Playfish - SocialTimes

Why Is EA's My Empire Facebook Game Losing Traffic?

CJ Arlotta — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 10:51:43 +0000

My Empire, a Facebook game developed by Playfish, seems to not being too well. According to AllFacebook.com, My Empire went from 1.4 monthly active users on January 15th to 1.1 million on February 14th. The decline, a shocker to most, has the social gaming community baffled. Electronic Arts, the development company that aquired Playfish back in November of 2009, is doing well compared to other developers: it is ranked sixth with 36.3 million monthly active users. If EA is doing so well, why is it that My Empire is not? continued…

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Playfish In Numbers Infographic: Online Gaming Is Bigger Than You Think!

Megan O'Neill — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 12:00:00 +0000

A new infographic released today by Playfish is proving that online gaming is bigger than you might think. Would you believe that if all the Playfish gamers lived in one country it would have a population bigger than England? It’s true, along with a ton of other surprising facts illustrated on the ‘Playfish In Numbers’ infographic.
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New Service Blends Social Games with Music (But Does it Work?)

Reid McCarter — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 13:06:03 +0000

MXP4 is the Dr. Frankenstein of social media, gleefully combining music and gaming into a brand new form of internet entertainment. With the recent hiring of Xavier Louis, former Product Marketing Director for EA’s Playfish, the company looks to expand its ventures with the help of a proven talent in social marketing. Now the only question that remains is whether or not Louis, now MXP4′s VP of Product Marketing, is backing a worthwhile endeavour. continued…

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How To Make Money From Virtual Goods in Social Games: The Social Times Pro Report

wjamesau — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 09:58:23 +0000

News that Zynga is attempting to patent virtual currency, whatever you think of the idea, highlights a larger point: Virtual goods continue growing as a major revenue source for social game developers, and competition among them is getting fierce. I recently had a chance to chat with several leading executives from top social gaming companies for my first Social Times Pro report, “Virtual Goods in Social Games: What Sells Best, Who Buys Most, and How Your Company Can Profit“. While the opportunities are huge, the executives I interviewed also warn of some fairly unique challenges that come with the category: continued…

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EA Sports Launches World Cup Predictions Game in FIFA Superstars

Neil Vidyarthi — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 13:00:00 +0000

As the World Cup continues to wow viewers from around the world and betting pools are set up wherever they can be, EA Sports and Playfish have decided to introduce the World Cup Predictions game into their FIFA Superstars Facebook game. The game asks you to predict who will win upcoming games and by what score to win prizes that help you play the FIFA Superstars game. The presentation is excellent and it’s a lot of fun to make predictions.

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This Week In Social Games – June 4th, 2010

Neil Vidyarthi — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 14:20:04 +0000

This week we posted a video interview with Mike Sego from Gaia Online, saw Zynga acquire Challenge Games while also losing 10% of its userbase, saw Playdom make strides with its Bola soccer title but face new competition with Fox Sports and Watercooler’s new soccer game and saw TLC join up with foursquare for a unique offering. Our writers also did a series of industry analyses regarding location based gaming, social gaming and more. Read on for more.

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Report: Zynga Shrinks by 10%, Playfish Shrinks by 11%, Playdom Grows By 1%?

Neil Vidyarthi — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 17:10:54 +0000

A recent report by Lou Kerner analyzing Facebook traffic across all the major social game publishers’ games shows that almost every social games company experienced losses in traffic for the month of May… all except Playdom. The catalyst for the loss of users was undoubtedly Facebook’s decisions to turn off two key viral Facebook features: notifications and requests. Are we about to see a shake up in the leadership of social gaming, and will Playdom begin to encroach on Zynga’s turf?
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This Week In Social Games – May 28th, 2010

Neil Vidyarthi — Fri, 28 May 2010 14:15:52 +0000

This week we saw Yahoo! and Zynga partner up to distribute social games across the Yahoo! network, American Idol announce their own Facebook game, EA Sports and Playfish launch FIFA Superstars just in time for the World Cup, Nexon (makers of Maplestory) revenues rise to over $500 million and more. We also wrote an examination of in-game advertising and looked at some of the best social features in today’s social games. Read more after the jump!

