Press Clippings

17 November 2009 - by Dean Takahashi

Playfish scored big last week as Electronic Arts said it would buy the social gaming company for as much as $400 million. That’s a remarkable achievement for a company that is just a couple of years old. It’s a validation of the fast growth of the social gaming market and a tribute to Facebook’s growth as well.

16 November 2009 - by Bobby White and Yukari Iwatani Kane

Online gaming is heading in some tantalizing new directions. Spurred by the spread of social networking, faster Internet connections and powerful mobile devices, game makers are experimenting with a host of innovations that drastically improve online play.

9 November 2009 - by Wired staff

You might not recognise the name, but if you’re on Facebook you’ve probably played a Playfish game. The Kensington-based company develops free Flash games (including Restaurant City, Bowling Buddies and Country Story) that can be played on platforms from Bebo to iPhone. The games attract tens of millions of players, and Playfish has raised over £13 million in its first two years.

5 November 2009 - by Ludwig Siegele

IN THE eyes of media executives, the internet is a malevolent vacuum-cleaner, sucking in one business after another. Music, software and videos are all increasingly obtained online—often free of charge. Now it is the turn of video games.

4 November 2009 - by Matt Cowan

Games like Pet Society, Restaurant City and Who Has the Biggest Brain - are available for free on social networks such as Facebook and Bebo, rather than being sold through a box in a store.

4 November 2009 - by Georgina Prodhan

The video games sector has yet to gain from a downturn where consumers stay home to play, but social games creator Playfish says the industry is just beginning a new growth spurt.

3 November 2009 - by Dean Takahashi

A relatively obscure part of the social networking business has come into the limelight. It’s about special ads known as “offers” which are used to monetize free social games. These offers are like the ads that promise you a discount on your Amazon.com purchases if you sign up for a free credit card.

3 November 2009 - by Chris Mack

Social network Bebo has launched a new gaming section of the site yesterday, called the Social Games Experience. It includes both in depth developer tools and games developed by existing social gaming companies including Playfish (Pet Society) and MindJolt (MindJolt Games).

2 November 2009 - by Matt Cowan

The two-year-old UK-based social gaming company says it's already turning a substantial profit, despite offering its games for free on social networks such as Facebook.

28 October 2009 - by Alex Wilshire

Speaking at the London Games Conference last night, co-founder and CEO of Facebook game specialist Playfish Kristian Segerstrale told panel chairman Phil Harrison that “physical media doesn’t have a chance in the future”.

28 October 2009 - by LIbe Goad

Social gaming company Playfish turns two this week and celebrated with custom-cocktails named for some of their premier games -- the Playfish Martini, Restaurant City 'Rita, Geo Club and the Quiztastic! Cooler.

23 October 2009 - by Ari Levy and Adam Satariano

Facebook Inc. is tapping virtual farmers, mafia dons and online pets to generate cash from the social-networking Web site’s 300 million users.

22 October 2009 - by BBC

Americans look set to spend $1bn (£600m) on virtual goods in 2009, claims a report. The cash will be spent on add-ons for online games, digital gifts and other items that exist only as data.

15 October 2009 - by Jon Swartz

Social games are expanding the audience beyond traditional young male video-gamers and casual gamers, who tend to be women over 35. Such games are the hottest thing going in the $13 billion online-gaming market.

1 October 2009 - by Mike Butcher

I caught up with Kristian Segerstrale, CEO of Playfish, at an event in London today. I asked him about the latest moves at Playfish, what he thinks of Facebook’s recent move away from applications to Facebook Connect, and where he thinks it’s good to do a startup in Europe.

1 October 2009 - by Will Freeman

Playfish's new Quiztastic! Facebook app not only brings the world of the TV quiz show to the popular social networking site, but lets users build and customise their own contests of knowledge.

21 September 2009 - by Kevin Anderson

While newspapers and the music industry look for new ways to make as much money as they did before the dawn of digital, games makers are celebrating the success of the "freemium" business model. This model means that anyone can play for free, but they have to pay for access to higher levels or enhanced features in the game.

20 September 2009 - by Tom Ivan

Social game developer Playfish has opened a new development studio located in San Francisco. The company’s fourth game development studio – it also has development houses in London, Beijing and Norway – “will target the Bay Area’s considerable talent resources” to create original titles for platforms including Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, iPhone and Android.

18 September 2009 - by Kath Brice

Social gaming company Playfish is to open a new game development studio in San Francisco. With the new studio, which will be the company's fourth, the developer hopes to target the Bay Area's considerable talent resources in order to create more original social games for platforms such as Facebook, MySpace and iPhone.

18 September 2009 - by Kris Graft

The social gaming space is a new beast. Sebastian de Halleaux, COO of Pet Society developer Playfish, used his GDC Austin keynote to liken companies who integrate their games with networks like Facebook and MySpace as the small agile mammals scurrying around the feet of dinosaurs.

18 September 2009 - by Nick O'Neill

This week two of the largest social gaming developers, Playfish and Playdom, announced that they are opening offices in San Francisco. Is this part of the massive Silicon Valley “revival” that the BBC described yesterday? I doubt it but it’s clear that no matter where the social gaming companies are hiring from, San Francisco and the bay area in general, are important for any growing internet startup.

18 September 2009 - by Brendan Sinclair

GDC Austin 2009: Co-founder of Playfish, a studio dedicated to Facebook, iPhone development, regales audience with 'fish tales in conference's final keynote address.

18 September 2009 - by Tameka Kee

Not much differentiates one hot new social gaming startup from another. Sure they have different games—and maybe even slightly different business models—but for the most part, they make their money through some combination of user-generated revenue (micro-transactions, virtual goods, subscriptions, etc.) and advertising. What’s really interesting is when other people in the industry—rival CEOs and business execs, not a PR team—continuously talk up one company as an example of how to get the money-making combination right.

17 September 2009 - by Michael French

Facebook gaming expert Playfish is to open a new studio in San Francisco. It will be the firm's fourth development outfit, following offices in London, Beijing and Norway. The firm already has a biz dev office in San Francisco.

17 September 2009 - by Develop

Social gaming firm's fourth studio will attract top US dev talent, says CEO Segerstrale. Facebook gaming expert Playfish is to open a new studio in San Francisco. It will be the firm's fourth development outfit, following offices in London, Beijing and Norway. The firm already has a biz dev office in San Francisco.

17 September 2009 - by James Temple

Playfish, the creator of popular social networking games like Pet Society, Restaurant City and Country Story, said today it's opening a development studio in San Francisco to target local talent.

17 September 2009 - by Dean Takahashi

Social games maker Playfish is one of the fastest-growing companies in its field. Today, the company announced that it is opening a new game development studio in San Francisco.

17 September 2009 - by Leigh Alexander

Social game developer Playfish has added a fifth studio to its portfolio, its second establishment in the city of San Francisco. The new development office will be focused on original social games for Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, iPhone and Android.

11 September 2009 - by Nigel Kendall

Starting a cutting-edge technology company can be a costly business, involving huge investment in computer hardware and systems. However, when Sebastien de Halleux and three friends founded Playfish in 2007, they found an intriguing way to side-step the set-up costs. They used the internet as their storage space and distribution platform.

7 September 2009 - The Guardian

The 100 companies below have been picked for their innovation and creativity over the past year in areas as diverse as mobile applications, racing games and music recognition. We list the top 10 and then all others by sector.

7 September 2009 - by Matt Martin

An impressive number of videogame developers have been named in The Tech Media Invest Top 100, complied by Europe Unlimited in conjunction with The Guardian, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Kemp Little.

7 September 2009 - by Soyon Im

Last month, A-ya Chiu of Taiwan had over 4400 friends on Facebook. Most of these friends were added for Pet Society, the Playfish game revolving around cartoonish pets. Because of her vast network, Chiu is the most popular girl in Pet Society, and her alter-ego “IceLashes” enjoys a fabulous lifestyle in the virtual world.

7 September 2009 - by Christopher Mack

Playfish is one of the leading game developers on Facebook, but its latest game, Quiztastic, is getting a slow start out of the gate. Some of the company’s titles, including Country Story and Restaurant City, are still growing with roughly 5 and 12 million users respectively. Others have plateaued; the Worms-style Crazy Planets is staying steady at around 2 million.

