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Zynga May Have Just Laid Off 100+ Employees From Its Austin Office
- kinnth 14y agoreally gutted for the talented people who work there. 100 people have to find jobs tomorrow, that's never easy.
- Karunamon 14y agoThat ship is sinking fast. Heart goes out to those who are now out of work, but a part of me can't help but be glad that the "exploitative spamming social games" market might be dealt a mortal wound.
- niggler 14y agoGood to see Zynga starting to focus on profitability ...
- donretag 14y agoExactly. Zynga laid off employees from a failing division? What's the problem? Who cares when it happened. Those employees should have seen the writing on the wall.
- mkinsella 14y agoAlso rumored to have shut down their Boston and Chicago offices.
- mey 14y agoKnow some people out in Boston, checking to see if they are ok.
- GabrielF00 14y agoThe Boston office did the Adventure World game. I tried it out and found it pretty frustrating - you can only do a few things before you run out of energy and need to harrass your friends or wait 24 hours. It's not a mechanic that works well with an adventure - nobody wants to chop through a few bushes and then wait to enter the temple. Plus there's this gratuitous Indiana Jones thing which is just glommed on.
- Karunamon 14y ago>you can only do a few things before you run out of energy and need to harrass your friends or wait 24 hours This is a theme that exists throughout most Zynga games.
- GabrielF00 14y agoThe difference I think is that in a sandbox game doing a handful of things every eight hours or so can feel fairly satisfying but in an adventure game there's a sort of story and you're interrupting it after you're just getting started.
- petitmiam 14y ago> need to harrass your friends or wait 24 hours. or pay cash and continue immediately.
- eekfuh 14y agoThe general consensus is that they timed it to coincide with Apple's announcement, so that the news of them laying off employees would be buried by all the Apple press.
- gamble 14y agoI think it has more to do with getting the cuts out of the way before their Q3 earnings report comes out tomorrow. Facebook just mentioned in their earnings call this afternoon that they've been hit by a 20% YoY drop in revenue from Zynga, so you know Zynga's results are going to be bad.
- hiddenstage 14y agoFarmville was a great social game and their Words with Friends acquisition was very good... then they started making Farmville clones, blatantly ripping off competitor's games, and paid $200 million for Draw Something.
- bduerst 14y agoFarmville was a blatant ripoff of Happy Farm - it just happened to be the first clone to hit the U.S. market from China and be successful.
- nekojima 14y agoWhich was a ripoff of the classic mid-1990s SimFarm.
- bduerst 14y agoNot quite - they both just happen to be farm themed. Happy Farm was legitimately a social game - even further than Farmville ended up being. In fact, almost two thirds of the Chinese population that played admitted they did so only so they could steal crops from their friends. It's almost a case study into the Chinese culture unto itself.
- mey 14y agoNot sure I would call SimFarm (SimAnt or SimIsle) classic. SimTower on the other hand.
- Danieru 14y agoSimFarm was a classic but rather I'd hesitate to call FarmHappy a SimFarm clone. SimFarm is perhaps the most complex Sim game, I had an easier time with even SimIsle. Gameplay wise there is almost no intersection. What disappoints me about the current social gaming genre is how many games what would have otherwise been decent tycoons are ruined with slot machine mechanics.
- untog 14y agoDuring the Apple event, no less. Maybe I'm very cynical, but that seems like a deliberate attempt to bury the story.
- mkinsella 14y agoWhich is exactly the opposite of what will happen. People are talking about it more because they tried to bury it during the Apple event.
- untog 14y agoWe are, but we're hardly a major news destination. No mention of it on NY Times or BBC (still early days, admittedly), but look at The Verge homepage: http://www.theverge.com/ http://www.theverge.com/ Top bar is all Apple. Zynga story is an entire page scroll down.
- mobweb 14y agoThis might also have to do with the fact that the story isn't really confirmed yet...
