Zynga Courts Hollywood, Nabs DreamWorks CEO Katzenberg

[Greg Tito]

Zynga Courts Hollywood, Nabs DreamWorks CEO Katzenberg

Part of the power trio that formed DreamWorks in 1994, Jeffrey Katzenberg has now joined the Board of Directors at FarmVille's Zynga.

Katzenberg shocked the world when he quit Disney in 1994 to join Steven Spielberg and David Geffen to form DreamWorks Pictures and head up the animation division. Since then he's produced Shrek, Madagascar and countless other technically decent computer animated films. Zynga is most well-known for FarmVille on FaceBook but is hardly a one-trick pony with FrontierVille and Mafia Wars still entertaining the masses. By adding Katzenberg to the board, we will surely see more Hollywood marketing tie-ins with Zynga games such as the Rango themed quest in FrontierVille [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/108092-Zynga-Getting-into-Bed-With-a-Lizard].

"Jeffrey redefined storytelling when he launched DreamWorks Animation," said Mark Pincus the CEO of Zynga CEO in a statement. "He turned an independent studio into a brand name and his vision will be an asset as we work to define the future of play."

The boardmembers of companies do not always directly affect the business, but the credibility and name-recognition that Katzenberg brings to the table for Zynga's possible Hollywood deals is huge.

What would be the strangest cross-promotional campaign that Zynga and DreamWorks could come up with? A Shark Tale set of items in FishVille, or even Mafia Wars for that matter? How 'bout a Megamind take over of Cafe World?

Source: Inside Social Games [http://www.insidesocialgames.com/2011/04/04/dreamworks-ceo-lands-on-zyngas-board-of-directors/]

(Image [http://www.flickr.com/photos/jjeffreys/1581540825/sizes/m/in/photostream/])

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[The_root_of_all_evil]

I just felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of dollars cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.
I fear something terrible has happened.

 

[ewhac]

.....Yeah. Hiring Hollywood execs into the games industry has always worked phenomenally well. Just ask Crystal Dynamics how well Strauss Zelnick worked out. [/snark]

 

[Hungry Donner]

If Zynga has said they wanted to make games with more depth and then announced that Katzenberg was joining the board I might not approach this so cynically.

But they didn't.

 

[ewhac]

"Jeffrey redefined storytelling when he launched DreamWorks Animation," said Mark Pincus the CEO of Zynga CEO in a statement. "He turned an independent studio into a brand name and his vision will be an asset as we work to define the future of play."

Wow. Pincus is a moron. With too much money. Always a bad mix.

Dreamworks' animation department started life as Pacific Data Images [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Data_Images], which is Carl Rosendahl's and Richard Chuang's baby. Like Pixar, PDI was a synthetic imaging research company, and its demo reels showed off its rendering tech. All Katzenberg did was give PDI a large contract to do a movie, and then later acquire them. He contributed nothing to the tech development, and would probably stare blankly at you if you mentioned the names Phong or Gouraud.

So, yeah. Really great "get" for Zynga there.

Here's a couple of PDI's early works:

 

[Antari]

I just felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of dollars cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.
I fear something terrible has happened.

This can only end badly for my wallet at some point. It is the start of another evil empire.

 

[Ghengis John]

This can only result in the futhering of suffering and evil.

 

[ewhac]

Dreamworks is an imitation Pixar [ ... ]

Hey, don't be harshing too bad on PDI. They were right alongside Pixar as among the earliest pioneers of synthetic imagery, and had no shortage of extremely smart guys figuring out how to make pictures out of math. Any SIGGRAPH paper from the mid-1980's was as likely to have been authored by a PDI guy as a Pixar guy.

 

[Hungry Donner]

Dreamworks is an imitation Pixar

There aren't as many Dreamworks Animation movies that I like as Pixar movies but the company should be be given credit for teaming up with Aardman Animations. They were also a welcome alternative to Disney back when Disney had even less quality work to their name.

 

[samsonguy920]

Considering Dreamworks is due to actually be shut down and its departments sold off to other studios, this shouldn't be a surprise that Katzenberg is just going after the smell of money. Someday, someone will ask him how it felt to sell his soul to somebody who isn't even worthy of the name 'devil.'

THIS JUST IN!
Mojang signed an exclusive deal with Pixar to bring you the story of a Boy and his Pickax and his quest to change the world
Presenting:
Minecraft: The Motion PictureCOMING TO THEATERS HOLIDAY 2012
this film is not yet rated

All they need are these guys in the formula to make it Pure Win:

 

[Sean Strife]

I just felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of dollars cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.
I fear something terrible has happened.

This can only end badly for my wallet at some point. It is the start of another evil empire.

Only if you play Zynga games.

 

[Antari]

I just felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of dollars cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.
I fear something terrible has happened.

This can only end badly for my wallet at some point. It is the start of another evil empire.

Only if you play Zynga games.

With them making this much money. Give it a little bit of time, all games will be made like Zynga games. Its truely a sad sad day.

 

[C2Ultima]

If Dreamworks makes a FarmVille movie, I'm done with them.

 

[subtlefuge]

Oh, Katzenberg. You crazy guy you. Leaving the Disney empire you helped build and Pixar that you helped create so that you could watch them both destroy Dreamworks day in and out, and now Zynga?

This can't end well for either party.

 

[Sean Strife]

I just felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of dollars cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.
I fear something terrible has happened.

This can only end badly for my wallet at some point. It is the start of another evil empire.

Only if you play Zynga games.

With them making this much money. Give it a little bit of time, all games will be made like Zynga games. Its truely a sad sad day.

I wouldn't say ALL games, just games from companies like Activision and the other companies who put emphasis more on profit than creativity.

 

[Antari]

I just felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of dollars cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.
I fear something terrible has happened.

This can only end badly for my wallet at some point. It is the start of another evil empire.

Only if you play Zynga games.

With them making this much money. Give it a little bit of time, all games will be made like Zynga games. Its truely a sad sad day.

I wouldn't say ALL games, just games from companies like Activision and the other companies who put emphasis more on profit than creativity.

Give them time ... once they smell the money. We're all screwed.

 

[Sean Strife]

I just felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of dollars cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.
I fear something terrible has happened.

This can only end badly for my wallet at some point. It is the start of another evil empire.

Only if you play Zynga games.

With them making this much money. Give it a little bit of time, all games will be made like Zynga games. Its truely a sad sad day.

I wouldn't say ALL games, just games from companies like Activision and the other companies who put emphasis more on profit than creativity.

Give them time ... once they smell the money. We're all screwed.

I don't know, perhaps I'm too optimistic about this. But something tells me Zynga will eventually go belly up given the fact that, as one person already said, Mark Pincus is an idiot with a lot of money... and an evil one at that.