Zynga has already innovated outside of the ville games, since Farmville was their second big hit after Texas Hold'em. Texas Hold 'em is a pretty minimalist for

Zynga has already innovated outside of the ville games, since Farmville was their second big hit after Texas Hold'em. Texas Hold 'em is a pretty minimalist form of "innovation". Take a popular card game and put it on facebook? Brilliant! The virtual goods market is showing no signs of slowing down, $2B last year and growing at 50%+. This is exactly what I don't believe can be sustained. There's only so long that people are willing to keep buying things that don't actually exist (hey, speaking of which, we haven't had a bitcoin article in a while...) It might not be Zynga that is #1 in 10 years time, but it will be somebody - and atm nobody is even challenging Zynga in this space - but you seem to be arguing against a shift that is by all accounts very real. Lots of folks are challenging Zynga in this space. Any one of 'em could have the next big hit, the thing that grabs the attention of a bunch of kids bored with clicking on cows... something with gameplay elements that are actually fun -- a game rather than a Skinner box.