3 September 2009 - by Olivia Fraga

Há cinco meses, 11 milhões de usuários do Facebook estão realizando o sonho de comandar seu próprio restaurante – pelo menos, dentro da rede. No Restaurant City, um dos jogos mais populares do site, você cozinha, contrata, cria receitas, faz compras, redecora, ganha prêmios, fama e dinheiro. E pode até passar no restaurante ao lado para ver o que o concorrente está fazendo. Na última semana, o jogo teve quase 700 mil acessos (6º lugar em visitações), e os números inflam feito suflê.

2 September 2009 - by Tim Bradshaw

The video games industry is one of the last media sectors to face disruption from the internet. But led by companies such as Playfish and Zynga , internet-based “social” gaming is now redefining how games are produced and distributed.

28 August 2009 - by Derek Brown

Facebook these days isn't just a place to chat and share photos - it is a gamer's haven. Applications are a massive part of the social networking phenomenon, adding loads of fun ways to waste a few hours. But with around 75,000 available, where do you start? Here we give our guide to five of Facebook's best.

24 August 2009 - by Christian Nutt

London, England headquartered Playfish (Pet Society) is one of the leaders of the social gaming surge currently taking place, and Sebastien de Halleux, the company's co-founder and chief operating officer, feels very passionately about this trend. He sees the opportunity of bringing sticky, addictive games to social networks like Facebook and MySpace as a massive one.

21 August 2009 - Sramana Mitra

For the last year, the world's financial markets have been in utter crisis. There is one sector, however, doing well: virtual worlds that sell virtual goods. Netizens are buying and selling everything from virtual pets and gifts to games to iPhone apps.

20 August 2009 - by Jon Jordan

The iPhone games space is experiencing rapid growth, but if you want to find out about explosive growth, talk to Kristian Segerstrale, CEO of Facebook publisher Playfish.

19 August 2009 - by Jessica Gelt

Tom Byron's restaurant, Pink Castle, is shaped like a giant nouveau castle, painted cotton candy pink and topped with blue fairy-tale turrets. The inside resembles an old-fashioned diner with comfy booths, checkered floors, balloons, video games and festive salsa music on the jukebox. Its most famous dish is a Pink Burger.

19 August 2009 - by Christopher Mack

For one reason or another, quizzes have certainly been one of the types of applications that have always been widely used since the birth of the Facebook Platform. Whether long or short, educational or horoscopes, these lists of questions have been taken countless times by Facebook users. However, Playfish is hoping to take the social quiz experience to a new level with its just released game Quiztastic!

18 August 2009 - by James Fudge

Social gaming is in its infancy. While console makers are trying to figure out what "social gaming" means beyond playing together with friends in your living room or across a vast worldwide network, other companies are creating powerful products on Facebook and MySpace that cost very little to make and operate, and have the potential of reaching millions of users without spending a single advertising dollar.

18 August 2009 - by John Funk

Social networks like Facebook have facilitated the rise of games with tens of millions of monthly players that are raking in cash hand-over-fist - games that most gamers have probably never heard of.

13 August 2009 - by Esther Gauld

Edinburgh Interactive is underway today, and one of the key speakers is Kristian Segerstrale, founder of Playfish, one of the largest social gaming companies in the world. Speaking to a room full of developers, games marketers, designers and press, he talked today about the phenomenon of gaming on social networking sites like Facebook and how the popularity of these platforms is fundamentally altering the way in which games are made, bought and played today.

10 August 2009 - by Brandon Griggs

Anyone looking for a slick, thoughtful overview of the rapidly evolving state of video games may want to check out a mini-documentary, “Video Games Are Dead,” which premiered today on DigitalTrends.com.

10 August 2009 - by Christopher Mack

Where do you go once you’ve been to space? Last time we heard from Playfish we were blasting evil robots and aliens in a Worms style shooting type game, and before that, we were recruiting friends to help us serve in restaurants. Both were excellent games, and really showed a new level of quality, so when their latest games sounded of the farming genre, a cringe couldn’t be helped. Nevertheless, Country Story turned out to be surprisingly refreshing.

10 August 2009 - by Ian Morris

GameSpot UK's Alex Sassoon and Ian Morris of CNET UK chat with Playfish's CEO Kristian Segerstrale.

7 August 2009 - by Ankita Shreeram

Social networking sites have taken the cyber world by storm and developers of sites like Facebook, MySpace and Bebo are taking advantage of this by gently coaxing users to pay tiny amounts, called nanopayments or micro-payments, for virtual gifts, accessories and extra levels in games.

6 August 2009 - by James Fudge

Playfish is not the only company working diligently to make a name for itself on social networking scenes like Facebook, MySpace and Beebo, but it is certainly one of the best at providing graphically rich game experiences in that space. We'll be posting an interview with the company very soon, but I just wanted to talk about one game that has kept me busy this week: Crazy Planets.

3 August 2009 - by Justin Smith

Social games have grown so quickly over the past two years, even Facebook is surprised. Although many of the most widely adopted early apps on the Facebook Platform were games, few could have expected the industry to be where it is today. Thousands of games have been built. Hundreds of millions of dollars will flow to Facebook and MySpace game developers this year.

3 August 2009 - by Ryan Kim

The recession has caught up with the video game industry, but it's done little to stop the growth of one sector: social gaming, where tens of millions of users are playing games like Mafia Wars, Farm Town and Restaurant City on social networks.

3 August 2009 - by Jenn Garbee

Presumably, only video game junkies who have never felt the pressure to fire twelve orders--RIGHT NOW!--could dream up the social networking game Restaurant City. Playfish, the company behind Restaurant City and numerous additional social networking games (a sort of Monopoly goes Facebook genre), launched the free application in April.

29 July 2009 - by Dean Takahashi

It’s clear that social game companies operate differently than traditional casual game companies, and no company illustrates this better than Playfish. Playfish has learned that games on social networks are completely different from games on portals.

29 July 2009 - by Stuart Dredge

Social games firm Playfish has launched its latest Facebook game, Country Story.

28 July 2009 - by Soyon Im

It can’t be overstated that sites like Facebook and MySpace are crucial to the casual games industry. During last week’s Casual Connect Seattle, everyone from COOs to marketing analysts to mommy gamers were talking about their favorite social networking sites, and in particular, the power of news feeds.

24 July 2009 - by N. Evan Van Zelfden

Speaking on a panel at Casual Connect in Seattle, executives from leading social games companies Zynga, Playdom and Playfish discussed the building blocks required to generate major social gaming revenues, and the direction in which they think the market is headed.

24 July 2009 - by CNBC

Video games come of age and are no longer about hardcore gamers locked in darkened rooms.

20 July 2009 - by Maggie Shiels

The market for mobile applications, or apps, will become "as big as the internet", peaking at 10 million apps in 2020, a leading online store says.

20 July 2009 - by Christopher Mack

Playfish has earned its reputation as one of the leading developers of social games for Facebook, MySpace, and the iPhone by consistently producing high quality and refreshingly creative games that resonate with millions of players around the world. While a lot of developers are focused on monitoring the latest hits on the Facebook gaming charts, Playfish often takes months to develop each title. Most recently, Playfish has released Restaurant City, perhaps the best Playfish title to date, and Crazy Planets, which went live just last week.

19 July 2009 - by Sarah Lacy

When I wrote my BusinessWeek column on Zynga a while back, every venture capitalist in the Valley told me that Playdom was the company’s biggest competitor.

16 July 2009 - by Michael French

Over 500 people packed into the Hilton Metropole hotel last night to see 15 different firms or individuals take home a Develop Award.

13 July 2009 - by Christopher Mack

After seeing one clone after another on the Facebook Platform, it is refreshing to see something original. Then again, that’s nothing new for the folks over at Playfish. Today, we take a look at their latest release: Crazy Planets.

10 July 2009 - by Christian Nutt

The potential for Facebook to be a massive platform for game development seems difficult to understate as of mid-2009. Already, it's host to a huge number of games, several of which pull in millions of users on a regular basis.

10 July 2009 - by Tim Bradshaw

Ten years after the first dotcom boom, digital-media investors have come full circle: e-commerce is again the buzzword on the lips of London's venture capital community.

2 July 2009 - by Jean-Yves Huwart

Bruxellois d'origine âgé de 31 ans, Sébastien de Halleux réside aujourd'hui à San Francisco. Après avoir participé à l'aventure d'une première société introduite sur le Nasdaq, il a lancé Playfish avec trois autres personnes. En 20 mois, la firme a conquis 30 millions de joueurs actifs dans le monde. Interview vidéo en cinq étapes.

