Zynga Founder Mark Pincus Abandons Role At Company Before It’s ‘Game Over’
It is amazing how fast the mighty Zynga has fallen. For most people, the company may be unrecognizable, but it is their games that are well-known. How many people have woken up at 3 a.m. just to check on their crops of corn in Farmville? That’s right! Zynga is known for Farmville, Coasterville, Cityville, Mafia Wars, and other famous social media games. Now, Zynga is hanging by a thread proven by the fact its founder, Mark Pincus, has “abandoned” his role.
According to Venture Beat, Pincus officially stepped down from an operational role at the huge social game publisher. His successor, CEO Don Mattrick, is now placing his stamp on Zynga. Through stepping down, Pincus retired his title of chief product officer at Zynga, which he will no longer be doing day-to-day management. He will remain a chairman for Zynga, which he founded almost seven years ago.
Don Mattrick, prior to his position at Zynga, used to work for Microsoft, as reported here on The Inquisitr. This move happened just last year around July. Maybe it was a wise move since Mattrick has extensive knowledge pertaining to the video game industry. To counter the sharp decline in popularity, Mattrick is revitalizing Zynga by taking on more responsibility and appointing more executives with extensive video game experience as part of an ongoing effort to turn around the $1 billion company’s growth in the multibillion dollar-casual and social game sectors.
This will be a monumental milestone for Zynga and social media gaming, where executives with no gaming experience like Pincus paved the way to reach a broader audience than the industry ever thought possible. This new team Mattrick has established is determined to bring Zynga into the future.
In a detailing of Zynga’s initial success by The New York Times, it reads that most players of Zynga games never paid a cent. However, each game they had offered pay-to-use content. Gamers would spend a dollar here and there to speed up their progress, decorate characters, and add advantages. Ergo, Zynga’s revenue grew rapidly off of cheap additions.
Those days are now over, not because Zynga doesn’t make games anymore, but because there is so much competition out in the market now. It is so intense, Zynga reported a loss of $61.2 million, or 7 cents a share, for the first three months of the year. Summarized, Zynga’s revenue dropped 36% to $168 million.
If Zynga wants to stay alive, Mattrick has a lot to do. The social media gaming platform and free-to-play models may still be fun and popular, but Zynga is no longer the only ones doing it. Let’s hope Zynga can re-evalute themselves before it is “game over”.
[Image via Bing]
