Rumored FarmVille 2, 'Big Harvest,' might suffer from bad timing

It's all in the numbers. Gamasutra reports that, according to data gathered by analyst firm SuperData, spending in social games is down, especially for a particular type of social game: farming simulators. With Zynga reportedly working on an ambitious sequel to FarmVille, news like this spells horrible timing for the developer to release such a large and loaded Facebook game.

SuperData found in a study that players aren't spending as much per game across the board: ARRPU, or average revenue per paying user, fell by about $8, from $45.58 in April 2011 to $37.59 last month. That said, that figure reached an interesting high of $46.71 in March 2012, so figures like this clearly fluctuate.

Despite this fall (and rise), social games are drawing in more paying players over all, to the tune of converting 2.5 percent of players into payers in April, compared to only 1.4 percent during April of last year. Finally, according to SuperData, the games with the most high rollers are--surprisingly enough--mid-core social games like Empires & Allies and more "hardcore" strategy Facebook games from the likes of Kixeye and Kabam. Um ... back to the drawing board?

Are you psyched for a full-blown FarmVille sequel, or are the days of the farming Facebook game coming to a close? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.