LIVE: Zynga Layoffs Prove Mobile Strategy Isn’t Working. What’s Next for Game Maker?
On today’s SiliconANGLE Live NewsDesk Show, (see live feed below or visit youtube.com/siliconangle to watch on-demand), we learn about Zynga’s 18 percent layoffs, another indication that the now “all-mobile” games company is facing serious trouble.
The move yesterday will slash the once darling child of a San Francisco Social Gaming Company, laying off 2,900 workers. Zynga will save $80M from its staff cuts, closing its offices in New York, Los Angeles and Dallas, as well as other infrastructure costs. This news isn’t entirely surprising. Zynga was very employee-heavy for a company that was navigating a pretty massive shift from an era dominated by web games. Three-to-five years ago the Farmvilles of the world dominated Facebook and social network platform gaming, which were Zynga’s strengths. Now we live in an era where mobile games are the predominant form of entertainment.
While CEO Mark Pincus has spent much of his time defending the FarmVille franchise and the success of FarmVille 2, he said yesterday that Zynga’s future is “multiplatform” and, more importantly, mobile.
Joining us now to tell us more about the Zynga layoffs is SiliconANGLE Senior Managing Editor Kristen Nicole. (See the live broadcast, embed below ~ if you missed today’s topic, check our YouTube channel for archived clips.)
Some of the things we’ll be discussing with Nicole include the reasons behind Zynga’s layoffs, the difference in business models for a web-based and mobile-based strategy, and what these layoffs mean for Zynga long term.
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