- w1ntermute 14y ago> Top bar is all Apple. Not sure what you mean by "top bar", but there's a Windows 8 Review above the fold. Also, remember that the Zynga story is "From Polygon" (Polygon is The Verge's sister gaming site), so it wouldn't be at the top regardless.
- jfernandez 14y agoWay to try sweep it under the rug by announcing it during all of Apple's product news. Classy act Zynga.
- TimGebhardt 14y agoBecause other companies don't announce news on Friday at 4:00pm... Or because the White House doesn't make important news announcements on Christmas Eve when nobody's paying attention... I don't think this is a Zynga dick-move. I think this is a typical company move to bury a non-flattering story.
- mbreese 14y agoI tend to agree, but Zynga doesn't have enough good karma stored up to get much sympathy on this.
- Spoom 14y agoThe fact that other organizations also make dick moves does not negate this dick move.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- wilfra 14y agoIs it a 'dick move' that Apple releases their products at a time calculated to get maximum media exposure? Or that every other smart company in the World also times bad news? There are many things one might accurately criticize Zynga for, but this is not one of them. If they hadn't done it this way investors would have yet another reason to sell the stock, it would be evidence the company is run by idiots.
- lazugod 14y agoHiding information is worse than spreading information, yes.
- imadethis 14y agoNot a big surprise, especially after having spoken to a few people that have worked at Zynga before. High turnover of employees, quality over quantity, etc. Can't say I'll miss their products or their techniques.
- xxiao 14y agosorry for those who lost their jobs. meanwhile I'm happy to see any gaming software company die in the dust.
- nvr219 14y agoZynga is such an horrible company.
- tbranyen 14y agoZynga is clearly a household brand you can trust.
- kylelibra 14y agoHas this been corroborated outside of that tweet yet?
- becojo 14y agoI'm also waiting for this. I feel suspicious even though it wouldn't surprise me much from Zynga.
- ericz 14y agoI don't know why everyone is so critical of Zynga trying to hide this news among the Apple stories -- what is the argument for not doing so? "Hey guys, lets make sure EVERYONE hears that we're closing down offices and laying off employees, this is going to be important" Would you have acted differently?
- rapind 14y agoWith classy moves like this, I can't understand why we all hate on them so much...
- danilocampos 14y agoConceptually, I love every bit of bad Zynga news. I like to be reassured that a company will, in the long term, fail when its products are cynically designed to manipulate. That a company will fail when their strategy assumes it's okay to blatantly, consistently, continuously lift design from other firms and products. Practically, though, bad Zynga news feels terrible. Because the guys who architected this repugnant exploitation machine already got paid. They made millions selling their stock before the market truly understood what a shit business they were running. Meanwhile, front-line employees sat with their plummeting stock locked up. So any bad Zynga news is nothing more than notice that yet another group of hardworking folks is, somehow, getting fucked over, despite their leadership enjoying tremendous rewards. Very frustrating to watch.
- sbochins 14y agoI guess you could argue that Zynga employees have been dancing with the devil for the past couple of years. Any Zynga employee I ever talked to was very open about how they aren't really making games. They are just cynically generating revenue over flaws in the human condition. I think if you work for a screwy company like Zynga you should be very paranoid about cashing out of the company. If they have such a low opinion of their customers, who is to say they won't have the same sentiment towards their employees.
- LnxPrgr3 14y ago> If they have such a low opinion of their customers, who is to say they won't have the same sentiment towards their employees. Anyone remember this from almost a year ago? http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-57322150-17/zynga-to-employees-give-back-our-stock-or-youll-be-fired/ http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-57322150-17/zynga-to-emplo... I get the distinct impression Zynga only has a high opinion of money.
- dredmorbius 14y agoOh yes, I remember. How did that ever pan out? Were employees forced to renounce their prior options grants, or did the pressure change management's mind on this? Otherwise, yes, Zynga's present situation's been a long time coming, pity it's the bastards who made off like bandits.
