Zynga Revenues Decline

Amid A Challenging Mobile Transition, Zynga’s Revenues Decline 18% To $264M | TechCrunch: "Zynga’s revenues for the first quarter of 2013 declined 18% year-over-year to $264 million as the company is in the midst of doing a big pivot onto mobile platforms. The company swung to a profit from a year ago though, with net income of $4 million. Last year, during the same quarter, Zynga earned $321 million in revenue. Analysts had estimated on average that the company would pull in $209.8 million in revenue and lose 4 cents a share. So this is an earnings beat — thanks to FarmVille 2. But shares are down 9.6 percent in after-hours trading. “2013 remains a transition year,” said CEO Mark Pincus on the earnings call. “We continue to expect non-linear, uneven results and a significant decline in second quarter bookings.” He said the company had to kill two unreleased games and that they would sunset about four others including The Ville, Empires & Allies, Zynga City on Tencent and Dream Zoo."


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Leviathan: Warships releases April 30 (video)

Leviathan: Warships is a naval turn-based strategy game from Paradox Interactive, developed by Pieces Interactive and coming soon for PC, MAC, Android and iOS devices.

Grab a blanket and curl up in front of the computer for the new official Leviathan: Warships Jazzy Pre-Order Trailer. "You've earned it."  Afterwards, congratulate yourself on a job well done and head over to the game page.

Leviathan: Warships releases on April 30th, for PC, MAC, Android and iOS tablets.
Preorder now: http://bitly.com/12LISlp

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Electronic Arts drops three Facebook game titles

Electronic Arts drops three Facebook game titles - The Washington Post: "Electronic Arts said Monday that it will discontinue three Facebook game titles because player activity has taken a sharp dive. Three titles from EA developer Playfish — The Sims Social, SimCity Social and Pet Society — will be discontinued. EA will continue to support other, more popular titles, such as Bejeweled Blitz, Solitaire Bliz and Plants vs. Zombies adventures. . . .While companies aren’t seeing the mega-hits they once did on Facebook’s social gaming platform, that the genre itself doesn’t appear to be fading. Facebook said that gaming on its network continues to grow, saying at last month’s Game Developers Conference that it plays host to 250 million gamers each month — up, as TechCrunch noted, from 235 million in August 2012."


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An Always-Online Xbox 720

The Pros and Cons of an Always-Online Xbox 720 - IGN: "A popular rumor that refuses to die purports that Microsoft’s Xbox 360 successor – a machine which, I suspect, will simply be called “Xbox” and may be revealed on May 21 – will require an always-online Internet connection. Since we heard the first rumblings of this prospect, the gaming community’s incendiary outrage has lit up message boards, IGN comments sections, and social media alike. Is this rage justified, or is it simply a knee-jerk overreaction without the benefit of key facts?" (read more at link above)


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EA Layoffs

EA Layoffs | News & Opinion | PCMag.com: "Electronic Arts confirmed on Thursday that it has laid off an undisclosed number of employees from its Montreal-based mobile studio. Reports tipped 60 to 70 permanent employees, plus more than 100 contract workers, but EA declined to share an exact number. The cuts come in the wake of the company's SimCity debacle and the resignation of EA CEO John Riccitiello."


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Women in the Video Game Industry (video)

Emily Chang explores the rising presence of women in the video game industry. She speaks on Bloomberg Television's "Bloomberg West." (Source: Bloomberg)

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Video Games Aid Children With Dyslexia

Video Games May Aid Children With Dyslexia - NYTimes.com: "Playing action video games may improve reading in children with dyslexia, Italian researchers have found. The small study, published online last week in Current Biology, involved two groups of 10 dyslexic children. One group played action video games for nine sessions of 80 minutes each, while the other followed the same routine with nonaction games. The researchers bought the games in retail stores and have no financial interest in any video game company. Age, I.Q., reading speed, error rates and phonological skills were similar in the two groups at the beginning of the study. The researchers measured the attention and reading skills of the children before and after the game sessions and then compared them. Those trained on the action games scored significantly higher than those who played the nonaction games by various measures: combined speed and accuracy, recognizing pseudo-words made of random letters, and reaction time. The action game players also scored higher on tests that measured attention by inserting distractions as the children tried to accomplish various visual and auditory tasks."


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Blizzard freemium online trading card game

Blizzard announces “freemium” online trading card game | Ars Technica: "Blizzard confirmed that it is working on a new small-scale game titled HearthStone: Heroes of Warcraft at a conference at PAX Friday. The game is a collectible-card-style game played online and will be Blizzard's "first free-to-play" title. The model is "something we've wanted to experiment with for a while... A lot of people at Blizzard have played CCGs for a really long time," said Rob Pardo, chief creative officer at Blizzard. But the company wanted to focus on making a trading card game that's more accessible and "not just something that us hardcore nerds would play.""


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