Recent Fundings in the Social Gaming Industry - November 4

Rockyou. $17 million. From Softbank (Japan) and SK Telecom (Korea). While Rockyou is not a social gaming company, they are a social entertainment company with quite a few gaming properties. Apparently, the fresh cash is for expansion into the Asian markets, most notably the Chinese socnet, Xiaonei, which btw, already has a virtual currency system. Since China already has a robust virtual goods market, it will be interesting to see how Rockyou fares. Oh, and Xiaonei already has clones of the most successful games on Facebook, so don't get too excited.

Playfish. $17 million. Series B. From Accel Partners and Index Ventures. With 10 million monthly actives, 4 of the top ten games on Facebook, and this round of funding, Playfish has cemented their place as the number 2 social gaming company behind Zynga. According to Playfish CEO, Kristian Segerstrale, the cash is to be used to expand into other platforms, notably Myspace. I suspect they'll be launching mobile games sooner than later, Kristian did run a successful mobile games company for six years, after all.

Crispy Gamer. $8.5 million. Series A. From Constellation Ventures. For a Games Review site. Yes, a games review site. That had 1 million uniques AT LAUNCH. I mention this funding because it's further evidence that games are HOT.