Tag: zynga

King.com dethrones Zynga

| January 21, 2013

King.com Mobile GamingKing.com overcomes Zynga in the social and mobile gaming space

Zynga has long been at the head of the totem pole in terms of mobile gaming, largely due to the company’s relationship with Facebook. Recently, the social network began loosening its ties to Zynga in an effort to break free from a company that has been facing very serious challenges. Now, the struggling developer has been supplanted by an up and coming social game studio known as King.com. The studio’s “Candy Crush” title recently eclipsed Zynga’s most popular games.

Candy Crush Saga has more than 9.7 million users

According to information from AppData, a service that measures daily active users for mobile and web applications, the “Candy Crush Saga” boasts of more than 9.7 million users worldwide. Julien Codorniou, head of European gaming partnerships with Facebook, notes that King.com has managed to become the second largest game developer on the Facebook platform in just under 18 months. King.com may be able to use this momentum to power major growth this year.

Cross promotion nets King.com major success and growth

Kimg.com attributes much of its success to the fact that it uses its existing games to promote its new titles. Thus, the 9.7 million people playing the Candy Crush Saga are exposed to the company’s latest games, increasing the chances of these people actually playing these games as well. While Zynga still holds dominance in the realm of monthly active users, those playing Zynga games typically only log in to the company’s titles for small periods of time throughout the month, lessening the developer’s opportunity to sell products to gamers.

Mobile gaming represents massive, lucrative market

According to a recent study from Flurry, a mobile research and consulting firm, free-to-play games accounted for 80% of the $10 billion mobile gaming market seen in 2012. There can be no doubt that mobile gaming is a force to be reckoned with, especially with mobile titles like Candy Crush Saga boasting of such a gargantuan user base. King.com is well on its way to becoming the next ruler of the social and mobile gaming space.

Zynga confronts crisis with major overhaul

| December 29, 2012

zyngaZynga aims to recover from trouble through re-structuring

Once mammoth mobile and web game developer Zynga has hit a very rough patch recently. The company, which is behind some of the most popular online games in the world, such as Farmville, saw its stocks crash in recent months, falling 85% from its all-time high. Zynga has been a formidable name in the mobile gaming space for years, but has been confronted with problems that may be forcing the company to re-structure and re-consider its focus on social gaming.

Developer cuts 150 jobs as part of overhaul

Over the past several months, Zynga has seen lackluster performance with many of its games. This month, the company cut 150 jobs in an effort to save itself from financial ruin and to prepare itself for a major overhaul. The overhaul is being loosely dubbed as Zynga 2.0, but it is unlikely that the game development company will stray far from its mobile gaming roots or risk breaking new ground by developing games that may not find success. Ironically, this is part of the problem that lead Zynga to its current crisis.

Developer targeted by EA in copyright lawsuit

Zynga has long been criticized in the game industry, as well as others, for its focus on quick-to-market mobile and social games that are almost identical to well-established, successful games that come from major developers like Electronic Arts. The similarities between these games are so striking that Zynga has found itself in the midst of a copyright lawsuit from Electronic Arts, which claims that the company blatantly stole and used concepts from one of its popular games. While Zynga may have etched out some early success with its approach to gaming, this success garnered the company with a great deal of attention that it may have wanted to avoid.

Overhaul may bring Zynga back to the top

Despite the myriad problems that Zynga is facing, the company’s popular games still boast of a massive following. Farmville 2, for instance, claims some 45 million monthly active unique users. Zynga has seen less success in its mobile gaming ventures and the launch of other titles, but the company may be able to pull itself back from serious crisis if it can adopt a more quality-centric development formula.