EA’s Peter Moore thinks that the state of social gaming and Zynga’s collapse are two different things entirely.
Shortly before Zynga’s market bubble burst, Electronic Arts launched a lawsuit against the social games developer. Since then, EA has been more than happy to share its public criticisms of the company and the belief that Zynga’s business practices were its own undoing. Now, in the wake of the latest series of Zynga layoffs, EA is arguably in a prime position to gloat with a well-placed “I told you so”. Instead, EA COO Peter Moore extended his sympathies to Zynga’s former staff and shared his belief that the death of social gaming is greatly exaggerated.
“We always feel bad when people lose their jobs,” Moore said. “Our hope is certainly [that] those folks can get re-employed pretty quickly.”
Some analysts have suggested that as Zynga falls, social and causal games will fall with it. While Moore stands by his previous comments about Zynga, he isn’t especially worried about the state of social gaming itself. “The overheating and overhyping of social gaming over the last year-and-a-half has … made this an interesting focal point for our industry,” Moore explained. “And now the demise is being overhyped the opposite way. I still think there’s a strong place for social gaming. I think a lot of social gaming is moving mobile. We feel well positioned to take advantage of that. And people shouldn’t read too much into whatever is going on with Zynga.”
EA does have quite a bit invested in social gaming markets at the moment, so it’s not very likely to join the chorus of those decrying its demise just yet. Moore isn’t wrong however; the social opportunities of social media in advertising alone, let alone gaming, can produce millions in revenue. Moore’s comments about Zynga’s staff also happen to be a nice change of pace from EA’s recent hostility, even if the layoffs ultimately benefits EA’s own workforce.
Source: Eurogamer
