PopCap Says Facebook Game Boom About To End

PopCap Games co-founder and Chief Creator Officer Jason Kapalka says that the social game boom on Facebook may come to an end soon, in a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz. Kapalka says that Facebook is becoming over-saturated with games just as the casual and mobile sectors did before going into decline earlier this decade. 

"You're definitely in the stage right now in social games where there's a lot of bandwagon jumping, where everyone sees moneymoneymoney and suddenly all these new companies appear," said Kapalka. "It happened before in mobile, it happened before in casual – in the past it's tended to signal the beginning of the end. Not necessarily of the genre, but of the sort of golden era, where everything was a fresh blue ocean."

PopCap publishes the games Bejeweled Blitz and Zuma Blitz for Facebook, both based on PopCap's hit casual games for PC and other platforms. PopCap's games also appear in Flowplay's virtual world ourWorld.com, along with branded virtual goods. Kapalka's statements about social gaming are surprising in light of the $22.5 million round of funding the company took last year to increase its presence in that sector.

Kapalka is not the only one looking beyond Facebook.  In fact,
Trip Hawkins, Chairman and CEO, Digital Chocolate will be speaking on the subject Getting Beyond Facebook at our Engage Santa Clara show (Sept. 22-23). Trip's talk will be followed by a panel discussion on the subject.

Join us for the App Developers Conference – October 26-27, 2011 in Santa Clara