Games.com's 2011 social gaming predictions: Mobile, 3D, MMOs and more

For social gaming, 2010 was a roller coaster ride with stories of ups and downs almost weekly. In the end, it turned out to be a year that witnessed some truly wonderful games, so everyone was a winner, really. But now it's time to look forward to a year that will surely be rife with change. And like any self-respecting journalists and bloggers would, we gaze into the future with wild theories, educated guesses and speculation. We give you Games.com's Predictions for 2011.

facebook game predictions 2011
Social = Mobile
If you thought the slew of social games-gone-mobile like FarmVille for iPhone and Mafia Wars across iOS, Android Blackberry and webOS was a step forward in 2010, just wait for what's to come. While major developers like Zynga, Playfish and Playdom have all started to expand to mobile devices using their existing games like My Empire and Social City, 2011 will see many more original mobile social games--just look at games like Raise the Village. (Bonus prediction: Zynga's recent cross platform strategy using mobile browsers might take off elsewhere.)

Find the rest of our predictions for 2011 after the break.

facebook game predictions 2011
Faster, Prettier Games
It's inevitable, really. With games like Godswar Online and the upcoming EA Sports PGA Tour for Facebook, both of which in full 3D, it's almost certain that there will be more where that came from. The two technologies that will be most responsible for this are HTML5 and the Unity Engine. The former being the next step in how websites are created, HTML5 can do things that Flash can without the need for Flash at all. (Just take a look at what's possible with HTML5.) The Unity Engine, however, is much like Flash in that its software through which developers can create browser games. But in detailed, appealing 3D that can run smoothly in websites without extra downloads (i.e. Facebook). Not to mention that developers are getting much better with Flash (take CityVille, for instance).

facebook game predictions 2011
CityVille Can't Stay on Top Forever
As much as some of us here at The Games.com Blog love CityVille, there's no way it's going to last forever as the top Facebook game. Sure, FarmVille was on top for months, but it too fell from its ivory tower made of Zynga Game Cards. Admittedly, the game isn't doing anything that's seriously groundbreaking, which means a game that does city building better could have a chance at dethroning CityVille. But good luck competing with both the Zynga name and its pool of over 100 million potential players. It's sad to say that, if anything, it will probably be another Zynga game that topples CityVille.

facebook game predictions 2011
Ads, ads, and more ads-Oh, my!
Some social games have more players monthly than most countries have people living in them. As big wigs in the advertising world would say, "That's a lot of eyeballs." With huge companies like McDonalds and Coca-Cola along with big-time rappers such as Dr. Dre getting into the game early, it's only natural that the rest of corporate America is itching to dig its pickax into the social gaming gold mine. That said, advertising in social games could become as second nature as, say, viral marketing has become in the world of YouTube (we've all seen the Old Spice Man).

facebook game predictions 2011
Is Zynga Creating its Own Network?
If eight major purchases in the last eight months and its most recent weren't hint enough, then we'll say it now. More than likely, this is what Zynga is ultimately up to. Zynga CEO Mark Pincus even came forthright in saying that his vision for the future of gaming is a "dog-activated world." Now that we've squashed all doubt, one question remains: What does it mean? Well, it could mean a lot of things, but most importantly is that it could spell independence from Facebook for Zynga.

facebook game predictions 2011
Hey Guys, Check Out Our "Game"
You've seen them already. Out there, just waiting to trick you, thinking what you just clicked on will be a remotely entertaining or enjoyable experience. Advergames. Instead of partnering with major developers, some companies pushing products are saying to themselves, "You know what, screw working with an experienced game developer. I'll make my own game. How hard can it be?" And what we get is a quasi-game, a series of Flash animations and a few clickable buttons designed for one purpose: to show us how cool Product X is and that we should totally buy it immediately.

facebook game predictions 2011
There's an MMO in my Facebook
There are now at least two full blown massively mutliplayer online games (MMO) currently on Facebook, Godswar Online and Milmo. While browser-based MMOs have existed for over a year if not longer, this will be the year when the lines between Facebook game and MMO blur. The two genres are too similar not to. Both are free to play, involve transactions for individual virtual goods or boosts and can now run right within Facebook. However, the Facebook game genre-bending likely won't stop there. With a full 3D golf game (see above) coming to Facebook, who is to say other types of games can't?

facebook game predictions 2011
The Big Will Undoubtedly Get Bigger
Call us pessimistic, but it's just how things work, people. Companies like Zynga are attracting over half of the social gaming market's audience. Numbers like that are tough to crack even for other juggernauts like PopCap who have all but ruled the casual gaming space with Bejeweled, Peggle and Zuma. Even Disney--you know, the guys who thought up Mickey Mouse?--are having trouble competing with them through Playdom. Zynga is likely going to be on top for a long, long time. The question of the day will remain, "Who is number two?" with companies like EA's Playfish, CrowdStar, PopCap and Playdom battling fiercely for second best.

facebook game predictions 2011
Facebook Will Be Our Friend Again
As much as it looked like it was working against us in 2010, Facebook could turn a new leaf this year. In fact, it already has. Just in the second half of 2010, Facebook created an entire games engineering team dedicated to making Facebook better for us social gamers. Not to mention that even more recently the 600-million strong social network hired a social games partnerships director to keep developers like Zynga happy (pictured right). It's too bad that its already looking to grow beyond Facebook. Maybe the two can cut another deal?

Is Galaxy of Wonder Playdom's next Facebook game?

