparable rate." And what is that comparable rate? "It's not something I'm comfortable sharing right at the moment,"he said.
Nine months later, google+ game devs are reluctant to share successstories - Dental Lab Tools
Posted:December 19, 2012Comments:Views:5
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