Social games are defined as games that are played and distributed inside social networking sites such as Facebook and use data provided by the platform in some way. The objective of the thesis was to find out how game developers appraise social gaming, advertising in games and working with advertising agencies.
Quantitative survey was chosen as the method of research. 300 invitations were sent to game developers around the world to take part in the online survey. 17 game developer companies participated, making the response rate 5.7 percent. Although the response rate was fairly low, the backgrounds of the respondents were very varied.
Little less than half of the developers had done social games while the rest had not. Most game developers agreed that social gaming is not just a passing trend and also that it is still very much evolving and finding its form. Based on the results, mobile seems to become a more important platform for social gaming in the future. Game developers gather various kinds of data about players of their games but when it comes to using the data for behavioural targeting, their views are very divided.
One of the most important findings was that majority of the developers thought that there is a need for an aggregator between game developers and marketers. Most developers also stated that an advertising agency could work as such an aggregator. However, it is also important to note that some of the game developer companies wanted to focus strictly on more traditional computer and console gaming instead of social gaming and also felt that advertising in games restricts the creativity of their work.
Based on the results of the survey it can be concluded that there is a possibility for advertising agencies to collaborate more with game developers and marketers. This collaboration would provide a new tool for the service arsenal of advertising agencies and grant a good way to increase revenue for the game developers who feel positively towards using advertising in games. Gaming also provides an excellent channel for marketers to reach out to consumers and gain their attention because multitasking is almost non-existent when gaming unlike watching TV or browsing the web.
ACM Computing Classification System (CCS):
K.8.0 [PERSONAL COMPUTING]: Games
K.6.3 [Software Management]: Software Development
