Posts Tagged ‘Mark Pincus’

Zynga poised to release iPhone, iPad, and Android versions of FarmVille

Monday, April 26th, 2010

Spotted by the eagle-eyed folks at Superannuation, the URL’s FarmVilleiPad.com, FarmVilleiPhone.com, and FarmVilleAndroid.com have recently been snatched up. Three guesses as to who the registrant it.

FarmVille_iPadFair enough, trick question, as Zynga was not specifically named as the registrants of these domains, Superannuation did confirm that whomever purchased the above mentioned URL’s also registered FarmVille.com. Connecting the dots between the two isn’t that far of a leap. Also of interest, FarmVilleSMS.com was also registered, further implicating Zynga, as one of their few mobile gaming apps, Mafia Wars, also functions and can be played via SMS.

There’ve been no leaks in the way of screenshots or other media (the above image is merely speculation), so at this point it’s up in the air as to what the interface and gameplay will look like. Given the wide and rising popularity of ngmoco’s ‘We Rule’, a free-to-play strategy/farming game for iPhone, again, not a giant leap to guess that Zynga would approach the gameplay in a similar manner.

This mobile version of FarmVille would be Zynga’s entry to the iPad and Android market. While the above mentioned ngmoco, by contrast, has been heavily invested and committed to the iPhone mobile gaming platform, Zynga has has their own reservations. Just shy of one year prior, Zynga head honcho Mark Pincus commented to PocketGamer.biz, “…the jury’s still out on how well the platform is going to monetize.” This was pre-OS 3.0/microtransactions, and it looks like someone is obviously changing their tune.

And although FarmVille has enjoyed massive success on Facebook, it should be interesting if they can light the same fire on mobile gaming devices. 9 month ago, I would have said, “Baby, Light my Fire.” However, given Zynga’s proverbial dragging of the feet to get into the game, they’re already a step behind what other games developers have been working on for quite some time now.

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Another day, another boatload of $$ for Zynga

Wednesday, December 16th, 2009

Social game leader of the pack Zynga has recently landed yet another influx of cash. This time however, the majority of the investment is coming from Russian investor Digital Sky Technologies. If this name sounds vaguely familiar, you might remember them as a $200 million investor in Facebook. They’re also the same firm that we covered less than a month ago with their $5 million investment in a homegrown social strategy game and gaming platform.

logo_zyngaIf you’ve not been keeping score, and admittedly in this blister paced market, it can be quite a challenge, Zynga is currently the king of social gaming on Facebook. They’re the makers of FarmVille, arguably the one that started the farming craze, which launced in June and counts 72.9 million active monthly users. And while this number alone is enough to make any investor sit up and take notice, Zynga also stables Mafia Wars, FishVille, YoVille, Café World, and Texas HoldEm Poker. Combined, Zynga’s active monthly usage amounts to a massive 232 million. To put that in perspective, there are only three countries on the planet (China, India, and the United States) that are larger.

Looking at Zynga in the overall social gaming space, again, they’re clearling leading the pack. The second largest player on the Facebook gaming page is Playfish, which counts 59 million users. Obviously nothing to sneeze at, but when compared to Zynga – peanuts. Playfish was recently acquired by EA, as the traditional games giant is seeking to make a shift towards current market preferences.

And while massive numbers are good, many, if not all, investors in social gaming have recollections of a former internet boom that was fueled by views, and never bothered to look at the solid bottom line. Fast forward 10 (or so) years, and it looks like both investors and startups have learned a lesson. Zynga is not only covering their costs, but bringing home the bacon – in loads. While on paper, it seems like free-to-play gaming in general wouldn’t make sense. Giving games away and waiting for players to make a microtransaction purchase wouldn’t have been a solid solution pre-social gaming explosion days. However, rumors are circulating that Zynga’s 2009 revenues are pushing the $250 million mark. The company employs either full time or part time 712 employees and is constantly growing.

Again, these figures are enough to make any investor take notice, and it’s clear that Russian firm Digital Sky Technologies is clearly putting it’s vote of confidence into the social networking/gaming area.

With respect to the new investment, Zynga’s founder and CEO Mark Pincus commented to the New York Times, “The opportunity every quarter is proving to be bigger than we imagined and we always thought it was prudent to keep adding to the capital of the company as we grow.”

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Facebook and Zynga named in class action lawsuit

Friday, November 20th, 2009

Well here it is. The day that both Facebook and Zynga have been dreading. Yesterday the two were officially named as defendants in a federal class action lawsuit.

Filed by Kershaw, Cutter & Ratinoff, a Sacramento firm that specializes in class action lawsuits, in Northern California yesterday, the complaint is seeking damages upwards of $5 million. The issue in question? Well, if you’ve not been following TechCrunch’s ongoing series on the ScamVille affair, it’s best to just head on over and give it all a healthy read right now. Kershaw, Cutter & Ratinoff have been seeking out those that were subject to a number of unauthorized charges emanating from currency offers via social games including Mafia Wars and FarmVille.

