Social Games Jump To iPhone

ike a flock of geese, game developers migrate to the hottest new trend or platform. It happened when the Nintendo DS launched, then with the Wii and Facebook games, and now the iPhone.

But while most iPhone developers are dreaming up ways to take advantage of the phone's (or the iPod Touch's) graphical capabilities, touch screen and accelerometer, apps maker Zynga is looking to make games more fun.Mark Pincus' San-Francisco-based social gaming start-up launched its first iPhone game, "Live Poker," Thursday. There are already a handful of poker games hosted on Apple's (nasdaq: AAPL - news - people ) App Store, but "Live Poker" is the first to take advantage of Facebook Connect, which will allow mobile game players to play Texas Hold'Em poker hands, in real-time, with their Facebook counterparts.

Social games, which are still in their infancy and most often associated with social networks, rely on players' social spheres to encourage and engage their audience. That principle has pushed Playfish's games into the top tier of applications available on Facebook. The urge to top friends' high scores pushes people to play more. "It is just more fun when you play against your friends," said Playfish Chief Operating Officer Sebastien de Halleux in an interview with Forbes.com in August.

"Social gaming will become by far the most important segment in digital gaming," says Pincus, chief executive of Zynga. He predicts it will some day rival the traditional console business, pointing out that much of the Wii's success is due to its ability to get families playing games together. More people will wind up playing social games than videogames, contends Pincus, because such games are more accessible to mass audiences and use social circles to constantly pull players back to the games.