LOLapps to Stop Making Branded Games, Start Using Facebook Credits Exclusively
We’ve been watching San Francisco developer LOLapps with interest since the company decided last year to focus on games over its highly successful user-generated quiz business. While it hasn’t had a massive hit gaming yet, LOLapps has produced a few solid successes to date.
Several of these have been in conjunction with big brands. Last December, the company published Dante’s Inferno on Facebook to help hype up Electronic Arts’ release of the console version several months later. At the time, it looked like a possible template for future collaboration between social and traditional game companies.
However, that phase is now over for LOLapps, according to CEO Arjun Sethi. When we talked with Sethi last week, he said that the company is more interested in becoming a brand of its own, and will only publish original titles of its own.
Like many other developers, Sethi sees an inflection point approaching on Facebook. “People will begin demanding better experiences,” he told us. Unlike the me-too social games created last year, original experiences and creativity will be valued.
Another major change taking place at LOLapps is a switch to Facebook Credits. A number of developers are testing Credits or offer them alongside an in-game virtual currency, but LOLapps will join CrowdStar as the only other large developer to use Credits exclusively.
It’s a big move, but Sethi says that he’s been satisfied so far with Credits. “We haven’t seen a significant drop in transactions. To the contrary, we’re starting to see increased usage,” he said. “We’re actually excited to figure out how to use Credits in our games.”
In general, Sethi is also happy with Facebook’s platform, and says that LOLapps has actually grown after each of Facebook’s policy changes (a number of larger developers saw decreases after Facebook’s notification adjustments). For LOLapps, the key is in learning more about users through Facebook’s data APIs. “It should be our job to know our users better than we’ve known them in the past,” Sethis said.
LOLapps’ last big release was Garden Life, which is currently at around a million monthly active users. The company has several more games in the pipeline, which it expects to release over the summer.