Now here’s where things get interesting – neither Facebook nor Zynga actually produce(d) the offers themselves, but rather simply sold advertising space to external ad providers. At it’s most basic, we’re looking at a revenue sharing program here, and reportedly both firms have made heaps of cash from said offers. Apparently, Zynga garners almost a third of it’s revenues from these offers, something that Kershaw, Cutter & Ratinoff have exemplified in their filing.

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And to make matters worse, Zynga CEO and founder Mark Pincus has been fimed stating, “I did every horrible thing in the book just to get revenues.” Ouch. A judge certainly isn’t going to take kindly to such statements.

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Valleywag has the entire complaint here – if you’re so inclined to read legalese.

And while a number of pundits are quick to point out that this recent filing has got to have investors quaking in their boots, it flies directly in the face of Zynga’s announcement earlier this week that it had acquired another $15 million in VC funding. Bad timing? If it is – that’s gotta be one of the worst calendar mis-schedules we’re seen in the Valley in a long time.

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And the money just kept a rollin’ – Zynga raises $15 million

Thursday, November 19th, 2009

If you’d been wagering on the explosion of venture capital investments in social gaming firms late in 2009, you’d be making off like a bandit right now. Just days after RockYou brought home $50 million in funding, and Playdom announcing their $43 million haul – according to VentureBeat, the biggest fish in the pound, Zynga has recently raised an additional $15.18 million in funding.

Zynga founder Mark Pincus

Zynga founder Mark Pincus

With more than 196 million users on Facebook alone, Zynga is clearly the market dominator right now. According to the VC filing, there were no new investors listed, presuming that the additional funding has arrived from previous or currently funding partners. This latest round of funding is equal to almost half the initial $40 million Zynga raised in their first round of VC funding. Previous venture capital has been provided by Kleiner Perkins, Foundry Group, Avalon Ventures, Institutional Venture Partners and Union Square Ventures.

This latest influx of cash is only one part of the party going on at Zynga. The social gaming company current enjoys the number one app spot on Facebook, with over 65 million monthly users, FarmVille is clearly the industry benchmark to beat.

And while Zynga might be the top of the heap in the Facebook app world, a market that they’ve been less than success in is mobile (read:iPhone) games. In a recent interview with AdAge, Zynga founder Mark Pincus states, “Smartphones. They’re the next frontier in social gaming.” While some might argue that that frontier is already here, we’ve still yet to see what wonders Zynga can do for mobile gaming when given the proper amount of funding and resources to devote to the platform. Could this recent bestowment of funding be earmarked for that exact purpose? And remember, Apple only recently gave the green light to microtransactions within free-to-play games, and area where Zynga shines.

Another way of looking at this new capital is a clear display of faith from investors that the potential class action lawsuit that Zynga and other social gaming companies are looking at is something that can be handled, and shouldn’t slow development.

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Zynga helping Haitian charities through virtual goods

Tuesday, October 20th, 2009

While doing good and giving back are nothing new to the gaming industry, as there are a number of small-ish projects that have taken on the challenge over the years, Zynga’s new campaign is the first microtransaction based charitable cause donation program we’ve seen. According to VentureBeat, social games developer and publisher Zynga has struck upon an idea that they believe will allow them to do a great amount of good in a relatively short amount of time.

haitidonateCentered around their wildly popular farming game, FarmVille, Zynga’s 56 million users of this app have donated $487,500 over the past three weeks to the company’s campaign to help children in Haiti. Titled the “Sweet Seeds for Haiti” initiative, this program is the opening phase of a larger plan to promote what Zynga calls “social goods.” These goods function just like any other microtransaction purchasable item within the virtual world. I.e. instead of purchasing a tractor to up their farming, players can purchase Sweet Seeds, those that are directly connected to the charitable donation. Likewise, Zynga has run a similar promotion in the virtual world YoVille, whereby the games 140 million inhabitants could purchase virtual bulldogs and tabby cats from a virtual animal shelter. These purchases helped raise money for the San Francisco SPCA.

Zynga reports that approximately 50 percent of these purchases are contributed directly to one of two Haitian charities, FATEM.org and/or FONKOZE.org. Jacky Poteau, FATEM president, stated that just from Zynga’s donations alone, the NPO has made possible the reality of a quality education to more than 500 Haitian children.

“The sheer scope and reach of social gaming to affect people’s lives in a positive way wasn’t even a reality a few years ago,” said Mark Pincus, founder and chief executive of Zynga. “Today, with ‘social goods,’ we are enabling players to unlock their power to change the world and impact the lives of children. ‘Sweet Seeds for Haiti’ is an early step for Zynga with more to come.

Obviously, a great plan of action, for a great cause. And again, as stated above, there are a number of games or games relation projects that do give something back to a community and/or make donations to communities that need it most, but most require a concerted effort to find. The Zynga initiative is front and center, cleverly integrated into the hugely popular social gaming format. As I talked about at the beginning of this month, with competition heating up in the social gaming space, developers and publishers are, and will continue to need to separate themselves from the pack. While I’m not certain a charitable donation program is going to do this for Zynga, it’s certainly a noble and worthy project, and obviously, a great PR move.

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