PopCap: Zynga is a "Marketing Company" That "Buys Customers"

[Tom Goldman]

PopCap: Zynga is a "Marketing Company" That "Buys Customers"

PopCap Games sees Zynga as a company that fishes for customers without a worm.

People may associate casual gaming with both PopCap Games and Zynga, but PopCap CEO Dave Roberts believes his company to be completely different from the social gaming giant. At the WTIA TechNW forum this week, Roberts said that he doesn't even think Zynga is a gaming company at all.

Speaking about the ongoing changes in the social gaming market, Roberts said: "[Zynga is] in some ways struggling to catch up because they are not (about) gaming in their heritage -- they are a marketing company. They are a media company. They are awfully good at it. But we believe that ultimately, and it's our bias, that great content wins out.

"Great games are always going to be better than great marketing," he added, pointing to the fact that PopCap's Bejeweled Blitz has more daily hits than Zynga's Mafia Wars with no advertising budget. "Zynga is really good at sort of using money to buy their customers every day. That's an interesting business model, but becomes complicated."

Zynga titles are known for having blowing up an armored truck [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/100481-Farmville-Loses-4-Million-Players-in-April].

Roberts notes that companies like Zynga have trouble moving to different platforms, saying that FarmVille on the iPhone was an "abysmal failure." He believes that PopCap as a gaming company is better able to adapt, adding that it redsigned Bejeweled Blitz to make it work better on Facebook.

His implication is that Zynga rode a breaking wave to earn its keep, rather than creating a lasting wave of its own. "The easy money days are gone," he said. "Now, it is not about luck, it is about good, old-fashioned hard work."

Zynga still appears to be having no trouble keeping players, but I think it'll truly remain successful by innovating with games like FrontierVille [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/101249-Zynga-Rides-Into-the-Wild-West-On-FrontierVille], which is no Sim City, but was designed by strategy game veteran Brian Reynolds and feels more like a game than FarmVille. If Zynga can use its profits to become more of a gaming company than a marketing company, it'll do just fine for itself, and maybe stop annoying so many of its players' friends on Facebook with those accursed notifications.

Source: TechFlash [http://www.techflash.com/seattle/2010/09/popcap_ceo_zynga_is_a_pure_marketing_company.html]

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[Delusibeta]

Ultimately, time will tell. PopCap has got plenty of alternative routes out if (for example) Facebook gaming dies a death, while Zynga is pretty much bankrupt if that happens.

 

[Jared]

I can pretty much agree with that arguement, and for casual games too, I dont mind Popcap, they do, afterall, make epic games to keep me busy on my faily commute!

 

[phoenix352]

so were in some kind of gaming industry nerf war or something ? every company takes a jab at its rivals and then they retaliate and so on even if the accusations are true.

its still kinda funny tho...

 

[Outlaw Torn]

innovating with games like FrontierVille [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/101249-Zynga-Rides-Into-the-Wild-West-On-FrontierVille]

HAHAHA. Classic!

It's good to see that people with some common sense, Pop Cap, also see how Scamga don't make games.

 

[latenightapplepie]

It's a little bit sad how easily someone can earn my respect and approval by trashing Zynga. I guess I'm just a bit easy like that.

 

[LawlessSquirrel]

Kotick could learn from this. Notice how the guy's clearly acknowledging his bias and not trying to push what he says as indisputable fact? Notice how he's using evidence and examples to reinforce his point? Notice the lack of insults and belittlement?

I must say, in my mind PopCap and Zynga are in different leagues. One is clever and creative, the other uses research and social tricks to manipulate people. I'll let you assume which is which. Both are successful, but IMO one is more admirable than the other.

 

[mjc0961]

Forget Zynga, I want to see the entirety of Facebook go down in flames. I'm just plain sick of seeing those fucking "f like" buttons on EVERYTHING. No, fuck you Facebook, I do not like you. GO DIE IN A FIRE!

 

[Hgame]

Forget Zynga, I want to see the entirety of Facebook go down in flames. I'm just plain sick of seeing those fucking "f like" buttons on EVERYTHING. No, fuck you Facebook, I do not like you. GO DIE IN A FIRE!

I liked this on Facebook

 

[Crunchy English]

Forget Zynga, I want to see the entirety of Facebook go down in flames. I'm just plain sick of seeing those fucking "f like" buttons on EVERYTHING. No, fuck you Facebook, I do not like you. GO DIE IN A FIRE!

