When one thinks of gaming on Facebook, habit-producing, micro-transaction lead experiences like Farmville and Mafia Wars are usually the first to come to mind. While the demographic has served the social media network extremely well, and changed the gaming landscape in the process, the house that Zuckerberg built will be spending 2013 aiming for a more mainstream crowd. Director of Game Partnerships Sean Ryan recently spoke to Venture Beat about broadening Facebook’s gaming appeal.
“The next 6-to-12 months, it’s about core and mid-core,” Ryan said. “Not because the other genres aren’t good, but when we look at openings on the platform where we think we can deliver a powerful experience alongside our developers… As we start to see Unity and Flash 11 become more prevalent, we can have a really rich gaming experience.”
While it has become widely accepted that Facebook’s current game programming won’t be eternally lucrative, it’s difficult to see how more hardcore oriented experiences – usually defined by higher production values and deeper player investment compared to casual fare – will function in Facebook’s “10-15 minutes a day” design model. So far, the closest the network has come to hosting such experiences are media tie-in applications to existing console or PC games, which look to have limited appeal outside of an IP’s most loyal followers.
(via Venture Beat)