On the social gaming realm FarmVille is very much popular. But, not everybody likes FarmVille. There is even a Facebook group (with 100,000+ fans) devoted to hating it, called “I Hate Farmville”.
As goes Zynga, so goes Facebook?
NY Times
Weak second-quarter financial results for Zynga — and worse expectations for the rest of the year — sent its already faltering stock down in after-hours trading Wednesday by more than a third, David Streitfeld and Jenna Wortham report in Thursday’s New York Times.
The unexpected news was seen as boding ill for Facebook, which is closely tied to Zynga and will issue its first earnings report as a public company on Thursday. Facebook shares were down 5.4 percent in premarket trading.
For Zynga, a Silicon Valley darling whose public offering last December seemed to herald a wave of tech success, just about everything went wrong at once.
A brief list: Facebook made changes to its gaming platform that hampered Zynga regulars. A critical new game, the Ville, was delayed. Another new game, Mafia Wars II, just was not very good, executives conceded. The heavily hyped Draw Something, acquired in March, proved more fad than enduring classic. Some old standbys also lost some appeal.
Like I said recently, in three years Facebook is going to feel like riding in a buggy.
So, hard times are expected for both Zynga and Facebook in near future?!
The News Isn’t Good for Zynga, Maker of FarmVille »
Facebook made changes to its gaming platform that hampered Zynga regulars. A critical new game, the Ville, was delayed. Another new game, Mafia Wars II, just was not very good, executives conceded. The heavily hyped Draw Something, acquired in March, proved more fad than enduring classic. Some old standbys also lost some appeal.
It may seem a little strange to think of a judge opining on the nuances of buying virtual radishes, but that may be where we’re heading.
More on Facebook and Zynga accused of patent infringement for selling virtual seeds and ammunition »
![occasionallyuseful:
Zynga, purveyors of annoying, Facebook spamming games, have decided to release a complete and total rip off of NimbleBit’s Tiny Tower.
Apparently, Zynga tried to acquire NimbleBit, and when they were turned down, just copied their game. Way to go.
To be fair, Tiny Tower is just a rip off of SimTower (of 1994). Now, Zynga’s Dream Heights is too similar with Tiny Tower. This type of copycat things happen all the time in digital culture, and big companies like Apple, Google, etc. all do it. Funnier was NimbleBit’s thank you note to Zynga’s 2,789 employees:
“We wanted to thank all you guys for being such big fans of our iPhone game of the year Tiny Tower. […] Good luck with your game, we are looking forward to inspiring you with our future games!”](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lyesrj8k5r1qgr1xjo1_250.jpg)
Zynga, purveyors of annoying, Facebook spamming games, have decided to release a complete and total rip off of NimbleBit’s Tiny Tower.
Apparently, Zynga tried to acquire NimbleBit, and when they were turned down, just copied their game. Way to go.
To be fair, Tiny Tower is just a rip off of SimTower (of 1994). Now, Zynga’s Dream Heights is too similar with Tiny Tower. This type of copycat things happen all the time in digital culture, and big companies like Apple, Google, etc. all do it. Funnier was NimbleBit’s thank you note to Zynga’s 2,789 employees:
“We wanted to thank all you guys for being such big fans of our iPhone game of the year Tiny Tower. […] Good luck with your game, we are looking forward to inspiring you with our future games!”
