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Zynga's Profits Fall 95%, Everything's Still A-Okay

This week the casual game maker announced that its year-on-year profits for the quarter dropped a whopping 95%, but the company isn't worried.

Despite profits for the quarter being a measly $1.3M compared to last year's $27.2M for the same timeframe, Zynga revealed that its revenue continues to rise, landing at $279.1M for the quarter, up 15% from last quarter's $242.9M. While revenue is growing, it has slowed down some, as last quarter's $242.9M was up 24% from the quarter before it.

If your head still isn't spinning from the roller coaster ride of Zynga's financials, the company also stated that, for the first time in history, the revenue it derived from microtransactions and ads was down 4%, coming in at $274.7M compared to last quarter's $286.6M. The drop mirrors a 4% decline in daily active users, which is down to 59M users, compared to last quarter's 62M users.

So what is Zynga's positive spin on all of this? The company points to its lack of new games in early 2011, along with increased spending on acquiring other companies and growing the company internationally. After all, you've got to spend obscene amounts of money to make obscene amounts of money.

As for the future of the company; we're guessing Zynga isn't too worried about getting its daily active users back up.

[via Gamasutra]

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Comments
  • I think they'll be fine.

  • Meh, not my cup of tea. I would just like to warn any stockholders to tread cautiously. They may be optimistic, but they might just be high.

  • The growth of casual gaming sickens me. It feels like a stab at developers like 2K, Bioware, or CD Projekt who make amazing games that require so much more effort and skill, yet will probably not generate the level of profit casual games do.
  • Good.  They were making far too much money on something so dinky as Farmville.  Not to mention all the nasty rumors involving Zynga.  Id be happy if they fell off the grid.  

    Developers were getting it into their heads that these types of casual non games might be a good way to rake in cash.  I hope dearly that the loss of profits continues for Zynga.  They are not a good company.  

  • Wow that is a lot of money

  • Mafia movies are the best!!!!

  • I want that company to fall to pieces, burn-up, explode, and be oblivion forever! I cant stand that company being so successful by almost doing nothing!  

  • This is all due to the Sims. Once Zynga launches their new title it will go back up.

  • Oh and the IPO will be out soon which will bring them millions upon millions. possibly billions.

  • Oh my god. Any other company, and there would be documents going into shredders, chaos, anarchy, and all that fun stuff. Further proof that Zynga is run by either crazy people, or disturbingly sane people.

  • Is Zynga the new housing bubble? think about what they actually make and who actually buys their products. do you know of any serious gamers who buy Zynga? From the get go it seemed like it was way too successful to be true, maybe it isnt? how much of their profits and growth is shareholder funding and how much is actual customer purchase?

  • Odd, I don't think I've ever paid a penny to play a Zynga game.
  • I want 200 million...

  • Just like America.

  • THIS IS THE ONLY IMPORTANT SENTENCE.

    Zynga revealed that its revenue continues to rise, landing at $279.1M for the quarter, up 15% from last quarter's $242.9M

  • They say it's a lack of new games that caused their profit to go down 95%. Nah...it's the players getting sick of their crap and they quit playing.

  • Just die already.

  • ppl finaly getting tired of those games or sinking money into them for no reason or.. is some1 else getting there business.. or is it because there customer service is bad n ppl say screw them

  • In other words people are starting to wise up to Zynga's con artist mentality to bled every penny they can out of you.

    So after reading this do all the haters of subscription based online models still think f2p is the future?

  • I forget the name of Zynga's founder/CEO but judging by his attitude to the casual market, he no doubt sees it as a sort of get-rich-quick type of investment.

    Maybe that's an oversimplification but it makes sense he wouldn't be worried because the guy's entire mantra has always been to rip-off successful ideas and bleed-dry the users. It's the kind of system he'll have no problem running into the ground until there's no money left to be made and he'll just abandon it for something more profitable. It's completely disposable for him.

    Sort of like Activision, you might say, with Tony Hawk and Guitar hero (and now Call of Duty). Only this guy is completely transparent and unapologetic about his intentions.