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Zynga founder Pincus steps down, Xbox Live GM to head Zynga Studios
Zynga Co-Founder Mark Pincus is stepping down as Chief Product Officer of Zynga, the social gaming company announced alongside its first quarter 2014 financial results today. Pincus will continue to serve in a non-operational capacity as Zynga's Chairman of the Board, a role he held in addition to company CEO until Don Mattrick was named CEO in July 2013. Additionally, Alex Garden was announced as President of Zynga Studios in the report. Garden departs Microsoft as the general manager of Xbox Live and Xbox Music, Video and Reading. Prior to that, he was CEO of Nexon Publishing North America. Garden will report directly to Mattrick, much like Zynga's new chief financial officer David Lee, who was hired this month as well. Zynga also added visual effects artist Henry LaBounta as the developer's chief visual officer. LaBounta worked with Electronic Arts and Microsoft Studios, and previously was visual effects supervisor at DreamWorks on the films Minority Report and A.I. Artificial Intelligence. [Image: Zynga]
Zynga co-founder Pincus 'pretty bored with all games'
When asked what his favorite game was during a recent rooftop Q&A event in Tel Aviv, Israel, Zynga co-founder Mark Pincus declined to answer, instead noting that he is "pretty bored with all games." Asked to clarify, Pincus noted that he was previously addicted to Zynga-published social games like CityVille and FarmVille, but hasn't found a suitable replacement in recent months. "I want that addiction again," he said. Pincus stepped down from his role as CEO at Zynga in July, handing over the position to former Microsoft Interactive Entertainment Business president Don Mattrick. Pincus currently serves as the company's Chairman and Chief Product Officer. Zynga has weathered a number of setbacks recently, shutting down several games and shedding executives as it recovers from last quarter's financial losses.
Zynga aims to keep execs with bigger salaries, bonuses
Zynga will implement new executive pay schemes in 2013, effectively doubling the salaries of many key executives. Bonuses will now be tied to performance, increasing maximum payout potential for the top brass.In addition to this, Zynga co-founder and head honcho Mark Pincus has lowered his annual salary to $1, Inside Social Games reports. Pincus, we should note, is also ineligible for these new executive bonuses.It's been a rough year and change for Zynga, which posted massive losses in 2012. Zynga has bled key talent lately, the most recent being Dan Porter, CEO of Draw Something developer OMGPOP. His departure was preceded by game designer Brian Reynolds in January and CFO Dave Wehner back in November.
Zynga CFO quits for senior finance job at Facebook, more changes
Zynga's Chief Financial Officer Dave Wehner has resigned to take a senior finance position at Facebook, causing a wave of corporate changes at Zynga. The most notable shift places Mark Vranesh, the former CFO who was demoted when Wehner joined Zynga in 2010, back into his previous role alongside his current position as chief accounting officer.Former Chief Mobile Officer David Ko is now chief operations officer. The COO position has been vacant since August 2012, when John Schappert resigned. Barry Cottle, former executive vice president of business and corporate development, is now chief revenue officer, and Steven Chiang, previous executive vice president of games, is now president of games.In an internal memo, Zynga CEO Mark Pincus wished Wehner the best of luck."These changes come at an important time," Pincus wrote. "We are positioning ourselves for long-term growth and I'm confident that we have the breadth and depth of management talent to deliver on our mission of connecting the world through games. We are also today reaffirming our 2012 financial outlook that we communicated on October 24, 2012."This corporate shake-up follows a larger rumble in October that saw Zynga lay-off five percent of its full-time workforce, including closing its Boston Studio, significantly reducing staff in Austin, retiring 13 games, reducing investment in The Ville and considering closures in Japan and the UK. Zynga reported a loss of $52.7 million in Q3 2012, compared with a profit of $12.5 million in Q3 2011.
Zynga CEO Mark Pincus: Boston closing, Austin reducing, 5% of full-time staff laid off
Zynga is laying off 5 percent of its full-time workforce, closing its Boston studio and significantly reducing staff at its Austin studio, CEO and founder Mark Pincus writes in a letter to employees. Zynga is proposing closures of its Japan and UK studios, retiring 13 older games and "significantly reducing" its investment in The Ville."In addition to these studios, we are also making a small number of partner team reductions," Pincus writes. "In all, we will unfortunately be parting ways with approximately 5 percent of our full time workforce. We don't take these decisions lightly as we recognize the impact to our colleagues and friends who have been on this journey with us. We appreciate their amazing contributions and will miss them."As part of a larger restructuing, Zynga is cutting "spending on data hosting, advertising and outside services, primarily contractors." Pincus says these measures will "improve profitability" and allow the company to "reinvest in great games."Pincus will host a webcast tomorrow, following its earnings report. There is no word of the Zynga Chicago studio losing staff, as was rumored earlier today. Read Pincus' full letter below.
Zynga COO John Schappert resigns
Zynga's chief operations officer John Schappert has resigned, according to Fortune. This announcement comes just barely one week after Schappert's responsibilities at the developer were revised to no longer include the oversight of game development. Schappert's departure is effective immediately."John has made significant contributions to the games industry throughout his career and we appreciate all that he has done for Zynga," CEO Mark Pincus told Fortune. "John leaves as a friend of the company and we wish him all the best."Prior to working at Zynga, Schappert served as Corporate Vice President of Live at Microsoft, as well as COO of Electronic Arts -- a company that happens to be suing Zynga as we speak.
Zynga betting on real money-based gambling in games, starting in 2013
Zynga's getting into real money gambling in the first half of 2013, says CEO Mark Pincus. The company head announced as much during an investor call yesterday; he wasn't able to nail down where the service will launch first, as it'll need to pass various online gambling reviews before being allowed to go live. One thing's for sure: it's unlikely to launch in the US, as gambling is only allowed in a handful of US States.It stands to reason that the service will be implemented through games like, say, Zynga Poker, though Pincus wasn't saying anything concrete. Though "the first real-money gambling products are ready," it's unclear what they'll entail. Pincus called mobile games "a big opportunity," so we may see Zynga move on that first.And no, we refuse to entertain the idea that real money will be used to gamble on things like FarmVille. That is not a reality we are okay with.
Zynga executives unloading 20 million shares in secondary offering
Zynga is prepping for its upcoming secondary stock offering, which will put 43 million shares of the company up for sale -- 20.2 million of which are "Class B" shares that currently belong to the high ranking Zynga executives.In descending order of shares being sold, cofounder Mark Pincus is unloading the most at 16.5 million shares, roughly 15 percent of his ownership of the company. Directors Reid Hoffman and Owen Van Natta come in second and third, selling 687,626 shares and 505,627 shares respectively. CFO David Wehner is selling more than 50 percent of his ownership in the company by offering 386,865 shares, followed closely by COO John Schappert whose 322,350 buyable shares make up nearly 45 percent of his total stake.It's easy to read into things like this and infer all kinds of assumptions, both positive and negative, about what it means for the company. So instead of doing that, let's all forget the stock market even exists and watch cat videos.
Zynga CEO: company building cross-platform cloud compatibility
We've already heard from Zynga how the company plans expand its scope a little bit from its very popular Facebook-only titles. Zynga founder Mark Pincus says in an interview with Om Malik that its policy extends to current tech being built to share saves across the cloud. "In other words, you can play a game on a computer and call it up on Xbox," Pincus says as an example, "and you resume from the point you left off, except the game play will now be customized for the Xbox controller." Game information will be shared, but the experience will be different.That's already the case for Zynga's games on iOS -- they have a very different feel when played on mobile devices, and have even found different audiences. "Words for Friends doesn't do as well on Facebook as it does on the iPhone," for instance, "because they are a mobile first experience. Our poker game does well on the mobile as well."This doesn't mean that Pincus is saying Zynga's working on Xbox ports of its titles. Instead, the company is building out the tech right now to extend these games out in various forms to even more platforms in the future.
Zynga responds to copycat claims, NimbleBit rebuts
"You should be careful not to throw stones when you live in glass towers," Zynga head Mark Pincus said in a recent VentureBeat interview, firing back at recent criticisms of his company's games for being copycat versions of already released games. His cheeky comment is specifically targeted at indie dev NimbleBit, creator of Tiny Tower, who recently wrote an open letter to Zynga addressing similarities between its game and Zynga's upcoming Facebook title Dream Heights."When you pull the lens back, you saw that their tower game looked similar to five other tower games going all the way back to SimTower in the early 1990s," he added. But Pincus' argument goes beyond cheeky jabs -- he also makes the point that Zynga isn't a copycat developer as much as it is an iteration developer. Pincus also defends against Buffalo Studios' recent accusations, citing his company's own game (Poker Blitz) as inspiration -- at least visually -- for Bingo Blitz, as seen above.As Pincus says in an internal memo, "Google didn't create the first search engine. Apple didn't create the first mp3 player or tablet. And, Facebook didn't create the first social network. But these companies have evolved products and categories in revolutionary ways. They are all internet treasures because they all have specific and broad missions to change the world."NimbleBit, unsurprisingly, doesn't agree. Company co-founder Ian Marsh told Touch Arcade that while "It was a smart idea for Mark Pincus and Zynga to try and lump all games with the name 'Tower' together as an actual genre whose games borrow from each other," he added, "sharing a name or setting does not a genre make." And now that we've devolved into genre definitions, we can officially declare this story over. Like, forever.
