More Zynga Games Get The Axe

IanDavis

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Aug 18, 2012
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More Zynga Games Get The Axe


Zynga tosses more games overboard as it tries to remain afloat.

At Zynga's recent financial call, the beleaguered company gave a very predictable announcement: [a href=http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-02-06-zynga-is-shuttering-half-of-its-q4-releases-following-their-disappointing-performance]it lost lots of money[/a]. To atone for this, half of the six titles it released last quarter are being killed in their infancy. If any of this sounds familiar, that's because Zynga already [a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/121296-Zynga-Kills-PetVille-Mafia-Wars-2-and-More]performed one culling[/a] not but a month ago. When the red gushes onto the budget sheets like this, the only solution is to swing the axe hard and fast.

On the Facebook side, Cityville 2 and The Friend Game are not making the cut, while Party Place is getting shut down on the mobile side. Meanwhile, Bubble Safari Ocean, CoasterVille, and Ayakashi will be allowed to live for another quarter.

Remarkably, Zynga might actually be plugging the hole in its casual boat. Last year, the company lost $209.4 million, roughly half of the $404.3 million loss it posted the previous year. Yet, the other side of the budget only shows that things might simply be less bad instead of actually better. Zynga posted $311.1 million in Q4 revenue, virtually unchanged from the $311.2 million the same time last year. However, its year-end revenue is up 12%. Accounting can be odd like that.

Since Zynga seems to be trying to dig themselves out of a one-company bubble, it makes sense to cut their losses on titles now instead of later. However, with a tagline like "Fight or Make-Out with your Friends", it's hard to imagine how Party Place failed to find an audience.

Source: [a href=http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-02-06-zynga-is-shuttering-half-of-its-q4-releases-following-their-disappointing-performance]Eurogamer[/a]

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Combustion Kevin

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Nov 17, 2011
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"'nother one bites the dust,
dun, dun, dun,
Another one bites the dust."

I also find it hard to believe Party Place didn't find an audiance, that "dead on the inside" charm would've reeled 'em in.
 

Twilight_guy

Sight, Sound, and Mind
Nov 24, 2008
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There are only two bad things here:
Some poor hopeless dev had to slave over those games and now they amount to nothing. You work for Zynga and your games get killed before anyone can really play them, harsh.

As Zynga loses money its going to have to fire more and more people. People losing their job is always bad.

Other then that, yeah this company kind of deserves it.
 

mad825

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Mar 28, 2010
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Combustion Kevin said:
"'nother one bites the dust,
dun, dun, dun,
Another one bites the dust."

Looks like Zynga are going the way of THQ, what a shame. Wouldn't be too surprised if EA stole their IP.
 

RJ 17

The Sound of Silence
Nov 27, 2011
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SteewpidZombie said:
And not a single tear was shed...
I believe the expression you're looking for is "And not a single fuck was given." :p

OT: Seriously though, how is Zynga still a thing? Isn't it just 3 guys and their pet hamster working at the place at this point? Seems every other week there's an article "Another one of the executive officers left Zynga today..."
 

CriticalMiss

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Jan 18, 2013
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RJ 17 said:
SteewpidZombie said:
And not a single tear was shed...
I believe the expression you're looking for is "And not a single fuck was given." :p

OT: Seriously though, how is Zynga still a thing? Isn't it just 3 guys and their pet hamster working at the place at this point? Seems every other week there's an article "Another one of the executive officers left Zynga today..."
The three guys got fired after someone discovered that the hamster knew how to copy & paste.
 

Zombie_Moogle

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Dec 25, 2008
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RJ 17 said:
SteewpidZombie said:
And not a single tear was shed...
I believe the expression you're looking for is "And not a single fuck was given." :p

OT: Seriously though, how is Zynga still a thing? Isn't it just 3 guys and their pet hamster working at the place at this point? Seems every other week there's an article "Another one of the executive officers left Zynga today..."
This is the level of sympathy a company gets when they base their business model on plagiarism; even their flagship Farmville was a rip-off of the chinese game Happy Farm
 

Denamic

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Aug 19, 2009
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Amazing how they managed to over-saturate a market they pretty much had a monopoly on.
 

Alfador_VII

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Nov 2, 2009
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I don't think anyone will be very sorry when that Zynga dog finally gets taken out the back and shot.
 

ThriKreen

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Zombie_Moogle said:
This is the level of sympathy a company gets when they base their business model on plagiarism; even their flagship Farmville was a rip-off of the chinese game Happy Farm
Not just plagiarism but also focusing on metrics to maximize profit at the expense of any actual fun.

Eventually, as we have seen, people realize they're grinding for the sake of money and not having fun with a game, and leave.
 

Sonic Doctor

Time Lord / Whack-A-Newbie!
Jan 9, 2010
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Twilight_guy said:
As Zynga loses money its going to have to fire more and more people. People losing their job is always bad.
Well, we can only hope that a proper game company hires some of these people on and their coworkers teach them how to actually make a game.
 

1337mokro

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Dec 24, 2008
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This is all good news, nothing here makes me sad.

It will be good for these people to get out of the copy-cat industry and actually develop their talents a bit.
 

HeadMcGee

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Feb 6, 2013
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Why couldn't they just allow gamers to do BOTH: fight AND make-out with their friends.. wouldn't have been more realistic that way.. right? right? Am I right? :)
 

Strazdas

Robots will replace your job
May 28, 2011
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the better question is why is zynga still alive. or rather how does it manage to make loss with such huge slave army on facebook? you have to be worst than a cliche rich wife to be so wasteful.
 

sniddy_v1legacy

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Jul 10, 2010
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After getting suckered into a zynga game I realised I needed to friend 100s of strangers - spam them, be spammed by them...spend hours and hours...and still open my wallet