Playerize

This week was filled with some exciting announcements! Facebook moved subscription payments out of beta and the first real-money game launched on the platform. DeNa reported its highest quarterly revenue to date and Amazon entered social gaming with a new game and studio! I also included a link to the new infographic from Arkadium on social game purchases.

Facebook subscription payments come out of beta, now available for all developers - Subscription payments were originally announced back in June and it seems that the new payment option is now available for all developers. Developers can set different prices based on local currency and different levels of subscription.

Real-money gaming arrives on Facebook with Bingo Friendzy - The new game from online gambling company Gamesys was launched in the UK, as opposed to the US. Users must be above the age of 18 and must use credit cards to play. For the time being real-money online gambling won’t be coming to US Facebook users.

Amazon launches social game Living Classics and officially introduces Amazon Game Studios - Amazon jumps into the fray with a new self dubbed “Moving object game” and the announcement of their own gaming studio. Amazon will have fierce competition from older players in the space and it will be interesting to see how they  fair!

DeNA reports its highest quarterly revenue to date - DeNA sees the record-high revenue of $609M (37% higher than last year’s quarter) and operating profit of $235M (22% higher than last year’s quarter) as direct evidence that their efforts in the West are paying off. Based on the trend they forecast quarter-on-quarter increases in revenue and operating profit by $24M and $14M respectively.

Arkadium released an interesting infographic on the 5 Ws of social game purchases - Who, what, where, when, and why complete with percentages and cool pixel graphics.