2 July 2009 - by Kath Brice

Kristian Segerstrale is perhaps one of social gaming's most persuasive advocates. Playfish, the company he co-founded just 18 months ago and oversees from his chief executive role, already ranks among the world's largest social games companies having just celebrated its 100 millionth game download.

1 July 2009 - by Kris Graft

Social game maker PlayFish said Wednesday that users have installed 100 million of its games across seven titles in the 18 months since PlayFish's launch. Playfish's games include social games Restaurant City, Minigolf Party, Pet Society, and Bowling Buddies. Users play the games in their web browsers through social networking sites including Bebo, MySpace, and Facebook.

1 July 2009 - by Tom Ivan

In the first 18 months since social game creator Playfish launched, users have installed its games over 100 million times. Playfish’s seven titles, which include Pet Society, Geo Challenge and Bowling Buddies, are designed for friends to play together over social and mobile platforms such as Facebook, MySpace, Google, Bebo, iPhone and Android.

1 July 2009 - by Stuart Dredge

Social games publisher Playfish has announced that its games have been installed more than 100 million times by users of Facebook, MySpace and Bebo.

1 July 2009 - by IndustryGamers

Playfish, which publishes games on social and mobile platforms such as Facebook, MySpace, Google, Bebo, iPhone and Android, today announced that 18 months after the company was founded, 100 million of its games have been installed by players. The firm boasted that the 100 million mark \"is significant when measured against other icons from different eras of gaming.\"

29 June 2009 - by Chris Nuttall and David Gelles

Social gaming, where social networks become venues for virtual pets and fantasy mob wars, is becoming a real world battleground for industry players trying to cash in on the phenomenon. The console industry is exploring social gaming, traditional video game companies are losing top executives to the sector and there is infighting among the new wave of developers as they seek to copy each other’s successes.

25 June 2009 - by Christian Nutt

I was more optimistic going into the Social Gaming Summit this year -- which we've written two other in-depth write-ups from -- than I was heading out of it. Last year, it seemed young and hopeful. This year, the mini-conference focused on Facebook and MySpace social network gaming -- led by firms like Playfish and Zynga and microtransaction-based games like Mafia Wars -- seemed a bit more dry. There was lots of emphasis on marketing, metrics, retention, and was constantly punctuated by what seemed to be an endless repetition of the terrible, made-up word "virality".

24 June 2009 - by Chris Nuttall

Facebook appears to be moving closer to cashing in on the social gaming phenomenon it has created on its platform and, judging by the numbers being quoted at the second annual Social Gaming Summit, that can’t come soon enough.

24 June 2009 - by Dean Takahashi

Like a new mafia clan in the formative Facebook game Mob Wars, the social gaming industry has carved out its territory, flexed its muscles, earned respect and laid out a map of the turf it will conquer.

23 June 2009 - by Rob Crossley

Facebook maestro Playfish and ex-Edge editor Robertson providing speaker sessions Kristian Segerstrale, co-founder of social game developer Playfish, has been announced as a session speaker for the upcoming Edinburgh Interactive Festival.

23 June 2009 - by Christian Nutt

Social gaming is in a rapid phase of growth and upheaval, with a variety of platforms and companies competing for significance. The first panel at the 2009 Social Gaming Summit in San Francisco featured several notable figures in the arena: Sebastian de Halleux, COO of developer Playfish; John Pleasants, new CEO of Playdom; and Mark Pincus, CEO of Zynga; with Jeremy Liew, managing director of Lightspeed Venture Partners, moderating.

21 June 2009 - by Stuart Dredge

A new kind of gaming craze is causing a stir online and stealing a march on the big console companies. Mini-programs known as “social games” live on the home pages of social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace and in the past few months have enjoyed a phenomenal rise in popularity. They are free to play — all you need is an internet connection and an ordinary computer or iPhone.

17 June 2009 - by Duncan Geere

94 million games installed. 30 million players each month. 7 games, all having been in the top 10 of Facebook's app list. Not bad for a company that's just 18 months old. Pocket-lint spoke to COO and co-founder Sebastien de Halleux to find out what he credits his success to.

11 June 2009 - by Thomas K. Grose

Media tycoon Rupert Murdoch recently stated the obvious when he said the newspaper business model of providing content online for free was "malfunctioning." Poleaxed by a severe ad slump and hemorrhaging red ink, printed newspapers and magazines have been downsizing or closing in some countries, even as their digital editions attract growing numbers of readers. Murdoch — whose News Corp. media empire includes the Wall Street Journal, a rare newspaper with a profitable, subscription-based website — has vowed to boost the earning power of his digital properties by increasing the number of News Corp. sites that charge for content. Other publishers are suggesting that, while subscriptions to online newspapers and magazines might be a tough sell to consumers accustomed to getting their news for free, readers might be willing to pay small fees, from a few pennies to a few bucks, for each story that grabs their attention.

8 June 2009 - by Don Reisinger

Social gaming is growing quickly on the Web. More companies are trying to find a way into the space. And as more people start playing games, many sites are realizing that creating a social network for those people is viable business model. I tested a variety of social networks for gamers. Some are better than others, but you'll definitely find at least one site worth joining.

7 June 2009 - by Eric Eldon

In the dimly-lit world of social networking applications, companies tend to privately trash each other — often quite accurately. You hear things like “so-and-so always sends spammy invites” or “so-and-so has a suspect means of making money.” Social game developer Playfish is one of the few big app companies that is universally praised by its peers. It has only built a few gaming applications, but it focuses on quality — nurturing each of its seven apps into long-running, profitable titles.

5 June 2009 - by Ed Fear

The finalists for the 2009 Develop Industry Excellence Awards have been unveiled. The line-up of nominees is the most diverse yet, encompassing a record-breaking 70 companies. It recognises the ever-diversifying nature of the games industry and the continually-emerging new ways to play: one-man iPhone developers mix with the biggest triple-A studios like Lionhead, while social gaming stars such as Playfish rub shoulders with Crytek and Traveller's Tales.

1 June 2009 - by Jessica Dolcourt

With 30 million Facebook users, Playfish, a San Francisco-based purveyor of casual games, has something to say for itself. Chief operating officer Sebastien de Halleux hopes that Android users will buy the company's first Android game for 99c (60p) and begin playing with Android and Facebook friends. The first release, entitled 'Who has the biggest brain?', lets you pick from twelve 60-second brain-teasing games.

28 May 2009 - by Rob Crossley

The most popular app on Facebook is a video game. Though the casual browser-based MMO Pet Society is tailored with bold colours and cutesy creatures, behind the popular title is a solid and lucrative business model that shows no signs of dissipating

28 May 2009 - by Stuart Dredge

Social games firm Playfish has announced that its Who Has The Biggest Brain? game is now available for Android handsets. It's the second mobile platform to get the social brain-trainer, following its release for iPhone earlier this year. It started out as a Facebook game, which has racked up 15 million players on the social network.

25 May 2009 - by David Gelles

Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg has a second job. On top of managing growth of the popular social networking site, she is also a chef in Restaurant City, one of the thousands of games that run on Facebook.

25 May 2009 - by Justin Smith

By this point, most people with an eye on the social gaming space know Playfish. The company, one of the top developers of innovative free-to-play social games on Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, and the iPhone, now has offices in London, Beijing, San Francisco, and Tromso, Norway. In addition, the company says it is profitable.

25 May 2009 - Inside Social Games

By this point, most people with an eye on the social gaming space know Playfish. The company, one of the top developers of innovative free-to-play social games on Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, and the iPhone, now has offices in London, Beijing, San Francisco, and Tromso, Norway. In addition, the company says it is profitable.

19 May 2009 - by Dave Rosenberg

Social game company Playfish, best known for games on Facebook, has (finally) launched its popular PetSociety game on its own Web site. With nearly 11 million monthly users, Pet Society is an interesting case of Facebook's network effect allowing a third party to monetize users extremely well.

18 May 2009 - by Aleks Krotoski

Last week, we celebrated the great British presence in the Develop 100, an annual publication that ranks the world's game development studios. Although clearly pleased that so many UK studios were included (and with one in the top slot), we weren't convinced that the criteria for selection were robust.

