Apps Rule! Wooga No Longer Distributing HTML5 Games on Facebook.
Wooga, a German-based social game developer, said it will no longer use Facebook to distribute its mobile games, after conducting a six-month long experiment on its HTML5 platform. — The decision is yet another blow …
Context & Ripple Effects
Wooga, one of Facebook's most prominent game developers, has pulled the plug on a six-month experiment distributing HTML5 mobile games through Facebook, calling it unsuccessful. The retreat lands two months after Flurry's data showing social networks' 40-month reign atop mobile gaming had ended, which already suggested the social-graph distribution channel was losing ground to native app stores.
The story traveled widely for a single developer decision — pickups at Forbes, PadGadget, and FierceMobileContent — because Wooga was a test case for whether HTML5 could carry social gaming onto phones. It also rhymes with an older Facebook pattern: back in October 2008, observers were already writing obituaries for widgets on Facebook.
First-order effects
- Wooga redirects its mobile effort toward native iOS and Android distribution, abandoning the Facebook canvas as a mobile channel.
- Facebook loses a marquee HTML5 advocate at exactly the moment its mobile monetization is under strain — the same week brought the Sponsored Stories settlement forcing opt-outs from likeness-based ads.
Second-order effects
- Other social-game studios now have cover to skip HTML5-on-Facebook entirely and go straight to native apps, weakening Facebook's pitch as a mobile game distribution platform.
- The failure sharpens pressure on Facebook to ship a faster native mobile experience rather than leaning on HTML5 webviews, where performance complaints have dogged its iOS app.
Third-order effects
- If the largest social graph cannot make browser-based game distribution pay on mobile, social gaming structurally consolidates around the Apple and Google app stores, repeating the 2008 pattern in which Facebook platform formats died once their economics failed.
The trend: Social gaming is decamping from browser-based HTML5 on Facebook toward native mobile apps, with the biggest social developers following players onto iOS and Android.