Facebook and Zynga have a history together. Zynga giving the social network addictive games like Mafia Wars and Farmville and attracting the Russian Investor DST [$180 Million]; to inject massive funds in both itself and Facebook. The couple appeared to be made for each other until now, when rumors are dripping out about Zynga and Facebook heading on for a divorce.
Zynga has given the social network users a reason to keep themselves glued to its games with a series of some-Ville named games and that contribution wasn’t small. As of now, Farmville alone has more than 83 Million users who are very active and that doesn’t count those who are playing Mafia Wars, Petville, etc. The games weren’t only about playing, together with Facebook we were seeing implementation of quite new ideas, like Credits that enabled users to purchase gifts with real money and trade them for numerous items within the game. While all appeared good, I am just surprised what actually made Zynga take a break away?
30% Tax To Facebook?
Could be a solid reason, I mean it hurts you if you are sure that users are addicted to the game and they are paying what crap you have to offer: in comes the middle man, Facebook that bites away 30% in taxes. Now Facebook wasn’t wrong charging that amount and Zynga would have paid that no matter what given that the social game maker was leveraging Facebook absolutely. But now that they can boast of a massive user base, giving away a tiny bit of the money is always going to sound hurtful.
This won’t and should by no means hurt Facebook. Honestly speaking people who can actually make good clean use of the social network will be thankful that Zynga actually makes an exit with all its annoying feeds and notifications. Perhaps Zynga is a bit carried away with its 80 million plus userbase. What I think is that most of the people were using Farmville or some other Zynga game on Facebook primarily because they had nothing better to do on Facebook and it is quite possible that Zynga might actually see a fall in its users initially.
Are you one of those die hard Zynga Games who have spent a countless Earth Hours creating a mob at Mafia Wars or trading some colored chickens on Farmville? What do you think about the move?
[via Kokugamer]
i love Farmville. This will be a tragedy for me.
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Sardar Mohkim Khan Reply:
May 13th, 2010 at 1:32 pm
I agree, it will be a huge drawback for all Farmville and Facebook fans alike – but hey, I guess it will be for the better of both “hopefully”
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I think it will be a good idea . The farm cash prices should fall and the only reason I Facebook is for the games if not for the games then I wouldn’t have all the great friends I do. If I want to talk to a relitive or someone I know personaly I will call them on the phone.
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