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EA Sports and Playfish Launch FIFA Superstars for Facebook

Neil Vidyarthi — Thu, 27 May 2010 12:01:32 +0000

The buzz has been growing and growing, and just in time for the World Cup of Soccer, Playfish and FIFA have launched their new FIFA Superstars game on Facebook, and it’s good. The game is a soccer management game, and doesn’t have any live gameplay yet, but the simulation mode looks fantastic and the game uses the FIFA license to include every real soccer player and team you can imagine. If you enjoy soccer, you’ve got to give this one a shot.
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Social Gaming Summit Video: Playfish Co-Founder Sebastien de Halleux on Emotions, Hollywood and Virtual Goods

Neil Vidyarthi — Thu, 13 May 2010 16:37:28 +0000

At this year’s Social Gaming Summit, Playfish Co-Founder Sebastien de Halleux discussed how virtual goods sales are affected by holidays, the importance of imbuing games with emotion and more. We caught these clips of his impassioned speeches at the show and decided to post them here. Emotions in games was one of the biggest themes of this year’s Social Gaming Summit, and it was great to see so many pundits so enthused about the potential to tie social to emotional. See the video after the jump.

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Playfish Launches New Social Game: My Empire

Neil Vidyarthi — Thu, 13 May 2010 12:25:05 +0000

EA-Playfish has just released a new game, and in typical subtle fashion, they are just letting the game spread on its own word of mouth. The game is called My Empire, and it’s an empire-building game that asks the player to manage workers and resources to build up a fantastic sprawling city. The graphical theme seems to be a take on ancient Greece, and all the in-game advisors and characters are dressed in Togas with leaves adorning their hair. Check out our impressions after the jump.

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Game Review: Playfish's Gangster City Introduces Narrative And Special Effects to Facebook Games

Neil Vidyarthi — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 14:08:36 +0000

Playfish’s Gangster City game brings an unprecedented level of production, story and gameplay to the Facebook gaming world. There’s no doubt that Gangster City was heavily inspired by games like Mob Wars and Mafia Wars, but the title lives up to the Playfish reputation of innovative, quality titles by adding several new elements to the game, including a cinematic story, voice acting, animated battles and an innovative family structure.
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Playfish's Pet Society: 60 Million Valentine's Day Virtual Goods Sold

Neil Vidyarthi — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 14:12:00 +0000

Sebastien de Halleux, vice president of business development and strategic partnerships for EA Interactive, recently told Forbes that they had sold 60 million virtual goods on Pet Society in the two weeks leading up to Valentine’s Day. In addition, “tens of thousands” of real-world flowers were sold, up 20% from the same period and same promotion last year. The real-world flowers are one of Pet Society’s innovative features, where users are able to gain virtual currencies by purchasing flowers online from within the game. This publicly reported news also marks a shift for Playfish, who used to hold their cards close to their chest prior to being acquired by EA, a public company.
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Electronic Arts Earnings and New Horizons in Social/Mobile Gaming

Neil Vidyarthi — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 13:00:46 +0000

Electronic Arts is looking forward and betting on mobile and social gaming, and the timing couldn’t be better: the company posted its 11th consecutive loss, down $82 million for the quarter ending December 31st. Getting deep into the financials, the packaged goods games market has continued its decline quarter after quarter, and EA is predicting it will fall a further 3% in the coming year. These packaged goods are 80% of EA’s bottom line, and the change is hurting EA’s core business. At the same time, EA has been increasingly focused on mobile and web games, and with the purchase of Playfish, entered the realm of Social Gaming in a big way.
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EA To Release Madden NFL Game For Facebook

Neil Vidyarthi — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 12:13:44 +0000

Coinciding with recent announcements by Playfish that they were going to bring an EA brand to Facebook, Peter Moore just announced that “Madden NFL” will be released for Facebook. The details are sparse, but Moore stated on Bloomberg Television that “we have to make Madden’ more accessible,” and “you’ll see us on Facebook going forward.”
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