Over the past year, we’ve seen a dramatic increase in social games, those that are played over social networks like facebook, myspace, Friendster, etc., but if San Francisco based PlayMesh have their way, 2009 could be the year of social games making the leap to mobile platforms. What’s more, PlayMesh’s iMafia has found an innovative solution to offering virtual goods on mobile platforms, traditionally a challenge for most iPhone applications.

If you’re on Facebook, there’s a pretty good chance that one of your friends has at one point or another tried to recruit you to join their ‘Mob’ via Mob Wars.  Building on the popularity of this game play format, PlayMesh co-founder Charles Ju says that the time is ripe to bring the concept from social networks to the iPhone.  iMafia, which was released on Friday, has been on a juggernaut course over the weekend and already ranks at number 55 (as of Monday morning, 26 January 09) on the Apple iPhone AppStore.

Capitalizing on the iPhone’s unique UI, iMafia players use screen gestures to navigate through the game world map.  Actions such as entering a building are accomplished via a simple tap function.  Similar to Mob Wars and other ‘domination’ type games, iMafia’s concept is simple, yet highly addictive: climb the ranks of a crime family, each ‘job’ requiring more and more skills/abilities.  Billed as (technically) an MMORPG, players can play against each other (and as it’s turn based, players do not need to be online at the same time), and may purchase virtual goods along the way to help them with quests.

So far, so good.  Not really much we’ve not already heard.  But here’s where things become interesting.  Ju says that iMafia is a mold breaker, as it successfully relies on virtual goods sales to monetize a social network in a free-to-play game context.

But hold on a second…Apple doesn’t allow developers to present free-to-play’s that rely solely on virtual goods sales to monetize, right?  I mean, call me crazy, but if this is the case, wouldn’t developers be giving away their apps as free-to-plays and seeking alternative payment options for monetizing their virtual goods?  Remember, the BigMac keeps a healthy 30 percent of all revenue generated from paid game sales, while others’ fees can be dramatically lower.  What gives?

What gives is that PlayMesh has put itself in a win-win situation, by circumventing Apple’s rules in so much as purchases of the companies’ other titles, Chess Puzzles, iType and Speed Shapes for example, count as ‘payments’ for virtual goods within iMafia.  Purchasing ‘Chess Puzzles ‘for example would grant the player premium points that can be used to increase your health, purchase bigger and better guns, or recruit more mafia members to your clan within the game.  However, what’s interesting to note is that the free versions of these applications have been removed, and are being replaced by paid versions, pending Apple’s approval.  This should be an interesting one to watch development, as it seems as though there’s more than just an App approval process going on here.  If Apple approves these paid applications, and PlayMesh uses them to fund virtual goods within another of it’s applications, the precedent is set, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see a deluge of other developers falling in line ASAP.