Zynga

Indie studio Nimblebit has written an open letter to Zynga pointing out the striking similarities between iOS hit Tiny Tower and Zynga's upcoming mobile title Dream Heights. Posted on Twitter by Nimblebit's Ian Marsh, the letter contains side-by-side screenshots of Tiny Tower and Dream Heights which suggest Zynga has lifted not just the concept, but much of its execution as well. Players build skyscrapers, fit out individual floors as shops to be restocked and apartments for workers to live in, and drop off visitors at the floor of their choice. Tiny Tower's twin currency mechanic also appears to have been lifted. More >

Zynga is in "active conversations with potential partners" regarding online gambling opportunities. "Zynga Poker is the world's largest online poker game with more than seven million people playing every day and over 30 million each month," a Zynga spokesman said in a statement to All Things Digital. "We know from listening to our players that there's an interest in the real money gambling market. We're in active conversations with potential partners to better understand and explore this new opportunity." More >

NaturalMotion Games CEO Torsten Reil has countered claims last week that Zynga is losing $150 per new customer, instead believing the company to be making $30 on each one. The initial estimate came from Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia, who stated that each customer costs Zynga $300 to acquire, but that the average player will only spend $150 during the 12 to 15 months they spend playing the company's games. Reil's own calculations arrive at a markedly different conclusion. More >

Facebook gaming titan Zynga is apparently taking a loss of $150 on every new customer it acquires. The claim comes from Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia, who in an interview with Benzinga explained that Zynga spent $120 million on marketing in the first nine months of last year. More >

Facebook gaming titan Zynga has confirmed the acquisition of four mobile developers as it continues its expansion into smartphones. Reuters reports that German developer Gamedoctors, San Francisco's HipLogic, and Page44 Studios, which ported 2D Boy's World Of Goo to iOS, are all on Zynga's books. Head of mobile operations David Ko also confirmed the acquisiton of Mobile Ape, which was reported but never confirmed last August. More >

Facebook has renamed its chart of the top 10 games of last year and explained its methodology after its naming of Gardens Of Time as the year's most popular game was met with widespread confusion. The company painted a markedly different picture of gaming on its network , overlooking monthly and daily active users (MAU and DAU), the accepted standard for gauging a Facebook game's popularity. It means Zynga's CityVille, named the biggest-ever game on the platform after amassing 88.4 million users within a month of launch, is restricted to third place on the chart, behind EA's The Sims Social. More >

Mark Pincus, CEO of Facebook gaming titan Zynga, has told investors the company can double the number of users who actively contribute to its revenue. Zynga is far and away the most successful developer on Facebook, with 220 million monthly active users across its games, all of which are free to play. In the 12 months to September 30, however, just 7.7 million paid for virtual items. More >

Zynga has settled its copyright dispute with Brazilian social game developer Vostu. The Facebook gaming titan launched proceedings against Vostu in June, accusing its rival of "blatant copyright infringement" in its games Mini Fazenda, Vostu Poker, Pet Mania, Café Mania and MegaCity. Zynga pointed out the striking resemblance Vostu's games bore to FarmVille, Zynga Poker, PetVille, Café World and CityVille. Vostu's defence was that Zynga's own works were far from original concepts. More >

Zynga has priced its shares at between $8.50 and $10 apiece, valuing the company at around $7 billion. TechCrunch reports that the social gaming titan has updated its S-1 filing with the SEC with pricing information. With 100 million shares on offer, the company hopes to raise over a billion dollars. More >

Strauss Zelnick, CEO of publisher Take-Two, has questioned Zynga's business model, saying the social gaming titan's proposed IPO has yet to go through because of its "sketchy metrics." Speaking at the Reuters Media Summit yesterday, Zelnick said: "Zynga is a direct marketing company, 97 per cent of [whose customers] don't pay them anything, three per cent who do. They churn quite quickly and they get new customers. That is their model." More >

Zynga had bids knocked back for PopCap as well as Angry Birds developer Rovio, according to reports. The New York Times claims that Zynga bid $950 million for PopCap in July. The Plants Vs Zombies developer accepted a bid of an initial $750 million from Electronic Arts, with the promise of a further $550 million if earnings targets are met. More >

Zynga's Mafia Wars 2 has failed to perform to expectations, according to internal sources, following an alarming drop in user numbers since its launch last month. Sources told Business Week that executives are "second-guessing one another about what went wrong." According to AppData, Mafia Wars 2 has lost over a million daily active users (DAUs) on Facebook since the beginning of the month. More >

Zynga CEO Mark Pincus has dismissed claims he forced employees to give up company stock as "false and skewed." A front-page report in the Wall Street Journal (subscription required) claimed that employees who were given stock options in the early days of the company had been threatened with dismissal unless they gave them up. Pincus, apparently fearing he had been over-generous early on, then offered the stock to newly headhunted employees. More >

Amazon is promising that "several thousand" apps and games will be available for its Kindle Fire tablet when it launches in the US next week. The company has tested the apps in question on the Kindle Fire, which runs on a modified version of Google's Android operating system. Available through its controversial download service Amazon Appstore, the launch lineup includes games from the likes of EA, PopCap, Gameloft and Zynga. More >

Zynga's profits in the three months to September 30 fell 54 per cent to $12.5 million (£7.8 million) year on year. The slump comes despite an 80 per cent increase in revenue, which rose to $306.8 million (£191.8 million), with the hole in its finances seemingly caused by an increase in staffing numbers. More >

Industry veteran Louis Castle has quit his social gaming titan Zynga after just nine months. Castle, co-founder of Command & Conquer developer Westwood Studios, joined Zynga as VP of studios earlier this year, but he has now switched to casino supplier Shuffle Master and told Industry Gamers that the workload was simply too heavy for him. More >

Zynga has launched Mafia Wars 2, a sequel to its 2008 social game, on Facebook and Google+. The launch is Zynga's latest effort to reverse a slide in profits, which reportedly fell 90 per cent last quarter, and value to investors ahead of its IPO, which is expected to go through this year. More >