- pud 14y agoStartups are hard. Even big startups are hard. Zynga is startupy, even though they're public. There's a lot of schadenfreude on HN when it comes to Zynga. Articles about Zynga's problems regularly make it to the top of HN. Some people think games are frivolous. They're not. Entertainment is (almost) a basic human need. Some people think Zynga players are somehow being tricked. They're not. They're being entertained. Some people say that Zynga steals ideas. Firstly, I'm guessing 99% of the people who say that are just repeating something they've heard. The other 1% should know that everyone steals from everyone. Unless you're the first guy to ever make a dynamic website, have usernames, top-bar navigation... you stole a lot of ideas too. And the ideas you stole are more fundamental than the plot of a game. (also, if you know my history (i used to make fun of companies like this for a living) yes, i understand the irony of me writing such a supportive comment.)
- MartinCron 14y agoSome people think games are frivolous. They're not I love games and don't think they are frivolous for a moment. I'm not sure what that has to do with a discussion of Zynga, though.
- pud 14y agoZynga is a company that makes online games. And people often criticize Zynga for making games (online games, Flash games, Facebook games, casual games, etc.)
- czhiddy 14y agoI think most of the criticism is about how Zynga is completely devoid of creativity and originality. They're the software equivalent of Chinese shanzhai electronics manufacturers.
- Karunamon 14y agoCalling the software that Zynga makes a "game" is insulting to real games. Zynga's are usually different skins on top of a number incrementing simulator (for example, anything with "ville" in the name), that happen to increase a little bit faster if you bug your friends (often and repeatedly) and have them increment their numbers too, and you can only increment your numbers so often - but more if you pay real cash money! There's usually no skill, no challenge, no fun, just a bald-faced hook into the effort/reward system in the mind. The closest thing Zynga has to real games are Bingo, Poker, and Words With Friends. I'm not even going to count that last one because they bought it from someone else.
- jasondenizac 14y agoI feel bad for all the Zynga people. Not for being so unceremoniously let go, but for the flood of recruiting emails they'll be receiving already. Good luck, people!
- duck 14y agoBased on this I don't think they'll have a hard time finding new employment: https://twitter.com/search/realtime?q=zynga+%22ping+me%22+OR+message+OR+hiring&src=typd https://twitter.com/search/realtime?q=zynga+%22ping+me%22+OR...
- donretag 14y agoVery few of those are for Austin. Many are from CA/NY companies.
- thwest 14y agoVery few Zynga employees were from Austin, many are from CA/NY.
- bostonpete 14y agoThe article only mentions layoffs from the Austin and Boston offices...
- ericabiz 14y agoGo to any developer meetup here in Austin and you'll find plenty of companies hiring. There are 50 startups here at Capital Factory (many funded) in downtown Austin and most of us are hiring. No one with decent talent at Zynga will have any problems finding another job here in Austin.
- criswell 14y agoThis is the internet at its most awesome.
- leothekim 14y agoDone during the iPad Mini rollout no less, while the press was distracted. Nice one, Pincus.
- Reebz 14y agoStartups are risky beasts, but this action appears to lack backbone and tact. This concerns me because this is Zyngas leadership tone on display. It does not invoke confidence.
- sdoowpilihp 14y agoIf any of the Zynga engineers are reading this article, we are looking for a few good engineers where I work. We develop with Unity3d and Obj-c for the front end, and Scala for the back end. We also are willing to consider remote for great candidates. careers@bentoboxinteractive.com
- tayl0r 14y agoWhy don't you guys put some stuff up on your website? Every section is just empty. As an indie game developer using Unity3d (and funnily enough an ex-Zynga employee too) I wouldn't even bother contacting your studio when every section of your site is just empty.
- jes5199 14y agoAre you really willing to consider remote? What I find is that when someone makes a statement like "willing to consider" it means that they have no experience trying it, and aren't interested in making the changes to the company structure and culture to make remote work really possible for the long-term.
