If you weren't convinced that social gaming and virtual goods are big business, here's a stat for you: EA's Pet Society sells 90 million virtual goods per day.
Sebastien de Galleux, co-founder of Playfish and now the VP of business development and strategic partnerships for EA Interactive, shared several stats about EA's social games at LeWeb Conference in Paris. In his interview with Tekzilla's Veronica Belmont, Galleux, the social gaming pioneer revealed that its most popular game, Pet Society, has 20 million users, nearly double that of World of Warcraft.
Late last year, EA acquired Playfish for up to $400 million in order to gain ground in the rapidly growing social gaming space.
The crowd was stunned though to hear that Pet Society sells 90 million virtual goods per day. While many are items that cost cents rather than dollars, it still adds up to 32.85 billion virtual goods sold per year. Galleux noted that it sells more goods in its marketplace than even eBay and that its users are demanding more ways, not fewer ways, to pay for virtual goods in bulk.
2010
http://mashable.com/2010/12/08/pet-society-sells-90-million-virtual-goods-per-day/
In 2010 Pet Society was going very strong, under the EA mismanagement, that slowly changed. Some players could not get into the game for month's. Customer service was to say the least, extremely poor. Still EA's excuse that the game was no longer viable, is and has been a lie. Millions of people played the game until the end. Yes the same people that still want to see the game back, even if it is only with a limited user license, by another company.
Is it a wonder EA earned the tittle of worst company twice in a row!
No!
For they do not care about their customers at all!
When Electronic Arts purchased Playfish in late 2009 for $400 million, the social game startup was riding high with millions of monthly active users across Facebook games like Restaurant City, Pet Society, and Country Story. Just three and a half years later, the company is all but nonexistent, as its final original game, Pet Society, be shut down on June 14.
Facebook game closures are nothing new, but typically, developers release new games as they shutter underperforming titles. With Playfish, and in fact most of EA’s social division, it seems as though the Facebook platform is being abandoned entirely (The Sims Social and SimCity Social are also being closed this month, as we reported earlier). What does this mean for Playfish’s future?
Obviously, the brand is in jeopardy, and EA’s help site doesn’t paint a pretty picture. Players with remaining balances on Playfish Cash Cards are encouraged to either spend their money or contact EA’s customer support team regarding that currency, with no alternatives being presented in terms of new games within which to shop.
Playfish’s website hasn’t been updated in months, game pages have fallen entirely silent, and all of EA’s hope for social success now seems to rest in the hands of PopCap, whose Plants vs Zombies Adventures has taken off to early success with over 2 million monthly active players, according to AppData.
Exactly what happens to Playfish’s remaining employees when games like Pet Society, or even the EA Tiburon developed Madden Social close is yet to be determined.
Source: http://www.insidesocialgames.com/2013/06/10/ea-sports-playfish-pet-society-shutdown/
No surprise there!
They fired loads of employers.
Moved customer service to India.
Made the game (Pet Society) almost impossible to play, for a while.
So basically they ran both, Pet society and Playfish in the ground.
Seems to me any investment in a company that operates like that is a bad one.
Judging from these pictures taken at the Shanghai International Game Exhibition! Not many people are visiting with EA!
Special thank's to: