Zynga loses nearly half its daily users, CEO Don Mattrick warns of 'more volatility'

New Zynga CEO Don Mattrick certainly has an uphill battle ahead of him. The social gaming giant reported significant losses for the previous quarter--and not just the monetary kind.

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New Zynga CEO Don Mattrick certainly has an uphill battle ahead of him. The social gaming giant reported significant losses for the previous quarter--and not just the monetary kind.

The company ended the quarter with a net loss of $16 million. However, more distressing for the company is how quickly it is losing active users. Daily active users (DAUs) decreased 45% year-over-year in Q2, from 72 million to 39 million. That's a lot of people that are no longer playing FarmVille.

Monthly unique payers also dropped from 4.1 million to 1.9 million, a drop of over 50 percent.

Mattrick is warning shareholders that "we expect to see more volatility in our business than we would like over the next two to four quarters," a clear indication that the bleeding won't stop for quite some time. However, he's clearly optimistic about his new home. "The next few years will be a time of phenomenal growth in our space and Zynga has incredible assets to take advantage of the market opportunity," he said.

The social gaming giant has been struggling, with significant layoffs not too long ago.

Pledging to "go back to basics," Zynga's focus will remain on free-to-play social games. Although the company is launching real-money gaming products around the world, Zynga is choosing not to do so in the US. "Zynga will continue to evaluate all of its priorities against the growing market opportunity in free, social gaming, including social casino offerings," the company stated in their report.

Andrew Yoon was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

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From The Chatty
  • reply
    July 25, 2013 1:45 PM

    Andrew Yoon posted a new article, Zynga loses nearly half its daily users, CEO Don Mattrick warns of 'more volatility'.

    New Zynga CEO Don Mattrick certainly has an uphill battle ahead of him. The social gaming giant reported significant losses for the previous quarter--and not just the monetary kind.

      • reply
        July 26, 2013 1:52 AM

        I don't think Asian L/R will ever cease to be funny to me. Chinese exchange students, Thai wives, sushi shops, Shadow Warrior etc. all provide a lot of fun.

    • reply
      July 25, 2013 2:22 PM

      because the treadmill shovelware they make (often using other people's ideas) are no longer interesting and/or fun to play.

      As they have few ideas of their own, look for zynga to file bankruptcy by early 2014

    • reply
      July 25, 2013 2:32 PM

      This sums it up nicely.

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48H34ukFe8g

    • reply
      July 25, 2013 2:48 PM

      Maybe they could force people to use a webcam and be really popular.

    • reply
      July 25, 2013 3:25 PM

      Happens when you make shit games and hire Don Mattrick.

    • reply
      July 25, 2013 4:03 PM

      [deleted]

      • reply
        July 25, 2013 7:43 PM

        whose worse, mattrick or kotick?

        • reply
          July 25, 2013 10:01 PM

          Kotick. Mattrick is his protege. Their are oddly similar which is a tad bit scary.

    • reply
      July 25, 2013 5:41 PM

      "That's a lot of people that are no longer playing FarmVille."

      and thats bad?

    • reply
      July 25, 2013 8:19 PM

      I've been playing quite a bit of farmville 2 lately and honestly, they've made a lot of changes to it that make it more fun for gamers but I can see those same changes driving off their base.

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        July 25, 2013 10:03 PM

        ... so... fun changes that are bad?

        • reply
          July 26, 2013 5:11 AM

          It depends Farmville use to be about spending money to get swag. There was no strategy, and no goal. Just build and grind or spend money to a "better" looking farm. You will eventually have it all. Farmville 2 currently has more strategy and just more to do. You can't even do everything since resources are limit and you can not buy your way into winning. There are daily goals, weekly goals and even an end game. Also you can play the game from Zynga's web site so you no longer need to spam your facebook friends. The only real criticism is the game is constantly advertising "better" stuff that you need to buy with real money. However all of it isn't really any better, mostly cosmetic and doesn't aid in winning the game. If you are easily influenced, you could end up wasting real money.

    • reply
      July 25, 2013 9:05 PM

      GOOD.

    • reply
      July 26, 2013 12:19 AM

      Huh would have thought there to be more comments on this after the whole xbox one tanking but then again It is sad to see a some what of a good gaming platform getting ready to die it seems like. I remember hearing not to long ago someone said facebook games are the next big thing.

      • reply
        July 26, 2013 12:29 AM

        That was before mobile games really started gaining traction

      • reply
        July 26, 2013 5:21 AM

        xbone tanked?

        • reply
          July 26, 2013 5:52 AM

          They have sold 0 Xbox One's at this point dude, I'd say tanked for sure.

          • reply
            July 26, 2013 7:02 AM

            Man, I heard there was a lot of negative buzz, but 0. Wow, just wow.

            • reply
              July 26, 2013 9:55 AM

              Lol...;) He means "0" to date because xbones aren't shipping yet...;) Unfortunately, he isn't talking about the brainless meatheads who have actually pre-ordered this monstrosity...!

              It's the same for the PS4 at the moment--0 sales because it isn't shipping yet, with oodles of mindless pre-orders behind it.

              Ah, if only folks would magically develop the good sense to go out right now and buy a PC that will handily outperform either console, cost about the same--maybe a bit more, and be unbelievably more useful and handy for a host of other things. A PC they can upgrade and service *themselves*---If only....

    • reply
      July 26, 2013 12:28 AM

      They should probably hire more mbas

    • reply
      July 26, 2013 5:57 AM

      So hurry up and sell Words with Friends because I'm going to be pissed if it goes down

    • reply
      July 26, 2013 9:59 AM

      I'm trying to figure out how they can plan to pay Mattrick $19M unless the $16M loss comes *after* they've paid Mattrick. But, maybe they're paying him in IOU's or something else equally worthless, like Zynga stock, for instance...

    • reply
      July 29, 2013 8:07 PM

      That's great because Don sucks periodically.

    • reply
      July 29, 2013 11:13 PM

      I am beginning to wonder if these fools have ever heard the term
      Fad before, you know the thing where stupid piddly little games
      or songs or movies are popular for a few years and then fade
      into almost utter obscurity because turns out they were really
      shallow and had no long term viability......

      Their games were generally frustrating and i heard more complaints
      about them then i ever did praise, honestly i never could play any
      of the ones i tried more than a few minutes.

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