Now that Facebook Credits have been nixed as the official currency of Facebook games, the company took some time Tuesday during the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco to explain how the new system of local currency makes in-game purchases easier for all parties. Now, game developers have full control over what they charge users in different countries, and users can see rounded price points instead of always-changing conversions.
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Facebook has a sizable share of the games market, but it wants more. Most of the people who pay for games on Facebook are casual gamers, with titles such as King.com’s Candy Crush Saga at the forefront. But as Sean Ryan (pictured), Facebook’s director of games partnerships, discussed at the Game Developers Conference Tuesday in San Francisco, the company wants to become a bigger player in the games market through more action and console-like games.
Namco, maker of Pac-Man S and other games, announced that it is retiring its Facebook titles, sister site Inside Social Games reported Tuesday. The games will still be playable until March 19, at which point they’ll go offline. Inside Social Games noted that Namco’s Facebook games have not been popular, likely leading to their demise.
Currently, most popular Facebook games differ greatly from console video games. There are bubble shooters and several iterations of “with Friends,” and these games are, for the most part, fairly simple. But Reuters writes that more complex, visual games could make their way to the social network this year. A few developers are looking to bring more console-quality gaming to Facebook.
So you can quote Pulp Fiction line-by-line and list Brad Pitt and Sophia Loren among your biggest influences? Viewster has the Facebook game for you. The company launched an app recently — Qster — which pits movie lovers against each other to see who knows the most about the silver screen.
The Avengers didn’t just slay the competition at the box office — they were quite successful on Facebook, too. Facebook highlighted the game Avengers Alliance (developed by Playdom) on the site’s developers blog, praising the game’s ability to implement quickly and its use of open graph technology.
The strained tie between Facebook and game developer Zynga has been largely broken. According to documents filed Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Zynga is no longer an extension of the Facebook platform, but the two companies do maintain some semblance of a relationship.
Game developer King.com announced its newest Facebook game, Pet Rescue Saga, last night at a launch party. King.com also previewed a mobile version of one of their most popular games, Candy Crush Saga. The company had a very important fan in attendance — Sean Ryan, Facebook’s director of games partnerships, who said King.com is making all the right moves.
Facebook prides itself on being the social network. One of the main ways the site has facilitated connections is through games. Facebook discussed with select members of the press Thursday what makes them successful and how this platform will evolve in the future, using examples such as SongPop and Words with Friends to show how games transcend pixels.
Not long after King.com’s Alex Dale weighed in on the state of Facebook games, the social network’s own director of game partnerships, Sean Ryan, sat down with VentureBeat. Ryan talked about how Facebook games are now a worldwide phenomenon and also addressed subscriptions, SongPop, trends, and 3D games.
