Google+ adds games to compete with Facebook

It’s easy to knock social games like FarmVille as a nuisance or a mindless waste of time.

But these games have built a massive and engaged army of users, many of whom drop real money into the programs.

More than 200 million people play games on Facebook each month, the social network says. The developers behind these games have made millions.

Google+, the search giant’s new social network, made a significant play for a chunk of Facebook’s empire late last week with the introduction of a platform for gaming.

Google+ is hoping to leverage the interest in social gaming to prop up its burgeoning social network, which launched just more than six weeks ago and is still in a closed field trial.

Sixteen games are rolling out slowly to Google+ users, including popular titles Angry Birds, Bejeweled Blitz, Sudoku and Zynga Poker.

The incredibly popular FarmVille isn’t available on Google+, reportedly due to an exclusivity agreement with Facebook.

The appeal of social gaming is that users can compete against friends in an environment layered with online social connections. While playing a simple arcade game like Bejeweled, users can compete against friends and try to beat their recent high scores.

These games have also created a new genre of casual gaming — games that can be played when time is available and a brief distraction is needed. When more pressing needs arise, games can be quickly left, frozen in place to be picked up again later.

Big business

Social gaming giant Zynga, which is preparing for an initial public offering this fall, amassed more than $242 million in revenue during the second quarter this year, the company says.

Most of these social games are played on a freemium basis. They’re free to play, but users can buy in-game features to further their success.

The platform — Facebook or Google+ — takes a cut of those transactions. Facebook has taken 30% of a game’s earnings, with 70% going to the developer. Google, in an effort to encourage developers to invest in its platform, says it will take only 5% from the developer.

Zynga built its empire squarely on the shoulders of Facebook, a social network with more than 750 million members.

But a new entry from Google here creates another option for developers to reach new users or those who have left Facebook for the new social network.

Facebook quickly shot back last week, just hours after the Google+ games announcement, with a new layer of features for its gaming platform, including a new way to see which friends are playing which games. Facebook also made it easier to hop directly into a game from its homepage.

A bother for some

For many of those who aren’t social gamers, the constant remnants of them on Facebook have become a nuisance.

No, Aunt Carol, I will not help you get more logs for your cabin. And I can’t help you secure a wheelbarrow to move that pile of dirt, either. Good luck, though!

Google+ hopes to differentiate itself by keeping the gaming function separate from the other discussions and interactions on the social network.

Users of Google+ won’t see game updates in their news feed unless they say they’re interested in gaming, Google’s senior vice president of engineering Vic Gundotra said in a blog post announcing the new platform.

“If you’re not interested in games, it’s easy to ignore them,” he said. “Your stream will remain focused on conversations with the people you care about.”

Crucial for Google+

Google+ quickly amassed more than 25 million members in its first few weeks, but its growth has stalled.

Full of early adopters and Web enthusiasts, the social network now faces an important test: Can it become a mainstream destination for social interactions online?

Social gaming is a critical component of that. In many ways, it’s the difference between having an insular audience of social networking enthusiasts and a reach that could even begin to approach Facebook’s.

Look for Google to try any way it can to attract people to its social network, which will allow it to serve more of its lucrative advertisements and learn even more about how people are using the Web.

So get ready to dig up those crops. There’s a new place to sow your digital seeds.

Contact Mark W. Smith: 313-223-4424 or msmith@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter: @markdubya

Share and Enjoy