Playfish CEO misses the point of FB Connect
This caught my eye (via Alice): 'Playfish CEO unsure of Facebook Connect'.
Speaking in a panel at the Develop Conference 2009, Playfish CEO Kristian Segerstrale as revealed he is yet to be convinced by the prospect of the Xbox 360's forthcoming social networking service, Facebook Connect.
"I'm not too sure about social networking and Facebook integration on the Xbox 360, because not everyone has one, [snip] Social Networks do open up games to a far wider audience, but it has to be just a click away, and you don't want to have to buy a 360 just to get at it."
Hmm... has he even USED a 360?
One of the more groundbreaking elements of the 360 was that it shipped with a social network, Xbox Live. FB Connect is about building bridges between customers existing social networks, not starting a new one.
Labels:
Develop,
Facebook,
Playfish,
SocialNetwork,
Xbox360
2 comments:
Hm... do you know any data on how many people use the social features of Xbox Live, and what their demographics are? Although I have a few buddies on XBL, I don't think I have ever used any social features with / on them, nor do I know anyone who does. But I may be a outlier.
I used to have access to data when I worked there. Not anymore. However, I think more circumstantially, you can look at all of the internet activity around gamerscore (itself a social metagame/marker - people count gamerscore a little like people on myspace count friends), and all of the dedicated achievements for multiplayer, etc, as being part of the XBL indicators.
Anecdotally, I know tons of people that use it. I'd say that I use XBL as much as I use FB, though differently. I fire up the console at least 5 times a week, and first thing I do is see who's online, what they are playing, and then I might compare friends achievements on games they have in common with those I'm playing through. It's a different kind of SN, but it's an SN for sure.
I'd imagine the integration is going to let you broadcast your activity in one SN to the other. e.g. "Kim played some multiplayer L4D with persons A, B, C"
Post a Comment