Tag: zynga

Zynga sets its sights on the growing mobile sector

Mobile and social game developer Zynga has announced that it has yet another new CEO. Frank Gibeau, former vice president of mobile games for Electronic Arts, has become the developer’s latest CEO. Mark Pincus, the founder and current CEO of Zynga, will remain as an executive chairman of the company after Gibeau takes the position. Appointing Gibeau as the new CEO highlight’s Zynga’s efforts to focus more heavily on the mobile space, which the company had moved away from in the past.

Mobile gaming continues to grow in power

Mobile gaming has become a very powerful force in the overall game industry. This fact has lead several companies, including prominent developers Nintendo and Konami, to focus more heavily on developing mobile games. Zynga has specialized in social games for some time, producing titles that can be played of Facebook. These games highlight interaction over social media networks, but this is not something that is foreign to mobile gaming. Consumers playing games on their mobile devices can easily interact with one another, making the mobile gaming space just as social as any other gaming sector.

Gibeau may lead Zynga to success

Zynga intends to provide consumers with an innovative experience when it comes to mobile gaming. Gibeau will lend his expertise in this regard, as he has more than 25 years of experience in the game industry. Gibeau has been involved in the mobile space for a significant amount of time and believes that interactive entertainment can be better, especially on mobile platforms. Zynga already has a strong consumer base to draw from, but the company has been heavily criticized for the decisions it had made in the past.

Mobile gaming may be a difficult market for Zynga

Zynga has managed to find success in the social gaming market with only a very small number of games. While the developer has produced many such games, only a few of them have managed to become universal successes. This may be mirrored in the mobile space, where consumers have proven themselves to be fickle when it comes to the type of mobile games they want to pay and, more importantly, pay for.

Zynga shares dropped while King reported quarterly results that were better than expected.

Unlike the popular “Candy Crush Saga” developer, King Digital Entertainment, which experienced better quarterly results than were expected, Zynga, the creator of the farming simulation social game, “Farmville”, is struggling to keep up with its competition, due to its failure to catch up with the recent mobile gaming growth during the latest quarter, reported the New York Post.

King’s Candy Crush games topped the mobile download lists for multiple months last year.

After extended trading, last Thursday, King Digital’s shares skyrocketed by as much as 20%, gaining 4.2%, to $14.74, by the close. Meanwhile, Zynga’s shares plummeted by as much as 11% in the after-market, following a 5.3% decrease, to $2.66, during the regular session.

Part of Zynga’s shares declined after it was revealed that the social game services provider is closing development offices in China. According to Zynga, this will save the company $7 million, annually, but will also cut 71 jobs.

In addition to reports of its mobile gaming success, King announced its purchase of Z2.

The creator behind the world-famous match-three puzzle video games, said that it will be acquiring Seattle startup, Z2, a game developer which has had success with its freemium turn-bases strategy video game, Battle Nations. King purchased the U.S. company for $45 million and as much as $105 million of additional payments for future performance targets.

Unlike King, Zynga has struggled to make the transition to mobile gaming with its popular games, like “Farmville”, which was initially designed for a social network platform, several years ago.

However, all might not be lost for the struggling company. Its “New Words With Friends”, a Scrabble-like game, has been gaining popularity. A fourth-quarter update revealed that the game had a 35% monthly audience increase.

For 2015, Zynga is aiming to make mobile gaming 75% of its overall business. The company said last Thursday that every new game it introduces this year, will be “mobile-first”. It is expected that the company will release anywhere from six to 10 mobile games, and among the new titles include “Empires & Aliens”, “Dawn of Titans”, and “Farmville: Harvest Swap”.