Facebook dev costs scaring off games investors, says venture capitalist

Venture capitalist Mitch Lasky, a man with an eye for a rising star in gaming, has said Facebook is losing relevance as a money-making platform.

Speaking to Philly.com, Lasky said smaller developers can still turn a profit but investor-backed companies are starting to feel the squeeze.

"Facebook is still a viable platform for independent developers looking to make money on a game, however, companies with aspirations to be larger publishers - Kabam, Kixeye, even Zynga - are moving aggressively off the Facebook platform to mobile and the open Web," he said.

"Publishers aren't convinced that the costs of being on Facebook are worth it."

Lasky said companies are leery of the high costs of promoting a game through Facebook; the social network charges 30% on revenue, and when marketing costs are accounted for, as much as 50% of what players spend is wiped out.

Lasky is a strong backer of Riot Games, which has seen phenomenal success with League of Legends, and of thatgamecompany, which produced the best-selling PSN game of all time, Journey - so presumably he knows how to spot a trend.

Thanks, Develop.