It is well known that the biggest developer of games played on Facebook is Zynga. Since it’s IPO Zynga has seen a lower demand for the virtual goods it sells in online games resulting in a shortfall of the companies quarterly forecasts. The result has been a sharp decline in the price quotes of the Zynga (ZNGA) stocks which are currently about 72 percent lower than its December IPO of $10 per share.
Zynga, in addition to developing games, has also developed a bad reputation of copycatting games produced by other companies. Zynga has had to answer questions before about the company allegedly (loosely stated) copycatting other companies games.
| Talking Copycats with Zynga's Design Chief by Kris Graft January 31, 2012 From your perspective, what are you seeing lately in these “copycat” reports and what’s your take on that overall? Brian Reynolds: “So when there’s a new genre or a new thing, then everybody gets their game in. And the main thing for us, our goal is to have the highest-quality thing. Obviously it’s competitive, and we may not always end up being the one to have the best thing in every space, but we certainly try to.” Should social game makers, if they make a successful, innovative game, should they just expect to get copied? BR: “I don’t know if they should expect to get copied. They should certainly expect to get competed with.” Right. Well for some people that’s one and the same, Brian. Or at least they go hand in hand. BR: “Well those developers will probably not be the people who are successful, to be clear. I don’t know if you remember Rise of Nations.” | Image Courtesy wikipedia.org February 2, 2012 Zynga’s Brian Reynolds Joins Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences’ Board of Directors |
Mark Pincus essentially admitted to what Zynga’s business model is when Zynga’s CEO Mark Pincus once wrote an internal memo that stated; “I don’t f***ing want innovation. “You’re not smarter than your competitor. Just copy what they do and do it until you get their numbers.”
Once again Mark Pincus essentially admitted to Zynga’s copyrighting practices in another memo when he stated; “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.
We don’t need to be first to market. We need to be the best in market. There are genres that we’re going to enter because we know our players are interested in them and because we want and need to be where players are. We evolve genres by making games free, social, accessible and highest quality.”
Zynga has shown time and again that the developers and upper management lack in their own creativity. The list of games that are borrowed ideas from other companies include is long;
Mafia Wars from Mob Wars
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FarmVille from Farm Town
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Cafe World from Restaurant City
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CityVille from Social City
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Hidden Chronicles from Gaedens Of Time
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Pioneer Trail from The Oregon Trail
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PetVille from Pet Society
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Tiny Tower and Dream Heights
And now there is The Ville which is an idea borrowed from The Sims Social.
Since it’s release The Ville has become the #1 application on Facebook.
“The Sims” titles have sold more than 150 million units since it was first published more than a decade ago. It is said that The Sims Social has generated more than $50 million in revenue for EA since its launch last summer. Thus making the game a prime target for Zynga to duplicate.
EA says enough is enough. Here is a copy of the complaint filed by EA against Zynga;
EA v Zynga Complaint FinalWhat do you think? Can you see the difference between The Ville and The Sims Social?
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