Social Gaming is big, there’s no doubt about it, but until recently, one might be hard pressed to guestimate just how big. According to a new report released by The NPD Group, 1 in 5 Americans has actively engaged in social gaming, in one form or another.
Breaking this down into numbers, the NPD report issued that 56.8 million Americans have played a social game on a social network. The included group was sampled from aged 6 and upwards. The “Social Network Gaming” report indicates that 35 percent of these social gamers are new to the scene, and had no previous experience with traditional gaming: PC, console, handheld, or other forms of video game play. That’s a huge percentage, one that developers must be excited about, as this 35 percent is the target audience that could further expand the entire gaming industry. I.e. get them in the door with something light and social, and then move them up the gaming chain. Sure, there’s going to be falloff, but some new percentage is better than no new percentage.
Adding to this excitement, 10 percent of those surveyed indicated that they’d spent real money on microtransactions in free-to-play titles. This would be the aforementioned new percentage. 11 percent said that they were likely to purchase something virtual in the future. The percentage grows!
Conversely however, more seasoned, traditional gamers say that social games are effecting the way their view their play time. These gamers indicated that they spend on average 20 percent less on gaming overall since delving into the social network based gaming world.
This new 10-11 percent of incoming gamers are more likely to be either female or older according to the report. When viewing the current state of social gamers, the report was fairly evenly split, with 47 male and 53 percent female.
“Although 35 percent of social network gamers are new to gaming, it’s clear that a lot of existing gamers have been drawn into the social network gaming arena as well. This impacts both the time they spend with other types of gaming, as well as the amount of money they’re spending on gaming. As more players are drawn into these games, the entire games industry is going to feel, and have to adjust to, the impact.”" says NPD Group analyst Anita Frazier.
[source: Gamasutra]
CEO Nabeel Hyatt will now become the head of Zynga Boston, while the Conduit Labs team will immediately see Zynga on their next paycheck. Conduit is yet another social games maker acquired by Zynga, most noted for 
IGA Worldwide has undergone a major restructuring, so much so that the firm caught the eye of T-Ventures. The terms of the investment were not disclosed by IGA, however industry rumors place the sum somewhere in the seven-figure range.
Digital River and En Masse Entertainment struck a deal that will see in-game commerce and an online store launch in 2011, and will run through to 2014. Services provided by Digital River, parent company of fatfoogoo, will include 
Seoul based developer Bluehole Studio created TERA, and is now preparing for not only a North American launch, but also bringing the title to Europe. And while produced in Asia, TERA has been targeted at Western Audiences since it’s inception. En Masse Entertainment has spent hours and hours of research studying Western gamers’ preferences and adjusting their development accordingly. Appropriately, the MMO is the same, and yet different from a number of RPGMMO’s on the market today, in so much as combat involves moving and dodging attacks, similar to console style action titles.
eMarketer states that advertisers spent around $144 million in 2009, and the 20 percent 2010 increase is based on conservative estimates, as eMarketer themselves point out that the social games business continues it’s juggernaut growth pattern.
