Zynga yesterday released it's quarterly report for earnings, the first one since ex-Xbox One launch man Don Mattrick jointed the company as CEO and while profits and revenue are down on this period last year, it wasn't quite as bad as expected.
According to Bloomberg estimates, while it was predicted that revenue would drop to under $200 million for the quarter, it didn't quite break that threshold, sitting at $202.6 million. Compared to just last year however, that's over a million dollars of reduced revenue for the quarter. Likewise, it has continued to cut staff, letting 154 people go and has cut back on hiring people from outside the company for contract based work.
Maybe having a dog for your logo just doesn't help these days? Just look at HMV.
The past few months have also seen the lowest sales numbers Zynga has had in the past few years, with heavy competition with phenomenons like Candy Crush Saga taking the blame for whisking away many of the Facebook game maker's profits. But the negative downturn of Zynga has been ongoing for years at this point. It was over a year ago that we were talking about its continued demise and the fact that it's going on almost five months after the appointment of company saviour Don Mattrick, isn't the greatest news.
Even with Mattrick aboard though, doing his best to turn the sinking ship around, there's still people like Marc Pincus, ex-CEO and now Zynga chief product officer, saying he wants games to be more addiction focused. When your own product officer is bored with gaming, it's not a great sign.
KitGuru Says: Zynga is one company I'm not sad to see crumble. It popularised some of my most disliked ‘features' in gaming today. That and it was part of the trend of game-invites on Facebook – which made me hate everyone for a while.