- msds 14y agoIs anyone else unable to access the article? I'm getting 404s - although this exact url is linked from the front page. It's techcrunch, so this must be a sign of interesting politic.
- dave1619 14y agoIt seems to me that Zynga's biggest mistake was 1) not expecting that social gaming craze to take a dive and 2) not figuring out early enough what to do next when the social gaming craze died down ... those two things are related. So rather than predicting and pre-empting the dive in social gaming, Zynga is in a tough situation where they're facing the harsh reality as it comes. As a result, they're stuck with a huge, bloated company not prepared to quickly pivot or create innovation in new product categories. I don't know what else Zynga can do right now but to downsize and to refocus the company on building what's next and not what was. It's almost like they need to find a new product strategy and business model. And it will take a lot of insight, leadership and team to get it done. What they have going for them is that they have a lot of cash and a lot of experience in the social gaming genre. But what they have going against them is momentum which includes employees losing faith in the company.
- yurylifshits 14y agoThey also have distribution and user data.
- yurylifshits 14y agoThey also have distribution and user data.
- tatsuke95 14y ago>"So rather than predicting and pre-empting the dive in social gaming" I agree with your post, outside of this. They most definitely predicted it, and cashed out their stock to benefit from it. How else do you explain them cashing out so much, so early? That's the hard part for me to get over. Other than the shadiness of the VCs and execs, Zynga was a decent idea that didn't work out, like so many before it.
- tayl0r 14y agoAny idea what kind of severance package the developers received?
- edash 14y agoHey Zynga people, we're based in Austin and hiring for front-end. And our culture is pretty much the anti-Zynga: bootstrapped, slow growth, sane hours, no deadlines, strong design focus, and respect for our team and our customers. Let's get coffee at the downtown Medici: http://www.paperlesspipeline.com/jobs http://www.paperlesspipeline.com/jobs
- codegeek 14y agoGreat design and love your jobs page. Very well written and quite refreshing. Not qualified for this personally but may be some day.
- jes5199 14y agoThat really is a surprisingly nice jobs page, and you sound remarkably sane throughout. +1 and good luck!
- mercurial 14y agoNice job page. Would be better if clicking on the checkboxes themselves worked (not working in Iceweasel 15.0).
- alaskamiller 14y agoThe irony of all this is that just less than 3 years ago Mark Pincus and Zynga was riding high. Pincus was voted as the CEO of the Year at the Crunchies. He was chosen to be the closer to Startup School, he projected Zynga as a place for people to want to go to there: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1041758 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1041758 This is a story parallel to Lance Armstrong's own rise and fall. About how if you were to drill down, really drill down, to find the next ethical, justifiable company that used Facebook to great benefit for humanity you're going to be looking for the 27th, 28th, 29th place organizations. Because frankly, as cynical and as well-duh it is now, what did we spend the greatest of our generations will and brain power on? A Facebook ponzi scheme. Now the tide is turning, pendulum swung, omega alpha etc etc and all those wonderful metaphors. Where to go now? Go fixate on and fix something else. But remember, be nice to everyone on your way up. They're going to be the same people you see on the way down.
- bduerst 14y agoThat's not what a ponzi scheme is.
- klochner 14y agoNor is that what irony is, but his analogy to the TDF is interesting anyway.
- DanHulton 14y agoWord. Awful, Zynga is. A ponzi scheme, it is not. Let's keep our criticisms to what is correct - there's so much of that to go around already.
- tatsuke95 14y agoWhile I agree "Ponzi scheme" is tossed around a bit too liberally, Zynga is pretty close: A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation that pays returns to its investors from their own money or the money paid by subsequent investors, rather than from profit earned by the individual or organization running the operation. (Wiki) The fact that the early investors cashed out like kings from the IPO, and later investors shouldered all the losses and may not even recover the liquidation value of the assets is pretty close to the definition. All that is missing is the "fraud" part, but that's a bold accusation and hard to prove. Then again, this story isn't over.