18 May 2009 - Inside Social Games

Pet Society, the addictive virtual world of fluffy animal, is one that Playfish has always kept in motion. The denizens of the game experience everything from the daily running of track races to the trading and gifting of furniture and clothing.

12 May 2009 - Guardian

Develop magazine has released this year's list of the 100 top videogame studios in the world. Based on an array of criteria including sales data and critical success, Blizzard is at the top of the pile thanks to WoW, with Nintendo (last year's number one), Rockstar North, EA Canada and Capcom making up the rest of the top five.

11 May 2009 - BBC

Blizzard, the maker of World of Warcraft, is the world\\\'s most bankable games studio, according to a study. The list reflects the changing nature of the video games landscape with mobile game developers PopCap (35th) and Playfish (98th) also in the Top 100.

11 May 2009 - by Develop Magazine

Develop 100 ranks the world\'s most bankable games development studios based on a variety of key criteria including sales data, critical success and industry standing.

11 May 2009 - by Christopher Mack

Playfish has always been one of the top developers of original games for social networks. However, staying in the top tier requires a great deal of development effort, new content, and, of course, an eye for charming design. Their latest title, Restaurant City, is a surprising mix of social gaming and The Sims.

7 May 2009 - by Nate Ralph

Playdom and Playfish, two companies that boast the most popular games on social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook, have a new target for their communication-centric games: iPhone. Playdom will release a version of Mobsters, the number-one game on MySpace with 13 million registered users, for iPhone this year. Playfish, whose game Pet Society is one of only two Facebook games with over 10 million players, has already launched games on Apple’s device.

7 May 2009 - technikwelt

Leute finden, Bilder ansehen, Nachrichten schicken. Die Freunde-Seite Facebook bietet eine Menge Funktionen. Doch das soziale Netzwerk kann noch viel mehr. BILD.de stellt die Zusatzfunktionen vor: Die Haustierwelt In der „Pet Society“ kann man mit seinem virtuellen Haustier spielen, sein virtuelles Heim einrichten, Freunde besuchen und Geschenke mitbringen. Fast wie im echten Leben, nur niedlicher. Mit fast elf Millionen Nutzern eines der beliebtesten Extras.

7 May 2009 - By Eric Eldon

A growing number of game makers on Facebook are making money from virtual goods — from poker chips to virtual clothes that users can buy or earn while playing gaming applications with their friends on Facebook. The combined ecosystem of these game developers and other companies supplying services to them could generate half a billion dollars in revenue in 2009.

29 April 2009 - by Sande Chen

With over 200 million people registered on Facebook, the most popular social networking site, and millions, millions more on similar sites like MySpace, Bebo, and Hi5, social networking has become a part of daily life. [...] Likewise, social games -- essentially games created to be playable within existing major social networking websites -- seem poised to set a revolution in the game industry akin to the one first kindled by downloadable casual games. These games that use social connections have multiplied like wildfire on social networking sites.

24 April 2009 - by Chris Melissinos

Playfish's CEO and Co-founder Kristian Segerstrale joins the show to talk about one of the largest, fastest growing social gaming companies in the world. Playfish is behind five of the top 10 games on Facebook, including "Pet Society" and "Who has the biggest brain?" Prior to Playfish, Kristian co-founded Glu-Mobile, a leading global publisher of mobile games.

20 April 2009 - By David Nieborg

‘Social games’ worden ze wel genoemd, games die gespeeld worden op online sociale netwerken als Hyves en Facebook. En ze breken door.

7 April 2009 - By Tim Bradshaw

Tomb Raider developer Eidos may be submitting to a foreign takeover, but Playfish chief and co-founder Kristian Segerstråle is proving that the UK can still be home to great computer game makers.

6 April 2009 - By Chris Nuttall

Spectacular growth in online social gaming is prompting companies such as Google to enter the market and developers to rethink how they design video games.

6 April 2009 - by Xeni Jardin

Today on Boing Boing Video, Playfish Games founder Sebastien de Halleux joins us for a conversation about games developed for social networks. The Playfish game "Pet Society" is currently the most popular game on facebook, with millions of participants per day.

31 March 2009 - By Alex Pham

If you're on Facebook, chances are very good that you've been bitten by a zombie at one point or another.

26 March 2009 - By Mary Jane Irwin

Social games are a phenomenon occurring on both the business and the development side of the industry, says Kristian Segerstrale, chief executive of social games developer Playfish. And since they work on the bleeding edge, they may be an indication of where games are going. Or at the least, it will shake up the industry enough that the current \"beasts\" may not be as successful in the future.

14 March 2009 - by Mike Butcher

UK-based Playfish is one of the first companies to make use of Facebook Connect on the iPhone. At SXSW COO Sebastien de Halleux stood alongside Facebook’s Dave Morin to say that three of the top ten games on Facebook are now on the iPhone (Geo Challenge, Word Challenge, and Who Has The Biggest Brain).

14 March 2009 - by Stuart Dredge

UK social games publisher Playfish has made its long-awaited move onto iPhone, kicking off with a version of its Facebook brain training game Who Has The Biggest Brain? It's launching alongside the Facebook Connect technology, allowing players to sign into the game using their Facebook logins, and then compare their scores with their friends on the social network.

14 March 2009 - by Lonnie Lazar

Playfish, one of the largest and fastest growing social games developers, announced Saturday the availability of its popular title, “Who Has the Biggest Brain?” for iPhone and iPod Touch. Who Has The Biggest Brain? features Facebook Connect and enables friends to play together anytime, anywhere.

14 March 2009 - By Jennifer Van Grove

Facebook Connect for iPhone has some pretty awesome apps launching or updating today that leverage the power of the 175 million user strong social network. Facebook-ready apps include Playfish’s popular, Who Has the Biggest Brain? ($4.99 via iTunes)

14 March 2009 - By Eric Eldon

I’m here at South by Southwest, live-blogging what Facebook has billed as a big announcement. We’ve recently been hearing that it’s about the iPhone and gaming. And it is: “For the first time, your iPhone apps can now have friends,” says Dave Morin, Facebook’s senior platform manager.

13 March 2009 - By Darren Waters

The games industry is about so much more than just the PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Wii, the web industry is being told at the South by South West Interactive Festival in Austin, Texas. Every day millions of people play a video game without switching on a games console. From Facebook to the web browser, and from to casual games on a PC to games on a mobile phone, the independent games industry is enjoying a renaissance.

12 February 2009 - print edition

'We bring games to where people hang out' is the slogan of this London-based social gaming company that developer five of the top 10 games on Facebook. With offices in San Francisco, Beijing and Tromso, it raised $17m in November from Accel Partners and Index Ventures.

12 February 2009 - print edition

Playfish's CEO explains why social networks could be gaming's future

11 February 2009 - by Facebook

Playfish is one of the largest and fastest growing social gaming companies, creating games for people to play together using social sites like Facebook as its platform.

5 February 2009 - by Robert Scoble

Kristian Segerstrale, CEO of Playfish interviewed by Robert Scoble - part 1

5 February 2009 - by Robert Scoble

Kristian Segerstrale, CEO of Playfish interviewed by Robert Scoble - part 2

2 February 2009 - by Geraldine Vessiere

Playfish, c’est 40millions d’utilisateurs, trois studios – Londres, Pékin, Tromso (Norvège) –, un bureau commercial à San Francisco… Récit d’une réussite.

27 January 2009 - by Dave Rosenberg

The game market is at the beginning of an evolutionary path--moving from purely packaged games played on consoles to browser-based free-to-play and hybrid-hosted scenarios. The crux of the change is in how games are monetized when there is no direct license revenue; ads, subscriptions, and virtual goods all have a place in the new ecosystem, but thus far, no one method has proven to be best.

22 January 2009 - by Florence Trédez

Depuis que je suis sur Facebook, j'ai des centaines d'amis [...] Lorsque je m'ennuie au bureau, je roule des sushis avec un friend ou j'envoie un petit chat qui bouge la tête de Pet Society et ça va tout de suite mieux.

20 January 2009 - by Ceri Jones

While cinema, recorded music and television are all stagnating entertainment sectors, the video gaming industry has enjoyed a spectacular year and even seems to be benefiting from the recession because games are a relatively cheap form of home entertainment. The big driver is the changing demographics. While gaming was traditionally the solitary activity of young male nerds, the industry is now focusing more on interactivity with others and online community play will soon become the most popular gaming activity.

