Electronic Arts: "Zynga blew it"

The reason social game company Zynga is struggling is due to its reliance on just one platform: Facebook.

That's the opinion of Electronic Arts mobile head Frank Gibeau, who spoke bluntly about the company's outlook with The New York Times recently.

"Zynga blew it. They're not a mobile business," Gibeau said when asked about Zynga cofounder Mark Pincus' belief that in the future, the majority of people would play games all the time.

"We're six or seven times their size in mobile. Zynga fell into a hole because they were completely focused on one platform, which is Facebook," he added.

Zynga now operates its own platform, outside of Facebook, through Zynga.com. A company representative was not immediately available to address Gibeau's comments.

EA has moved away from the social networking site of late, closing some of its biggest Facebook games recently, including The Sims Social, SimCity Social, and Pet Society.

"We saw all the Facebook users going to smartphones. You can't play a game on Facebook on a phone," Gibeau said. "Coupled with that was the fact that customer acquisition costs were on a straight line up."

Some of EA's most pronounced revenue growth of late has come from its mobile sector, because "every smartphone, every tablet, is a gaming-enabled device," Gibeau said.

EA will report earnings for its fiscal second quarter on October 29 where more information on the company's outlook for its digital and packaged businesses will be discussed.