BigPoint CEO: Social game company sales values are "crazy"

$182 million. $300 million. $563.2 million. These are the kind of numbers that are getting thrown around casually in social gaming acquisitions these days, and they could go even higher, especially if industry-leader Zynga decides to sell out. But are these companies really worth as much as their buyers think they are?

As far as BigPoint CEO Heiko Hubertz is concerned, the answer is a definite "No." In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz the head of the online game publisher expressed extreme skepticism over the amount of money behind some recent high profile buyouts. "Just look at the Disney and Playdom acquisition," Hubertz said. "That was a crazy valuation from my point of view. We're also in the same segment and if you want to grow at the same speed as your competitors you cannot only grow organically, you have to buy other companies. In 12 months, maybe 18 months the prices will be more realistic and then we can look at buying more companies."
But are the prices so unrealistic now? That largely depends on what you think of the future prospects of social gaming. If you agree with Screen Digest's prediction that social gaming is going to be worth $1.5 billion a year by 2014, then investing millions for an established front-runner in the space doesn't seem so ridiculous. On the other hand, if you think social games are a fad that most players will soon grow tired of, those millions of dollars might as well be toilet paper.

Hubertz, for his part, is looking to zig where others are zagging by scooping up what he sees as struggling, undervalued publishers in the traditional console market. "In the traditional games industry, in the boxed industry, there are developers who are really struggling and they are not asking for high valuation, they are just asking for survival," he said. "We're looking exactly for these kind of developers because when it comes to high quality 3D games they have the experience. We can just give them another engine, they don't need to use the Xbox or PlayStation technology, they can use our web technology. They can still develop the same quality of game it's just for a browser."

CrowdStar is Number 2 on Facebook, Playfish and Playdom eat dust

CrowdStar, creator of Happy Pets, is now the Number 2 social games company on Facebook with 54.6 million monthly users, according to Inside Social Games, beating out big timers Playdom and Playfish. We all know that Zynga has and probably will be the biggest social games company for a long time, which is why the focus on leading statistics has been on the coveted Number 2 spot.

So, how does a game company with no big time entertainment corporation behind it sneak in just beneath the sleeping giant's nose? Persistence, consistency and freedom. It's been over a month since Playfish has put out Madden NFL Superstars and Playdom had a drought for months before it released ESPNU College Town on September 27.

CrowdStar, on the other hand, has released two games in the past two weeks, It Girl and Pop Boom, which already have 2.5 million and 1.6 million monthly players respectively. Without the constraints of a corporate stepmother like Playdom's Disney or Playfish's Electronic Arts, CrowdStar can probably get more games developed, polished and out on the market in a fraction of the time it takes a developer like Playdom to even get clearance for one game from the higher ups.

While some might consider this a stroke of luck, developers still have to make good games to get noticed. Playfish is close behind CrowdStar with over 50 million monthly users, and a killer app could knock out CrowdStar more quickly than the company found itself in the spot. And that's the beauty of the social games business: everyone is on their toes.

AM Linkage: Zynga worth more than Electronic Arts, How to prep for zombie invasion

Zynga's Value Tops Electronic Arts as Virtual-Goods Sales Surge [Bloomberg]

10 games to help you prepare for a zombie invasion [Gamasutra]

Why social game maker Zynga wants a patent on virtual currencies [Venture Beat]

Report: Your Office Cube-Mate is Stalking Your Facebook Wall [Social Times]

Zynga "expanding operations into Ireland" [Gamesindustry.biz]

Facebook, Groupon And Zynga Investor Mail.ru (aka, DST) Shoots For $5.7B Valuation In IPO [TechCrunch]

What Disney Got in the Playdom Acquisition [Inside Social Games]

Tiki Resort's Halloween Night Charm sets the sun on your island

Do islanders even celebrate Halloween? Well, in Tiki Resort they do with the new Halloween Night Charm, which unlocks five Halloween mystery items and sets the night upon your island getaway. With the big night just around the corner, it's alright to have nighttime last a bit longer than usual. Not to mention that 29 Facebook Credits, or $2.90, isn't half bad for transforming the look of your entire island.

You'll also find that your visitors have donned zombie and witch costumes to keep the spirits high. But don't leave the islanders dressed up with nowhere to go. The Hallow's Eve Treehouse and the Borderland Haunted House are both 30 percent off, costing 70 ($7) and 105 ($10.50) Facebook Credits, respectively. So, now you have no excuse to avoid transforming your island into the ghoulish getaway it should be this season.

My Vineyard Quaint Mystery Box: Find out what's inside

Playdom's My Vineyard released a new Mystery Box today - the Quaint Mystery Box. This one will cost you 18 Wine Cash each, and the resulting items are completely random. These items are all cozy realistic items for your vineyard, and many players on the Playdom forums are claiming that this is the best Mystery Box yet. We bet you want to know what's inside don't you? Here you go:

Quaint Cottage
Quaint Planter
Quaint Table and 2 Chairs
Quaint Swing
Quaint Banquet Table

While they're not exactly Thanksgiving items, you could still throw yourself a pretty quaint Turkey Day feast with these items. Get something you don't like? Sell it in your General Store to other players and make a profit!

This Mystery Box is limited quantity, and there are only 9,666 available as of this writing. We're sure these will sell fast because the items inside are just too cute for words.

Play My Vineyard on Facebook >

Disney-branded Facebook games coming in 2012, Playdom head says

Can we all just say, "finally?" During a panel named "The Rise of Social Games" at the f8 Facebook Developers Conference in San Francisco, Disney Interactive and Playdom head John Pleasants revealed that two to four Facebook games surrounding Disney brands will hit Facebook in 2012. The general topic of the panel was the fact that branded social games are taking off.

Pleasants was joined on the panel by Kabam CEO Kevin Chou, EA Interactive head Barry Cottle and Zynga CBO Owen Van Natta. Facebook director of games partnerships Sean Ryan moderated the panel with the preface that branded games will take over the Facebook platform. And he might be right: EA just released The Sims Social, Zynga will soon re-brand its new Adventure World with Indiana Jones and Kabam recently announced The Godfather: Five Families.

Playdom, which Disney acquired in July 2010 for a whopping $740 million, is ahead of the pack with two branded games on Facebook: ESPNU College Town and ESPN Sports Bar & Grill. Both games performed well, thanks to advertising through the ESPN TV network. While Disney owns the ESPN brand, notice how neither of those actually involve the insanely popular Disney characters we've come to love.

Honestly, we're surprised this didn't happen sooner. Consider this: Disney has its own cable TV channel through which it could, in theory, advertise whatever it wants. Pleasants didn't get into why it's taken this long for Disney to throw its cast of characters into Facebook games, but did reveal the power of the Disney name.

Gnome Town, which Playdom launched in the summer--and we enjoyed quite a bit--peaked at 530,000 daily players. But just plopping the Disney logo on top of the existing one made users more likely to spend in the game just through trust of the company's name, according to Pleasants. "We think it's an advantage, if you put game play first," Pleasants said.

It's comforting to hear this emphasized by these developers. (Kabam's Chou shared the same sentiment.) Branded games on Facebook are OK in my book, but the last thing anyone wants to see is the genre become a branding machine.

[Source and Image Credit: VentureBeat]

Are you on board with the growing trend of branded games on Facebook? Do you think developers will maintain integrity as the focus on branded content in their games intensifies? Sound off in the comments. 1 Comment