There have been a spate of social gaming acquisitions over the past year or so. Despite the fact that Playdom CEO John Pleasants has snapped up seven smaller developers in the past year, he thinks that purchases like that will slow down.
“If you go back 18 months [and look at who] were making the top 25 games on Facebook, there were 14 indie companies. Today, that number is five,” said Pleasants. “There are 250,000 apps on Facebook. There are 250 games launching a day on Facebook. It is very difficult for small companies to break in. It s near impossible. And in that context, the deals are cheaper. We are at a scale now where we are comfortable. I don t think you will see a continued pace of acquisitions.”
He thinks that social gaming is still in an early stage and will expand out to five major companies like Playdom and Zynga. “We still hustle, said Pleasants. We don t feel like we are winning the race. I don t think any one company wins the race. I think a handful of companies will be in the front pick. There will be an A list, and we want to be firmly in the pack.”
Pleasants is, overall, hopeful about the market and expects it to be worth a few billion dollars in five years. “We are in a race. There is a sense of urgency,” he said. “I am as bullish as ever. In the West, it will go from a $1 billion market to a $5 billion market in the next four or five years. It s a very fast growing business.”
Source: VentureBeat