There’s an interesting recent article on Virtual Goods News with Playfish’s CEO Kristian Segerstrale.
Here’s an excerpt from the article:
“This week Playfish CEO Kristian Segerstrale stated that the iPhone was not yet a mature platform for social games that use microtransactions as part of gameplay when compared to social networks like Facebook and MySpace. Segerstrale blames this on the “monopolistic distribution environment” common to all mobile games and exemplified by the App Store. He states that this environment is “hostile to growth.”
“The first iteration of how Apple allows you to do micro-transactions is restrictive in terms of how you define what you’re selling. In Pet Society, for example, we might launch 20 or 30 new virtual items every week. That’s just not feasible on the App Store,” said Segerstrale.
Elaborating on the problems with mobile social gaming, Segerstrale considers it problematic that players can only buy from one source (the App Store) that offers only “shallow” discovery and a “limited” business model. With online social games, Segerstrale notes that developers and publishers are free to “try out anything you want.”"
Here’s the full article: http://www.virtualgoodsnews.com/2009/08/playfish-.html
I translate all the jargon-coated insults to mean that Segerstrale is making lots more money on Facebook and MySpace, so he won’t be bothering with the App Store.
