Mobile games developers target social networking sites

Digital Chocolate and others use the likes of Facebook to grow market.

A Reuters report says mobile games firms are looking to turn their games into apps for social networking sites in a bid to recover from a perceived slowdown last year.

According to research firm M:Metrics the number of people buying mobile games in the US and Europe last year was relatively flat.

"The mobile games segment has been stuck in a rut for a long time now, with less than five per cent of subscribers actually buying and playing games," the report quotes Informa analyst Daniel Winterbottom as saying.

So, the likes of Digital Chocolate has turned to social networking as a way to monetise and market their properties.

Digital Chocolate turned its popular Tower Bloxx game into a Facebook app - and it has been installed on over 400,000 users' profiles.

The takeup has been better than any of our expectations," said Ilkka Paananen, head of game development at Digital Chocolate. "This year we will support all our key products with similar kind of marketing."