News Corp Doesn't Want to Make Zynga-Like Social Games

[vansau]

News Corp Doesn't Want to Make Zynga-Like Social Games

News Corp is getting into the social games business, but it knows that trying to follow Zynga's example is "a losing proposition."

Like most major corporations these days, News Corp owns a social gaming division, ambitiously named Making Fun. However, it turns out the group has no obligation to use any of News Corp's networks, services, or properties (like the <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.257155-MySpace-Fires-500-People-By-Soulless-Xerox>slowly dying MySpace); instead, the development team plans to forge its own path, and it isn't planning to follow Zynga's example when it comes to social games.

John Welch, Making Fun's vice president, told GamesIndustry.biz that trying to emulate Zynga would be a bad idea because they already dominate their field:

"First and foremost, we're not even playing the game in the first innings of the social games. Zynga won that one. They came in and established ways of doing things and kinds of games, and they built a hell of a great business.

"If we're going to come in and do what they did, I think that would be a losing proposition."

However, just because it doesn't have to use MySpace as a platform doesn't mean that Making Fun won't take advantage of its parent company's substantial media assets. The game studio plans to fully utilize New Corp's print, radio, TV, and web presence to build brand awareness.

According to Welch, "News Corp has a whole lot of eyeballs it reaches across its various media strategies, and to the extent that we can make partnerships that are win-win between News Corp brands and what we're doing within games - that's the way that we can have an advantage that Zynga doesn't have."

At the moment, Making Fun has three titles in development. Welch claims that the first game is "going to do something pretty revolutionary in the social games space: it has an ending."

Source: <a href=http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2011-03-28-copying-zynga-would-be-a-losing-proposition-news-corp-games-boss>GamesIndustry.biz

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[subject_87]

Admittedly, when I first saw that headline, all I could think of was 'Even Evil Has Standards', but then again I have recently been lost down the Tvtropes rabbit hole a fair bit.

 

[DaxStrife]

News Corp's social media division is called "Making Fun?" Am I the only one getting a menacing vibe from that name?

And the abridged version of this headline: "News Corp to Zynga: Losing!"

 

[GonzoGamer]

Geat.
I guess we can look forward to games like Slave Trader Tycoon (how big can your evil empire get?), Pin the Blame on the Liberal (those left wingers can be slippery with their common sense), Mystery Queer(the game where you try to find love behind the door of an airport bathroom stall), and Science & Ladders (faith will lift you up but science will bring you down).

 

[Exterminas]

Funny how News Corp isn't above bashing video games in Fox News while trying to cash in on the medium itself.

 

[CrystalShadow]

... Making fun? really?.

That name just sounds so wrong in any kind of context.

"Making fun ... of you."

 

[vxicepickxv]

Why not steal Zynga's ideas and ram them down everybody's throats? It worked for Zynga.

 

[Orcus The Ultimate]

"partnerships that are win-win" they were very influenced by The Rockstar of Mars, The Tiger Blood Charlie Sheen...
ps: Winning!


hey remember that games made by zynga and other devs of "socialsites games" were at the start addiction experiments... just think about that.

 

[Speakercone]

Funny how News Corp isn't above bashing video games in Fox News while trying to cash in on the medium itself.

NewsCorp is not stupid, they know an opportunity when they see it. But once again, their games are not our games. They still think games are kids' stuff which can also be enjoyed by adults: cartoons like Spongebob Squarepants or Fairly Odd Parents for example. When a game is directly and distinctly made for a mature audience and contains material not suited to kids, the emotional impact for these people is something close to:

(CAN'T BE UNREAD! The following words are designed to be quite disturbing in a "steal your innocence" sort of way. View at your peril)
seeing Spongebob and Sandi engaging in hardcore bondage sex complete with ballgag.

As far as they're concerned, they're making a fun, innocent little diversion intended for people on their lunchbreak.
The games they hate are the wonderful, deeply immersive, carefully crafted, experience-driven works that we've come to love.

As such, they are fully capable of holding both opinions at once.
They're still wrong, but I understand their position nonetheless.

 

[Valanthe]

(CAN'T BE UNREAD! The following words are designed to be quite disturbing in a "steal your innocence" sort of way. View at your peril)

Oh god, even your warning couldn't prepare me for that mental image!

On topic though, honestly, if they want to make social games, go for it, I will happily ignore them on my way to pick up "Gritty Mcshooter-persons sequal number 453: Extreme Deluxe Sergeant shooter person to the extreme edition!"

 

[jpoon]

Gonna file this one in my "Who fucking cares?" folder, with every other piece of shit social game ever made.

 

[Sylocat]

This is one of those "stopped clock, twice a day" moments, I think.

 

[megs1120]

If I know News Corp, It'll be a Space Invader like deal where you have to fight off waves of Muslims, teachers unions and married gay couples who drop bombs labeled "Darwin's: On the Origin of Species" and "progressive thought" Ooooooooo.

I, for one, can't wait to play Hammer the Sickle on the Donkey.