For the past couple of years, Zynga’s problem was clear. The social gaming giant dominated the charts on Facebook, but not on mobile. And as mobile gaming takes off around the world, Zynga has to break into the top 20 ranks with new hits. If it doesn’t, someone else will claim the bulk of the industry’s profits — as we’ve seen with the ascendent publisher Supercell and its Hay Day social game.
CEO Don Mattrick of Zynga
That’s why the company is unveiling three new mobile versions of its top franchises today: Words With Friends, FarmVille 2, and Zynga Poker. If the company scores with these titles, it will jump-start its revenues and give it room to come up with more original hits. But it won’t be easy because of serious competition from a handful of companies that have shown they have more mojo than Zynga in mobile.
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Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.
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