My Spacing Video Games

Our Man In Siam (not really), reports the plan Big Fish Games has to mimic MySpace to sell more casual games:

Now Thelen wants to exploit his network of gamers the way that MySpace does. With this new My Big Fish Games system, the players can set up their own "game space," link to a network of friends and then cash in on them through referral rewards. The players set up their own page that talks about their favorite games and their own reviews of the games as well. The players can add friends and send them emails. They can all remain anonymous if they want, connected only by a shared love for games on the site. In contrast to MySpace, Big Fish Games targets consumers over 35. These consumers don't upload photos and prefer to remain anonymous. The players can push their recommendations for games to their friends.

If the friends actually buy the games, Big Fish gives a 25 percent cut, or $5 for a $20 game, to the player. You also get a cut of your friends' friends' purchases. It's kind of a pyramid scheme, but Thelen says it has none of the ill effects of that kind of marketing. In this case, the gamers are already making recommendations, since surveys show 87 percent of gamers have already referred friends to the site. Since it costs the company so little money to make its downloadable games, it can share more of the revenues with the players. (There are already 500 games on the site).  In essence, the players make money off their friends. If they don't want to make money, the company makes it easy for them to donate the money that they earn from their friends to charities. Some of the players who are already networking with large groups of friends stand to make a lot of money.

-- A+E Interactive: Big Fish Games Taps The MySpace Craze And Game Rewards To Come Up With An Interesting Business Model

Social networking and casual gaming have gone hand in hand for some time ... so I guess this was semi-inevitable.


tagged: game, gaming