The mobile app development company is putting everything into resurrecting its social game.
Not too long ago, Zynga dominated the Facebook mobile gaming scene, with its hugely popular app called FarmVille, which was the social equivalent of what Candy Crush Saga has become, today.
That said, the flood of smartphone apps available to consumers has knocked the pins out from under the company.
The competition among mobile app development companies is tremendous, and leading hits has become a nearly impossible feat for the vast majority for firms. After having been king on Facebook, Zynga’s dominance has since eroded to a massive degree. Many would consider the company to be on the edge of altogether irrelevance. However, the company is now hoping to launch an effort that will send itself back up to the top of social and mobile gaming.
Mobile gaming enthusiasts will soon be able to find a second version of the game they loved, in FarmVille2.
Zynga is also hoping to reboot two of its old smartphone and tablet based apps, “Zynga Poker” and “Words With Friends”. Don Mattrick, the CEO of the mobile app development firm, has acknowledged that the last little while hasn’t been easy for the company, particularly due to the massive number of competitors in the race. However, he also feels that they are on their way to catching up, once more.
He explained that “You’ve got to keep innovating; you’ve got to give people things that cause them surprise and delight.” That said, he also went on to point out that “But the first thing you’ve got to do is get your content there.”
Mattrick is a veteran of Electronic Arts, having been an executive there. He had also previously run the Xbox division at Microsoft, before he left that osition in order to replace Zynga’s co-founder, Mark Pincus. Now, it is his intention to debut as Zynga’s CEO in San Francisco at an investor conference of Morgan Stanley. This new leadership will coincide with the company’s efforts to fulfill its promise to make a larger push into mobile gaming and, it hopes, to bring itself back to unquestionable relevancy.
Developers looking to find ways to get people engaged in mobile games
Mobile games have become one of the most potentially lucrative sectors of the game industry, largely due to the sheer number of consumers that have mobile devices. While these games have proven quite popular with consumers, they are not a guaranteed gold mine. In order for mobile games to generate any significant amount of revenue, they must tackle a very difficult challenge involving consumer engagement. Consumers have a very short attention span when it comes to mobile applications and will move on to a new application very quickly. This has lead many developers to seek out new ways to ensure that their mobile games remain engaging.
Supply outweighs demand
The number of mobile games has increased dramatically since 2007. This means that there is no shortage of options when consumers are looking for new games to play. Because there is no shortage, consumers can easily go from game to game without having to spend any significant amount of time on a single application. While this may be good for consumers, this is somewhat problematic for developers, as low engagement times mean less revenue produced by a particular game.
Consumer engagement proves to be a tricky issue
Finding ways to keep consumers engaged has not been an easy task. Thus far, the mobile games that have been able to accomplish this task have been those with strong social elements, such as Draw Something and Words With Friends. Some developers have taken to developing highly addicting games with attractive features, following the example of Angry Birds. No developer has yet found an effective way to ensure that a mobile game produces a high level of revenue, however.
Finding ways to generate revenue continues to be a strong focus for the game industry
Angry Birds developer Rovio notes that 45% of its revenue comes from merchandise and mobile games themselves only account for 9% of the revenue for the entire game industry. Smaller developers do not typically have the funds needed to produce merchandise, and thus must find effective ways to enthrall the attention o consumers that have limited interest in devoting themselves to a single game or entertainment application.
