DiscoveryBeat: Playfish exec says social gaming is still waiting for its Super Mario Bros.

Intellectual property is one of the next big opportunities in social gaming, according to Sebastien de Hellaux, co-founder and president of Playfish. Specifically, the industry still lacks a franchise like Super Marios Bros., something that could become a “poster child” for the new medium.

De Hellaux was speaking on a panel at VentureBeat’s DiscoveryBeat 2009 event in San Francisco today, where VentureBeat alum Eric Eldon pressed him on what he meant, particularly in the context of Playfish’s recently-announced acquisition by Electronic Arts. Did he mean Playfish should create a franchise like Super Mario, or that it should move EA franchises onto social platforms like Facebook? Both, De Hellaux answered.

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“IP can be both created or translated,” he said.

The discussion about the value of intellectual property continued in the next panel, when Alex St. John, the new president and chief technology officer of social networking site hi5, took a very different view. Focusing specifically on whether well-known properties make for more successful games, St. John said that was true on old gaming platforms, but no longer makes sense for social games. It’s about social interaction and addictiveness, he said, not name recognition.

“IP in gaming is important when you’re in the business of selling a box,” St. John said.