Worlds In Motion

Offerpal Sets New Ad Standards As Facebook Bans Offer Providers

research@gdmag.com (Simon Carless) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:15:37 -0500

Offerpal Media, an ad provider for social apps and games, announced a new set of standards for its controversial lead generation offers, just as Facebook bans other providers like Tatto Media for their questionable ads.

The company's ads consist of special offers featured alongside free social games such as FarmVille, inviting users to fill out online surveys and sign up for subscriptions in exchange for virtual currency (as opposed to paying for the in-game currency directly). Advertising providers and game publishers generate a significant amount of revenue from the Cost Per Action offers.

Many of the ads provide a legitimate service or product to consumers (e.g. Netflix trial subscriptions), while other misleading offers brought on unauthorized credit, debit, and mobile charges to unsuspecting social games players, some of whom were unable to cancel the charges or services/goods that they were allegedly tricked into paying for.

The issue came to a head several weeks ago when TechCrunch's Michael Arrington confronted Offerpal and wrote a series of scathing articles about the social gaming industry's "lead gen scams". Offerpal co-founder and former CEO Anu Shukla responded by claiming that less than one percent of users complain about the offers.

The debate surrounding CPA offers spurred developers like Zynga and RockYou to revise their ad policies, and Facebook set an example shortly afterwards by suspending Zynga's FishVille when the dubious promotions appeared with the game. Both the social network and developer were named in a class action lawsuit filed this week alleging the companies knowingly allowed the offers to swindle users.

Since the scandal, Shukla resigned from her CEO position (she intends to stay at the company as a board member and advisor), replaced by George Garrick, previously president and CEO of Jingle Networks. Offerpal's new standards for the offers will mark the chief executive's first significant action at the company.

“This is something the industry needs to do,” said Garrick in an interview with VC news site Venturebeat. "Individual companies need to draw a line in the sand in what they will do. It sends a message to partners that you want valid and credible and ethical business.”

He added that the new regulations, posted in full on the company's site, were developed in close contact with publishers and platform owners like Facebook and MySpace. To help its clients meet the new standards, the ad provider introduced a multi-step review process required for each offer before going live.

Garrick said costs for offers are now more clearly spelled out and presented with bigger font sized in order to prevent any confusion. Offerpal also updated its tools to automatically detect non-compliant ads and delete them from its network. The company has already removed hundreds of CPA offers in the past few weeks, putting them back into its system only after advertisers make them compliant.

To emphasize the legitimacy of its lead generation advertisements, Offerpal added several "high-value offers" from recognizable brands like Real Networks, New York Times, Disney, Yahoo, Netflix, Blockbuster, DirecTV, Priceline, Discover Card, and others.

As Offerpal revises its ad policies, though, Facebook has reportedly banned similar offer providers like Gambit and Tatto Media from its apps and games. This isn't the first time Tatto Media has come under fire for its promotions, as the Washington State Attorney Generals Office investigated the firm for false and deceptive advertising in 2008. The company eventually agreed to settle for $500,000.

Gambit denies that Facebook or other social networks have removed its ads: "Gambit is, and has always been, up and running on our clients’ applications on Facebook, MySpace, and many other venues online. We're not happy that there has been news otherwise, and we are working to address the issue. We will be announcing the real story in days to come."

Class-Action Suit Filed Against Zynga, Facebook Over Offer-Based Ads

research@gdmag.com (Eric Caoili) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:00:46 -0500

Sacramento-based law firm Kershaw, Cutter & Ratinoff (KCR) filed a class-action suit against Facebook developer Zynga, seeking upwards of $5 million in damages due to allegedly misleading lead generation ads featured in the latter's games.

The Cost Per Action (CPA) advertisements in question allow users to earn virtual currency for social games like FarmVille and Mafia Wars by completing surveys, taking quizzes, or signing up for trial offers. Some ads are for legit companies like Netflix and Amazon, but others resulted in unauthorized credit, debit, or mobile charges to consumers for as much as $165.

