http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/66212 http://www.joystiq.com/2010/10/27/zynga-estimated-to-be-worth-more-than-ea/ Apparently Zynga, the people of the critically acclaimed hit FarmVille and the huge epic Mafia Wars are worth more then Industry giant EA. Cheesus man, what are we coming to, they made a $1.6 billion profit this year and that is estimated to go up to $3.6 billion in three years. I honestly don't see that happening, I think these stupid Facebook games are more of a fad then anything, but I guess some people REALLY like them.
That's almost depressing, but considering the sheer popularity of Facebook games they likely will continue to expand until one day when they just... implode. Ridiculous that they can make so much profit from a game that isn't really that entertaining or that impressive. A sorry state of affairs for the gaming industry when a company like Zynga can actually be worth a fortune.
@Gamer_152: Popcap sells casual retail games though, Zygna gives you the game and you just buy addons, or spam you friends for help. I guess it's proving to be an effective business model, sort of how free to play MMO's have been increasing profits after they make the switch.
It still doesn't stop FarmVille from having 62 million active users . What were WoW's active users number at it's highest? "
Active? What constitutes Active according to Zynga?
I think the most interesting statistic would be the turnover for Farmville et all, if they are rolling through users quickly then eventually they will run out of rubes to play their game.
" You've got to be shitting me. How is that even possible? EA has been a major gaming powerhouse for years, and Zynga has been around for 1 year or so? "
It still doesn't stop FarmVille from having 62 million active users . What were WoW's active users number at it's highest? "
Active? What constitutes Active according to Zynga? I think the most interesting statistic would be the turnover for Farmville et all, if they are rolling through users quickly then eventually they will run out of rubes to play their game. "
People who are playing that game on a regular basis, not just sighed users. I know more then 60% of the people on my Facebook friends list play it every day. I would know, I see their damn updates on my wall.
I played Farmville and had a fun time with it, but spent way too much time on that game than I should have. FrontierVille almost re-sucked me into Zynga games until I once again hit the barrier of not having enough actual friends who cared about the game. I'll be the first to admit that my addiction to these games got real bad...so much so that I got very close to actually using my credit card to get funny money for Farmville to but more gas for my machinery...Let's just say that I could relapse any moment and this would be the end for me.
I played Farmville and had a fun time with it, but spent way too much time on that game than I should have. FrontierVille almost re-sucked me into Zynga games until I once again hit the barrier of not having enough actual friends who cared about the game. I'll be the first to admit that my addiction to these games got real bad...so much so that I got very close to actually using my credit card to get funny money for Farmville to but more gas for my machinery...Let's just say that I could relapse any moment and this would be the end for me.
Oh god, ZombiePie...REALLY!? T___T
Please tell me this is not you talking, I-I-I-..... FFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU >:(
@beej:@NekuSakuraba: To my defense I have always admitted to liking Zynga games as well as Pogo and Popcap. The simple truth is that I like puzzle games and feel no shame in admitting this. For example I still play Bejewled Blitz on Facebook and likewise feel no embarrassment in admitting this.
I find that both sad, funny, and sad again. Sad only because I still don't get why Farmville is popular at all and funny because...a huge corporation that puts out a hundred games a year getting beaten by a single game by a small group of developers.
" @Ahmad_Metallic: The exact same way TV networks make money: by wholesaling eyeballs to advertisers. "
yeah well call me stupid but i refuse to believe that those couple of square ad windows on the side of the webpage earn the game creators not millions but billions of dollars
even if i sit down with the Farmville creator, the Facebook creator and the creators of the product being advertised on the webpage and the three of them tell me that me viewing that webpage makes the product people give the farmville people a 10-digit amount of money, i'd still refuse to believe it. it doesnt make sense. not one bit
I mean, most of us ignore those ads and avoid them like cancer, so we dont exactly use the products and services being advertised or buy them.. if people ate those ads up like candy, i WOULD consider believing that those companies pay billions to have those ads on facebook
This means absolutely nothing at all, the value of the company is based on what people are paying for the privately held stock. It even says so in the shacknews article that this isn't a fair reflection of the companies value, people are just buying up stock in it because they believe that casual gaming is the next big thing and want to own shares in it's biggest company when it finally goes public which it eventually will.
If you're old enough to remember the DotCom bubble of the late 90's then this seems like exactly the same thing, investors and hedgefunds putting huge sums of money into a new and potentially huge business in an effort to drive up the valuation of the company before an IPO which ideally for them would happen with the share price of the company very high so they can sell it, make a huge profit and watch as the market is saturated with shares which then drives the value of the shares down and in turn the value of the company down until it settles at it's natural share value and company value.
The entire business model for Zynga is that people keep playing these games to keep ad revenues high, no one knows more than us how fickle people can be on the internet and how quickly trends can change. FarmVille could have 220million users today and see that halved in a year.
Farmville scratches my obsessive compulsive itch for a few minutes a day, meanwhile the last EA game I liked came out a year and a half ago. So I think this is appropriate.
@Ahmad_Metallic: Pretty much what @Buck_Sexington said. Plus, we're not most people. Most link their Facebook accounts with Zynga, and play their games which pretty much force you to click on ads and/or sponsored links. Zynga makes money when you click. It doesn't matter to them if you buy or use their advertised products.
Add micro-transactions to the mix (which probably is around 50% of their revenue stream) and you got a self-sufficient company that's a market research firm, a game publisher, and a content delivery network all rolled into one. You know... kind of like Comcast... but with a market size bigger than the population of the United States and certainly bigger than people who buy EA games. That's very, very attractive to investors.
" @Ahmad_Metallic: Pretty much what @Buck_Sexington said. Plus, we're not most people. Most link their Facebook accounts with Zynga, and play their games which pretty much force you to click on ads and/or sponsored links. Zynga makes money when you click. It doesn't matter to them if you buy or use their advertised products. Add micro-transactions to the mix (which probably is around 50% of their revenue stream) and you got a self-sufficient company that's a market research firm, a game publisher, and a content delivery network all rolled into one. You know... kind of like Comcast... but with a market size bigger than the population of the United States and certainly bigger than people who buy EA games. That's very, very attractive to investors. "
well then.... the internet is quite the joke isnt it ?
i still dont understand how by CLICKING on an ad of a certain product, i give the product's creators money to pay zynga i have to buy a product in order to give it's company money to give to zynga. if i dont buy their product, but only click on it's add, i didnt buy it. i didnt pay them money. where do they get the money to pay zynga ?
@Ahmad_Metallic: OK, you're stupid. The dollars speak for themselves but you want to grit your teeth and deny the reality that Zynga has earned a fuckload of money from selling ad space and virtual farming toys.
" @Ahmad_Metallic: OK, you're stupid. The dollars speak for themselves but you want to grit your teeth and deny the reality that Zynga has earned a fuckload of money from selling ad space and virtual farming toys. "
no im naive/ignorant on the subject and apparently dont understand how advertising work
you sir, tell me right now how you and i only CLICKING on the ads without purchasing what they're advertising, gives the product manufacturer money to pay facebook billions.
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