Zynga CEO defends stock price, says culture 'not ultra competitive'
Zynga's initial public offering (IPO) didn't exactly go swimmingly. It required assistance on its first day, and the stock currently sits below the initial $10 price. Speaking with the Wall Street Journal, Zynga CEO Mark Pincus tried to smooth over feelings about the overhyped and underperforming stock. "Our goals were we want to raise a billion dollars. Through going public, we wanted to add some more great long-term investors to the company. All of that was successful," Pincus said, as the WSJ pointed out that the stock dipped on its first day of trading. "I don't blame anybody because from our standpoint, we think it was successful. It was many times larger than the other tech IPOs that had just happened recently. We think we're now well positioned to move forward in the future." In discussing Zynga's allegedly harsh corporate culture, Pincus says the attrition rate for the company is a little over 3 percent, which he claims is lower than Silicon Valley's 14 percent average. One thing that hasn't slowed is Zynga's company and executive acquisition train, which recently picked up EA Interactive's former head, Barry Cottle, who joins Zynga as executive VP of business and corporate development.
Zynga's CastleVille hopes to enter MMO territory
Zynga, maker of social games FarmVille and CityVille, has declared its intention to take the plunge into the MMO market with a new game: CastleVille. "Zynga is bringing massively multiplayer role-playing games to the mass market," creative director Bill Jackson announced from Zynga's San Francisco HQ. What game mechanics justify calling the game an MMO? According to Jackson: You can build your castle, show it to your friends, and craft things like potions or armor. You can follow the game's story and its characters. You can trade and barter with friends by visiting their towns. And you have to defend your town against beasts who are outside the walls. The game has more personalized storytelling; players explore the world around them. You meet characters and make them happy and unlock new characters as you progress. Chief executive Mark Pincus echoed his company's bold plans: "We want to give you more of a World of Warcraft feeling, but packaged up in something you can understand in three clicks and five or 15 minutes."
Sorry farmers, but your cow is in another CastleVille (or: Zynga announces CastleVille for Facebook)
As if Zynga's plan to ghettoize Facebook players into various "Villes" wasn't already enormously successful, the social game megapublisher today announced intentions to branch into the burgeoning castle market with upcoming game "CastleVille." CEO Mark Pincus announced the game during a San Francisco-based press event this afternoon (morning for SFers), revealing that it was currently in production at Zynga's Dallas branch. TechCrunch reports that gameplay centers on building and supporting a castle, with the added twist of defending it occasionally "from beasties." Pincus apparently told attendees that the title had been in production for at least a year. It's currently unknown when the game is launching, but we imagine when it does arrive it'll be launching on both Facebook and Google+. Get your ... uh ... moats ready! Yeah!
DreamWorks' Jeff Katzenberg joins Zynga board of directors
DreamWorks CEO Jeff Katzenberg is expanding his portfolio beyond touching our hearts with endearing movies about pandas and ogres to touching our Facebook profiles with invites to games about agriculture. The animated film studio co-founder is now also the sixth member of Zynga's board of directors -- which, according to a blog post by Zynga chief Mark Pincus, came about "after he suggested that the blockbuster of 2011 could be ShrekVille." We've read that statement probably about 20 times now, and we're still not sure whether or not it's a joke. Like, it seems like a joke -- we're no strangers to the phony baloney portmanteau -- but we're receptive to the fact that a thing called ShrekVille would probably make a berzillion dollars.
Nothin' but a $ Thang: Zynga partners with Dr. Dre for Mafia Wars promo
Nothing quite says "family friendly" like West Coast gangsta rapper Dr. Dre, which is likely why social game magnate Zynga has inked a deal with the musician to crosspromote his forthcoming album, "Detox," within Mafia Wars. "Dre is a culture icon that has inspired generations of music lovers. We're huge music fans at Zynga and we know the players within Mafia Wars will love the chance to discover incredible music content while playing with their friends," Zynga CEO Mark Pincus noted in the bizarre announcement. Aside from watching Dre's newest music video for the song "Kush" streaming in-game, players can enter the "Hustlin' wit Dre" area of the game to earn "limited edition goods" (with examples including headphones, a vintage car, and weapons). If that weren't enough, an "exclusive Dr. Dre video message" is somewhere hidden in the game as well -- we're holding out hope that it's actually just a live performance of "Nothin' But a G Thang." Hey, it's not quite exploding armored cars in the Nevada desert, but it's a start, right, Dre?