29 December 2008 - By # Jonathan Franklin and Richard Wray

A new generation of designers and developers is putting the social element back into video games, using online networks such as Facebook as platforms to turn people from across the world into poker aces, boffins and the proud and sometimes obsessive owners of virtual pets. These new games give people the ability to play with their friends rather than strangers, which has sent usage through the roof.

29 December 2008 - By Jonathan Franklin and Richard Wray

A new generation of designers and developers is putting the social element back into video games, using online networks such as Facebook as platforms to turn people from across the world into...

26 December 2008 - By Hugo Greenhalgh

Entrepreneurs are increasingly turning to social networking sites as a credit-crunch friendly way of boosting their business. Kristian Segerstråle, chief executive of Playfish, a social games company, said social networks had given his company the ability to gain a huge audience in just a year with virtually no market expense.

22 December 2008 - by Dave Rosenberg

Social games company Playfish just launched a new premium in-game ad campaign with Procter & Gamble and Herbal Essences via the Geo Challenge Facebook game in the UK.

21 November 2008 - by Darren Gladstone

[...] Have you played Bowling Buddies? It's a fully 3D bowling game inside Facebook. Grab the ball with your mouse, whip it across your desk, and watch the pins fly. Go solo or play against friends. How about a cross between Nintendo's Animal Crossing and The Sims? Pet Society is right up your alley. Actually, now that I mention it, just head straight to the Playfish Web site and do not pass "Go." Those mad geniuses created not only Bowling Buddies and Pet Society, but also a bunch of great trivia and word games.

18 November 2008 - By Juan Carlos Perez

Amazon has launched a hosted content-delivery network service that it first announced in a preliminary test version two months ago. Called CloudFront, the service joins a variety of other Internet cloud-based services that the company offers via its Amazon Web Services unit. Early CloudFront adopters include Woot, an online store that uses it to serve up photos of its products; and Playfish, which uses it to distribute its online games.

16 November 2008 - by Christopher Mack

Whether or not you are a fan of golf, it’s unlikely you’ve never gone to a miniature golf course. Most everyone has played minigolf at some point, be it for a birthday party, a date, or just something different to do. Regardless of the reason, it’s always an enjoyable experience with the creative courses and a good group of friends behind you.

6 November 2008 - Mediatech 100

The Library House 2008 Mediatech 100 supported by Kemp Little and NMA represents the hottest 100 private mediatech companies in Europe, selected by rigorously assessing companies using Library House proprietary data filters, and an expert advisory panel. By considering growth potential and market impact potential, the Library House 2008 Mediatech 100 supported by Kemp Little and NMA will form a collection of 100 companies among those most likely to change the mediatech world.

30 October 2008 - CasualGaming.Biz by Ed Fear

Speaking at today's Casual Games Forum, Playfish CEO Kristian Segestrale said that social gaming has the potential to revolutionise the casual games industry - but only if developers act responsibly. Segestrale, whose company Playfish has produced four of the top ten games on Facebook, spoke about how social games are able to reach non-gamers by bringing games to where they socialise rather than making them have to seek them out.

28 October 2008 - Market Watch

Playfish, a developer and publisher of games for social networks, announced today that it has completed a new round of funding led by Accel Partners and Index Ventures. The $17 million Series B investment will be used to continue Playfish s mission to become the leading company in social games, a sector which promises to play an increasingly important role in the future of the gaming industry.

28 October 2008 - PocketGamer by Stuart Dredge

Social games firm Playfish may bring its popular Facebook games to iPhone, Android and even handheld games consoles. The company has just raised $17 million of new funding to fuel its expansion onto new platforms, including other web-based social networks, but also mobile and handheld.

28 October 2008 - C-Net by Daniel Terdiman

Playfish, a leading maker of games for social networks like Facebook, said Tuesday it has closed a $17 million B funding round. The company has released five games and four of them are on Facebook s top-10 list, Playfish said in a release.

28 October 2008 - Silicon Alley Insider by Vasanth Sridharan

Playfish, the Facebook game developer that has four apps in the top 10 gaming apps on the site, closed a $17 million Series B round led by Accel Partners and Index Ventures. Sounds a bit bubble-like, but Playfish is one of a few app developers on Facebook that has actually seen traffic increase since the site launched its redesign, and it has two revenue generating engines – it’s one of Google’s AdSense for Games beta partners, and it allows users to buy virtual goods.

28 October 2008 - PE Hub

Social gaming company Playfish this morning announced that it has raised $17 million in Series B funding, which brings its total venture capitalization to $21 million. Accel Partners and Index Ventures co-led the round, with Accel’s Kevin Comilli and Index’s Ben Holmes joining the London-based company’s board of directors.

28 October 2008 - Gamasutra by Eric Caoili

Casual games developer Playfish secured $17 million in a Series B round of funding led by Accel Partners and Index Ventures. The studio also announced that Accel Partners Kevin Comolli and Index Ventures Ben Holmes will both join its board of directors.

28 October 2008 - AllFacebook by Nick O Neill

Playfish, one of the leading social game developers on Facebook, has announced that they’ve raise $17 million in funding. While the company didn t even launch it s first game, “Who Has the Biggest Brain?” until October of last year, quickly grew to be come a leader in the social gaming space. Today, the company s top four games have between 2.48 and 2.9 million monthly active users (as pictured below).

28 October 2008 - The Next Web by Ernst-Jan Pfauth

Calacanis predicted a great time for experience companies. People don’t have a penny, but they do want good experiences to make up for the tough times. Digg and StumbleUpon will flourish, as well as the online gaming industry.

28 October 2008 - Mashable by Adam Ostrow

Playfish, makers of some of the most popular casual games on social networking sites, has raised $17 million in funding from Accel Partners and Index Ventures. The company has its biggest presence on Facebook, where it has four of the top ten applications. Playfish has also started expanding to MySpace, with its Bowling Buddies game recently making its debut on the site.

28 October 2008 - Venturebeat by Dean Takahashi

Playfish, a social gaming company that has four of the top ten games on Facebook, has raised $17 million in funding. The deal shows that the intersection of games and social networking remains a hot sector in spite of the weakening economy. Playfish came out of nowhere to become a leader in one of the hottest categories of the video game industry. It was founded in October, 2007, and launched its first game in December, 2007.

28 October 2008 - InsideSocialGames by Justin Smith

Over time, our expectations for new games has evolved exponentially. In the beginning, it was thought that blinking pixels on a screen were the pinnacle of graphical capabilities and presentation, but as the game development industry grew beyond a garage hobby and the technology began to flourish, the graphical expectations of new titles began to rise as well.

28 October 2008 - Game Daily by James Brightman

London-based Playfish, a developer/publisher of games for social networks, has raised $17 million with a round of Series B funding led by Accel Partners and Index Ventures. The company said it will use the money to continue its "mission to become the leading company in social games, a sector which promises to play an increasingly important role in the future of the gaming industry."

28 October 2008 - Red Herring by Michael Lee

Social game developer Playfish announced Tuesday it raised a $17 million second round of funding led by Accel Partners and Index Ventures. The startup plans to use the funding to expand into other platforms. Under the deal, Accel Partners partner Kevin Comolli and Index Ventures principal Ben Holmes will join Playfish’s board of directors. Playfish develops casual games for social-networking site Facebook. Of the top 10 games with the most active users, four of them are from Playfish.

28 October 2008 - Zooped

Casual games developer Playfish secured $17 million in a Series B round of funding led by Accel Partners and Index Ventures. The studio also announced that Accel Partners’ Kevin Comolli and Index Ventures’ Ben Holmes will both join its board of directors. Based in London and founded in October 2007, Playfish releases “social games,” such as Who Has The Biggest Brain? and Bowling Buddies, on social networks like Facebook and MySpace.

28 October 2008 - San Jose Mercury News by Scott Duke Harris

So consumer confidence hits an all-time low Tuesday and the Dow still jumps more than 10 percent. If your first thought is "Yippee!" your second thought might be "Sell!" Somehow it seems unlikely that the phrase "challenging economy" will soon disappear from Silicon Valley press releases. Yet amid the anxiety, a flurry of recent news from start-ups shows that the region retains a propensity for innovation.

