Scrabulous (oops Lexulous) offers a mobile version

Mobile is hot. And the movement of social to mobile is even hotter. But I did not expect Lexulous to offer a mobile version. And I did not expect that mobile version to be incompatible with iPhone and Blackberry.

Here's the scoop as stated on the Lexulous app:


And I'd never expect them to incentivize invites. The Agarwalla Bros have always been scrupulous about obeying the letter and even more the intent of FB's platform policies. I am correct in thinking that offering a mobile version for inviting 30 friends is an incentive, right?

iPhone Current Demographics - Gender

There's a pretty strong data (albeitly indirect) that most current iPhone owners are men 25-35.

However, if you take a look at the current traffic to buyiphone.apple.com (Apple's info portal for buying an iPhone), you'll see that 48% of the visitors are women (according to Quantcast).

Tracking back 6 months, I found that Hitwise did a similar analysis and found the traffic was nearly 50/50.

I haven't been able to find any good current demographic data regarding gender on the iPhone, if anyone has a good link, let me know.

I'm not sure if I find this data conclusive, but I suspect that with the price of the iPhone dropping we will see the percentage of female owning growing (men are much less price sensitive when it comes to gadget purchases).

I'd say if I was building an app for the iPhone for a release in the next 3-6 months, I'd stay focused on the male demographics.

Here's some more demographic data, mostly income. (http://theappleblog.com/2008/11/24/profile-of-an-iphone-user-interesting-statistics-about-yourself/)

And I'd charge money. :)

I'm Back, and so is Scrabulous!

Hey all.

Then blogging break extended further, but I'm emerging from the darkness to note that Scrabulous is back as Lexulous. It's currently at 38,000 DAU.

As many of you know, Hasbro dropped their lawsuit against Scrabulous a couple of weeks ago.

Will Scrabulous/Lexulous get back its 600,000+ DAU? Doubtful. It's much harder to stand out from the noise on the Facebook platform nowadays.

I'm guessing that it'll hit 100,000 DAU by March 15. That's a total gut call. It's still the best Scrabble game on Facebook, it'll get much of its audience back.

However, the gameplay has been altered slightly. The scoring squares are in different locations. You get eight tiles instead of 7. Those are the two I noticed at a quick glance. There's likely to be more differences

Whatever, I'm happy for Rajat and Jayant. They built an awesome game and people can enjoy it again.

Blogging Break!

First, I want to thank all the people who congratulated my on the new gig at Zynga. I really appreciate the support.

Second, Happy Holidays. I'm taking a blog vacation until next year, when I will resume with regular updates. I have quite a few ideas brewing, I promise it'll be worth the wait.

Bret

Zynga Hires Biz Dev Gold, Pt. 2

So earlier this year, I wrote a post about former Pogo employee, Hugh De Loayza being hired by Zynga as VP of Biz Dev. I entitled it: Zynga hires Biz Dev Gold. I mentioned how he was a great person, a shining example of humanity.

Boy, was I wrong. :)

Six months later, the jerk hires me to be Zynga's new director of biz dev thus shattering the last vestiges of hope that I could make a living at blogging.

Thursday, at the Casual Games Association's Minna Mingle, I came out publicly. Revealed to the world that I'm now employed by Zynga.

So will I continue blogging?

Yes. But only 2-3 times a week. You'll notice that my blogging frequency has already slowed considerably. Sorry about that, Zynga's been keeping me busy for the last two weeks.

One of the things I cherish about my blog is that I have the complete freedom to talk about anything I want. Amazingly, Zynga is cool with me running my mouth off about whatever happens to come into my head at 3 in the morning. They're brave.

Having said that, I decided to not talk about Zynga in the blog. Once you're part of a company it's very hard to be objective about it.

However, since you may be interested, here are the main reasons I decided to join Zynga (over some other options):

1. Hugh. The guy's a rockstar and I want to learn whatever I can from him. (wow, do I feel like a suckup, I'm going to get so much crap about this post at the office.)

2. The job. In many ways, I'm getting paid to do what I had been doing already for the last year. Tracking the industry, identifying trends, and conversing with guys making cool games (so please keep emailing me, I'm still happy to offer free advice).

3. Zynga's vision. After a long chat with Mark Pincus, Zynga's CEO, I decided that I liked him (the most important factor for me) and that he had a smart long-term vision for Zynga (also pretty important). Fact is, it took a lot for me to link myself to someone else's vision rather than my own. A lot. So believe me when I say this: Zynga is going to kill it.

Less Than 2% of Adult Gamers have Visited a Virtual World, and Other Tidbits from the Pew Charitable Trust

That's right, folks, only 2% of American gamers have visited a virtual world. However, if you're just looking at teenagers, around 10% have visited a virtual world.

Meanwhile 43% of all adult gamers (or 23% of all adults) play online games. For teens: 76% of ALL teens play online games.

Here's what the newly released Pew Internet and American Life Report: Adults and Videogames says about online gamers:

Just under a quarter (23%) of all adults play games online. Put another way, some 43% of adult gamers play online games. Adults are much less likely to play games online than teens, as about 76% of all teens play games online and 79% of teen gamers play games online.

As with all games, younger adults are more likely to report playing games online than their older counterparts. Fully 43% of adults ages 18-29 play games online, compared with 26% of people ages 30-49, 13% of people ages 50-64, and 5% of those 65 and older.

Respondents who report playing games online tend to play more often than gamers who do not play games online. The majority (59%) of online gamers play at least a few times a week, significantly more than the 41% of strictly offline gamers who play that often. Those who play massive multiplayer online games (MMOGs),5 such as World of Warcraft, are even more likely to play frequently, as 89% play at least a few times a week.6 Nearly half (49%) of MMOG players play everyday or almost everyday, while just one in four online gamers (26%) and 17% of offline gamers play as often.

Here's the demographic breakdown of adult videogame players in the US: