6 Waves, a social gaming company which builds apps for Facebook, has raised $17.5 million from Insight Venture Partners. The Hong Kong-based company said it plans to use the funds to build infrastructure and a distribution pipeline for other game developers. It’s also looking into international expansion and platform extension.
The investment marks another milestone in funding for social gaming app developers. In December of 2009, Zynga, a social gaming company based out of San Francisco, raised $180 million from DST for its popular games like FarmVille and Mafia Wars. Just a month earlier, EA acquired Playfish for around $275 million.
And these games aren’t about fancy graphics and gameplay like some of those you may be used to seeing on the traditional consoles. Social games are usually free and all about connecting users with their friends. Games are monetized through advertisements and the buying and selling of virtual goods – like in Zynga’s Mafia Wars, buying a more powerful weapon for a couple bucks to destroy an enemy with.
To put some numbers into play, Zynga has around 230 million monthly active users. Up and coming 6 Waves said it has over 20 published applications, and over 50 million monthly active users.
And it’s not like all these companies are creating original and unique games. For example, 6 Waves launchd a game called Gangster Wars which is very similar to Zynga’s Mafia Wars. Both gaming companies also have farming and poker games with the same features. And to add to that, another company I didn’t mention yet, Playdom has a mafia themed spinoff, called Mobsters. Either way, millions are flocking to these social games.
These companies are moving fast, launching apps once they are ready to play and then updating and upgrading them based on trends they see and what the users ask for. Once an app starts fading in popularity, you’ll see a new one arise.
Pure commentary here, I’ve yet to see a Facebook gaming app be considered a legendary classic like Super Mario Bro’s or Zelda, something unique and timeless that people talk about for a lifetime. At the same time, Facebook app’s haven’t been around as long. But they come and go. They are built in quantity vs quality as opposed to the traditional games I grew up with.
We’ve reached out to 6 Waves to talk a little bit about how it differentiates itself in the social gaming space but haven’t heard back.
