Posts Tagged ‘Zynga’

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Kung Fu Panda to appear in Zynga’s first CityVille in-game integration

Monday, May 23rd, 2011

Late last week, DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc., Paramount Pictures, and Zynga announced that the lovable Kung Fu Panda will be making an in-game integration appearance in Zynga’s popular CityVille game. The integration will feature a new in-game item and quest for players, ultimately promoting the upcoming opening of Kung Fu Panda 2, which premiers this coming Thursday, May 26th. And while in-game integrations are nothing new for Zynga (Rango – FrontierVille, Megamind, et al.) the Kung Fu Panda integration marks the first in-game appearance of it’s type in Facebook’s largest and most popular application.

“Nearly a third of all Kung Fu Panda fans on Facebook have also played CityVille, so the integration is a natural fit and something we think our players will love,” said Manny Anekal, Global Director of Brand Advertising at Zynga in a statement. “It’s important that we collaborate with innovative brands like DreamWorks Animation that resonate with and are meaningful to our players and enhance their game play.”

Kicking off last Friday, more than 88 million monthly CityVille players now have the option available to drop a Kung Fu Panda 2 inspired drive-in movie theatre in their beloved Facebook based virtual city. Upon placement of the aforementioned drive-in cinema, players will receive one of five collectable pieces. Once users have collected all five of the kung fu inspired pieces, Tigress, Crane, Mantis, Viper and Monkey, an exclusive Po the Panda statue will be unlocked, and is available as a quest completion reward. By doubling the steps needed to achieve the exclusive Panda can be seen as a move from Zynga as a method of further interaction between players and the brand, something both DreamWorks and Paramount are sure to appreciate.

“Our exclusive integration of Kung Fu Panda 2 in Zynga’s CityVille gives millions of players a fun and deeply interactive way of connecting with Po and the Furious Five,” said Jason Alex, Head of Online Marketing at DreamWorks Animation in a statment. “Po journeys on a memorable kung fu quest in the movie and through this online challenge we’re able to reward fans for further engaging with the characters they love.”

Again, as this isn’t a first for Zynga, the Kung Fu Panda 2 in-game integration does have a significant impact on the industry, and is noteworthy. As we’ve seen over the course of time, that “other” form of advertising within video games has gone over like a led balloon. Perhaps is just the delivery method that needed a change? Perhaps it’s the wildly different type of gamer that plays Zynga titles vs. die-hard Xbox 360 Halo players? Either way, Zynga’s found a magic to balance the expectations of both the suits and the market at large. Chances are, DreamWorks has already seen a respectable ROI, as the Kung Fu Panda 2 integration serves as a prime example of the studio’s faith in what Zynga can deliver. And while, for now, this appears to be a one way street, how long can it be until we see a Zynga integration into a DreamWorks picture?

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Zynga pulls Mafia Wars from MySpace

Wednesday, April 20th, 2011

MySpace.  A stellar example of what can go drastically wrong when you’re sitting pretty at the top.  While the flailing social network has seen it’s fair share of blows, it would appear that just another nail in the coffin has recently been stuck.  According to notice posted on the game’s MySpace home, Zynga has pulled the plug on MySpace, and is now sending players to Zynga’s own MafiaWars.com; further evidence that the social games maker would like to become less and less dependent on social networks in general.  With that said, Zynga is still relying on Facebook Connect from their own platform.

Significant in it’s own right, this move has particular meaning, as Mafia Wars had been the second most popular game on MySpace as recently as March, according to an Inside Social Games report, counting a healthy 13 million players of the title on MySpace.  Granted, these figures do not include regularly playing members, but still a grande number.

Zynga’s stand-alone title, Zynga Poker is still available on MySpace, however YoVille and Fashion Wars have already quietly exited the platform, while Zynga’s big guns, CityVille and FarmVille have never been available to MySpace users.

So in addition to Zynga’s push to pull users off the social space and bring them home to their own platform, various sources including TechCrunch are speculating that Zynga is simply beating a dead horse by continuing to put time, money, and effort into a sinking ship, i.e. MySpace.