28 October 2008 - TechCrunch by Nick Gonzalez

Over the past year video games have begun invading every computing platform, from social networks to mobile devices. They’ve also been picked up in the portfolios of a number of firms. London based Playfish has just raised a $17 million series B round led by Accel Partners and Index Ventures. Kevin Comolli, from Accel Partners and Ben Holmes from Index Ventures, will both join its board of directors. The company plans on putting the funds toward hiring for their 4 international offices and expanding their reach to other platforms.

28 October 2008 - Edge by Kris Graft

"Social game" developer and publisher Playfish has landed $17 million (£11m) in Series B investment in a new round led by Accel Partners and Index Ventures. The London-based firm said Tuesday the funds will help boost its chances to become a leading developer of games for connected social gaming networks. Playfish s titles include Who Has the Biggest Brain, Pet Society, Geo Challenge, Bowling Buddies and Word Challenge.

28 October 2008 - Washington Post

London based Playfish has just raised a $17 million series B round led by Accel Partners and Index Ventures. Kevin Comolli, from Accel Partners and Ben Holmes from Index Ventures, will both join its board of directors. The company plans on putting the funds toward hiring for their 4 international offices and expanding their reach to other platforms.

25 October 2008 - InsideSocialGames by Justin Smith

We have just compiled the latest numbers and here are the Facebook gaming charts for October 24, 2008. As you can see there were some pretty massive movements in the Facebook gaming world over the last month. Clearly, the impact of the Facebook redesign is being felt by different social game developers in different ways.

23 October 2008 - Wired by Nate Ralph

The U.S. economy has not exactly been operating at peak efficiency lately, and even the traditionally recession-proof video game industry has felt the repercussions. Yet for the largest developers, business -- and more importantly, business models -- remain largely unchanged: Toss a $60 title at the walls of retail, and announce a trilogy if it sticks.

21 October 2008 - Futuristic Play by Andrew Chen

Cultural differences are always interesting! I got interested in the games world first as a consumer of video games, but after I worked on an unsuccessful project to monetize MySpace using ads, I got interested in the monetization potential of virtual items in social products. For the last 2 years, I’ve been wandering around on the edges of the games industry to try to cross-pollinate some of the best ideas with what I knew from the web world.

17 October 2008 - Game Daily

Stuck in a boring conference meeting or got a few spare minutes between classes to kill? We always use that as an excuse to log into Facebook s addictive sim game called Pet Society. Sure it is sweet enough to give Rupert Murdoch diabetes, but even the hardcore gamers on our staff are working diligently to level up their characters

16 October 2008 - What They Play

Playfish is a social games company that develops and publishes video games on social networks like Facebook. Founded in October 2007 by casual and mobile games veterans the company has strived to pull together what it considers to be the best elements of casual games, social networks, MMOGs and virtual worlds to create entirely new, more social ways of enjoying games together. The result has been astonishing success, with some truly astounding stats.

10 October 2008 - AlwaysOn and KPMG

AlwaysOn and KPMG have officially launched this year’s AlwaysOn Global 250 Top Private Companies competition. After 6 years of the AlwaysOn 100, we're expanding our flagship list to better represent the burgeoning startup communities from around the globe. As always, we’re looking for the top emerging private companies that are creating new business opportunities in the global technology industries. […]

10 October 2008 - Develop

London-based team is responsible for some of the biggest social games apps. Just a year after its founding, London-based studio Playfish has stormed the Facebook charts to produce four of the top 12 games on the site ­– and says its success proves studios can make money developing games for social networks.

8 October 2008 - Gamasutra

Internet giant Google is making its entry into the in-game ad market with the launch of a public beta version of AdSense for Games. Google is initially targeting online web games based on Adobe's Flash platform, but could potentially expand to downloadable, console, and mobile titles against in-game advertising rivals like Double Fusion and IGA Worldwide. […]

8 October 2008 - Casualgaming.biz

Web giant Google has finally unveiled its long-awaited bid to enter the in-game advertising sector, revealing it is putting a big focus of the strategy on casual games. In a post on the blog for the firm's web advertising team Adsense, Google reps said that it is targeting web games in the first instance: "Do you develop or publish web-based games? If so, you're contributing to a growing trend - according to comScore, over 25% of Internet users play online games every week, which is over 200 million users worldwide. As a beta user of AdSense for Games, you can display video ads, image ads, or text ads within your online games to earn revenue," the sales pitch reads. […]

8 October 2008 - SocialTimes

Last night Google announced that they had launched Google AdSense for games. One of the largest gaming companies benefiting from the new advertising platform is Playfish. Google actually included a demo of AdSense for Games directly integrated into Playfish’s Word Challenge game. This is a big step for Google and one that competing advertisers should pay close attention to. […]

8 October 2008 - The Inquisitr

Google has entered the game advertising space launching Google Adsense for Games. With the new service, game creators can display video ads, image ads, or text ads within games to earn revenue. Sites will be able to define where ads appear, such as interstitial frames before a game, after a level change, or when a game is over. Google is pitching the service not only as a first use advertising platform, but as a fall back for remnant inventory, offering “contextually targeted image and text ads which are targeted based on various content and demographic signals. […]

8 October 2008 - ReadWriteWeb

If it's online, Google is going to find a way to derive advertising revenue from it. So, it was only a matter of time before Google found its way into online gaming, a market where the term "billions" is regularly thrown around by even the most conservative analysts. Today, Google announced the launch of Google AdSense for Games, a flavor of AdSense built on Google's AdScape Media acquisition that allows advertisers and content producers to place ads within the content of online games. […]

8 October 2008 - CNET News

If Google's entry into a field of advertising doesn't legitimize it, nothing can. And that's why the in-game advertising industry just got a huge shot in the arm. On Tuesday night, Google announced the beta launch of its new AdSense for Games program, the search giant's first foray into the video games market, and the long-awaited answer to the question of what the company planned to do with AdScape Media, which it bought for $23 million in February 2007. […]

8 October 2008 - VentureBeat

After months of testing, Google is publicly launching the beta version of its AdSense for Games software. The product represents the company’s first push into a fast-growing new market — the ability to insert ads into games, either as they are being played or just after they finish. The plan is pretty much what I reported in July, when word surfaced that the search giant was testing the ads. Its decision to enter the market with a public beta test is a big deal because it means that the game advertising market is becoming lucrative enough to attract an industry giant. […]

8 October 2008 - Wall Street Journal

Google seems to be serving ads everywhere these days. Its latest advertising service targets all those people who waste their workdays playing casual games. (You know who you are.) Google on Wednesday announced the launch of its AdSense for Games, which delivers advertising to Web-based flash games online. Google will be partnering directly with Web sites that aggregate Web games and independent game developers looking to make a little money off their creations. Google says brand advertisers will be able to run contextual ads, or put video, flash and image ads within an actual game using Google’s platform. […]

8 October 2008 - Forbes

Burlingame, Calif. - More than a year in the works, Google finally launched its in-game advertising platform Wednesday. Called AdSense for Games, the platform will offer advertisers access to millions of Web-based Flash games. The in-game advertising market is small. The games industry scored only $1 billion from advertising and subscriptions in 2007, according to research firm Parks Associates. Google's (nasdaq: GOOG - news - people ) entry is expected to make it explode. […]

8 October 2008 - GigaOM

Almost a year after we first reported about Google’s desire to bring AdSense to online games and ultimately dominate the game-related advertising business, the company today announced AdSense for Games. We had thought that the advertising for games would go live in November 2007, but apparently even Google can’t move that fast. Google first started talking about AdSense for Games at industry events last summer. […]

8 October 2008 - Mashable

Throughout last year, Stan and Pete both reported the acquisition by Google of an in-game ad providercalled AdScape. AdScape’s assimilation was described by Pete at the time as a sign of Google’s changing mission statement from “organizing the world’s information” to “cramming as many ads into the world as possible.” Rumors have been floating ever since that the company would be put into action any minute now. Word filters down to us today that the time is now. Google says that AdSense for Games is now available, and Web-based games are now invited to integrate text, image and video advertisements in “new ways” (more on that in a second) […]

8 October 2008 - New York Times

Never mind that the advertising market looks bleak. Google still wants to build its share of what little brand advertising there is these days. The company already sells graphic and video advertising on some sites, but so far it has not achieved anything close to the share of these markets that it has with text advertising. On Wednesday, Google is introducing its long-delayed AdSense for Games, a network that will place ads inside the sort of casual time-wasters that are popping up on many sites. […]

