Many saw Google's recently-launched social gaming platform as a threat to the 200 million monthly players Facebook has amassed, but according to Facebook's director of games partnerships Sean Ryan, the two can peacefully co-exist.
"Developers should go where they think they can make the most money," he said at a Gamasutra-attended roundtable at Facebook's corporate headquarters on Friday. "We don’t spend a lot of time worrying about them, we worry about us."
Ryan addressed criticism on the two platforms' wildly divergent revenue splits (Facebook takes a 30 percent cut, while Google takes only 5 for the initial period) by saying that that Facebook's platform is simply worth more, saying that Google is only taking a small cut because "they don't have any users!"
"We believe through our distribution, our audience, and our virality, that that’s worth a certain revenue split," he said. “At the end of the day, it's whether [developers get] a certain percentage of a large number, or a certain percentage of a small number.”
“We see competition around the world. What I’d say is in classic fashion Google has emulated our system, which is what they’re inclined to do," Ryan added. "And we just need to be better as a platform. At the end of the day, people will go to what they thing is the right platform. So revenue split is one of those factors. We’re the leader, there’s no question. But we can be better.”
Ryan also criticized Google for being an investor in social game makers, implying that the company could show favoritism to those it has a stake in.
"We’re not an investor in Zynga like Google is, or like Google is in Kabam, or an owner of Slide. We’re not. We’re an open platform. We run the most open platform around," he said, adding that Facebook doesn't "favor developers over other developers. We’re not there to grow specific developers."
Ryan denied previous reports of an exclusivity deal that favored Zynga, saying that all of its developers are treated equally.
"We’re not an investor in the company. Google is," he said. "Where do you think the favoritism is going to be?"
While Facebook has definitely shown favoritism to Zynga, Google is a partial owner. Ryan is right that that's a very different relationship. Facebook shows favoritism to Zynga because they are successful; if you're successful (admittedly more difficult in the modern FB climate) they might show favoritism to you, too. Hardly democratic, but at least you can see the way in. For Google, cause and effect are reversed. As an owner of Zynga, Google has an incentive to show favoritism to create success, not as a result of it.
Google taking 5% is really not a starter when they're not letting anyone but established groups into the program, and in the case of Zynga (at least) they've dumped in plenty of money on other channels as well.
Wow, way to tell half truths Facebook. Regardless of whether you actually invest money in Zynga, Zynga brings a whole ton of traffic your way. If that's not a conflict of interest, then I'm really a cat...
Also, if you don't care about Google Plus, why even bother talking about it in any detail? Why release an update to your games platform on the same day that Google announced its partnerships?
I know they're trying hard to come across as nonchalant, but it seems to me that regardless of whether Facebook is in fact threatened by Google+, they should at least 'spend a lot of time' thinking about it. To do anything else seems negligent.
I'm still pretty neutral on FB/G+ predictions myself, but FB shouldn't forget what they themselves did to Myspace.
They ought to be worrying about Google+ and their social games. I have switched to Google+ and like it much better than FB. I think the folks at facebook are too big for their britches and think they are invincible.
I completely agree. Just a few years ago everyone was claiming Twitter's explosive growth should make Facebook worry. But rather becoming more like Twitter, Facebook stayed true to itself and it's still on today.
i used google+ for about 5 seconds and havent been back. until everyone i know is on there, i wont use it again. i hate facebook, but i have a hard time seeing it fall to google, especially considering Google's missteps lately.
FB + Zynga sitting in a tree.
Well, you know the rest of the song.
Google taking 5% is really not a starter when they're not letting anyone but established groups into the program, and in the case of Zynga (at least) they've dumped in plenty of money on other channels as well.
Also, if you don't care about Google Plus, why even bother talking about it in any detail? Why release an update to your games platform on the same day that Google announced its partnerships?
"The lady doth protest too much, methinks."
We know how this story has ended :-)
I'm still pretty neutral on FB/G+ predictions myself, but FB shouldn't forget what they themselves did to Myspace.
"We don’t spend a lot of time worrying about them, we worry about us."
Now I believe it and also think its very smart.