It looks like City of Wonder is headed for the stars. Playdom recently posted a teaser trailer to YouTube that revealed the first glimpse (and by glimpse we mean a 13-second long video clip with a logo) of Galaxy of Wonder. Aside from an official logo that cleverly throws a spaceship in replace of an "A"--and the famous words of Neil Armstrong when he step foot on the moon exactly 42 years ago--all we know about this project is that it's "coming soon."

Is it an expansion to its strategy game City of Wonder a' la FrontierVille's Pioneer Trail, or is this a new game entirely? I guess we'll find out "soon" enough. In the meantime, go on and spend the 13 seconds it takes to learn all there is to know about Galaxy of Wonder ... so far.


Are you excited about what looks to be a space-age strategy game? What do you hope Playdom will do differently with Galaxy of Wonder than it did City of Wonder?

Zynga, Playdom, EA and Bioware vets cause a Rumble with new freemium studio

While many a story has come to light recently, detailing high-level game designers jumping ship to Zynga, here's one where a fairly big gun under the big Z's umbrella has left for new pastures. To be specific, John Yoo, lead designer on CityVille, is one of a few industry veterans that have joined with Greg Richardson [pictured], of former BioWare/Pandemic fame, in the creation of a new freemium (free-to-play) game studio by the name of Rumble.

After speaking with Rick Thompson, the founder of another major social games company - Playdom - the two partnered to form Rumble. Rounding out this new package are former EA employees Mark Spenner and David O'Connor. With these big names in their camp, Richardson's goal with Rumble is to create games that are free to play (supported with paid add-ons), but lie somewhere in between the expensive world of high-end PC games and the extremely casual games represented by many Facebook titles.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Richardson has faith that this middle ground holds a lot of merit. "We saw this third hill, and we think it's the biggest of the three hills," he says. This isn't to say, though, that Facebook games are out of the picture, as Richardson confirmed that they will use the social service, but will also focus on mobile devices and PCs through the browser.

In addition to developing its own games, Rumble will publish other developer's titles. While no specific details were announced about any of Rumble's specific games (we can expect the first sometime early next year), Richardson did list many of the company's areas of inspiration, which lie anywhere from Zelda and Super Smash Bros. to Diablo and Civilization. Regardless of the game in question, he says that Rumble looks to avoid overly complex gameplay. With this many areas of inspiration, we're definitely interested in seeing what Rumble comes up with, but for now - the possibilities are endless.

Are you excited in trying out this apparent middle-ground of freemium games that aren't too challenging, but aren't too basic either?

Zynga, Playdom, EA and Bioware vets cause a Rumble with new freemium studio

While many a story has come to light recently, detailing high-level game designers jumping ship to Zynga, here's one where a fairly big gun under the big Z's umbrella has left for new pastures. To be specific, John Yoo, lead designer on CityVille, is one of a few industry veterans that have joined with Greg Richardson [pictured], of former BioWare/Pandemic fame, in the creation of a new freemium (free-to-play) game studio by the name of Rumble.

After speaking with Rick Thompson, the founder of another major social games company - Playdom - the two partnered to form Rumble. Rounding out this new package are former EA employees Mark Spenner and David O'Connor. With these big names in their camp, Richardson's goal with Rumble is to create games that are free to play (supported with paid add-ons), but lie somewhere in between the expensive world of high-end PC games and the extremely casual games represented by many Facebook titles.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Richardson has faith that this middle ground holds a lot of merit. "We saw this third hill, and we think it's the biggest of the three hills," he says. This isn't to say, though, that Facebook games are out of the picture, as Richardson confirmed that they will use the social service, but will also focus on mobile devices and PCs through the browser.

In addition to developing its own games, Rumble will publish other developer's titles. While no specific details were announced about any of Rumble's specific games (we can expect the first sometime early next year), Richardson did list many of the company's areas of inspiration, which lie anywhere from Zelda and Super Smash Bros. to Diablo and Civilization. Regardless of the game in question, he says that Rumble looks to avoid overly complex gameplay. With this many areas of inspiration, we're definitely interested in seeing what Rumble comes up with, but for now - the possibilities are endless.

Are you excited in trying out this apparent middle-ground of freemium games that aren't too challenging, but aren't too basic either? Sound off in the comments.

Idle Games shows first game Idle Worship's true social colors [Video]

Since co-founding social game hit maker Playdom, Rick Thompson has grown tired of the friend bar beneath Faecbook games. No, scratch that: He's grown tired of the way traditional Facebook games operate ... period. His contempt for this arguably tired form of Facebook game has helped spawn Idle Games and its first ever Facebook game, Idle Worship.

We first heard word of the potentially revolutionary social game way back in April, and Idle Games has launched the game into a closed beta test before presenting it to the audience of TechCrunch Disrupt, an event in San Francisco celebrating tech startups ran by TechCrunch. The overall gameplay of Idle Worship hasn't changed since we first heard about it, but now we have fancy video that reveals more of what the game is all about.

Through Idle Games's Idle Engine, Idle Worship does away with the friend found in almost all social games. Instead, your island of Mudlings (the people you oversee with either benevolence or tyranny) will be surrounded by not only your friends' islands, but players' islands based on how their Facebook profiles match up with your own.

Going even further, the game will slowly curate which of your friendships are stronger by bringing more active friends closer to your island, which is always at the center, and pushing your inactive friends away from your island. And, according to Idle Games CEO Jeffrey Hyman, your interactions with your friends will send ripples throughout the entire game in real time.

Through innovations like these, Hyman aims for Idle Games to become "the Pixar of casual games," according to TechCrunch. To better understand what we mean, check out Hyman's presentation below, and sign up for the ongoing closed beta test of the game right here.



Do you plan on signing up for the closed beta test of Idle Worship? What excites you most (or doesn't excite you) about the game? Sound off in the comments. 1 Comment