Pretty Simple Games, which we wrote about recently here and here, continues its spectacular rise in a space that has been challenged as of late. In just a few months, their hit game Criminal Case has reached 4 million daily active users (as of yesterday), which has put them squarely in the top 10 game developers on Facebook.
Criminal Case is an original social game of investigation where each player embodies a rising star in the Grimsborough Forensics Police Department (think CSI / Les Experts), and is tasked with solving dramatic homicide cases. Within this dark and immersive storyline, players search for clues in hidden object scenes, analyze their finds, and advance their investigations, until they can unmask the killers. Criminal Case was actually released first in English and then expanded to Spanish, German, and French, with several new languages on the way next month.
The most fascinating thing about the rise of Criminal Case is that outside of some cross-promotion with other Facebook games, they spent nothing on advertising. Their founders, Bastien Cazenave and Corentin Raux, took the decision to focus on creating the highest quality, most engaging full-on investigative game out there. This meant putting their time, resources and focus on innovating on the finest details of the story, gameplay, art and technology to deliver an outstanding playing experience. In addition, whereas many social gaming startups/studios focus first on virality, the Pretty Simple team put retention and driving organic growth from their most loyal gamers first.
Though there’s been creeping doubt recently about Facebook continuing to be the dominant platform for social games (particularly with the rise of mobile), Cazenave is still bullish on Facebook as the leading platform for social game developers adding: “The success of Pretty Simple with Criminal Case shows that Facebook remains the best performing online platform in order to reach such an audience in such a short time”.
In their recent press release, they noted that they expect their revenues for 2013 to be in the “8 figures range”. With successes such as their first hit My Shops, now Criminal Case and, presumably, new titles in the works, assuming that they made a good bet on Facebook’s continued dominance in social gaming, expect Pretty Simple Games’ winning streak to continue.