Zynga's gameplan relies on FarmVille, says CEO
Founder and chief Mark Pincus says his company is planning to make a mobile push with FarmVille 2.
Social-gaming company Zynga staked its claim with FarmVille. And now -- when Zynga has been reaping more than sowing -- the company will rely on that same title to restore its ailing operation.
In a Reuters interview published Monday, Pincus said his company is relying on FarmVille 2 to rebuild. The company's revenue jumped to $1.2 billion in 2012, but losses continue to pile up.
A key component to the turnaround plan is to give FarmVille players the same experience on mobile as on desktop.
"The ideal is to make that one seamless experience between Web and mobile so you can take your farming experience from work to home," Pincus told Reuters. "We're having to retool and reinvent around our process and technology."
Zynga is in the midsts of reorganizing. The company has closed offices both in the U.S. and in Tokyo and cut 5 percent of its workforce. According to Pincus, his company has also cut costs related to game development by 80 percent.
Pincus wasn't especially forthcoming with plans for Zynga's future. He did, however, make clear that FarmVille will likely be the centerpiece of his company's strategy.
"As long as our players are interested in farming, we'll offer a FarmVille," Pincus told Reuters. "It could be the Seinfeld of our era in gaming, a multi-season show that has a quality and a consistency that you can rely on."
It might not be such a bad idea: 8 million people play FarmVille 2 each day.