Zynga pledged to keep these misleading offers out of its games, but when an error with ad provider DoubleDing caused the offers to appear again in the developer's recently launched FishVille, Facebook temporarily suspended the game.

The developer responded by removing all CPA ads from its titles until it could identify which specific offers were showing up. FishVille was brought back online a few days afterwards.

Despite the company's promises, KCR began investigating a possible class action lawsuit last week, pointing to a recently unearthed video shot last Spring in which Zynga CEO admitting he did "every horrible thing in the book ... just to get revenues right away" as proof that the FarmVille studio was aware of the harm its offers caused players.

The firm cited the footage in its class-action lawsuit filed with a federal district court in Northern California this week, and claims that Zynga generated "enormous profits through these false and misleading special offers," reeling in anywhere from $33 to $84 million from consumers who responded to the CPA ads displayed with the studio's games.

KCR also names Facebook as a defendant, arguing that a significant portion of the social network's revenues come from Zynga's games. The law firm estimates that 10 to 20 percent of Facebook's $500 million annual revenues comes from games released by Zynga, the largest application developer on the service (according to monthly active users).

"Plaintiff is further informed and believes that Facebook is fully aware of the false and misleading nature of the advertising promulgated through Zynga's applications and that, despite this, it actively engages in promoting Zynga's games to the public," says the filing, which was posted online by Valleywag.

The lawsuit comes only three days after Zynga announced it had raised $15.2 million in a third round of funding.

Round-Up: Gamasutra Network Jobs, Week Of November 20

research@gdmag.com (Simon Carless) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:00:51 -0500

In our latest employment-specific round-up, we highlight some of the notable jobs posted in big sister site Gamasutra's industry-leading game jobs section this week, including positions from Relic Entertainment, Zoe Mode and more.

Each position posted by employers will appear on the main Gamasutra job board, and appear in the site's daily and weekly newsletters, reaching our readers directly.

It will also be cross-posted for free across its network of submarket sites, which includes content sites focused on online worlds, cellphone games, 'serious games', independent games and more.

Some of the notable jobs posted this week include:

Relic Entertainment: Senior Director Of Development
"The Senior Director of Development executes the developmental strategy of the studio in accordance with the GM and THQ’s strategic and tactical objectives. Responsible for ensuring project development achieves operating objectives and financial goals; ensuring development efficiency and product timeliness, and otherwise ensuring consistency and process improvements across projects."

2K Games: Channel Marketing Manager
"2K Games develops and publishes top-line PC, console, and handheld entertainment software, with a strong concentration in three distinct categories: sports, high profile licenses and specialty product. Some of the hit titles in 2K's lineup include the critically-praised Bioshock, Sid Meier’s Civilization IV, and The Darkness. 2K Games is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc."

Raven Software/Activision: Senior Game Designer
"Raven Software is looking for a Senior Designer for our latest unannounced action title, primarily focusing on combat systems and encounter design. Designers will work with the rest of the team to create and implement combat systems, AI behaviors, and scripted events in the game world. Additionally, the Senior Designer will act as the arbiter of quality for all the combat sequences in the game, working closely with other designers to make sure we have consistent, high-quality combat encounters throughout the game."

Sony Computer Entertainment America: Maya Technical Director
"Be a part of the most exciting and innovating computer entertainment in North America. Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) markets the PlayStation® family of products and develops, publishes, markets, and distributes software for the PS one™ console, the PlayStation®2 and PlayStation®3 computer entertainment systems and the PlayStation Portable (PSP™)."

Zoe Mode: Senior Technical Artist
"As a Senior Technical Artist, you’ll define and drive the technical vision and art pipelines for multiple games throughout the studio. You will work closely with both the Lead Artist and engineering staff to create powerful, yet easy to use, systems for artists and designers to use in our ground breaking games."

