Argentina’s MetroGames targets hardcore gamers on Facebook

One of these days, hardcore games are going to find a big audience on Facebook. That’s the hope of MetroGames, an Argentine social game company that is launching its Auto Hustle game today.

Your goal in the game is to become a world-class criminal, sort of like in Grand Theft Auto on the consoles. You can buy virtual goods such as weapons, cars, bribes and more. That’s a far cry from breeding sheep in FarmVille, and it’s more like the big-spending style of hardcore game players, who have been fairly quiet as a demographic on Facebook.

If MetroGames and other companies such as Kabam succeed in cultivating the hardcore fans on Facebook, they could cash in big time. After all, Facebook has 600 million users and not everyone wants to play the cute games that Zynga makes. With Auto Hustle, you could say the stakes are pretty big, but the expectations of hardcore gamers are going to be a lot higher than other Facebook users.

If it succeeds, the Buenos Aires-based company could join big rivals on a global stage. Damian Harburger, chief executive and founder of MetroGames, said in an interview his company’s goal is to take Facebook games to the next level. That includes real-time game play with better realism and graphics. When a character steals a car in the game, you actually control the character in real-time, or instantaneously. The goal is to make social games more console-like.

“We want to make games that are completely different from the current hits on the web,” said Harburger. “We can’t use the same techniques as Zynga. We have to be innovative.”

The game is free-to-play, meaning you can start playing for free and can pay real money for virtual goods. Over time, you can perform missions, earnings points and badges to become a world-class criminal. Showing off is a big part of what will make the game appeal to hardcore gamers, Harburger said.

Of course, one game isn’t going to knock Zynga from the driver’s seat. Zynga has more than 263 million monthly active users on Facebook, according to AppData. To compete, MetroGames is launching more Facebook games and iPhone games in the near future.

MetroGames already has 7 million monthly active users for its not-so-hardcore games such as Fashion World, Texas Grand Poker and Biotronic. Those games have been installed 60 million times globally and 1 million users play every day. The company has nine games on Facebook and 20 on Spanish-language sites.

Beyond Zynga, rivals include CrowdStar, EA Playfish, Disney-Playdom, Digital Chocolate, PopCap, Wooga and LOLappps. The company has raised $5 million and one of its investors is Playdom. The company was founded in 2007 and it has 150 employees. Harburger said the company has the advantage of having low costs in Argentina and access to good talent and a fast-growing regional market.