Hacker News Reader

Comment by bryne | Hacker News Reader

I'm pleased for these guys, but a little surprised as well. Launching a Pokemon social game isn't exactly being disruptive; it's not as if there's any dearth of them on Facebook, particularly at a time when many companies are fleeing the already strip-mined platform for greener pastures.

View on HN

People are still MINTING money on Facebook. I imagine the top 5 grossing facebook games make the top 5 grossing iPhone games look like adorable little hobbies. The #40 game on Facebook has 6M monthly active uniques. THe #120 game on Facebook has 2M MAU. How many iPhone games have those kind of numbers?

Platform quibbles aside, I imagine it's the fastest/cheapest way to get tens/hundreds of thousands of users to test their gameplay. It's easier to develop for Facebook than mobile, doesn't have the approval nonsense for rapid iteration, has a built in viral channel, etc.

I think it's a smart move.

Agreed, the bet isn't on this game, its on the team. As in, "I bet they could displace Zynga one day".

That isn't even necessary as a success condition, but in general, YC invests in Texas Hold'em because they see the glimmer that suggests you're capable of eventually executing on FarmVille. (Zynga wasn't Zynga on day one, either.)

Yup, still one of the surprisingly best keep secrets in start-up-dom is that Facebook apps is a much better, albeit riskier market than iPhone apps.

Are they? Who else other than Zynga is. Making money?

http://www.appdata.com/leaderboard/developers

There's a list.

How many millions of active users do you think it'd take to make meaningful income?

Yes. Quite a few of us.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com