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Zynga’s Farmville: Donating with Social Games
Posted by Hsing Wei on 11-11-09A big investment story this week is the $275+M purchase of Playfish by Electronic Arts. That deal reflects recognition of the significant growth in social games—typically free to play with no expensive console requirements, social games are appealing especially to “casual” gamers. Given the reach of social games with nontraditional players, its an interesting space for social issue game developers to consider.
One of the earliest examples is the popular social gardening game, (Lil) Green Patch, that donates a portion of revenues to funding reforestation projects (good writeup here). A more recent example comes from social gaming start-up leader, Zynga. Within three week, “Sweet Seed for Haiti”, in its most popular game, FarmVille, donated $487,500 towards the welfare of children in Haiti. Players can purchase virtual items as part of the game play in tending their own virtual farms. Exploring the idea of “social goods”, one of those items for purchase is Sweet Seeds, which trigger a donation of ~50 percent of proceeds to nonprofits in Haiti: FATEM.org and FONKOZE.org. “The sheer scope and reach of social gaming to affect people’s lives in a positive way wasn’t even a reality a few years ago,” said Mark Pincus, founder and chief executive of Zynga. ‘Sweet Seeds for Haiti’ is an early step for Zynga with more to come.” Zynga’s YoVille virtual town game with 140 million inhabitants has a similar program raising money for the SPCA by purchasing bulldogs and tabby cats from the game’s shelter. (Tangentially, social gaming companies have also recently received some criticism to increase oversight against scams tied to virtual currency transactions). Read more about Farmville or digital goods>.