Will copycats run the Facebook games industry into the ground?

We sure as hell hope not. (We like having a job, thank you very much.) It's a common complaint lobbed at the social games industry: It's all the same games. If you ask this writer, the complaint isn't entirely unfounded, but does it spell the end of what would be a short-lived genre? Gamasutra posed that question to a few notables in the social games world recently.

"Part of why we're not attracting the hearts and minds of the core gamer on Facebook is that a lot of these games are kind of the same," Kixeye founder and CEO Will Harbin told Gamasutra. "There are a ton of strategy games, there are a lot of city building games, there are now a ton of mafia games again. It's just kind of more and more of the same."

Harbin recently defended his company from accusations by new studio Rumble Games that all of Kixeye's games are the same as well as Kabam and Zynga's. "You criticize us for that, then you can criticize EA, Blizzard, Activision and all of the guys for the same thing," Harbin told us. "There are only so many genres that have proven to work time and time again, and it's based on what consumers want."

Other executives echoed Harbin's sentiments, like Pocket Gems COO Ben Liu, but said that there's only one way to prevent copycatting from effectively destroying the industry. "Emotionally it bothers us [when we see copycats] but we feel like our best defense is to continue to be innovative," Liu said to Gamasutra.

A number of start-ups have promised a new era, a renaissance of Facebook games in 2012 that will not only bring new types of games to the social network, but new types of gamers, to boot. The question is, however, when the most guilty culprits are those with the most pull, how much good will that do? Check out the in-depth feature in full right here.

Are you tired of seeing copycat social games on Facebook and elsewhere? Do you think, if it continues, that it could mean the end for the industry?

The Sims Social: EA, Tencent will make a Littlehaven in China

The Sims Social China
Playfish's number one social game on Facebook, The Sims Social, is headed east ... far east. Lame jokes aside, EA has signed an agreement with Chinese social network Tencent to release The Sims Social to Chinese audiences. Tencent is the leading social network in China, and The Sims Social will be known as Mo Ni Shi Guang on the network.

The Sims Social is currently the sixth most popular Facebook game, trailing behind five Zynga games with just under 21 million monthly players, according to AppData. EA's idea with this move is obviously increasing the game's overall audience, and thus revenue. And what better place than one of the most densely-populated countries in the world? That could do the trick.

This news follows The Sims Social receiving the 2011 Interactive Achievement Award for Best Social Game amidst steep declines in player numbers since its release in August. This move will certainly help its audience grow, but The Sims Social could be improved upon a lot, if you ask COO Peter Moore.

[Via All Things D]

Are you surprised that EA would launch in China in such a big way? What do you think the game needs domestically, so to speak, to survive?

Hidden Haunts goes hunting for hidden objects on Facebook

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp is in the social games war now, didn't you hear? Anyway, the company's gaming division, Making Fun, has launched its first Facebook game today, Hidden Haunts. It looks about what you'd expect from a hidden object game. Well, aside from the characters with abnormally large heads and and equally large eyes.

"These games have been successful and confirmed our thesis," Making Fun CEO John Welch told VentureBeat. "We knew we had to get to market quickly or else there would be 20 of these games out there." So, Hidden Haunts is Making Fun's answer to the trend, a hidden-object game with enhanced, photo-realistic scenes. That's what Making Fun hopes will differentiate Hidden Haunts from other hidden-object games.

"We shot the photographs on location and added about a third of the objects in post production," Welch told VentureBeat. "In one scene with a kitchen, there was a real turkey. After taking the photo, the team ate the turkey. We get a better sense of realism that balances lighting and place. It looks more natural. It's a very complicated process, but one that results in higher quality. It's like watching sports in high definition. Once you see this, you can't go back."

Hidden Haunts is firmly situated to compete with the likes of Hidden Chronicles and Gardens of Time, both of which welcome millions of daily players. Is there room for another in the ring, enhanced environments or not? See for yourself in the game now.

Click here to play Hidden Haunts on Facebook Now >

Are you excited to see another hidden-object game on Facebook? Do you think the sub genre is over-saturated on Facebook already?

Crosswords' creator made a social game with just an idea and passion

Alright, maybe he had a little bit of cash, but PuzzleSocial founder and Crosswords creator Jeb Balise tells us that he has no previous experience making social games. So, how did Balise go from not knowing the first thing about social games to becoming the CEO of his own social game company with its first game out of the gate? (Hey, Mark Pincus did it.)

A deep love for crossword puzzles, and an idea--a pretty good one, at that. (A recent MBA graduate from Fordham University, Balise has a thing for business, too.) The PuzzleSocial CEO tells us that he's a tournament-level crossword puzzle solver, having competed in the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament for several years. "For the record, compared to most of the people that go to that tournament, I'm average," Balise humbly admits.

It was thanks to his time competing that Balise came up with PuzzleSocial. "[I found that] once you add the social nature of certain games such as multiplayer, they can spread so quickly and people can have a lot of fun playing together," Balise says. "That was a remarkable sort of thing that happened that I was only able to catch on because I was playing the [crosswords]."
Gallery: Crosswords on Facebook
The Fordham graduate soon realized that the world's crossword puzzles were made by a surprisingly small amount of people. That was about 14 months ago, and soon after Balise reached out to professional crossword puzzle constructors behind the puzzles readers of Newsweek, The Onion's A.V. Club and over 200 other newspapers and online news outlets worldwide enjoy. "Once I put two and two together that, 'Hey, we could all get together and put these great crosswords on the most powerful distribution platform ever to exist,' you know, we could make some cool things happen," Balise tell us.

PuzzleSocial CEO Jeb BaliseOf course, not knowing much about game development, the PuzzleSocial founder had to seek out those that did. Balise calls it a lucky break that he found the game developers that he did. The first designer he hired to work on Crosswords has moved into his New York City office. Today, Balise and his team of about 10 developers are working with 50 of the most syndicated crossword puzzle creators in the world. "I haven't taken a day off in 14 months, and I've enjoyed every single second of it."

Now that Crosswords is available to the public, it's initially drawn a crowd reminiscent of the average social gamer: middle-aged to older folks (that likely have experience with crosswords). However, we're told that this is just the beginning. When asked about plans for future growth, Balise says he plans to make its puzzles appeal to younger crowds both through social features like real-time Doubles Play and Celebrity Crosswords chock-full of current events and topics you'd find on TMZ.

"The typical way, just as you said, is that you're solving a crossword puzzle in the paper. How many times have we experience someone looking over someone's shoulder and chiming in with an answer? In this case, you don't have to do that," Balise says. "We want to prove to the world that crosswords are for all ages."

As for the future beyond Crosswords, the PuzzleSocial founder unsurprisingly has little he can talk about. What we do know is that PuzzleSocial has plans to launch two more social games and two mobile games in 2012. However, Balise promises that his company's mission to promote education through social will permeate throughout. "The philosophy behind what we're building lends itself to other games that can be built both in the puzzle world and beyond."

Have you tried Crosswords for Facebook yet? Do you think PuzzleSocial's approach will help it carve out a niche on Facebook?

Frogger is 30 years old, still bouncin' in Frogger Pinball on Facebook

Alright, so 30 is far from old, but that's ancient in frog years. Konami celebrates the 30th anniversary of gaming's favorite jaywalker with Frogger Pinball on Facebook. The game, created by Silverball Studios, is definitely a departure for Frogger, having the little green guy save his Lily from the clutches of the evil RoboCroc ... as a pinball. We at least hope the villain drives a red sedan.

Frogger Pinball takes cues from games like Bejeweled Blitz with its weekly leaderboards and tournaments, but attempts to add a light storyline to its naturally twitch-reflex play style. Come on, did you expect anything less from a Frogger game, and a pinball-themed one at that? The game's story mode spans three different tables: the Swamp, City and Space Station.

Players can unlock special characters from there to compete with their friends for the high score in Challenge Mode. Of course, unique power-ups and bonuses are rewarded throughout for leveling up, hitting targets and completing loops. We're sure each pinball table features unique obstacles, and you'll have to complete them with both Frogger and Lily to play Challenge Mode with all three characters.
Frogger Pinball in action
Konami has been no slouch when it comes to social gaming, either. The company has already released a few Facebook games, including an original in Viva! Mall. While that game has since shut down, the company has reported that social games helped the company double its profits year-over-year, according to Joystiq. That said, expect way--and we mean way--more where Frogger came from.

Click here to play Frogger Pinball on Facebook Now >

Are you still a Frogger fan after all of these years? Do you think Konami can bring its classic franchises back to life through Facebook?