A panel of experts get social.
What is the role of social networks in mobile games, and how will the crossover between mobile and social gaming evolve?
A panel of industry figures chewed over the issue at Mobile Games Forum this morning, with much of the session focusing on user data - who owns it, and how it's shared.
However, it started with the question of whether the social gaming boom on Facebook is negatively impacting mobile gaming? Are people playing Farmville rather than mobile titles?
Digital Chocolate was one of the first mobile publishers to launch its games on Facebook, with Tower Bloxx. Robert Unsworth from DChoc said that "the stalling of the mobile games business in a J2ME perspective has been due to a huge slowdown in new device sales" rather than competition from social games.
However, he also said modern consumers are playing games across many platforms - "on DS, on PSP, on the iPhone, on Flash, on Facebook... It's a challenge for developers and publishers to address those needs." However, he said it's far from unsurmountable for mobile firms to start targeting these various platforms.
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Joe Wee from Chillingo agreed that social networking is an "enabler" for mobile gaming - "iPhone for us is a way to really push social games". Chillingo is launching its own iPhone social gaming platform: Crystal. It'll compete with OpenFeint, Scoreloop, Plus+, AGON Online and others.
Vodafone's Aaron Johnston outlined some of the technical challenges in bringing social gaming to mobile - and stressed that operators still have an important role to play in the process.
"We have a role in the technical capability to address some of these issues," he said. "We've been talking to publishers about what they need from us to bring their games to market."
What are the key features for mobile social gaming now? Johnston said the basics - high score tables, challenges and so on - are still important. But he pointed out that a key part of social games on Facebook is that they're constantly being tweaked and updated.
"That's one of the really important things we should get right from the start [in mobile]," he said. The ability to refresh social games on people's devices will be crucial. "In that context, we're going to do something really interesting," he said, with his Vodafone hat on.
Holroyd said Orange is also looking at cross-platform services, with web to mobile features. However, the operator isn't trying to build its own communities for social gaming and services - it's using Facebook Connect to tap into its customers' existing communities.
Nokia's Mark Ollila was also on the panel, having been involved with its N-Gage gaming service in the past - whose Arena community was one of the better-received elements of the service. What now though?
"When it comes to the social networking side, the sort of things we're looking at is how can we have the enablers in the device, so it's easier for consumers to reach the social networks," he said.
"Really what we're pushing is 'what is a social network?' Is it Facebook, or is it the communities of friends you have yourself who are not tied to a specific social network?" He also said social networks or communities can be based around locations - people being in the same place at the same time (or even different times).
What about iPhone though, with its multiple social gaming platforms? Is that the future, or should Apple build its own and insist developers use it?
Vodafone's Johnston said privacy is a big issue for operators - or rather ensuring that the privacy of their customers is respected. "It wouldn't surprise me if there was a larger trend over the course of the next year or two, of requiring people to be more careful with information than they already are," he said - referring to Europe.
There could be a battle brewing though: games developers want to have detailed information on how their games are being played, and also more info on who is playing them. Think about how important this is to the Facebook games firms. Yet in mobile, that information hasn't always been easy to come by - especially if operators act as a block. Not that all of them do, it should be said.
In the app store world, companies like Flurry have sprung up to provide these kind of detailed analytics, of course. It will be interesting to see whether operators will strike deals with them, or try to develop their own analytics services in order to protect the data.
Wee from Chillingo highlighted the differences between the operator ecosystems and the OEM app stores, which touch on many of these issues. Note Apple's hands-off approach on iPhone, stepping in only when there's a concern - as with the Storm8 farrago last year - that user information may be being mis-used.
Unsworth talked about letting consumers decide how mobile social gaming will evolve, in terms of what they're comfortable with, and what kinds of games they want to play. "To try and impose an end-to-end solution is going to be counterproductive, I think," he said.
Ollila pointed out that there may be disruption ahead - devices like the N900 can play Facebook games through the browser, with no need for a download. "Does that set up a disruptive element, where you just write using internet technologies that work on the device as well as on desktops?"
Why haven't the big social games firms come into mobile? "We talked to Playfish and they said they have no interest in mobile," said Holroyd. "When they are, we'll obviously be interested in talking to them."
Moderator Tim Harrison pointed out that with the mobile background of Playfish's senior team, "perhaps they know mobile all too well!"
