Yesterday I attended an event focusing on social games. The event introduced new Playstation titles such as Jungle Party and Sport Quiz and a survey on playing habits and interests towards social gaming. Key take away points IMHO were: 1) the share of social games is already ~20% of Playstation Finland's turnover. 2) Girls have really got into gaming -- thanks to SingStar and Buzz games. 3) Gaming has been social but now it is Social 2.0 :D Sorry, I couldn't insist the lame web2.0 joke. 4) People seem to be open to new ideas: majority of the respondents were interested in a game on human relationships! (future of The Sims perhaps?)Another ground for social gaming is of course the Internet. World of Warcraft is THE MMOG at the moment with its overwhelming number of registered users: 7,5 Million. While the yesterday's superheroes: South Korean games (Kartrider, Lineage II) attract 1-3 million users, UK-based company Galaxylife surprised me with their claim to shake the current conventions.
According to The Argus: "The game, also called Galaxylife, is part of a new generation of social or "community" games which focus on interaction and personal expression. Galaxylife allows people to play each other on any device - PC, laptop, Apple, mobile phones, Smartphone and PDAs. The game is free to download and free to play. Galaxylife will make money by selling virtual goods."
What I found especially interesting was that their CEO Tim Greenhalgh estimates sales could hit £11 million within two years - with net profits touching £7 million. That is a strong claim especially when the competition is really tight and Galaxylife Ltd is just about to launch Galaxylife MMOG at the end of January 2007.
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