Social gaming start-up Playdom may have earned up to $10M in Q4 2008 according to sources speaking to VentureBeat. Playdom's revenue is all generated through sales of virtual goods and currency in the company's portfolio of games on Facebook, MySpace, and other networks. Major titles include Mobsters, Poker Palace, and Bloodlines. Playdom Chairman Rick Thompson states that the revenue mix right now is divided half-and-half between ad offers and direct sales, up from only 30% direct sales revenue about six months ago.
Playdom has plans to continue expanding its social gaming operations, including a stated ambition to triple the number of employees at the company (currently 43). Some sources, however, are indicating that while Playdom is profitable, the company didn't make anything near the $10M figure claimed by other sources. This source would seem to lend weight to a significant rumor included in the report that Playdom is looking to raise a round of venture capital.
The rumor claims Playdom was rejected from a round that could have been worth as much as $200 million due to the shadow of legal trouble lingering over the company and the lack of an experienced chief executive. Right now Playdom's Mobsters, the biggest mafia game on MySpace, is the subject of a lawsuit against the company, filed by Mob Wars creator David Maestri. On behalf of his current company Psycho Monkey, Maestri has been suing essentially any company that publishes mafia games based on his allegation that all mafia games are illegal copies of his own Mafia Wars.
Thompson denies the funding rumor, saying that Playdom doesn't intend to think about funding until later this summer. The lawsuit is a matter of public record and not so easily dismissed, though Thompson does have an answer to the CEO question. Thompson stated that current Playdom CEO Dan Yue has long intended to move into a more development-oriented role and Playdom is now searching for a new chief executive.
It was only last month that Playdom exited stealth mode after a long period spent focusing on the development of social games on the under-served MySpace platform. Of course, MySpace is under-served because its social gaming apps don't seem to attract quite as many players as rival Facebook and consequently Playdom is currently one of the smaller players in the social gaming scene. A funding round for Playdom in the future seems possible, whether the $10 million revenue figure for Q4 turns out to be wholly valid or not. Growth at the scale Playdom has been talking about doesn't come cheap.
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