To browse hundreds of similar jobs, and for more information on searching, responding to, or posting game industry-relevant jobs to the top source for jobs in the business, please visit Gamasutra's job board now.

Vector Releasing First English MMO: The Seventh Dragon

research@gdmag.com (Eric Caoili) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:00:00 -0500

Tokyo-based software distributor and online games publisher Vector announced The Seventh Dragon (no relation to Sega and Imageepoch's Nintendo DS RPG with the same name in Japan), its first MMORPG to feature an English edition, launching on December 1st.

Known as Dragon Crusade in Japan, the free, browser-based title has players creating heroes and rebuilding castles previously destroyed by invading devils. They can grow the structures into huge cities, battle monsters, acquire new weapons, join guilds, and fight in player versus player battles.

The "persistent world simulation RPG" includes a couple interesting features, like its Beginner Protection, which gives newcomers a nine-day period during which other players cannot attack them. The Seventh Dragon also allows gamers to give instructions and set production commands that their characters execute while players are offline.

Established in 1989, Vector entered the MMO space in 2006 after purchasing publishing rights for MicMac Online in Japan. The company has since released MMORPG ArsMagna, acquired Gamespace 24 (Fairytale Land, Navyfield Neo) from Success Corp., and formed a capital and business alliance with MMO operator Gala Inc.

GameStop Acquires Majority Stake in Jolt Online Gaming

research@gdmag.com (Eric Caoili) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 14:00:47 -0500

Specialty retailer GameStop recently acquired a majority interest in online gaming platform Jolt. The company develops and publishes license-based, free-to-play titles such as Playboy Manager and the Legends of Zork casual game (in partnership with Activision) based on the text adventure series. It also operates browser-based MMOs like Trukz and Utopia Kingdoms.

"Acquiring Jolt is significant building block in our digital business strategy," explained GameStop general manager Chris Petrovic, according to a note posted by subsidiary Game Informer earlier this month that was later pulled offline. "This is further evidence of our commitment to building a world-class digital business platform."

GameStop believes it can take advantage of Jolt's experience as a publisher, developer, and aggregator to create online games that fulfill needs major publishers aren't addressing, then offer those titles to its huge customer base.

Under the terms of the agreement, Jolt will remain at its current headquarters in Ireland, and GameStop will provide between €15-20 million ($22.4-29.8 million) toward the company's development over the next two to three years.

Irish newspaper The Sunday Business Post appears to have confirmed the deal, despite Game Informer's removal of the announcement, and speculated that the move will generate a significant number of new local jobs.

Jolt presently employs 25 people across Dublin, Belfast, Germany, and Bulgaria. This is the second major sale by the company's founder and CEO Dylan Collins, who also sold his networking middleware firm DemonWare to Activision for $15 million two years ago. Collins will retain a minority stake in Jolt and continue to head the firm.

"Going forward, our vision for Jolt is that it will continue its focus on working with our game publisher partners to create online games for game titles and brands that aren't currently being exploited by the publishers themselves and then leveraging our global retail footprint to offer those games to GameStop’s customers," said Petrovic.

Boku Partners With Outspark, NHN, And More For Mobile Payments

research@gdmag.com (Eric Caoili) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:00:12 -0500

Mobile payments provider announced new partnerships with twelve game companies from the online and social game space, including Outspark and NHN. The new agreements enable Boku to offer mobile payments for virtual goods and currencies purchases to almost 200 million registers users across more than 250 games.

The San Francisco-based startup's new partners on the Facebook platform include 6Waves Ltd., Snap Interactive, and Zoosk Inc. In the free-to-play space, the company is now aligned with Cie Studios, Cyberstep Communications, Inc., GameDuell, IGG, Inc., King.com, NHN USA Inc. (ijji), NTREEV, Outspark, and PerfectWorld Entertainment Inc.

