Social Media Giant Zynga Loses Half of Its Players

There are few companies more despised in the world of gaming than Zynga. The creators of Farmville and other Facebook games have long been derided as producing mass-market trash that contributes nothing except predatory gameplay and recycled visuals. 

Two things have popped up in the news today for the mobile and Facebook gaming giant. One, they have $15.8m in the second quarter of 2013, and the other is that daily users have dropped from 72m to 39m. In early June, through corporate restructuring, Zynga cut 520 jobs from the company.

Now, what does this actually mean? 

$15.8m sounds like a lot of money, and it is. But the actual revenue that Zynga pulls in is $230.7 million. Yes, this is down 30.6% from last year, but mobile gaming and Facebook gaming in general has been suffering from a lack of interest as of late. Online game revenues, the bread and butter of Zynga’s corporate interest, dropped 30.3%. But they still brought in over $200 million on their own. 

Zynga has also taken to purchasing Spooky Cool Labs in this past quarter. Spooky Cool Labs is a company that is perhaps best known for two things. One, they have a social Wizard of Oz game, and two, they are made up of real-money gambling veteran talent. Zynga has started to move into the real-world money gambling in the last year, launching their first gambling title in the UK in April. 

While many are perhaps praying for the downfall of the social games giant, analysts are actually predicting growth overall. They’re looking into innovative products, and the expansion into real-world gambling is an interesting gambit that might pay off. One of their other “acquisitions” this year was former Xbox One head honcho Don Mattrick, and he is looking to expand the company and help it remain profitable. 

“To do that, we need to get back to the basics and take a longer term view on our products and business, develop more efficient processes and tighten up execution across all the company.” 

Zynga launched six titles in this last quarter, including Draw Something 2, Running with Friends, and Battlestone. Two of their mobile games this year received Apple’s “Editor’s Choice” award. Whether you like them or not, it seems like Zynga might be here to stay.