Playfish CEO Kristian Segerstrale took the stage at the GDC yesterday, and delivered his view on how social networks are influencing the way the world plays.  At Thursday’s GDC sessions, he delivered five industry trends that all social gaming developers need to keep in mind.

“Social games are a phenomenon occurring on both the business and the development side of the industry”, says Segerstrale.  During his talk on Thursday, Segerstrale also commented that social networks reach a half a billion people on a global scale.  These networks connect new and old friends, and the bridge to playing games together isn’t that far of a leap.  Segerstrale notes that these games are a natural extension of real world sociability, and that this form of word-of-mouth recommendations is fueling the expansive growth in the casual/social games segment.  Audience members were treated to Segerstrale’s five industry trends, including digital distribution and games as a service (gaas?).

The end of big franchises may be over

Speaking to the 800 pound gorilla in the room, Segerstrale duly notes that the industry is standing by the old guard, and continuing to churn out franchise titles, simply because they (or have) worked.  He admits that consumers will naturally gravitate towards the product they are familiar with vs. one they’ve never played before.  This ultimately makes the job of studio marketing departments a heckuva lot easier.

Conversely, this method will not work in social networks, as the adoption process is influenced and pushed through friends.  Judged on these terms, notes Segerstrale, the entire product relationship and distribution mechanism changes.  It’s not a question of who’s playing what, but rather the simple question of who’s playing, and who isn’t.

Games will all become services

Ok, all gaas jokes aside, the CEO says that as soon as a game becomes digitally distributed they are set up and ready to go for consistent updates.  A natural progression in game development is to consistently revamp and improve the title.  According to Segerstrale, this wipes the traditional model of the product cycle right off the map.  He also believes that social networks are pushing games developers to work like mini-MMO operators.  Meaning, if your social game is a success, bring a pillow and a toothbrush, as the project isn’t ‘over’, but rather, just beginning.  And perhaps the most important point under this heading, “All your revenues move from point of sale to continual,”  Again, product cycle – where?

Marketing by numbers

Releasing a little known secret, Segerstrale commented that the video game industry is one of the largest spenders when it comes to the marketing department.  He sees digital distribution as a mechanism to drive the marketing spend down.  He sees video game industry marketing trends moving away from ‘traditional’ and focusing more on a ‘web’ marketing approach.  Taking nothing away from marketing firms that did outstanding jobs during the 1970’s, 80’s and 90’s, Segerstrale says that traditional game marketing skills are of a limited use in today’s market, because acquiring new customers is more about the quality of the game, not how good the marketing plans behind it look.  He says that in today’s market, you need to constantly tweak games, and become a numbers ninja, gauging the cost of customer acquisition, retention and perhaps most importantly, monetization.

Game design changes

“…designing social games is much different than traditional games,” says Segerstrale, “we are forced to unlearn a lot.”  Social games are more in line with traditional board games, as opposed to a ‘video’ game.  With social games, Segerstrale says that developers have to put the interaction between screen, keyboard, and mouse on hold, and remember that they are creating a playground for users.  It’s not about collecting something or leveling up, but rather about creating a space where users can play out their own story.

“Design also starts driving audience and monetization, he says. How do I make this game really fun to play, but make it irresistible so that players want to pay to play them?”

Listen to your players

In a moment, of, ‘well, yeah?’, Segerstrale told audience members to listen to their players.

“Your players will teach you how to make better games.”

Nodding to the obvious, Segerstrale pointed out that naturally game developers receive qualitative feedback from players about what they love and hate about your product, but also points out that likes and dislikes can also be discerned from game data.  Another obvious approach?  Flat out ask players what’s what with the game.  He says that a structured analysis of this data will teach you how what to do, and what not to do within the current offering, or one in the works.  Developers need to find a balance between qualitative and quantitative data.

Wrapping up his talk, Segerstrale comments, “This is still a nascent industry.  Creating a hit is very hard. This isn’t a protected environment. There are over 50,000 Facebook applications. Product quality is everything. And monetization is still being developed.”

Segerstrale simply asked three things from participants entering the social gaming space: create products that focus on value, not spam; innovate and inspire; and focus on building games for the long run.