Those developers and publishers join the 1,000+ direct mobile payment partnerships Boku has signed since launching in June. Its existing clients include Playfish, Slide, TheBroth, Hive7, PageFad, and many others. The company notes that it has direct relationships with four of the top 15 application developers on Facebook, and that five of the top 15 Facebook games uses its mobile payments to sell virtual goods.

With this news, Boku also launched the third generation of its user interface (screenshots below), which it says is designed to increase the success rate of sign-ups and mobile transactions. The setup now recognizes mobile phone numbers versus landlines, and can dynamically determine which carrier a particular mobile number belongs to.

"BOKU is attracting new partners in a large part due to our ability to help them make more money from their existing businesses," says Boku co-founder and Marketing/Product SVP Ron Hirson. "As an example, Boku partner TheBroth saw mobile payments revenue double upon launching the new platform, while PageFad saw 5x growth in September alone due to rapid growth in applications coupled with Boku’s ability to help them optimize."

Abandon Releases Freaky Adventures

research@gdmag.com (Eric Caoili) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 10:00:55 -0500

Abandon Interactive Entertainment released Freaky Adventures, the company's largest content update for its toy-based MMO Freaky Creatures, launched last March. The update introduces Player vs. Environment gameplay to Freaky Creatures, along with new enemies, powers, and more.

Freaky Creatures combines online multiplayer gaming, collectible action figures, virtual worlds, and social networking. The game offers free membership with limited access, as well as premium subscriptions with more features for $6.99 a month. Players purchase a starter pack from a retail location for around $19.99, which includes two action figures and a flash drive that gives them access to the game.

Once they create and customize their creatures with different parts and powers, they can battle them against others, take on missions, build a lair, join tournaments, form teams, trade items, read comics, play mini-games, and socialize with their friends in the community.

With Freaky Adventures, players are encouraged to explore new environments (e.g. Veseran Jungles, Towering Plateaus, and Ssorak Ruins), where they will encounter "strange life forms, items ,and enemies, each with its own specific abilities and powers." A new world map is also available for accessing more than 40 missions.

"Freaky Adventures incorporates inventive gameplay, missions and environments that will appeal to our dedicated community and new players alike," says Abandon's COO and president Jamie Ottilie. "This new content allows players to experience an already-robust online game in a completely different way."

Gravity Bear Unveils 3D Social Fighting Game For Facebook

research@gdmag.com (Eric Caoili) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:00:40 -0500

Gravity Bear, the new social games studio founded by vets from Flagship (Hellgate: London, Mythos), announced its first title, Battle Punks, an original 3D fighting game featuring a fantasy setting and launching on Facebook.

In the game, players create custom avatars and battle other players in a variety of locations ("festive towns, shadowy forests, gloomy swamps, and beyond") to win weapons, spells, experience, and treasure. They can outfit their characters before each match with Battle Items they've collected, picking appropriate weapons for different encounters.

The studio partnered with SQLstream for the project, using the analytics company's technology for monitoring and studying metrics in real-time. Gravity Bear believes SQLstream's tools will help with the deployment and growth of Battle Punks, as the developer can use the data to make adjustments that suit players' needs and tastes.

"Our goal with Battle Punks is to help people have fun and deeply memorable experiences with their friends through games," says Gravity Bear co-founder and CEO Phil Shenk. "This is the primary mission of Gravity Bear, so our first title is designed from the ground up to be a shining example of that philosophy of community and fun. We can’t wait to build a new community of people who simply love games as much as we do."

Battle Punks is expected to enter its open beta phase during the 2009 holiday season. You can see a couple screenshots for the upcoming title after the break.

Wicked Selects Vindicia's Cashbox For Suba Payments

research@gdmag.com (Eric Caoili) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:00:17 -0500

Online games publisher Wicked Interactive has chosen Vindicia's Cashbox to power its Suba Games online gaming platform. The company will use Cashbox to process all customer payments including credit card, debit card, and PayPal transactions.

