O Publisher, Where Art Thou?
Blue Fang's Scott Triola on why traditional publishers have failed to capitalise on Facebook
In this exclusive editorial for GamesIndustry.biz, Blue Fang Games' COO Scott Triola asks why traditional game publishers have failed to capitalise on the success of Facebook as a gaming platform, and looks at the working methods that need overhaul and the challenges faced to make the 350 million users of the social network a viable market for the big box publishers.
Over the past two years, about the same amount of time it takes to make a standard next-gen videogame, Facebook has added roughly 350 million active users and become one of the most disruptive forces in the history of the gaming industry. The top ten Facebook game developers currently combine for nearly 600 million monthly active users (MAU) and are commanding staggering valuations ranging from $260 million for Playdom to a brain exploding $1.5 - $3 billion for Zynga. Facebook has truly brought “social” gaming to the global masses and whether or not you believe Facebook is here to stay, there is no arguing that the gaming landscape has been forever altered by its success.
Hundreds of millions of players. Hundreds of millions of dollars in (rumored) annual revenue. Billions of dollars in valuation. And how much of this staggering gaming value has been created by the traditional game publishers? None, zero, nada, zilch. Not a single dollar of this Facebook value has been created by Activision, EA (no, buying Playfish does not count), Ubisoft, Take-Two or any other top game publisher. How is this even possible?
I have heard and read many rationalisations by very smart people about why the big guys have yet to get in on the Facebook action. Phrases like "still assessing the situation", "we’re in a bubble", and "in the long run the proven gaming brands will win out" come to mind. All I can say in response to such statements is "check the scoreboard". Publishers can prognosticate and speculate all they want, but as we sit here today they have allowed Facebook upstarts to kick open the door, take their milk money and eat their lunch.
At this point, you may be wondering who I am to call out game publishers on a collective whim that would make Pedro Cerrano proud. I’m the COO of Blue Fang Games, an independent game developer that has made a business out of making family games with leading publishers for over ten years. This past year, we saw what was going on in the games business and self-funded a small talented team that developed and launched a top quality Facebook game, Zoo Kingdom, in just under three months. You can play it right now on Facebook here. I also work closely with our publishing partners on our PC and console titles and my first job in the industry was as a product manager at Atari, so I have lived on both sides of the fence. I don’t claim to be much smarter or more knowledgeable about this industry than others, but I do know this – in less than three months, for a budget that probably wouldn’t cover the Red Bull expense incurred in making Modern Warfare 2, we were able to go live with a top quality game on Facebook. Succeed or fail, we’re in the game and we’re learning, improving and creating new value every day. Again, check the scoreboard.
The point here is not to cast the publishers as the bad guys or attack the competence or skills of the individuals who work within them. I know first hand that there are many smart, hard working, talented people within these companies that are similarly critical (if not more so) of their own organisation’s ability to anticipate and execute on new opportunities. I’m also not making the argument that the traditional game space is going away by any stretch. Heck, the under 13 demographic, which makes up a huge portion of Blue Fang’s customers base isn’t even on Facebook (or at least isn’t supposed to be). The question I am exploring here is why haven’t these multi-billion dollar publishers with thousands of talented employees been able to build their internal capabilities to dominate, or even compete in, the Facebook landscape?
It’s Hard to Reach For the Stars When You Are Getting Punched in the Gut
2009 was a tough year for the gaming industry. It was the year we learned our videogames were not recession proof and we really took it on the chin. Sales were down, stock values were down and layoffs were up. We were all trying to get our respective houses in order to weather the latest and perhaps greatest storm our industry has collectively faced. In times like these, companies must expend so much energy and attention on shoring up their existing business that there is often no organisational bandwidth or political capital to pursue new but "unproven" opportunities like Facebook.
When the going gets tough, it is also time to restructure. Publishers have been engaged in a seemingly endless game of corporate musical chairs that has key decision makers leaving and entering new and existing roles. It’s no big secret that during times of transition it is hard to get decisions made and the preferred course of action is often to keep your head down rather than risk getting it cut off. It is times like these that words like "realign the business" and "focus on core strengths" tend to come out in force. What these terms usually mean is that no decisions are being made and everyone is afraid of getting fired so nothing is getting done…check back in a few weeks. I have no doubt many Facebook initiatives were casualties of organisational upheaval and that countless "Facebook Next Steps" memos weep quietly in the "I told you so" folder of now defunct email accounts.