"The proliferation of social gaming in this generation has been massive," adds Michael Denny, SVP of Sony Computer Entertainment's Worldwide Studios Europe. Currently, social games account for 14 percent of the European market.
SCE Europe's social initiative, so to speak, started in 2003 with the release of EyeToy. To date, the install base is 10.5 million units and has revenues of $450 million. The quiz game Buzz has sold 7.5 million units, and users have uploaded 100,000 quizzes to the attached social site My Buzz.
Its most successful social franchise is SingStar, which has sold over 17 million discs sold and has a microphone install base of 7 million. The SingStore sells one track every 10 seconds, and players have uploaded 135,000 performances to the SingStar network.
Sony's success in the social arena is because it recognized a few key patterns. Social games, at their heart, are designed to be played in groups by all ages and genders and should be fun to watch as well as play. And for most new gamers, the biggest barrier to entry is the controller, says Haigh. One of the keys to appealing to a broader audience is finding intuitive and innovative solutions to control, he says.