Yeah, I use Facebook about once a week, or more accurately, one day a week. I always feel dirty after I do it too. That said, if you want to network in certain industries these days, its practically a necessity.

 

[JEBWrench]

I believe the actual phrase they used was:

PopCap: Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

It's really really comical to see PopCap doing a lot of commenting on how much Zynga's doing wrong, meanwhile, Pincus is swimming around in a giant money bin a la Scrooge McDuck.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

I believe the actual phrase they used was:

PopCap: Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

It's really really comical to see PopCap doing a lot of commenting on how much Zynga's doing wrong, meanwhile, Pincus is swimming around in a giant money bin a la Scrooge McDuck.

Last I checked, PopCap was doing quite well for itself. No, it isn't the same level as Zynga's success but let's face the music here:

Zynga's current model is not sustainable. Their revenue model is based entirely around the concept of keeping people playing a game. The trouble is, while their games are accessible (anyone with a PC connected to the internet and basic grasp of motor skills and higher brain functions can interact with them successfully), prevalent (the bulk of the messages I receive on Facebook are messages related to one of my friend's latest exploits in some Zynga game) and addictive (rapid rate of reward with respect to time played. Time limited objectives encourage repeat visits), the games simply aren't a lot of fun to play at a basic level.

MMOs have this same basic problem, but the basic design of any of the more successful games helps offset it. You see, when a player eventually realizes that the game's mechanical interaction generally boils down to a short series of button presses with no thought attached, or a lot of time waiting around for something to happen, they hit a wall. The lucky ones hit a wall near a major mile stone (getting a mount, nearing the level to raid a particular dungeon, etc) which will often serve to spur them along just a little while longer. But, as player progresses deeper into the content, meaningful rewards are hard to come by. Sure, you might have the best set of gear for your class up to one level of end game dungeons in WoW, but getting even one additional piece of gear that represents, by itself an utterly insignificant upgrade might take a dozen hours of play. It is at points like this that the community that the player finds themselves a part of plays its critical role because that same community can place a player under enormous pressure to tag along for another raid because they "need a tank" or "more dps" or something in order for them to have any fun. A sense of social obligation drags people through the game, months or often years after they have wrung any enjoyment out of the game.

Zynga games simply do not have such a thing. Sure, there are slight benefits to having a friend support in some games but their support is so incredibly insignificant that it would hardly be missed. Better still, in many cases a friend who once played the game often has to do absolutely nothing in order to support his allies (I seem to recall the Heroes game worked precisely this way as a friend simply added one unit to your army - a feat that itself did almost nothing unless you had very few friends). Sure, the rewards keep right on coming, but eventually they become mundane, common, even expected and their effect is lost. Zynga's games simply cannot hope to keep any particular player engrossed for long, especially when many of the games are simply different flavors of the same concept. Heroes, Mobsters, that vampire thing, that wizard whosit are all the same game with different graphics designed to entice a different audience. Even now the people who spam my friends list with silly notifications are shifting. Those who first spammed me with invites and updates are silent save for a useful update on what they're doing in meatspace and the job of pestering me has been taken over by others.

This trend cannot possibly go on forever. Unless Zynga comes up with entirely new games or simply adds something that fundamentally changes the way many of their games currently play, they will inevitably exhaust their consumer base. This should not read as some sort of hate filled diatribe leveled against the evils of some successful corporation. Zynga has been enormously successful even if I couldn't care less about their products and that, in and of itself, is worthy of accolade. Instead, I simply think Zynga, like the Wii, will make an interesting case to study. In both cases you find that an enormous potential customer base was born and in both there seems to be a bit of trepidation with regards where to go next. Sure, installing tens of millions of Wiis was impressive, but unless you can convince a significant portion of those people to buy games you're up a creek. Zynga is in the same boat: at any given time they draw more than a hundred million people to play but what portion of those 100 million will be playing a Zynga game in six months? In a year?

 

[JEBWrench]

*snip*

That was quite an excellent post, comrade.

One things Zynga does, and so far, does better than anyone else, is play the numbers game. They excel at playing the metrics for their turf, and when there's a hint of a decline in their big moneymakers, they wheel out a new game with some new mechanics that are proving on the rise, incorporate them into a familiar environment, and keep on rolling.

As for PopCap, my original comment was also in addition to their whining about social gaming being on a decline; combined with this about Zynga, pretty much sounds like they're complaining about being curb-stomped in the social gaming market.

Kudos to PopCap are certainly in order, of course for knowing rather than try and compete, they just get their games on a wider variety of platforms.