Since the late 2000s, the social media gaming company Zynga has given us games like FarmVille, CityVille, and Words with Friends. But now, Zynga has fallen on difficult times. How difficult you ask?
The old CEO, Don Mattrick is gone and company founder Mark Pincus is serving as CEO now. One order of business: lay off 18 percent of the entire company. That means over 360 people will face unemployment when these cuts become reality. Instead of branching out, they’re going to focus on the games and categories they already have. The cuts are expected to take place over nine months. The cuts are to save Zynga $45 million, and they’re cutting $55 million more dollars well into 2016. In March 2015, they reported a net loss of $6.7 million. They were expecting a lot worse. They’re even abandoning hopes and dreams of ending the sports gaming arena and closed down their Orlando based studio, which was in the works of creating a NFL fantasy football based game. Pincus believes Zynga needs to be ‘de-layered’ and -‘de-cluttered’. Don’t worry: Your classic games like FarmVille and CityVille are going nowhere. They’re recognized as Zynga’s bread and butter. They’re now looking at casino style games, like Hit It Rich. Pincus seems confident that will attract new game enthusiasts.
I know they’re in a bind, but when this many jobs have to be lost, it’s never a good thing. I hope whatever lessons Zynga learned were learned so they’ll never have to take this kind of hit again. It’s a shame because I like FarmVille. I hope Pincus and his top associates are writing good references, giving good packages, and doing right by the people they had to let go. I think Zynga will make a comeback. Not only that, I think they’ll do better than ever. Do you think Zynga will ever get that Fantasy Football game going?