Audiences are shifting rapidly toward playing games on Facebook and other social networks. Accordingly, the media that cover games are shifting as well.
The latest example of this is at Gamezebo, a web site for covering casual games started by Joel Brodie in 2007. Back then, Brodie, former head of business development at Yahoo Games, found that many game publications looked down on casual games, which are online titles such as Bejeweled that are downloaded for a fee from game portals such as Big Fish Games. So he started the site to cover casual games seriously, providing reviews and news.
Now Brodie has added coverage of social games on Facebook, the iPhone and online. He found that the market is shifting thanks to the phenomenal success of games such as Zynga’s FarmVille on Facebook. Since its launch in June, 2009, FarmVille has built an audience of more than 80 million monthly active users.
“This reflects what is happening with gamers,” Brodie said.
The social games need serious reviews just as casual games did, Brodie said. Facebook games, and the proliferation of free games on the web, are taking a toll on casual downloadable games that used to cost $19.99. Now most of those games sell for $6.99, and casual game companies are shifting their own investments into social games, which are often free to play and are monetized through virtual goods transactions.
There’s a trend here for sure. IGN.com, which covers the traditional console and PC game industries from an enthusiast view, hired a writer to cover social games last fall. My former colleague Eric Eldon became editor of Inside Social Games, which also reviews Facebook games. And we have added considerable coverage of social games ourselves on VentureBeat as the business activity around the games accelerates.
Gamezebo will continue to cover casual games with its staff and freelance network of about 20 people. But Brodie says that the definition of casual — which once meant downloadable web games — has now been expanded to include social games on a variety of platforms.
Gamezebo has about 700,000 monthly active subscribers and 3.5 million page views a month. It is, of course, better off than many hardcore game publications which have closed. Among those, Crispy Gamer recently laid off all of its seasoned editorial staff. Gamezebo’s new features include the ability to search for games by platform or genre, share articles with friends, and to rate and review games.
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