24 September 2008 - Casualgaming.biz

The game tests players' geography knowledge through a series of quizes and challenges. "Geo Challenge is designed for friends to compete and show off their knowledge of the planet," said head of Playfish Kristian Segerstrale said in a post on the company's blog. […]

4 September 2008 - HotFrog

Casual Games are already setting new records with one-third of people ages 6 to 44 having played them, according to market researcher The NPD Group. With Facebook and MySpace battling over the position of the most popular social network (and Facebook proclaiming itself as the winner du jour), game developers have discovered a new friend, flirting with the millions of users that MySpace, Facebook, Bebo, Hi5, Hyves and the likes have to offer. This is the theme of Games go Social on September 26 in Amsterdam, a full day event probing the synergies between games and communities, organized in collaboration with PICNIC, the undeniably most original, pioneering and unusual get-together for creatives. […]

1 September 2008 - TechCrunch

There’s a pretty well known secret among top Facebook application developers: one developer is generating over $1 million a month. Who is that developer exactly? Well, most people won’t talk about it and after some prodding around we’ve narrowed down the suspects. We aren’t going to post them though because ultimately it doesn’t matter who the individual is. […]

1 September 2008 - Wonderland

Playfish is a London-based company that makes social games with a Wii-like aesthetic on social networking services. That's a longer way of saying cute games for Facebook, and techcrunch reckons they're making over a million bucks a month. When asked whether this was the case, the co-founder says: […]

27 August 2008 - Develop Magazine

Consoles are connected, we’re all on Facebook, and Will Wright’s Spore has a development team of thousands. Other developers should wake up and take the hint. Will Wright expected Spore creature creators to produce 200,000 beasties in a couple of months. In reality users took 22 hours to create 100,000. Within a week the menagerie numbered one million. When Wright spoke to E3 last month – 18 days after the launch of his Spore content creation tool – the Sporepedia boasted 1,756,869 species, or more species than on Earth. All this for a game that isn’t even out yet. […]

26 August 2008 - Forbes

"Dear victim, you have been bitten by ..." is a phrase all too familiar to Facebook users. It is both a challenge and an invitation to join the legions of werewolves, vampires and zombies lurking in the social network's pages. In the early days of social networks, viral games with catchy names like "Zombies," "Vampires" and "Werewolves," were all the rage. They amassed over 15 million installations--thanks in part to a bonus that rewards players for spamming friends with invites--in a matter of months. […]

26 August 2008 - Inside Social Games

Playfish is an established developer of a number of top social games including Pet Society, Bowling Buddies and Word Challenge. The title that seems to be performing best right now is also the one in which the company is introducing its first transaction based service. […]

15 August 2008 - MSNBC

Before you play a game called “Who Has The Biggest Brain?” you have to ask yourself: Do I really want to know the answer to that question? After all, this is a game that will run you through a battery of tests and then, with the mercilessness of a fifth-grade teacher, assess your intelligence based on your performance. More importantly, since this is a game that you play on Facebook, it will then show your friends and family members how your gray matter stacks up against theirs. […]

15 August 2008 - Business Week

Boxed products are no longer the gaming industry's backbone. Social gaming on the likes of Facebook and MySpace is where a lot of money can be made. […]

13 August 2008 - Inside Facebook

Facebook’s recent policy update prohibiting incentivized invites, originally announced on July 21, has now gone into effect. The latest announcement takes Facebook’s February policy update forbidding forced invites further by no longer permitting applications to offer incentives to users for sending invitations to their friends. For example, in game apps where the aim is to accumulate gold, developers have introduced mechanisms whereby users are given more gold for each friend they invite. In other applications, developers have only allowed users to unlocks various features as they invite more friends. Both of these behaviors are now prohibited. […]

13 August 2008 - New Marketing Age

Who Has the Biggest Brain? The title of this Facebook application is highly relevant to the latest stage in the evolution of applications-based media. First, the news broke that Apple’s iPhone App Store had generated $30m (£15.8m) in sales in its first month. And in NMA this week we reveal that Adknowledge has opened the first ad network for Facebook applications. […]

12 August 2008 - Inside Social Games

I never got into the Tamagotchi craze when I was a kid. Why would you play nurse to a poorly rendered fussy little alien? So I’m a bit leery about any pet-focused games on Facebook. But when I heard Playfish was doing a pet game, my opinions changed. […]

12 August 2008 - Social Times

This afternoon I had the opportunity to speak with Sebastien de Halleux, the Chief Operating Officer and Co-Founder of Playfish, one of the top social gaming companies currently out there. The company also has some of the most engaging gaming applications currently on Facebook. Sebastien also discussed plans to expand beyond Facebook to other social networks as well as the iPhone. […]

5 August 2008 - Facebook

Cief Operating Officer and Co-founder of Playfish, Sebastien de Halleux, was interviewed at F8 08.

4 August 2008 - Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Games that can be played on social networks such as Facebook are becoming increasingly popular, enjoyed for their ability to allow players to try their skills against their network of friends and beyond. "Who Has the Biggest Brain?" – a hit on Facebook – recently won a Zeeby Award for the Best Social Network Game. […]

31 July 2008 - Gamertell

On July 24, 2008, during Casual Connect, the second annual Zeebys Casual Game Awards were held. The award show names the best casual games in a variety of categories, as nominated by 40 companies and casual gamers. This year’s awards had 17 categories and honored games from 2007. The show also raised a substantial amount of money. The Zeebys is an awards show and a charity event, and this year $11,000 from ticket sales and a charity auction was raised for Starlight Starbright Children’s Foundation. […]

31 July 2008 - gamersnewsbits.com

Gamezebo, the premiere editorial Web site for casual game enthusiasts, today announced the winners of its second annual Zeebys Casual Game Awards and the launch of the exclusive video broadcast of the show on myLifetime.com. The Zeebys honor innovators and leaders within the casual games industry and took place at Casual Connect in Seattle on July, 24 2008 hosted by the Casual Games Association. This year’s awards show raised $11,000 for its non-profit partner, the Starlight Starbright Children’s Foundation. […]

31 July 2008 - Social Times

[…] Playfish is a more recent company on the social platforms but they have a solid team of developers and management. The CEO of the company has a history in mobile gaming and is trying to convert his lessons learned to the social gaming sphere. Right now it looks like the company is doing an amazing job. They only have three games so far but each of them have over 200,000 active daily users and appear to be growing. […]

31 July 2008 - Slate

For weeks, Silicon Valley's tech entrepreneurs slavered over the rumors that Google was in the final negotiations to buy Digg, the social networking and news aggregation site, for a remarkable $200 million. The deal would give them a desperately needed morale boost; if Digg's founders could slap together a Web site with $11 million in venture capital and a few strings of open-source software, and then sell it for almost 20 times what they put into it, maybe there was hope for all the startups. […]

24 July 2008 - The Equity Kicker

At the beginning of the year I blogged a bit about games in social networks (here and here), since then the category has gone from strength to strength as measured by app installs and usage - e.g. Playfish had 900 million minutes of usage across its three games in June, up from 300 million minutes in May. To put it into context 900 million minutes is the same as 30 million people watching an episode of EastEnders (for those that don’t know Eastenders is a popular UK soap that screens in 30 minute episodes). […]

23 July 2008 - TechCrunch

If you glance at the top lineup of gaming applications on the Facebook or MySpace platform, you’ll notice an interesting fact. Not one is the product of a major gaming publisher. Instead a group of independent gaming startups have been the leaders in publishing games within social networks. Co-founders of the gaming publisher Playfish, Kristian Segerstråle and Sebastien de Halleux, chalk up the growth to a profound platform shift social networks have introduced into the gaming marketplace. […]

23 July 2008 - Silicon Alley Insider

Mark Zuckerberg and fellow Facebook exec Ben Ling took the stage and didn't announce anything revolutionary, but the message was clear: Facebook has a clear vision for what they want the platform and the network to be, and developers better quickly fall in line. As far as announcements go, we heard everything we knew we'd hear -- the winners of the fbFund grants, the launch of Facebook Connect, a walkthrough of the new design. […]

23 July 2008 - venturebeat

I’m live-blogging Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg’s keynote speech at the f8 conference today, here in the San Francisco Design Center. Below are paraphrased quotes from Zuckerberg, in chronological order. Watch for updates through 3:00 pm pacific time. […]