According to a March ComScore report, MySpace’s numbers are in freefall, dropping from 93 million unique users to 63 million over the course of a year.  It would also appear that the MySpace exodus is accelerating, with 10 million monthly users saying sayonara between January and February.

This move by Zynga flies directly in the face of MySpace’s goals, as just last year, the platform took on a Hi5-esque role, shifting their focus from social network to social gaming destination, with little to no success.  Adding insult to injury, just 5 short months later, Zynga was able to attract and hire MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta.  And then there’s that massive layoff this past January, which saw approximately 600 employees let go.

So with the walls crumbling around them, the question remains; what does the future hold for News Corp. owned MySpace?  Remember, the firm paid a massive $580 million for MySpace back in 2006, but can still be seen as a bargain when compared to AOL’s $850 million purchase of Bebo.  So when seen in this light, perhaps a tax write off would make more sense?

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Zynga takes aim at Latin America – Partners with Mentez

Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011

It’s GDC time again, and it looks as though this year is on track to be yet another media and release-fest. With all the great information coming out of San Francisco, it’s often difficult to decide on just what to focus on. Already in full swing, leading Latin American social games publisher Mentez has recently announced a partnership with the world’s largest social games developer, Zynga. The partnership seeks to make it easier for Latin American players to take full advantage, and enjoyment of, Zynga’s top titles. The deal will see Mentez distributing Zynga Game Cards and PINS to more than 1 million retail locations and Internet Café’s across the region. The production of this deal has obviously been in the works for quite some time, as Mentez began distribution on February 18th in Brazil, with Mexico and various other Latin American countries getting the goods soon.

“Latin Americans really love Zynga’s games,” said Mentez CEO Juan Franco. “These players are very interested in purchasing goods in their favorite Zynga games and the partnership with Mentez will give them an alternative payment method to credit cards, which are not widely used by consumers in this region.”

So it seems as though we might now have a clearer picture as to what end Zynga’s been raising more cash for. This partnership with Mentez is clearly only the tip of the iceberg, as Zynga will be providing new options for Latin American players – and what better way to connect with them via a localized operation that simply distributes the goods, takes a cut, and watches the loot roll in. Zynga’s also issuing Game Cards available at smaller currency values, giving more players more choices for the amounts they want to spend on Zynga’s catalogue of virtual goods. I wonder if they’d consider the same in U.S./European markets?

The additional sweetener of this deal is Mentez’s own alternative payment network; Paymentez. Publically launched in November 2009, the platform currently has around 4 million active users, and handles approximately 650 transactions per second. Through this new partnership, Zynga will tap into this existing payment platform, allowing players to pay for goods via local credit cards, bank transfers, and in person for cash at pharmacies, newsstands, and Internet Cafés.

And while the International Trade Administrations March 2008 report indicates that per capita credit card usage in Latin America is much lower than North American usage, there’s still a massive market waiting to be tapped. The report indicates that countries including Chile, Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, Argentina, and Brazil have less than 1 credit card in circulation per person. The average U.S. figure is closer to 2.5 credit cards per person. On the other side of the coin, ComScore indicates that there are 73M and 32M Facebook and Orkut monthly users in Latin American, respectively. Given current and past social gaming data, and then backing it off a bit to compensate for the market, Zynga and Mentez are looking at a 42M – 52M unique user market. And even if all of these uniques aren’t credit card holders, they’re now free to pay up at every pharmacy, newsstand, or Internet Café.

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Zynga: Now valued at $7 – $9 billion- IPO likely within 1-2 years

Monday, March 21st, 2011

According to new reports from the Wall Street Journal, social games juggernaut Zynga, is currently seeking $250 million in a new investment round that would place the valuation of the firm at $7 – $9 billion. You’ll remember that in April the company filed for an issuance of stock that placed the company at a staggering $4 billion. In other words, in less than a year, Zynga has effectively managed to double their value. However, according to the WSJ’s sources, or “those familiar with the matter,” the new round of funding could arrive within a few weeks – or not at all. To further put the importance of this valuation into perspective; Twitter (which has received accolades from everyone from revolutionaries to Oprah) has a current valuation of between $8 – $10 billion. Zynga, on the other hand still (more or less) relies solely on Facebook as it’s primary outlet.

