Other notes from the report:

- Only 2% or 3% of users spend money on Zynga games and less than 1% consistently purchase virtual goods. Zynga makes nearly 40% of its revenue from those sales. Other revenue sources include in-game advertisements and marketing offers.

- Upcoming Facebook changes could affect Zynga’s apps. Next month, Facebook is expected to adjust its notification policy for games, something that could “affect Zynga in unintended ways.” The report notes a Facebook change in July 2008 that turned off viral components for the Super Wall application. As a result, average daily users fell from 2.4 million to 0.6 million in a month. Currently, Super Wall users number 0.3 million average daily users.

Read the full article at USA Today’s Game Hunters

“It is no longer about people going to a portal for a game, it is about bringing that game to people anywhere, on any platform,” said OverInteractive Media CEO Glen Lougheed. “This is the future of social gaming, and dimeRocker is perfectly positioned to lead the oncoming wave of next-gen social gaming.”

Launched this week in closed beta for select developers, the first iteration of the dimeRocker platform will provided access to powerful features and services, including:

The ability to self-publish their games within Facebook

Real-time global and social leader boards to keep their players in the middle of the action; and

Accessibility to other social networks and premiere access to new features as they are added.

Most importantly, developers will be invaluable in helping to shape dimeRocker’s evolution, ensuring that the platform offers a robust set of services to the global game production community.

Interested game developers are encouraged to register for the closed beta at http://dimeRocker.com/devsignup. Beta participation is initially limited, but will continue to grow as the platform’s capabilities expand.

Established by a leading team of technology entrepreneurs and entertainment veterans, OverInteractive Media’s board of directors includes President of FanTrust Entertainment Strategies, Catherine Warren.

About OverInteractive Media: A privately-held company headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, OverInteractive Media Inc. (OMI) is currently developing solutions to increase revenue for 3D games on social networks while simplifying deployment. Visit www.OverInteractive.com for more information.

About dimeRocker: A distribution platform designed by OverInteractive Media Inc. that enables independent Unity game developers the ability to deploy, monetize and grow traffic for their content across the social web. Distilled from the underground expression “rockin’ on your dime,” dimeRocker speaks to the playful sentiment of having fun on someone else’s tab. Further information and developer beta registration is available at www.dimeRocker.com.

Since its inception, AdMob has served more than 125 billion mobile ads (according to the counter on its homepage) across a variety of platforms including iPhone and Android.

Read the full article at Mashable.

The gamers, many of whom eschewed traditional video-game consoles, have spurred revenue for Facebook. The 5-year-old social-networking site recently announced it was operating in the black — a major feat in an industry beset by doubts about its ability to be profitable.

Meanwhile, the radical change in the way Americans play games has had a ripple effect on the $45 billion gaming industry. Developers large and small are designing easy-to-play diversions in hopes of capitalizing on the craze. For some, such as Nintendo and Electronic Arts (EA), it’s a return to simpler graphics and elementary objectives.

Read the entire article at USAToday.com

Generating real world dollars from virtual goods, advertising and sponsorship, social games represent a powerful business model. And with the cost for building a good social game as low as $100K, the margins can be astronomical and the barriers to entry non-existent.

From mature entertainment companies to rank start-ups, from VC’s to analysts, everyone is watching this space – or ignoring it at her peril.

FanTrust’s latest business whitepaper gives you a high-level look at entertainment’s massive growth market and fandom’s new frontier, including:

• Market opportunities
• Monetization tactics
• Fan favorites

Read or download “Socialize Me — FanTrust’s Fast Facts To Help You Tap Today’s Billion Dollar Social Games Sector.”

In terms of increasing the understanding and control a user has over the information accessed by third-party applications, Facebook is introducing a new permissions model that will require applications to specify the categories of information they wish to access and obtain express consent from the user – before any data is shared. Users will also have to approve any access to their friends’ info, in turn subject to the friend’s privacy and application settings.

Visit Media in Canada for the full article

According to Barron's, who cite an analyst that's claiming to have already touched the device, the Apple Tablet will be a system designed with two things in mind: media playback and games.

