December 17th, 2009, 4:26AM in Business by Marc LequimeView Comments
Zynga have just surpassed an important milestone, one of which dignifies their impressive mass – they’re worth nearly $3,000,000,000. That’s more than Twitter. They’re massive, and I’m pretty sure this company is gonna set their eyes or a more dominative market.
Zynga, incase you’re not aware, are the company that create all those annoying games that force you to join them – Farmville, Petville, Fishville, Café World, Mafia Wars, even YoVille. Their cheap, easy-to-assemble and quick to push out games have proved a formidable force when it comes to online gaming – one that could almost be a fantastic business plan.
Zynga’s money-making strategy includes charging people Farm Cash, Café Cash, Fish Cash..? and many more ‘cash’ currencies that involve the purchase of virtual dollars. Of course, they also supply a free-to-collect in-game currency, normally called coins. There’s loads of cash-exclusive items, advertised provocatively and occasionally given away to random users to incite their friends to purchase the virtual money. It’s a business strategy not too unlike that of Sulake, the people behind Habbo Hotel. In fact, I wonder if sulk may feel a little threatened by the presence of a new online mega-giant.
They’ve not always been reputable, though. As a matter of fact the main argument against Zynga is the type of game they build – and it’s always nearly exactly the same as another game that has been released several years before. For example, Farmville is identical to Farm Town, Fishville to Fish Tycoon, Rollercoaster Kingdom to Rollercoaster Tycoon (come on, ripping from Chris Sawyers? That’s just low!) and various other games. Various other Mafia games have also complained that Zynga has been stealing their ideas.
I don’t really get how all these massive game companies can’t be earning the same as a start-up social media game. Still, Zynga are worth a fortune.
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