While not specifically mentioned in the WSJ article, it’s quite clear that Zynga has managed this doubling of their valuation thanks to their most recent hit; CityVille. CityVille, is a crossbreed of the best of FarmVille, the companies’ first “real” hit, and the timeless Sims mechanics. According to AppData stats, not only is Zynga clearly the top publisher on Facebook, but three of the top six Facebook apps arrive via Zynga. CityVille currently hold the top slot with 96.2 million users, followed closely by FarmVille with 51.4 million users. Including their Texas HoldEm Poker (#4 – 38.1M) and FrontierVille (#6 – 20.7M), a quick bit of cocktail napkin math brings Zynga’s userbase to a staggering 215.4 million users. Certainly, there’s a more than a bit of overlap between the titles, but it’s important to keep in mind that items purchased within one title can not be moved to another title. In other words, regardless of the overlap, Zynga is still making money hand-over-fist with each title – a significant part of this massive valuation.

And speaking of money – according to sources close to Zynga’s finances, in 2010 the company generated $400 million in profit on approximately $850 million in revenue. The WSJ article further outlines Zynga’s finances, noting that the company doesn’t really need the additional funding, as they’ve already raised $360 million from a number of venture capital firms, a number that does not include the undisclosed sum from Google. Given these healthy numbers, their sizable war chest of reserve cash, seemingly endless expansion(s), and rumors that they’re already in talks with at lease one major bank regarding financing, mutual funds, and “others,” it’s a no brainer that the company has received a number of requests from potential private investors. According to the WSJ’s sources, Zynga is looking at an IPO within the next 1 – 2 years.

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Zynga now coast to coast, acquires New York’s Area/Code

Monday, January 24th, 2011

While Zynga’s been a bit quiet on the acquisition front as of late, it looks like they’re back in the purchasing mood, as New York’s Area/Code social game developer (CSI: Crime City, Parking Wars, Drop7) has announced that they’re now members of the Zynga family, more specifically Zynga: New York. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Founded in 2005, Area/Code made major headway in 2008, when they closed a major deal with A&E, launching a branded Parking Wars social game. Toss in a healthy dose of thei iPhone puzzle game hit, Drop7, and a Ubisoft published CSI: Crime City, along with targeted games for Nike, CBS and Nokia, and you’ve got a decent competitor in the field, and obvious acquisition target for Zynga.

“Zynga is the undisputed leader of an industry in the midst of an important transition. Social games have demonstrated massive popularity and commercial success even as they are still developing; Area/Code’s ideas, passion and experience will now participate in that development,” cites an official statement.

When it comes to who’s going where and who’s staying put, co-founder Kevin Slavin will leave the studio to pursue new opportunities, while General Manager Demitri Detsaridis will stay on board, as will other co-founder Frank Lantz will stay on as Creative Director. Interestingly, Gamasutra points out that at 2008’s Austin GDC, specifically the Worlds In Motion Summit panel, Lantz commented that Facebook is, “a space in which a new kind of game design would flourish.” To me, it’s exactly that type of forward thinking that Zynga is/was most interested in snatching up.

And now that Area/Code is officially Zynga: New York, they’ve got expansion on their minds. From the official company blog/press statement, “We want to make great games on a large scale. Our ambition is to contribute in a major way to the evolution of games on social networks, to make games in this space that are deeper and more interesting, games that reward the time and attention of the millions of people who play them with complex, meaningful experiences. We believe our best shot at doing this is working with Zynga, the biggest, most successful company in this space,

Again, while it appeared as though Zynga’s buying spree had come to an end, it looks like it was more like a breather (or chance to pay the monthly payment on the company Amex?). The Area/Code acquisition now makes Zynga’s ninth purchase in eight months, and based on the run away success of CityVille, it should be quite interesting to see what the social gaming giant has in store for us in 2011. Given their worldwide conglomeration of studios and developers, the question is…can they successfully fuse these various elements, and redo, if not out-do they previous string of successful social games.

