What are the Most Profitable Crops in FarmVille?

Michael Hartman · Top Commenter · President/CEO at Frogdice, Inc.
Awesome article. The one thing I disagree with, and is similar to stuff I read all over the place is this whole "But mobile is the future of the Internet." attitude.

They act like mobile gaming is brand new. Its been big for over 20 years - at least since Nintendo put Tetris on the Gameboy.

I mean sure, its big, getting bigger. Its great, getting greater. But at the end of the day, its still a tiny ass screen on a device that's significantly weaker than anything you could pull out of a laptop bag or have on your desk.

As with so many tech advances, people have crested the hill where they are exaggerating the hell out of this. I have no doubt that mobile is a gigantic and important platform for gaming, but people still spend huge portions of their lives sitting on their ass at a desk, and they kinda like it. That's where the 'real gaming' can happen.

Angus Lovitt · Director of Performance Marketing at King.com
'Real gaming' is different things to different people. Ask a casual gamer. Ask Rovio.

Michael Hartman · Top Commenter · President/CEO at Frogdice, Inc.
Angus Lovitt: That's why I put it in quotes. I admit I trolled a bit there, so my apologies. :)

Michael Hartman · Top Commenter · President/CEO at Frogdice, Inc.
And just to clarify:

Two of my company's (http://www.frogdice.com/) games are text based RPGs. So I'm definitely someone who believes "real games" come in many forms.

And our third is a social web game that is NOT on Facebook:


Shingo Inaba · 明治学院大学
How Zynga Stacks Up To Japan’s Social Gaming Giant, GREE (Hint: It Is Less Profitable)

Yasuhiro Iwasawa · Works at ジークレスト
KPIの取り方で事業評価は変わるのはあたりまえだが、顧客単価がGree、DeNaのほうが高い原因がモバイル>pcなのか、日本>世界なのかは意見が分かれそう。

Jim Caralis · Subscribe · VP, Game Platform at MocoSpace
Social Network + Social games = more profitable than just social games. I would also imagine the cost to acquire new users for Zynga is higher than Gree and DeNA and Zynga's margin in less in part because Zynga needs to go through FB.
Reply · Like · Follow Post · 14 saat önce

Taka Tsurutani · Works at Waseda Üniversitesi
This is really important point. GREE and DeNA have their own platform unlike Zynga. They are like Facebook, which create and sell games on thrie platform. Margin should be bigger. AND Japanese users pay more than most of people in the world on contents such as games and anime.

Bob Dana · Co-Founder and CEO at Tripshare, Inc.
You haven't proved the connection between mobile gaming and profitability. How do you know it's not just a connection between a Japanese customer base and profitability? You haven't even offered up any logic as to WHY a mobile user is more likely to pay for virtual goods/leveling up, etc. than a web user.

Correlation does not imply causality....

Daniel Barber Trenbath · Subscribe · 同志社大学
I have to agree with you Bob. Japanese gamers exhibit drastically different character traits than users elsewhere.

One trip on a regional Japanese train will provide an eye-opening experience.
Reply · Like · 8 saat önce

Yousef Soliman · London, United Kingdom
Why does the article say "The slide below compares quarterly sales between Zynga, GREE, and DeNa (it is missing the last two quarters for Zynga, which would keep going up along the same trajectory at $279 million for June and $307 million for September). GREE expects annual sales to hit $1.7 billion this fiscal year.", while in the video with Eric below at around 04:20 they say it's $1.7 billion yen? Am I missing something?

Joseph Miller · Subscribe · Austin, Texas
paying & subscribing for stuff like games has been baked into mobile phones in Japan for more than a decade. #justsayin