Vindicia, an on-demand billing solutions provider, says Wicked Interactive chose its product after a competitive review that tested Cashbox's "flexibility in supporting multiple payment methods for its free-to-play games, worldwide reach, and focus on customer acquisition and retention."

Founded in 2008 and based in Canada, Wicked Interactive operates several MMORPGs such as Priston Tale and Ace Online. Its Suba Games portal offers a collection of free, browser-based MMO games, each accessible through a single Suba profile. Wicked Interactive joins several other notable online game publishers that've partnered with Vindicia, like Cryptic Studios, Realtime Worlds, and Outspark.

"CashBox was designed with successful online game publishers like Wicked Interactive in mind," says Vindicia chairman and CEO Gene Hoffman. "The Internet feeds a much more dynamic, social gaming experience and Vindicia CashBox will support Wicked Interactive in their mission to provide top quality free-to-play MMO games to its community."

Study: MMOs Take Up 14% Of Gaming Time In U.S

research@gdmag.com (Eric Caoili) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 10:00:02 -0500

MMOs constitute 14 percent of all time spent playing video games in the U.S., according to survey results from a new international study. Console games, by comparison, claimed 34 percent of game playing time in the States.

TNS and Gamesindustry.com conducted surveys with more than 13,000 respondents aged eight years and older in the U.S. UK, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium for "Today’s Gamers MMO Focus Report". The groups gathered data on the total time participants spent with a variety of video game platforms, including consoles, PCs, online gaming portals, and mobile phones.

The study found that an average of 5.5 hours a week per player is devoted to massively multiplayer online experiences in the States, compared to 4.9 hours for console players and 4.8 for casual game portal players. Of the U.S.'s online population surveyed, 21 percent said they play MMOs. 45 percent of those count themselves as paying MMO players, while 30 percent have spent money on casual game portals.

The biggest factor gamers consider when deciding what titles to play are whether the MMOs are free to play and recommendations they've heard for friends. Respondents said they consider friends as more important sources of MMO information than news sites, blogs, print magazines, and TV.

In Europe, the amount of time spent with MMO games varies: 8 percent in the UK, 13 percent in Germany, 15 percent in France, 15 percent in the Netherlands, and 16 percent in Belgium. The portion of time spent with console titles in Europe ranges from 24 percent in the Netherlands and 40 percent in the UK. 10 percent of Europeans surveyed said they play MMOs.

Two thirds of the U.S. and European participants that reported playing MMOs are male. As for age groups, 8-12 years old make up the biggest segment in the U.S. which the report attributes to the popularity of virtual worlds targeting children, like Club Penguin. Over 50 percent of France's and Germany's MMO players are teenagers, while most MMO gamers in the Netherlands, the UK, and Belgium are older on average.

"The days we could categorize gamers on the basis of a single game platform are long gone," says Gamesindustry.com's Peter Warman. "Of the US console players, 29 percent also plays MMOs and 25 percent on their mobile phone. Also typical for today’s gamers is the fact that more than half of US console gamers (55%) also plays on casual game portals. All these platforms are increasingly competing for time and money of the same consumer."

You can purchase Today’s Gamers MMO Focus Report at Gamesindustry.com.

CrowdStar Touts Agile Business Model As Happy Pets Reaches 1 Million Users

research@gdmag.com (Eric Caoili) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 18:00:59 -0500

CrowdStar International Limited publicized its agile business model as the social games developer released its second major title in two months. Happy Pets, which the company launched on Facebook just last Thursday, is already expected to reach 1 million daily active users within a few days.

Founded in 2008 and employing fewer than 20 workers, the start-up says it emphasizes "developing and monetizing high quality flash based social games on Facebook which currently use direct payments as the only means of monetization."

In Happy Pets, players adopt kittens, nurturing them until they grow into cats. Crowdstar notes that the game's focus is on caring for pets instead of preparing them for sale.

