Bubble Safari: Zynga does it again
NBA Jam creator Mark Turmell unveils his first project since moving from EA last summer.
NBA Jam creator Mark Turmell unveils his first project since moving from EA last summer.
Survey pitches new features, including leaderboards, offline play and removal of ads, after 1.9 million users leave in a month.
4Total revenue was $321 million (£198.3m), an increase of 32 per cent year on year, while bookings - revenue from virtual goods and ad sales before deductions, such as Facebook's 30 per cent cut - rose 15 per cent to $329 million, a new record for the company. More >
Facebook's updated S-1 filing with the US Securities And Exchange Commission (SEC) reveals that Zynga, through Facebook Payments revenue, direct advertising and thirdparty ads on its game pages, accounted for 15 per cent of Facebook's revenue of $1.05 billion - some $157.5 million. More >
2Zynga has confirmed that it is to hold a secondary offering of its shares on the stock market, with CEO Mark Pincus to offload 15 per cent of his own holding. TechCrunch reports that Zynga is looking to sell up to 43 million shares in the secondary offering, which is designed to prevent employees who were awarded stock in the early days of the company from dumping their shares in June, when the six-month "lock-up" period following last December's IPO will expire. More >
Electronic Arts has attempted to put a positive spin on Zynga's acquisition of New York studio OMGPOP, saying the reported $180 million buyout of the Draw Something developer shows what good value EA got when it acquired PopCap last year. More >
1Zynga has acquired social game developer OMGPOP for a fee reported to be in the region of $180 million (£114m). More >
Zynga is one of a number of firms keen on an acquisition of Draw Something developer OMGPOP, according to reports. TechCrunch reports that Zynga is already in talks to buy the New York-based developer of what is now the most popular game on Facebook with 12.2 million daily active users, and has been downloaded 30 million times on mobile devices. More >
1OMGPOP's Draw Something is now the most popular Facebook game in terms of daily active users, unseating Zynga's Words With Friends. The New York studio's Pictionary-like game has 12.2 million daily active users on Facebook, according to AppData, ahead of Zynga's Words With Friends on 8 million, CityVille on 7.9 million and Hidden Chronicles, on 6.7 million. More >
Zynga is planning on a second public offering of its shares, according to reports, in a bid to prevent its share price tanking in three months' time. Multiple sources have told Bloomberg about the socal gaming titan's intent, which would allow some investors to sell their shares while tying in large shareholders to a longer "lock-up" period, preventing them from selling theirs on until six months after an IPO, which Zynga held in December. More >
Japanese publisher Konami, and UK studios Rebellion and Playdemic, have signed up for Zynga's new social gaming portal, Zynga.com. Announced last week, the portal, dubbed Zynga Platform, not only reduces the company's hitherto reliance on Facebook by giving it somewhere to host its own games, but means it becomes a publisher of sorts, hosting thirdparty-developed social games. Mob Science, Row Sham Bow and Sava Transmedia are also on board. More >
1Zynga has moved to reduce its dependence on Facebook with the announcement of its own social gaming portal, Zynga.com. The site will host not only Zynga's own games but other studios' as well. While users can log in with their Facebook accounts, they are no longer limited to connecting with those on their friends lists, but can play with other members of the site. More >
Online gambling appears to be Zynga's next big revenue stream, after CEO Mark Pincus said it was "a good natural fit" for the company's games. Speaking at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom conference in San Francisco yesterday, the controversial CEO said his company was already well-positioned to capitalise on the popularity of online gaming thanks to Zynga Poker, which has 30 million monthly active users. More >
The Facebook gaming honeymoon is over, according to market analysts IHS Screen Digest, with a decline in user numbers and increased competition meaning it is now much harder for game developers to succeed on the social network. The claim comes from a new report, Facebook Gaming 2011 Market Monitor, which notes that at the end of 2010, half of Facebook monthly active users (MAUs) were gamers. By the end of last year, that had fallen to just 25 per cent. More >
The social gaming sector shares some worrying parallels with drug dealing, says Leigh Alexander.
1The birthplace of the FPS continues to breed games with unique perspectives.
Zynga's first financial results since it became a public company reveal an annual loss of $404 million (£257.2m). Revenue in 2011 totalled $1.14 billion (£725.2bn), almost double the company's earnings in 2010. That year, the company posted a profit of $90.6 million. The huge loss means that investors holding Zynga stock have made an annual loss of $1.40 per share. More >
Dream Heights, the game for which Zynga has been accused of cloning Tiny Tower, is now available on the App Store, and users are already making their feelings known with some dismal reviews. At the time of writing the app, which was released in Canada last month but is now available elsewhere, has a score of just one-and-a-half stars, with those leaving bad reviews all focusing on the game's similarity to Tiny Tower. More >
Hasbro has announced a partnership that gives the company rights to make toys and games based on Zynga's social games. The deal, announced in a press release, will also result in dual-branded merchandise based on both companies' properties More >
Zynga brought in $445 million (£280.7 million), or 12 per cent, of Facebook's total revenue last year, the social network's IPO filing reveals. The filing, from which Facebook seeks to raise $5 billion and could see the company valued at up to $100 billion, shows that total 2011 revenue was $3.7 billion - of which a billion was profit. More >