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D-day for MySpace: 550-600 employees to be let go

Tuesday, January 11th, 2011

According to News Corp. owned All Things Digital, once king-of-the-hill social networking site MySpace will shed anywhere between 550 and 600 employees today. This number represents approximately half of the current MySpace employee roster, with the hardest hit to be international offices and employees.

Apparently, the “restructuring” efforts at MySpace are intended to drop “legacy” business and products, and thus, half the staff is no longer needed. Reports also indicate that News Corp will begin the process of finding a buyer for MySpace. These cuts arrive after a previous round of “restructuring” i.e. layoffs that saw 30% of the workforce cut in June of 2009. You’ll remember News Corp head Rupert Murdoch paid a reported $580 million for the site, a topic that was surrounded by controversy. Given these “toxic assets” attached to the MySpace name, it looks as though even the sale of MySpace will be something less than “regular” or “normal”. With that said, rumors are afloat that News Corp. will try to pawn MySpace off to Yahoo!

While layoffs are never fun, those that are still working with MySpace have clearly been avoiding the writing on the wall. The once great MySpace has dwindled in popularity over the past few years, being overtaken in traffic numbers by Facebook in April of 2008. Since this time, MySpace has attempted to reinvent itself as an entertainment portal, with a particular focus on games. You’ll remember that the Beverly Hills, California based firm brought in Sean Ryan to up the ante in the gaming department, only to see him leave for a similar role at Facebook within the first 6 months of his employment. Un huh. Likewise, when compared to a company roster a few years ago, there are a striking number of former MySpace execs now under the employment of social games maker Zynga.

Regarding the sale of MySpace, while News Corp. may or may not be courting Yahoo!, I hear that MOL Global has a penchant for buying up former social networking sites, provided a few patents are included.

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CityVille trumps FarmVille in only 22 days

Monday, December 27th, 2010

In an astonishing run, it looks like Zynga has been able to repeat, and trump their previous success, this time with CityVille. In doing so, Zynga is now officially the king of the hill with the world’s largest game.

As noted by VentureBeat, on December 24th, CityVille added a massive 6.9 million users to top out the day at 61.7 million MAU. A view of AppData’s figures makes it official – CityVille has surpassed FarmVille, which currently counts 56.8 million monthly active users.

When we first discussed CityVille, and it’s 22MAU in only 11 days, it was clear that CityVille was way on it’s way to surpassing the countryside farming. Given even these early numbers, it’s still an astounding feat – one not easily captured in today’s overcrowded social/casual gaming landscape. And Zynga’s now done it twice. Combined in part with the holiday season, i.e. plenty of free time to play free games, Zynga’s Facebook traffic numbers have skyrocketed from 198 million MAU in November, to 261.8 million MAU just before Christmas.

As noted in a previous CityVille post, Zynga is sitting in a unique position, in so much as they have a massive network within Facebook that they’ve clearly taken advantage of when it comes to pushing CityVille to interested Zynga gamers. You’ll remember that this past spring Zynga was pushing forward with CityVille (and other) developments, just as Facebook dramatically altered the way gamers communicate with other friends across Facebook. Clearly, Zynga has adapted, if not bent or perhaps even broken a few, of Facebook’s new game plan.

And remember, Zynga’s global domination program has surely received a shot in the arm thanks to CityVille. The company is aggressively making headway into the Japanese market via mobile gaming, just as Japan based DeNA is making moves in the U.S. market via ngmoco.

To be sure, 61.7 million monthly active users is an astounding figure. However, the question remains: Now that Zynga has these users, how successful will they be at converting MAU’s to PAU’s, or…Paying active users.