- colinbrauns 14y agoIf I were them, I'd head straight to the bar. I'll buy a few rounds for anyone who got laid off in Boston because... that just sucks. I also recruit for 100+ local startups, and can help you transition.
- dkrich 14y agoI'm surprised to see so many people suggesting that Zynga's problems are purely moral. I think that gives them too much credit. I personally have no problem with their business practices from a strictly moral point of view. Caveat Emptor. No, for me the problem is much simpler. Its a shitty business run by very poor business minds. That may sound dramatic and sensational, but let's consider the facts: they paid $250 million for a company of 15 developers whose most valuable asset was a mobile version of Pictionary that had been on the market for just three months. Completely unprofitable, they built a multilmillion dollar state of the art office in San Francisco. That's something you do when you are wildly successful, maybe. I work for a company many orders of magnitude more successful than Zynga and our office looks like a dungeon. So what? That's being wise with cashflow. That's a company I want to invest in. Finally, a friend of mine works for Zynga and he was regularly taking all expense paid trips. For his one year anniversary he was sent to England and Ireland as a reward. I don't think of Zynga's management as sinister evildoers. I think of them as immature and completely unfit to manage a company. I say good riddance but I do hope those laid off find better opportunities soon.
- gm 14y agoI'm gonna call bullshit on your friend's claim of all expense paid trip purely as a one year anniversary gift from Zynga. Here is when you get such perks at Zynga: - You win some sort of company-wide award at the quarterly meeting. You (or your team) did something awesome and you are getting rewarded. - You get a big quarter-end cash bonus and you spend it on your trip. - It's not actually a vacation. You are on a business trip and maybe you convince your manager to delay your return and you take off for vacation time at that time. - 25% of your stock options vest on your first anniversary and you cash in and spend on your trip. Assuming you got a boatload of options if you take into account the stock price. That's all I can think of. But what DO you get as a prize for your one year anniversary? Some studios put your name up on a poster... That's about it. The rest is by merit. And as to your immature and completely unfit comment: I call bullshit on that as well. People like that do not get the type of funding that Zynga got. They do not get superstars on their board like Zynga does (Reid Hoffman, Bing Gordon, Jeffrey Katzenberg, etc). And people like that definitely do not get a company to go public. So, yeah, I call bullshit.
- DigitalSea 14y agoThis was bound to happen. What goes up and steals other companies designs and game ideas must come down. It's unfortunate the front-line employees who worked for Zynga and only did as they were asked and weren't the perpetrators for coming up with game designs to rip off have been shafted in this situation. They're nothing more than a money hungry company that deserves to perish. The real question here is: will this have a knock on effect for Facebook stock and perhaps have a chain reaction? If I were Facebook I'd seriously be considering an acquisition and then priority number #1 being turn the image of Zynga around, perhaps even re-brand to Facebook Games.
- scotobot 14y agoIf anyone's interested in developing games and quests for an exciting new education platform we are looking for programmers! http://wowzers.theresumator.com/apply/ZqGrmt http://wowzers.theresumator.com/apply/ZqGrmt
- williamle8300 14y ago...It's interesting how companies like bring their skeletons out on the days Apple makes their product announcements. Sort of softens the blow of it; at least a lot attention is diverted to Cupertino.
- dreamdu5t 14y agoI forgot I'm living in a world where people equate jobs with prosperity.
- tb303 14y agoI just can't believe that my tweet launched the entire story. That was insane. My friend IM'ed me at 11:27a PST yesterday saying "Dude, my whole studio just got laid off. We have 2 hrs to vacate. Can you email someone?" Hit twitter, and it was off like a rocket.
- davidcee 14y agoIt is just me , but do you need 3000 + people to run a social gaming company , even if it is a big one ? Sorry for those that have been fired , but didn't anyone put the brakes on the hiring somewhere along the track ? That payroll must be mind-blowing.