Sign on Options
Theme: [Light Selected] To Dark»

Zynga has 'hit a wall' - EA COO

Peter Moore says rival gaming giant's recent woes could have been avoided with more diversification, company was late to mobile gaming.

Zynga's recent troubles, including a precipitous drop in its stock price after its most recent earnings call and executive power shifts, are the result of too many eggs in one basket, Peter Moore said. The Electronic Arts chief operating officer spoke to Bloomberg this week about the problems Zynga has faced and why EA has been less shaken up by social gaming turbulence.

"To use, if you will, an Olympic analogy, we're competing in the decathlon. We miss in one event, we've got nine others we can make up on," Moore said. "Zynga's running a marathon, they just hit the wall and dropped to their knees." He said Facebook's new app center, on which Zynga pinned some of the blame for its problems, has actually been beneficial for EA's social gaming presence.

He said while EA's social revenue is not shrinking, the real growth potential is in mobile games, which his company has invested in for years. Moore said Zynga's late arrival to the mobile party may have contributed to Zynga removing product oversight duties from its COO (and former EA employee) John Schappert.

The statements were made prior to the announcement of an EA lawsuit against Zynga, which alleges the latter committed copyright infringement on The Sims Social with its The Ville game.

Connor Sheridan
By Connor Sheridan, News Intern

Connor Sheridan is the News Intern at GameSpot in San Francisco. He loves Super Metroid and has seen "Weird Al" Yankovic in concert three times.

14 comments
magusat999
magusat999

Too bad someone cant sue EA for making sucky social games...

DiggityDoggie79
DiggityDoggie79

Zynga is like the Reaper destroyer in Mass Effect 3 while EA is the Thresher Maw! 

blackothh
blackothh

Peter Moore fails at analogys again, i think he fails to realize that in the olympics, multiple people compete for the same prize......

mercenary666666
mercenary666666

If their gonna sue Zynga, they might as well sue any other company making games. They all steal each others shit.

twentymooseman
twentymooseman

Zynga has such a scummy business model. It's essentially find a game that's doing well, make a carbon copy of it and then flood people's phones with ads for it. They get whatever's coming to them in this lawsuit.

therealgreek89
therealgreek89

 @twentymooseman "I don't want your fucking innovation. You're no smarter than the competitor. Just copy what they do and do it until you get their numbers"An actual quote from Zynga CEO Mark Pincus

Vodoo
Vodoo like.author.displayName 1 Like

At least Peter Moore didn't use that stupid GAP analogy this time. The guy is incapable of making his point without using analogies. But that's what EA is full of... brain dead, no-talent hacks. From the top executives, down to the QA testers.

ColdfireTrilogy
ColdfireTrilogy like.author.displayName 1 Like

 @Vodoo Analogies are there to explain complex issues to idiots.  I think he did a good job of doing that. What else do you use an analogy for??????

Pie_FOREVER
Pie_FOREVER like.author.displayName 1 Like

I think the main thing no one has researched and realized is that these games are targeted at a mainstream audience. Mainstream audiences have, and always will be fickle and easily bored. The "casual" games phenomenon is nothing more than a fad and this demographic has grown bored of these games.

 

The mobile and casual games market is a fickle, recycle, rinse, repeat process in which the target consumer is always looking for something new after a few days (week maximum). And at 99 cents, it could be viewed more as an addictive behavior of sorts compared to console games that last a long time and ask the player invest more time for a fuller experience.

AuronAXE
AuronAXE like.author.displayName 1 Like

Considering how much economic trouble EA is currently in, I don't think they're in the position to judge other companies on performance.

surppo
surppo like.author.displayName like.author.displayName like.author.displayName 3 Like

i hate moblie games my girl now thinks she can grab my phone whenever. its cost me two side chicks already damn u zynga.

MJ12-Conspiracy
MJ12-Conspiracy like.author.displayName like.author.displayName 2 Like

It might even be people are getting sick of playing Zynga's un-games because that's what I call them....

Conversation powered by Livefyre

Hot Stories

Newsmakers

Featured Stories

Submit News

Got tips? Send them in!