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Playdom talks about Mobsters iPhone and micro-transactions

Guess why Mobsters: Big Apple wasn't a free app?

Playdom talks about Mobsters iPhone and micro-transactions
Things have been pretty busy over at social gaming company Playdom recently.

Not only has it launched Mobsters 2: Vendetta on Facebook, but Mobsters: Big Apple - the iPhone version of its massively popular MySpace game Mobsters - also went live on the App Store in mid July.

This was significant as the iPhone game enables MySpace players to hook into their existing Mobsters game on the move, and hence play either on their PC or via their iPhone/iPod touch.

We caught up with Sean Clark, executive producer of Playdom's RPG studio, and veep of marketing Rachel Thomas to find out some more.

Pocket Gamer: How did the launch of Mobsters: Big Apple go?

Sean Clark: We've had a lot of positive feedback from both sides of the community - MySpace and iPhone. Of course, it was huge deal for us and we're still celebrating.

It's the first game of its kind to be released and tied back into a social network. Essentially we've made a portable version of MySpace Mobsters, so you don't have to sit at your computer, you can play Mobsters on the bus or doing the laundry or wherever you take your iPhone.

It was a big, big step for us, and we're certainly considering what our next move will be.

Presumably you had to redesign your backend technology but now you have platform you can roll out to other games?

Clark: We have strong technology in place. It's surprising to me no one's done this before. Either it's the big a-ha that no one thought about, or just that our system makes it so much easier to accommodate. But it provides a valuable user experience and that's why we committed to doing it.

Rachel Thomas: I should also point out, it was never an option that the iPhone app wouldn't let you play your existing MySpace Mobsters game. It's too important for players who have spent many hours building up their game not to include it.

Micro-transactions are how you make your money on MySpace and Facebook so what are your plans for iPhone?

Thomas: Mobsters: Big Apple was a 99c app so we can include micro-transactions in a forthcoming version of the game.

But we're in a unique position because players can buy their points via their MySpace game and spend them in the iPhone version. We're already seeing this happening.

This was the reason it wasn't so important for us to get micro-transactions enabled out of the gate with Mobsters: Big Apple because as long as we're expanding the player experience that's a good for us in terms of our bottomline.

Thanks to Sean and Rachel for their time.

Mobsters: Big Apple is out now, priced 99c, €0.79 or 59p.

Contributing Editor

A Pocket Gamer co-founder, Jon is Contributing Editor at PG.biz which means he acts like a slightly confused uncle who's forgotten where he's left his glasses. As well as letters and cameras, he likes imaginary numbers and legumes.