As the Game Developers Conference (GDC) got under way in San Francisco, the largest social networking website in the world said that it wanted developers to create an iconic game such as Halo or Mario for its site. Speaking in a session on social gaming, Gareth Davis of Facebook said “When we look at every major game platform, we see that there is an iconic defining game on that platform whether it’s Sonic or Mario or Halo. And while there are some great games on Facebook today, no one has yet produced the iconic game for (it). The Facebook Mario is still out there.”
However, with the gauntlet laid down, many developers questioned just what exactly an iconic game was, and how it was made. Playrix Entertainment’s Dasha Kobzeva explained “I think a good strategy game might be a winner but at the moment what we are seeing is a lot of games that are pretty similar to each other like farm games and aquarium games. So far nothing really stands out.” However, disagreeing that Farmville was similar to others, Brenda Brathwaite, games developer, said “I think the killer game for me at the moment is Farmville. It is the biggest game that is out there and I would have to give respect to that.”
And developers, if they intend to take up the challenge, will have to be quick off the mark. Though relatively new, the social gaming sector is expanding at a rapid pace with the industry seeing returns of approximately $1bn in less than three years. Now undertaken by millions of individuals around the world, Mr Davis expressed “We are going to see multiple games with more than 100m people playing each one. That is as many people as watched the recent superbowl, the most watched TV programme in American history. The growth we are seeing is amazing and in a short space of time we have developed a brand new mass market audience for gaming.”
