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It's hard for me to critique or analyze Zynga from an unbiased perspective. There's no question that what they were able to create this monstrous flywheel of e

by jmduke 11y ago

It's hard for me to critique or analyze Zynga from an unbiased perspective. There's no question that what they were able to create this monstrous flywheel of engagement around a strong core concept but from my vantage point (read: I know they printed money with FarmVille and CityVille and have more or less floundered in the past year), they were only really good at the "let's take this already successful concept/hook and turn it into a cash cow" side of the equation. Has Zynga had any successes in the past twelve months? Were they able to break into mobile at all beyond paying $180M for Draw Something?

PopeOfNope 11y ago
You have to take FarmVille and CityVille's so called "success" with a grain of salt. Social games companies don't measure success by revenue, they measure it by daily active users (DAU). What you don't see is how much money they spend on advertising to attract users to the game. I know at one point, they were spending much more per user than the game was bringing in. You also don't see the churn rate, which is typically high in social games. There's a real possibility Zynga was never as successful as it appeared to be, from a cash perspective.
- forgetsusername 11y ago
  >"There's a real possibility Zynga was never as successful as it appeared to be, from a cash perspective." No need for speculation, they went public in 2011. You can read their financial statements.
JoeCoo7 11y ago
I think Empires and Allies is making a lot of money currently. It is in the top grossing charts for quite a while. The game is quite good and targets a mid-core audience. https://zynga.com/games/empires-and-allies https://zynga.com/games/empires-and-allies
kyteland 11y ago
They have a few of the top games in the social casino category on both iOS and Android. I work there and make some of the slots games. If you're a fan of gambling they're actually really good games even though you're not playing for real money. https://zynga.com/games/zynga-poker https://zynga.com/games/zynga-poker https://zynga.com/games/free-slots https://zynga.com/games/free-slots https://zynga.com/games/wizard-oz-slots https://zynga.com/games/wizard-oz-slots

by jmduke 11y ago

PopeOfNope 11y ago

You have to take FarmVille and CityVille's so called "success" with a grain of salt. Social games companies don't measure success by revenue, they measure it by daily active users (DAU). What you don't see is how much money they spend on advertising to attract users to the game. I know at one point, they were spending much more per user than the game was bringing in. You also don't see the churn rate, which is typically high in social games. There's a real possibility Zynga was never as successful as it appeared to be, from a cash perspective.

forgetsusername 11y ago
>"There's a real possibility Zynga was never as successful as it appeared to be, from a cash perspective." No need for speculation, they went public in 2011. You can read their financial statements.

JoeCoo7 11y ago

I think Empires and Allies is making a lot of money currently. It is in the top grossing charts for quite a while. The game is quite good and targets a mid-core audience. https://zynga.com/games/empires-and-allies https://zynga.com/games/empires-and-allies

kyteland 11y ago

They have a few of the top games in the social casino category on both iOS and Android. I work there and make some of the slots games. If you're a fan of gambling they're actually really good games even though you're not playing for real money. https://zynga.com/games/zynga-poker https://zynga.com/games/zynga-poker https://zynga.com/games/free-slots https://zynga.com/games/free-slots https://zynga.com/games/wizard-oz-slots https://zynga.com/games/wizard-oz-slots