"This month is our biggest event yet. ... MoreWe're having it at the King Cat Theatre and we have the largest publisher on Facebook (Zynga), the largest publisher on Myspace (Playdom), and one of the largest game monetization platforms (Offerpal) joining us for our February event on game monetizaton. This time around we have a huge venue, tons of staff, and an open bar. What better way to spend an evening and learn from the best on how to properly make money with social games. We've made a switch to using eventbrite for registration in an effort to have a much smoother registration process as well begin our migration off of the meetup platform. Look forward to seeing everyone at our best event yet. Featured Speakers Offerpal - Nick Talarico, Dir. of Publisher Development Playdom - Jo Clowes, Executive Producer, Seattle Studio Zynga - Roy Sehgal, VP and GM, Cafe World RockYou - TBA We'll also hear from Mike Ybarra from Microsoft on their latest deal with Zynga and the social opportunities at Microsoft "

"Hey Everyone, I'm so happy it's 2010. I think it's going to be a super productive year for social gaming as a whole and for social gaming in Seattle in particular. ... MoreI've talked to a number of companies who have come to some of our events and found either developers to hire or made great connections for business out of the networking portion of the events. Our goal this year though is to help at least 4 indie companies come out of Seattle and be breakout stars in Social gaming, which we will detail in the upcoming months. So, we've learned a ton from the events thrown last year and we have ramped up our staff on the event side. Corrie Westmoreland has joined the team. I'm sure quite a few of you know Corrie from her work at Rocketdog as well as her work on the Women in Games events around town. She's pitching in to handle event coordination as well as marketing. Noelle Hunt Bennett is our consigliere, helping us make all the right connections to throw a great event in Seattle. Korby Sears, is heading up our news efforts, as we get ready to launch Social Games Today next month. So anyone who has any local news about social and/or mobile startups in the area please reach out to Korby. Our February event is really special. Show Me the Money, brings the leaders in monetizing Social Games on Facebook and Myspace to Seattle to answer your questions on what is the best way to make money with social games. We'll have speakers from Playdom, Zynga, and Offerpal present to give you case studies as well as answer your questions and network. We have early registration this week only so sign up not to get a discounted ticket. Also for this event and all of our future events by extremely popular demand we'll have an open bar as well as food, so please bring your I.D. as well as your business card. You can register for the event at http://socialgamessea... See you in February. AJ "

"Here's the powerpoint from Amitt Mahajan from Zynga Building Big Social Games"

"Report: EA Hooking Playfish for $250 Million Posted October 14, 2009 by David Radd Games in social media are fast becoming big business, as evidenced by Zynga increasing its number of monthly users to 129 million. ... MoreAnother validation of social media games (especially on Facebook) will reportedly come from Electronic Arts, which Inside Social Games [thanks Silicon Alley Insider] says is acquiring Playfish for a rumored $250 million. In fact, the report suggests that the deal may have already gone down a few weeks ago, and an official announcement is coming soon. Playfish is one of the most popular game makers on Facebook, having increased from 35 million users to roughly 60 million over the past few months. It is expected that Playfish will make $75 million in 2009 off of games like Pet Society, Minigolf Party and Restaurant City. According to Lazard Capital Markets analyst Colin Sebastian, EA believes the Internet will be the single largest growth driver for the games industry. "In particular, EA views the social networking platforms (e.g., Facebook) as a large growth opportunity, with relatively low barriers to entry, high margins, and attractive viral marketing characteristics," he commented. (courtesy of industrygamers) "