Hi5 Launches New Game Dev Program

Today the social network hi5 announced a new program for game developers, designed to make it easier for developers to launch and market new games. As part of the program, developers will have access to hi5's built-in virtual currency and payments platform, hi5 Coins. The program is also designed to help drive stickiness and virality in social games launched on the hi5 platform, speeding up the process of user acquisition and monetization.  With this program, hi5 is explicitly pitching itself as a social gaming destination that will be far friendlier to developers than Facebook.

"To date, social games have been distributed on open platforms competing against thousands of other titles with nothing but their own spamminess to get them discovered.  As the market has saturated, getting noticed has become more and more difficult and expensive, particularly for smaller developers," said Alex St. John, President and CTO of hi5, in a press statement.  "Hi5’s new Game Developer Program solves this problem by providing great games with free promotion, rapid audience acquisition and favorable revenue share for new content on hi5.com."

The new game developer program will offers its free promotional and other benefits only to social games launched exclusively on hi5.com. For developers willing to risk giving up platforms like Facebook and MySpace, hi5 can provide banner ads, placement on the hi5 Games page, inclusion in the hi5 toolbar, and user recommendations. Developers will be able to use hi5 Coins, circumventing any need to work with outside payment systems. Revenue from both direct payments and advertising would be shared between hi5 and the developer. 

Hi5 promises to drive user acquisition and retention with one-click game installs, open viral channels for game promotion, and game-related hi5 friend updates. Hi5 now supports the Facebook API, so developers shouldn't have difficulty moving existing Facebook games over to the hi5 platform. While multi-platform developers won't get hi5 promotional support, hi5 seems willing to help developers launch their Facebook games on its platform, too. Partners will also get access to specific hi5 gaming APIs, enabling things like achievement and high score lists that will integrate with user profiles. 

Launch participants in the program include Immortal Games, Detonator Games, and Exponential Entertainment. The only possible problem hi5's new platform might face is that despite a year-long focus on gaming as the network's future, only about one-third of its users are gamers. Hi5 simply feels the network should put the most effort into developing site features that make money, and social gaming's ability to monetize well is currently undisputed. 

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