BETA | INSIDE ZYNGA
Saints & Zyngas
EA fears it. Some developers despise it. Everyone has an opinion on it. But a rare visit to the most talked about games creator of the 21st Century proves most are wrong about Zynga. Michael French investigates
The decor of Zynga’s vast offices (above) don't exactly scream ‘evil’, the extreme criticism its detractors sometimes choose to make
THEY ARE building a funfair when Develop visits 699 Townsend St on a crisp, sunny March morning. The rides and games are filling out the
cavernous foyer of the building, apparently once a shopping mall. The digital games firm that poetically took over occupancy, replacing a world of physical goods, fills out the floors above. Elsewhere, developers’ dogs roam the
halls, off their leashes. The staff’s murmuring, generally upbeat hubbub rings through the air, with workers readying for lunch or making their way down to the on-site gym, yoga lounge or basement basketball court. A huge celebratory neon 'PLAY’ sign hangs
over the reception desk, itself adorned with tight security that is incredibly hi-tech – cameras, scanners, a digital screen reminding you of the NDA – but not intimidating. This is Zynga HQ. And yes, Develop is just as surprised as you. Isn’t Zynga supposed to be evil?
On the other side of downtown San
Francisco, snatches of conversation at the W Hotel bar – the best hang-out during the Game Developers Conference –purport to tell you everything you should know about Zynga. “They just clone what’s out there and milk it.” “The backlash? We had that. And then a
pro-Zynga backlash. But now we’re back on the backlash.” “Fucking social games, man – they’re awful.”
ZYN CITY You don’t have to do much digging to find the peculiar scepticism about Zynga and the social games boom it personifies. Facebook games aren’t ‘real games’. They
once spammed friend feeds on social networks and their ‘free’ elements just eat money. Then the deeper, vicious claims: Zynga clones games and makes the concepts it copied profitable. One remark from Zynga CEO and founder
Mark Pincus (“I did every horrible thing in the book to get revenues”) has been used by outsiders to define it time and again.
The other criticisms you will have heard
already. Zynga games are worthless. They feed players the same content over and over. The company hates developers. Zynga must be doing something right,
though. It has 240m users on Facebook a month. After flotation on the New York Stock Exchange last year it has a market cap of $1bn. It has almost 3,000 employees –many of its top execs are staff drawn over from the ‘classic’ world of console and PC games, respected EA faces and famous designers. Each game it releases – or buys through acquisition – seems to top the next in terms of size and scope, with regular updates, huge cash generation, and free access. It has launched a platform,
Zynga.com, specifically for third parities. Zynga created something from nothing in
just five years. And that’s why everyone has an opinion on its resultant notoriety. So what does its staff have to say? We asked
them. Their responses may annoy its doubters further, but all prove this is a company teaching every other developer a lesson.
THE WORLD ACCORDING TO ZYNGA
ZYNGA SAN FRANCISCO Corporate HQ. IncludesZynga Poker, FarmVille, CityVille, and Mafia Wars teams. Zynga founded in 2007. Acquisitions grew the tech, IP and talent base, including: YoVille (July 2008) MyMiniLife (June 2009) Serious Business (Feb 2010), Flock (Jan 2011), JamLegend (April 2011), DNA Games (May 2011), and HipLogic (Aug 2011).
18 | MAY 2012
ZYNGA EAST Baltimore. Formed in 2009 with the hiring of designer Brian Reynolds, known for his work on Civilization and other sim games. He would go on to create FrontierVille for the firm.
ZYNGA INDIA Bangalore. Zynga’s first foreign office was founded in February 2010. Its growing team is focused on maintaining existing franchises, and offers QA and customer service support.
ZYNGA LOS ANGELES Opened in early 2010 as the firm’s second satellite studio, charged with devising new games and tapping into the city’s creative talent. The Zynga Los Angeles team would go on to create strategy game Empire & Allies, devised up by former EA LA Command & Conquer designer Amer Ajami.
DEVELOP-ONLINE.NET
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