Abstract

The case is about US-based gaming company Zynga Inc. (Zynga), which was founded in 2007. It pioneered social gaming with its popular games like Zynga Poker and FarmVille. Over the years its games grew highly popular and attracted million users and FarmVille went on to become the fastest growing social game. But the company was unable to maintain the momentum with the emergence of new mobile games. In July 2013, Don Mattrick (Mattrick) took over as CEO of the company, and released mobile versions of Zynga’s popular games. Still, the fall continued. Even after Mattrick had been at the helm for more than 16 months, the company was unable to come out with a hit game. Pressure was increasing on Mattrick to arrest the further downfall of the company.

Learning Objectives

The case is structured to achieve the following Learning Objectives:

• Understand how changing industry dynamics affect companies
• Analyze transition into new technologies and its impact on existing players
• Understand the need for long term strategy

Keywords

Social gaming, mobile gaming, Zynga, FarmVille, long-term strategy, venture capital, rise and fall