2 July 2008 - Silicon Alley Insider

Companies have created more than 30,000 applications for Facebook's year-old app platform, ranging from "where I've been" travel maps to photo slideshows and dating/flirting widgets. But what do users keep coming back for? Games -- which make up six of the top ten, and four of the top five -- most-addictive Facebook apps. […]

2 July 2008 - Mashable

Earlier this week, Facebook further updated its developer policies in an effort to prevent application spam. As today’s F8 conference kicks off, the social network is now expected to announce “preferred” application makers. Bottom line: it’s a tough time to be a Facebook developer, at least if you’re looking for the quick bait and switch. […]

26 June 2008 - Social Network & Games

How was the idea of founding Playfish born? And Why? Playfish was founded to create games for people to play together by a team that’s passionate about games and game play. We’ve collectively been involved in creating and publishing more than 100 titles in the mobile and casual games industries. The one thing we always wanted to create, but never found a way to do in practice, was to make games that casual players can play together. […]

25 June 2008 - NewswireToday

Learn from the leading casual games developers how to monetise social casual games for the leading social networks as the market moves towards a coherent monetisation model around Facebook and other major social network platforms - for the first time after a long period of experimentation. PlayFish games are consistently in the Top 10 Facebook games, Morpheme (Eidos games studio) have been developing highly successful Facebook games for over 2 years and Nudge are always at the vanguard of Facebook brands and game apps. […]

24 June 2008 - Inside Social Games

As the social gaming space grows, Inside Social Games will be keeping track of the top Facebook games. Here’s a first look at the top 20 social games on Facebook as of today, June 24, 2008: […]

23 June 2008 - Inside Social Games

Playfish is one of the most exciting companies you haven’t heard of. Founded just last year, the company has already opened studios in Europe, Asia, and (soon) North America, and is the developer of 3 of the top 10 games on Facebook today. We spent some time with Kristian Segerstråle, CEO of Playfish, to learn more about his vision for the company, the emerging “social gaming” space, and how social networks compare to other gaming platforms. […]

9 June 2008 - Tech Digest

Who has the biggest brain? Playfish apparently, as all three of their Facebook application game titles have made it into the top 10 most played on the social networking website. Who Has The Biggest Brain comes in at No.6, Bowling Buddies at No.8, Word Challenge at No.10 and if you need me to tell you what these games are about, then the answer to the one at No.6 is, not you. All of that totals over 700,000 unique players who spend, on average, 35 minutes each day on the games. […]

22 May 2008 - CNET News

SAN FRANCISCO--When you're one of the earliest adopters of a new technology, or one of the first companies into a new space, you tend to be very bullish on its future. That energy was very much in evidence Thursday at InterPlay, the first-ever conference solely devoted to social gaming. If you're not familiar with the concept of social gaming--small, casual game applications designed to be played on social networks like Facebook--you soon will be. […]

7 May 2008 - Joshua March

[…] Nic Brisbourne DFJ Espirit pulled out some good points: More venture capital appeared in Europe in Q1 than ever before - the $1.3bn total was a lot higher than the previous peak in the first quarter of 2007. The UK lead the pack with $592m of deals, more than the previous three quarters combined. The average deal size for Europe broke $10m for the first time, boosted by big deals in the UK including $100m in Spinvox. The average deal size in the UK was $11.9m which is higher than the US figure of $11.6m. […]

28 April 2008 - TechCrunch UK

James Brocket of Headhunters CallibreOne has been busy compiling a great list of VC investments in tech companies (PDF). Why? Because they do a lot of work for VC backed companies. The number are encouraging - surprising, even, given the doom and gloom in the wider economy. Nic Brisbourne DFJ Espirit pulled out some good points: More venture capital appeared in Europe in Q1 than ever before - the $1.3bn total was a lot higher than the previous peak in the first quarter of 2007. The UK lead the pack with $592m of deals, more than the previous three quarters combined […]

25 April 2008 - Virtual World Forum blog

There´s increasing convergence between virtual worlds and casual gaming, with games now forming a big part of many virtual worlds, particularly those focused at younger users. A parallel (and not entirely unrelated) trend is the rise of ’social games‘ – games played on social networks like Facebook. But do these two areas represent a threat to the console game industry? […]

21 April 2008 - Alexis Madrigal

Being smart is good, but having everyone know you are smart is better. Now, a Facebook app is bringing those big-brain bragging rights to a profile near you. Playfish's Who Has the Biggest Brain? presents a series of simple memory, math, and spatial games which are tabulated into a final score, measured in hypothetical cubic centimeters of brain. It's one of the hottest applications on Facebook, with over 260,000 daily players. […]

12 March 2008 - MSN tech & gadgets Jane Douglas: Editor, Tech & Gadgets

[…] Social game publisher Playfish, whose Facebook game Who Has The Biggest Brain? follows closely behind Scrabulous in terms of popularity, says that the competition between Scrabble and Scrabulous is of particular interest because over time it will show how important brands are for these kinds of games, as opposed to product design and quality. "Brands have always been important in the console and mobile games industries," says Playfish's blog. "We think this might be different on social networks." […]

11 March 2008 - venturebeat

[…] Playfish, which is based in London, already has a game called Who Has The Biggest Brain? on Facebook. It plans on monetizing through micro-transactions according to VentureWire, which also reported the funding. The $3 million seed round was provided by a group of angel investors.

4 March 2008 - ReadWriteWeb

[…] The first application during App Nite was the Facebook Game "Who Has the Biggest Brain" a game by the company Playfish. The concept behind the facebook application is a series of 4 minute games that lets you compare intelligence against your friends in Facebook. The game has 600k installs this week and 100k active users per day who play over 500k games per day. […]

21 January 2008 - by Renate Alsén Øvergård

Tromsøgutten Kim Daniel Arthur (27) har høye mål. Fra Tromsø starter han opp firmaet Playfish, som skal lage spill for web og mobil.

6 January 2008 - Mobile Games Blog

[…] The biggest advantage would be the amount of gameplay data that can be collected through the platform as well as immediate feedback on design tweaks. A new feature can directly be monitored and adjusted if necessary. […] […] Playfish is also excited about the easy of updating games on social networking platforms. As gamers play purely online, it is just a matter of updating the scripts that run on the server. In mobile gaming, this mostly applies to wap based mobile games. […]

23 December 2007 - What Apps

Facebook is finally starting to attract real companies that make real commercial quality applications. Playfish is one of those companies and Who Has The Biggest Brain? is one of those applications. Playfish has raised the bar quite high for all Facebook apps with their new Who Has The Biggest Brain? game. […]

23 December 2007 - Gameaxis

[…] In the golden age of social networking, peer evaluation becomes the killer app, a mantra that game developers are cleverly mining for all it's worth with new 'interactive applications", as in the case of "Who's Got the Biggest Brain", developed by Playfish solely for use on Facebook. It's an unabashed Flash clone of Big Brain Academy for the DS, where you complete a series of IQ tests then sums up the size of your noggin, and compares it to the lowly snail right up to an alien gray (right now, I hover at Neanderthal on the scale). […]

20 December 2007 - Pocketgamer.co.uk

More news from the convergence between mobile and web gaming. A new company called Playfish has decloaked, headed by Kristian Segerstrale, former European boss at mobile publisher Glu. He's backed by "an international group of casual and mobile games industry veterans who believe that social games are the next big thing in the industry". With a staff of ten and $3 million of funding, Playfish is already ramping up. […]

20 December 2007 - AllFacebook

This morning I spent some time playing the “Who Has The Biggest Brain” game. This is definitely one of the more entertaining games on Facebook. The application enables you to give your brain a solid workout. It tests you on a number of things including basic math, memory, analytics and others. I started playing it this morning after five hours of sleep and the game said I had the brain the same size as a goat. Goats are kind of intelligent … right? […]

7 December 2007 - TechDigest

You can shove your Dr. Kawashima where the sun don't shine - the hot new thing is connected brain training on Facebook. At least, that's what I reckon after playing Who Has The Biggest Brain?, a new Facebook app that tests your grey cells against those of your friends. […]

12 May 2005 - Draw logic

The Bowling Buddies game is made by the very creative Playfish.com company (more on the release at their blog). They have some great facebook/social network games combined with flash. With bowling buddies they created a game similar to Wii bowling (even with customize characters) and the best part is how they have scaled down versions. You can play in 2D, 3D and at different levels of quality to make it accessible to everyone […]