Online games = experience = money! Just ask PlayFish

Written on 28th October 2008                                                                                                              COMMENT
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief

Hey you know what? I’m just gonna link all today’s tech news to Calacanis latest news letter. He wants, needs, and breathes the attention, and he does a great job in getting it. I mean, his emails are really good reads.

As I’ve mentioned before, Calacanis predicted a great time for experience companies. People don’t have a penny, but they do want good experiences to make up for the tough times. Digg and StumbleUpon will flourish, as well as the online gaming industry.

This industry is doing great anyhow, with games spreading over almost any platform (from iPhone to Facebook). So VC’s won’t be afraid to supply online games service with a financial injection.

In that light, it makes perfect sense that London-based Playfish has raised a $17 million series B round led by Accel Partners and Index Ventures.

The newly acquired capital will be used for extra manpower in their four international offices. One of the new employees most important tasks will be including more platforms in PlayFish’s portfolio.

Its current claim to fame is the strong position in the Facebook app market. Playfish games regularly make it to the top ten gaming apps – which often comes down to 1 million daily active users. Mike Butcher even speculates that Playfish is the already legendary Facebook developer that makes more than a million dollars per month.