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Zynga’s CityVille attracts over 22M MAU in just 11 days

Tuesday, December 14th, 2010

According to a new report out by Inside Social Games, Zynga’s most recent offering, CityVille has attracted over 22 million monthly active users in just 11 days since it’s release. In comparison, Zynga’s prior offering, FrontierVille managed only 7.4 million users during the same time frame. Looking back the the ‘Ville that started it all, FarmVille only managed 11M users in 11 days, keeping in mind, this was back in the “Free-for-all” heyday, where Facebook had not yet enacted their strict(er) messaging policies.

So why CityVille? Why now? Why not FrontierVille? One factor is certainly Zynga’s powerful cross promotion network. In addition from promotion on the main Zynga site, remember, Zynga also has a wide network of other ‘Ville titles to push their messaging through. Canabalization? Perhaps, but obviously one that’s paying off for Zynga. Another catchy feature Zynga implemented this time around; CityVille face, Sam, becomes an automatic neighbor to all FarmVille players. When farmers visit her farm, voilà, a link directing them to CityVille. Smart.

Localization. As mentioned in a previous post, CityVille is Zynga’s first widespread localized game. By localizing and translating into Spanish, French, Italian, and German, Zynga was about to pick up between 100 and 200 million native speakers via Facebook. However, that’s not to say that Europeans are rushing into CityVille, as Inside Social Games points out, a large portion of usage is coming from the Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia, as well as eastern European countries who’s languages were not included in the localization. This falls perfectly inline with a previous statement I’ve made about early adopters, and no matter what the language, players will play. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great that Zynga has instituted these languages, but at the same time, the question remains to be asked – for all the time, money, and effort that was put into a project of this scale; is it really worth it all at the end of the day?

If you thought the days of Zynga ‘Ville based requests flooding your sidebar or inbox are over, think again. Clearly, there’s a bit of nepotism happening between Zynga and Facebook, as Zynga seems to be able to “work the system” just a bit harder than everyone else without a Facebook backlash. LOLapps anyone? What Zynga’s up to this time around is more or less the same old tricks. For example, an opening quest involves asking (recruiting) your friends to send you some chocolate. This flies directly in the face of Facebook’s own policy which prevents developers from incentivizing the use of communication channels. Right. Additionally, Zynga also sends out a daily email blast to all players reminding them to login to collect a bonus. Just how Facebook will handle Zynga (or not) remains to be seen.

Given CityVille’s current DAU status, in comparison to their MAU status, this game looks extremely healthy, with numbers around the 66% mark. If CityVille stays the course, they’re on track to break 30 million MAU later this week, a figure that hasn’t been duplicated since Café World one year ago. Likewise, this trajectory would put CityVille on top of FarmVille’s 54 M MAU.

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American Express and Zynga partner to bring Virtual Goods via Membership Rewards

Thursday, December 2nd, 2010

Zynga and American Express have recently announced a strategic partnership that will allow card holding members to spend their Membership Points in a variety of Zynga related ways. An industry first, the partnership offers participants the opportunity to pay for limited edition virtual goods, along with physical and virtual game cards across Zynga titles including FarmVille, FrontierVille, PetVille, YoVille, Treasure Island, and Café World.

“Our partnership with American Express marks the first time that virtual goods are available for purchase with rewards points and reinforces our commitment to offer consumers meaningful experiences that enhance their game play,” said Vishal Makhijani, SVP of Business Operations at Zynga. “Cardmembers can instantly redeem their reward points to purchase limited edition virtual goods for their favorite Zynga games.”

On tap for Amex Membership Rewards members are unique FarmVille manors and windmills, CafeWorld fountains and stoves, as well as YoVille roadsters and robots. Starting December 6th, an additional 20 more virtual items will enter the program including a Fancy Gold Hot Tub and Gold Fountain for FrontierVille players, and a Treasure Island Zebra.