Its first big success, Happy Aquarium, debuted on the social network last September and attracts 7.5 million daily active users. The developers previously released apps also include trivia game Know-It-All-Trivia, social causes game Save the Reef, and strategy RPG WW II.

CrowdStar says its experience creating those titles helped it streamline an agile development process for social game development and management. The studio adds that its profitable and "growing rapidly" with more Facebook games planned for release on a regular basis.

"Everyone understands that Facebook is hugely successful and social gaming is a huge market and is an inflection point in the gaming industry," says CrowdStar's executive chairman and lead angel investor Peter Relan.

"But we also recognize that the entire value chain, including the way you actually build, deliver and manage games has also changed, and traditional development models aren't optimal for this new market. We believe we are building the most efficient, agile and profitable business model in the industry."

RockYou Picks Up $50 Million In Series D Round

research@gdmag.com (Eric Caoili) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 14:00:05 -0500

Social games/apps company and ad platform RockYou secured $50 million from new investor Softbank in a Series D round, bringing the Redwood City-based outfit's total funding to $119 million since launching in late 2005.

The company's games and applications (e.g. Super Wall, Vampires) appear on a variety of social networks: Facebook, MySpace, Friendster, Hi5, Bebo, and more. It's also introducing Gifts, a new virtual goods app that enables users to purchase digital gifts for their friends, on MySpace today.

RockYou also operates an advertising network across those networks. The publisher's games, apps, and ads currently draw a total of 213 million users per month, and the company plans to use its new funding to expand that reach by increasing game advertising and overseas operations.

“Softbank was looking for us to be a little more aggressive in our application releases, especially in the Asian market,” says RockYou's Sales VP Lisa Marino, according to a report from VentureBeat. “They wanted us to fundamentally grow more quickly, and so that was the impetus for this deal.”

Zynga Raises $15.18 Million In New Funding

research@gdmag.com (Eric Caoili) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:00:54 -0500

Not to be left behind by its major rivals announcing big investments and acquisitions last week, social games developer Zynga revealed that it picked up $15.18 million in a new round of funding that attracted previous backers.

Combined with Zynga's previous financing rounds, which brought in $29 million last July and $10 million in January, the FarmVille developer has so far raised $54.1 million in venture capital. Participants for this third round include Foundry Group, Kleiner Perkins, LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman. amd Zynga execs Mark Vranesh, Vishal Makhijani, and Reggie Davis.

The funding news follows just two weeks after controversy surrounded Zynga over its scam-like "Cost Per Action offers" advertised with its apps. The company vowed to rid its games of any misleading promotions, but they popped up again in its recently launched FishVille, provoking Facebook to temporarily suspend the aquarium simulator.

Zynga then announced it would remove all CPA offers, including legitimate ones from companies like Amazon and Netflix, until it could control and specify which ads appear with its games. FishVille has also since reappeared on Facebook, where it's picked 8.3 million new users in the past week, but that hasn't stopped at least one law firm from investigating a possible class action lawsuit.

The developer's new capital is the latest in a month filled with big news from major players in the social games space -- Electronic Arts announced a $300 acquisition of Playfish (Pet Society) a few days ago, and soon afterwards Mafia Wars developer Playdom raised $43 million, which it spent on purchasing Green Patch Inc. and Trippert Labs.

Funcom Looks Forward To Secret World Amid Q3 Losses

research@gdmag.com (Eric Caoili) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 10:00:24 -0500

Funcom said Tuesday its sales fell 68.5 percent during the fiscal third quarter, as earnings for the Age of Conan studio swung to a loss compared to the same quarter a year ago.

The Norwegian-headquartered company attributed the lower revenues to a tough comparison to Q3 2008, when the PC MMORPG Age of Conan launched. Age of Conan subscriptions are currently Funcom's main source of revenue.

The firm also said that revenues for the game Anarchy Online are "slowly declining," which contributed to the decrease in revenues.

