Is "poke" the new Konami Code? Maybe not literally, but one Electronic Arts executive has hinted that at least one of the gaming behemoth's titles is headed to Facebook, further blurring the line between social-networking applications and the game industry.
In a Bloomberg TV interview, EA Sports President Peter Moore obliquely said, "you'll see us on Facebook, going forward," with regard to its storied "Madden NFL" franchise.
Blogger Nick O'Neill of Social Times quotes someone anonymous saying this does, indeed, mean that there will be a Facebook version of "Madden NFL" (rather than, say, Facebook Connect notifications from the console) and that it will be a "simpler experience" of the original game.
No further information is available thus far, but it's easy to imagine that perhaps more of EA's titles could get a Facebook presence.
EA acquired Playfish, one of the predominant manufacturers of social games on the Facebook platform, for about $300 million late last year. In doing so, it became the first of the gaming industry's titans to really acknowledge the muscle of social games, and now it has a stellar Facebook game development team in its ranks.
But so far, social games have proven to be of a separate vein than their console and PC siblings--unless you count the obvious influence of the "Sim City" franchise on the likes of Zynga's FarmVille. Free to play and reliant primarily on the sale of virtual goods, these games have roped in demographics completely different from the young males who propelled "Madden" to success.
Facebook has been the big hub for the rise of these games. But at the same time, social-game manufacturers are pushing to get their titles onto the Web at large--outside of Facebook's confines.