Gaming on Facebook

Gaming on Facebook is big.  Really big.  According to a Kotaku story posted earlier;

“At the end of 2010, about 50 percent of Facebook’s monthly active users (MAUs) were gamers.”

With a total user base of 500 million active accounts, that makes 250 million gamers.  To put that into perspective, that is more gamers on a monthly basis than the total worldwide sales of the SNES, N64, Gamecube and Wii combined.  Yes seriously.

Yet despite the ever growing number of users, the growth of Facebook gaming has stalled for the first time since its inception.

Why?  The underlying problem is that Facebook games have become part of the flood-the-market-til-it-gags-itself-to-death routine, while attracting a disloyal user base that’ll ditch you as quickly as they left someone else to come to you.

The market has become over saturated with cheap shallow garbage that reeks of a lack of imagination and dispassionate money grabbing developers interested only in making a quick buck.  After the initial glee of being able to one up your friends then badger said friends with irritating updates fades, your average Facebook gamer will eventually move on to whatever the next big trend is.

Unless Facebook game developers can start putting some soul into their “products”, I can only see “stall” turning into “decline”.  Going eventually the same way as Guitar Hero or Tony Hawks Pro Skater.  Fucked. 

The sooner the better if you ask me.