Gaming leads the social frontier

One of the insights from the recent Advertising 2.0 conference in New York revealed that gaming and virtual currency are among the fastest growing segments in social media. RockYou, Slide, Zynga and Playfish are all examples of young companies creating social applications around gaming, and more established brands are proving quick to pick up on the potential of social integration too. Electronic Arts have recently enabled fans of The Sims to create and upload movies onto Facebook and YouTube as well as play from their iPhone, but it’s Microsoft who have really caused a stir with their socially pimped Xbox 360.

Screenshot of Facebook on Xbox 360 via PlayFeed

John Schappert, Corporate Vice President of Interactive Entertainment LIVE, Software and Studios, described why at the MS press conference: ”By bringing Twitter, Facebook and Last.fm to Xbox 360, we’re not only extending the walls of your living room beyond your home to your friends all over the world, we’re creating the definitive social network, uniting more than 200 million people to share status updates, pictures, thoughts on music and the world’s best online gaming experience.”

This is clever, according to Freddie Laker in How Xbox’s Social Strategy Could Change Gaming Forever, because “Microsoft is uniting a passionate community that comprises hundreds of millions of people and, in large part, revolves around its brand. Just think about all the possibilities this creates.” Spot on. We’ve discussed before how passions connect, and MS have made it super easy for likeminded fans to network and share on all sorts of topics, but with their brand always at the heart of those conversations.

People love to play. In a broad sense, games have always been social glue, whether they’re conducted in the boardroom or in an online fantasy land. No wonder the gaming sector is leading the way in social media integration and amplification for brands.

Brought into the world on Friday, June 12th, 2009 and filed under Uncategorized.