It'll feature a 10-inch touchscreen, cost around $800 and be built to play music, videos and games on that big, touchy screen. Just like an iPod Touch, only...bigger.

Reported at Kotaku

From MediaPost Publications

Every Thursday and Monday for the next two weeks,  we’ll walk you through short, simple exercises – complete with case studies and success stories – intended to spark transformation in your company or division with overall corporate and business goals; digital capacity; market niche and fan engagement strategies.

With more than two decades of experience in digital media, FanTrust can help you grow your digital lines of business. Our hope is to leave you inspired and invigorated for a happy, healthy digital business in 2009.

All the best!

Session One: Define Your Aspirations

What are your motivations for getting into the digital space? What do you hope to achieve?

Perhaps, as a television producer, you simply want to maintain a competitive edge when pitching or developing TV treatments for broadcasters. Others may have more ambitious goals – eyeing additional revenue streams (e.g. sales of video online) or new partnership models (e.g. production underwriting from online video destinations and/or brand sponsorships).

The men of Monty Python are blatantly, unabashedly aspiring to additional revenues with their just-launched YouTube channel. In their comic, absurdist style, the group admits the channel is a direct ploy to sell Monty Python DVDs and merchandise through YouTube’s new partnership with Amazon. And it appears to be working – the three-year-old best-of Monty Python DVD set went from being the ten thousandth most purchased item on Amazon.com to No. 5 one week after the comedy group started posting videos on YouTube with referral links to Amazon.

Web studio NextNewNetworks signed a deal in July 2008 with Starburst. The characters of NNN’s animated series Nite Fite talk up its candy company sponsor – alongside “sell-out” quips – in return for sponsorship revenues. Though terms were undisclosed, this type of deal is helping studios create and seed their series to online audiences.

Many game companies are stepping into the digital space in pursuit of audiences, financing and new revenue streams. We’ve previously blogged about Nexon generating $1.2 million in sales of virtual MiniCooper cars within Maple Story. Talk about printing (or in this case, digitally rendering) your own money!

Former Capcom VP of Marketing Nique Fajors is now working with a new online games company. He explained in a recent GameDaily article that he believes online games will continue to lure funding from the traditional console space – why would investors put up big dollars to see two console game produced, when they can spread their dollars (and risk) across one hundred casual games, he asks?

While there will continue to be a market for console games, companies and producers including EA and Take-Two see microtransactions and downloadable content as untapped opportunities, and a necessary investment, even in tight economic times.

In short, you need to know where you want to go if you ever hope to get there – begin mapping your digital future today.

FanTrust runs strategy sessions that help you and your team ask the right questions and drill down on the right answers and decisions for your company’s digital business, with our Digital Brand Snapshot brainstorm process.

One of the most fascinating talks I attended last winter was at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco (read prior FanTrust blog coverage here) — on the topic of How Wikipedia is Like a Multiplayer Game: it is addictive to its core community, has its own system of guilds and includes a crazy cast of real-life editors who identify as vandal fighters, wikignomes (don’t want status), sock puppets (operate with different identities) and moths (who are drawn to conflicts). On the flip-side, game companies can apply lessons and strategies from the Wikipedia model to build loyalty and community action.

Now, there is nothing “accidental” about some online communities.

World of Warcraft players build strong relationships with other gamers, through conference call-type voice chat systems like TeamSpeak, forum postings and instant messaging.

Developer Blizzard Entertainment structured the game to encourage these fans. Nothing can be accomplished in higher game levels without at least 40 fellow gamers playing simultaneously. Gamers on opposing teams cannot speak with one another. These very real social connections may be just as crucial to engaging gamers as great gameplay, graphics or story lines.

And the Alternate Reality Game for the series Lost takes new storylines introduced in gameplay and embeds them into on-air episodes. The game was also used between seasons to tide fans over, a bonus during the recent writer’s strike.

Mainstream TV shows like American Idol are also influencing game trends and game audiences. Nexon’s Audition, a dance competition that you play with others online, sounds more like the TV sensation “So You Think You Can Dance?” than your standard MMO. And while it is now possible to watch hardcore gamers battle it out on television in video game championships, skills of alliance-building and other gamesmanship are standard fare on shows like Survivor, which after all is essentially a game.