Social Gaming Ready To Take Off

Social games – those simplistic, easy-to-play 5-minutes games put up on Facebook and other social networking sites – appear ready to take off.

It is easy to dismiss these frivolous applications as faddish. They are far less sophisticated and complex than the carefully orchestrated games that run on the popular consoles – such the Xbox 360 or the PlayStation 3.

But they CAN be shared with a player’s friends on Facebook or MySpace – which is exactly the point.

“It’s still very early,” says Gareth Davis, platform manager at Facebook. But “I think there is a new type of gaming experience.”

Davis predicted Tuesday at the Social Gaming Summit in San Francisco that most of the big gaming companies would unveil games in the next 12 months incorporating the social aspects of user interaction. “I don’t think any projects have been canceled.”

In addition, the spread of smart phones with Internet connections and browsers is creating a “multi-device” world where gamers will be able to participate from whatever device they want: console, phone or computer.

“This is the very beginning of the movement,” he said. A year ago, these companies weren’t even thinking about how to make social games.

Davis could indeed be right. A dramatic change in the gaming could be on the way. The challenge will be in bring the sophistication of the console experience to the Web's social platforms.