“Our relationship with Zynga, one of the key players in the digital space, marks a new redemption category for American Express and reflects our ongoing commitment to expanding and deepening the value we offer customers online,” said Dan Schulman, Group President Enterprise Growth, American Express. “With millions of Cardmembers looking to use Membership Rewards points, Zynga can now offer our loyal customer base an exciting new way to engage with their popular social games.”

While Zynga continues to push out various reskinned versions of the same game, and now in various global locations; there’s still one Zynga title that stands alone – Zynga Poker. Remember, Zynga filed for a patent on virtual chips, and now they’ve cut an industry first deal with Amex to allow users to spend Membership Rewards points inside a virtual property? It might not be something that American Express would want to associate itself with, but any takers on a the possibility of further Zynga/Amex cooperation? Being able to gamble away spend my Membership Rewards points in a game of Poker? I’m betting that this is not the last we’ll see from Zynga via Amex. Or rather, Amex via Zynga?

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FarmVille slips from the #1 Facebook slot – the beginning of the end?

Monday, November 22nd, 2010

Call it the beginning of the end … or at least the end of Zynga’s over-a-year long run as the number 1 application used on Facebook. As reported by Forbes, according to AppData.com, FarmVille has been overtaken by a page customization tool; Phrases.

If you’re questioning where the great divide comes in, we’ll have to look at MAU vs. DAU. Monthly Active Users vs. Daily Active Users. When viewing DAU data, FarmVille is still on top, with a healthy number of 16 million. In the number 2 spot is Windows Live Messenger, which sees around 10 million daily active users. However, when we look at the longer number, the MAU, FarmVille is down to 54 million. No paltry figure, to be sure, but when compared to their peak usage last February, when the title saw over 80 million monthly active users, it’s clear that there’s a dwindling audience.

While Zynga may be the darling child to both Google and Facebook, it seems as though they might be “so, yesterday,” to consumers, as it’s not just FarmVille that’s been losing eyeballs. Valued at approximately $5.51 billion, a number larger than EA, Zynga’s catalogue of titles has seen a dip in activity, with figures dropping below the 200 million MAU mark.

But to be clear, when viewing the rise and possible decline of Zynga, it’s quite important to keep a few factors in mind. For starters, Zynga’s not been able to duplicate it’s success of FarmVille to date. They’ve tried with FrontierVille, which intitally took off like hotcakes, gathering some 30+ million users, but has since petered out, and is seeing a slow but steady exit of the game. Zynga is now attempting to repeat the process with CityVille, with the added bonus of potentially repeating the same mistake in 5 various languages. The second, and perhaps most important, factor to keep in mind is changes to the Facebook platform, specifically notifications. You’ll remember when FarmVille really started gaining traction, Zynga had wisely figured out the system, and it seemed as though one couldn’t check in on their Facebook account without seeing, or being invited to help, a friend somehow involved with the game. Over time, Facebook reportedly received enough complaints, not only about FarmVille and Zynga related products, that they effectively shut down the viral advertising channels – a decision which has greatly effected Zynga, as well as the entire social gaming industry that depend on Facebook as a platform for their wares.

Again, it’s clear that Zynga and their founder Mark Pincus are acutely aware of what’s going on, and what’s at stake. To this end, Pincus recently commented that 400 of Zynga’s 1,300 employees will be dedicated to creating new intellectual property by the end of the quarter. Any bets on whether or not these IP’s will be in the gambling direction?

Editor’s note: Forbes author Oliver Chiang makes the case that social games developers now need to think international and invest in localization. I’d agree with that to an extent, but only if social games developers enter the project with clear thinking: At best, these social games developers can attract the attention of “the leftovers.” What I mean by this is, all those that may not have heard of, or had interest to play a game as it’s in a foreign language. Most, if not all, early adpoters, and gaming forerunners have already had their time with FarmVille. Just because it may not be in their native language, games have the ability to transcend language and cultural boarders. Localization is great, but again, my opinion is that all those early adopters have come and gone. If Zynga, and other social developers, want to regain that top slot, instead of pushing the same tired product to further markets, why not offer up a new title, and stop the rehashing in various skins of the same title over and over again.

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