Revenues were $5.6 million for the quarter ended September 30, 2009, down from $18.07 million from Q3 2008. Funcom said the quarterly revenues fell into its previously guided range of $5 to $6 million.

Losses for the quarter were $9.59 million compared to a profit of $2.16 million a year ago. Funcom said earnings were negatively affected by "market cost, participation on exhibitions and provision for lease of offices." An impairment charge against Age of Conan also negatively impacted earnings.

The company said it increased sales and marketing of Age of Conan during the quarter, which Funcom said led to an increase in customer levels and higher in-game activity. But the launch of competing products -- such as NCsoft's Aion and Atari's Champions Online -- "led to a subsequent decrease in customer levels."

During Q3, Funcom revealed the first Age of Conan expansion, Rise of the Godslayer, which is slated to launch in the first half of 2010. Funcom said it will "continue to improve and tweak" its products in order to "extend subscriber life time." The studio also teamed up with Neowiz in Korea, where the operator is ramping up Age of Conan launch efforts.

Funcom has also revealed the upcoming MMORPG The Secret World, which the studio claims is "tracking better than Age of Conan, Warhammer Online, Aion and others at similar stage of development." There are currently 90 people working on the project, Funcom said.

Going forward, Funcom is also focusing on the free-to-play games market. Currently in prototyping are free-to-play games in the tactics, sci-fi, extreme sports, licensed brand game and database game genres. The company said its free-to-play games would cost $1-$3 million to make, and would take a team of 10-20 people to create a game in 12-18 months.

One free-to-play Funcom game is the kid-targeted action RPG Pets vs. Monsters, which would take on online games such as Runescape, Dofus and Habbo. The game is currently in beta and is slated for a release in the first half of 2010.

Overall, Funcom expects fiscal Q4 to bring in $4-5 million in sales.

Top 10 Facebook Apps And Upstarts, Week Of November 16th

research@gdmag.com (Eric Caoili) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 18:00:00 -0500

Every week, we'll examine the most popular Facebook applications (according to MUA, monthly active users), as well as the social network's up-and-coming apps that have picked up the most users in the past seven days.

The biggest Facebook "gainer" was Zynga's FishVille, which picked up 8.3 million new users this past week, bringing the aquarium simulator to a total of 9.2 million users since its launch two weeks ago. Note that the was inaccessible for several days during that period after the social network suspended it for scam-like Cost Per Action offers.

At #2, Happy Aquarium, a similar app from rival developer CrowdStar, picked up 1.9 million new users for a total of 27 million. Quiz creator application Quiz Monster, which was #2 last week, dropped off the list to #59, while Lyore Network's Quiz Bone remained popular and moved up a spot to #3 with 1.3 million new fans.

FarmVille by Zynga stayed at #5 with 902,232 new monthly active users, bringing its total up 1.4 percent to 64.6 million. Following that, Diva Life from LOLapps, in which players try to become a "triple threat" by singing, acting, and dancing their way to fame and fortune, jumped into the top 10 list of upstarts at #6, enjoying 796,317 fresh faces.

Meteor Games's Island Paradise (#7) and fighting game Little Warrior (#8) both returned to the gainers list, raking in 750,521 and 674,042 new users respectively. Zynga's Roller Coaster Kingdom and Playdom's Mobsters 2, however, both dropped out to make room for Friend Quiz and Friend.ly.

Top 10 Gainers On Facebook:

On the Top 10 list of popular Facebook apps, we saw very little movement compared to last week, though Zynga's Mafia Wars went down a spot to #5, making room for Happy Aquarium (I'm sure there's a joke to be made here about mafia-themed games now sleeping with the fishes). Zynga's YoVille, despite losing 150,000 of its users in the past week, supplanted FamilyLink.com at #7.

Top 10 Most Popular Facebook Apps:

All charts and data are courtesy of Facebook application metrics and trends site AppData.