When will journalists stop whinging at successful companies for “not making games that I like”

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Pocketgamer has an interesting debate going on.

In the blue corner is Jon Jordan, writing about the rise of ngMoco, impressed by its commitment, its ability to pivot and its successful exit for up to $400 million after barely two years in existence.

In the red corner, Tracy Erickson pens the kind of sad elegiac commentary you expect from a GamaSutra commenter.

He complains that:

“the company abandoned its core vision in early summer 2009 in aggressive pursuit of success”

He claims that:

“ngmoco was forced into shifting to a freemium social game structure because it had failed to follow through on its pledge to deliver a varied portfolio”

He concludes:

“If ngmoco is to rise again, the focus on the gaming experience – not pricing models – must be restored.”

The ngMoco that Tracy describes is not one I recognise. It is probably the most successful company in gaming history (by the measure of speed to massive valuation at exit). It has transitioned its business model twice(from high prices to Lite/Premium to Free + Microtransactions), dominated a new niche and sold out for $400 million within just over two years.

Tracy argues that the premium model must work because otherwise “EA Mobile and Gameloft would have long ago exited the iPhone games business”.

I don’t agree. I believe that EA and Gameloft have the advantage of a) deep pockets and b) huge existing brands. It is perhaps no surprise that in 2009, 9 out of 10 of the top-grossing games were brands (the only exception was Flight Control). What the data doesn’t tell you is where were the most *profitable* games. Those top 9 games could be top grossing games and still lose money for all we know. And ngMoco, with a limited supply of VC money, needed to find a route to profitability fast.

No, Tracy’s point seems to be: the iPhone had some premium games for us – the hardcore gamers and self-appointed guardians of the craft. But then, when we decided we didn’t want to pay premium prices, ngMoco stopped making hardcore games. Ergo it has “fallen”.

I genuinely can’t get my head around the idea that ngMoco has declined in any way.

Can you?

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