Tag: social gaming

Mobile games take priority with Zynga

| February 9, 2013

Zynga Mobile GamesZynga shifts focus to mobile games

Zynga has been experiencing a significant amount of turbulence in the social gaming space recently. The company made its fortune through Facebook with its vast portfolio of social games. Last year, however, Zynga suffered a proverbial fall from grace as consumers abandoned the company’s games and Facebook stopped showing exclusive favor to the developer. Zynga has adopted a new approach to gaming in an effort to reclaim its throne and has shifted focus to mobile games.

Social gaming takes a back seat

According to the company’s latest financial earnings report, Zynga saw revenues of $311 million in the fourth quarter of 2012. The company experienced a net loss of $48.6 million during the same period. Revenues have been stagnant for the company for several years, but in-game sales have dropped by 15% throughout 2012. For the company to reclaim its place in the game industry, it will have to make a big splash in the mobile games sector.

Zynga working to break into the mobile space

Zynga has already aligned itself with a mobile-centric focus. The company has a workforce of approximately 20 developers working exclusively on mobile games. The rest of the company is focusing on the business aspects of entering into the mobile space, such as marketing, developing better in-game monetization schemes, and working to build new mobile deployment platforms for its upcoming games. Though the company has adopted a very strong focus on mobile games, it is unlikely that Zynga will abandon its social games any time soon.

Social games not likely to be abandoned by the company

Though Zynga may have lost a great deal of favor with consumers over the past year, the company still boasts of more than 298 million monthly active users for its games. Most of these users come from Facebook, where the company’s most popular games are still featured. For its mobile games, Zynga will have to find a new publisher, as Facebook has shown wariness of supporting the company’s titles and the fact that the social network has a very limited presence in the mobile gaming sector.

Storm8 surpasses 10 million daily users for its games

| January 25, 2013

Storm8 mobile gaming surpasses 10 million usersStorm8 reaches major milestone in mobile gaming

Mobile gaming is quickly becoming a field that cannot be ignored. While much of the game industry continues to hold a strong focus on traditional platforms, some developers are adopting an exclusive focus on the mobile space, producing games that are designed specifically for mobile devices, such as smart phones and tablets. Storm8 is one such company. The developer was founded by former Facebook engineers who had a strong passion for games and the company has recently been making waves in the mobile gaming space.

Developer catching up to the dethroned Zynga

Zynga, the former champion of mobile gaming, recently announced that it saw 33 million daily active users in July of 2012. While this is somewhat lower than what the developer had seen in previous years, it shows that Zynga still holds a strong grip on mobile gaming, even amidst its downfall. Storm8, however, is catching up very quickly. The developer recently announced that it has reached the 10 million daily active users milestone.

Social games mark success for developer

Storm8, which was founded in 2009, has developed a variety of mobile games that have garnered a massive fan base. Like other companies involved in mobile gaming, Storm8 tends to design games to be addictive and provide instant, or near-instant, gratification. These games are generally easy to get involved in and require a modest time investment to see any reward. While gamers do not have to spend hours playing Storm8 titles, they typically do because these games have strong ties to social networks, encouraging community more so than solitude.

Developer finds success despite lack of funding

Storm8 is somewhat unique in the game industry, especially in the mobile sector, in the fact that it has not yet taken any funding from investors. With the poor performance of Zynga in public markets and the rapidly evolving nature of the funding landscape, investors are showing more caution in regards to the ventures they support. Storm8 has little to worry about, however, as the developer has managed to etch out significant success without having to rely on the investments of outside parties.