EA sues Zynga for copyright infringement

[blackdog]

Rovio have angrybirds, but that seems more solid than farmville.

No joke, they didn't simply went multi-platform, they built a brand, they have toys and cartoons and playgrounds even. And you can probably keep interbreeding those birds with other brands like LEGO does. Angry Birds from Middle Earth next?

[FMPONE]

farmville is nowhere near as cool an intellectual property as angry birds, either way

Edited June 5, 2013 by FMPONE

[FrieChamp]

Rovio has been more profitable than Zynga in 2012, but Rovio only made $195 Million. That looks like a lot of money (and certainly is) but Supercell made $175 Million in Q1 2013 alone. Japanese GungHo made $113 Million from IAP in April. These are the kings of mobile to me nowadays.

http://www.joystiq.com/2013/04/03/rovio-revenue-in-2012-doubles-to-195-million-toys-contribute-4/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/appsblog/2013/may/14/puzzle-and-dragons-gungho-revenues

[AlexM]

GungHo is nuts. Everyone is plaing puzzles vs dragons everywhere here. I heard they were pretty much bigger than most of the big console publishers game divisions combined these days.

[Thrik]

I feel like I'm missing out on something having not played any of these games.

[Sentura]

i don't really read reddit, but this is interesting:

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1fpbv1/i_was_one_of_the_520_people_laid_off_by_zynga/

[AlexM]

heh I'm reading that right now

funny how he managed to talk himself into thinking ripping off all those small developers wasnt so bad.

[blackdog]

Supercell made $175 Million in Q1 2013 alone.

Read an article about them when they took off, a couple of months ago. Impressive.

What do you think about them? I mean, could it be the new Zynga?

Probably they won't scale just for the sake of it, but i mean, are their games that solid? Both doesn't seem to be anything more than lots of other browser games... Hay Day pretty much looks like a Farmville rip-off itself!

What do they offer, other than a higher production value because of the native experience? I don't see the potential there to build a brand like Rovio did.

I kinda think that Zynga's failure is due to their too slow transition out of facebook to bring their major IP to mobile.

Edited June 5, 2013 by blackdog

[Nysuatro]

Supercell has been interesting to follow. I the the mindset behind the company.

They celebrate failure, which is something I fully respect.

[AlexM]

worked fo google

[FrieChamp]

Supercell made $175 Million in Q1 2013 alone.

Read an article about them when they took off, a couple of months ago. Impressive.

What do you think about them? I mean, could it be the new Zynga?

Probably they won't scale just for the sake of it, but i mean, are their games that solid? Both doesn't seem to be anything more than lots of other browser games... Hay Day pretty much looks like a Farmville rip-off itself!

What do they offer, other than a higher production value because of the native experience? I don't see the potential there to build a brand like Rovio did.

I kinda think that Zynga's failure is due to their too slow transition out of facebook to bring their major IP to mobile.

They reverse-engineer popular social games, nail down the core loop, add a little twist and deliver an extremely polished mobile game. If the game tanks after soft-launch/if the KPIs don't look good enough in the test-market, they scrap it. Maybe they are not the most original, but the execution of both Hay Day and Clash of Clans was excellent. Those two titles generate more revenue on iOS than EA's portfolio in the App Store. I didn't get into Hay Day but I genuinely enjoyed playing Clash of Clans. I like their mentality which is less focused on growth and more on talent/sustainability.

Rovio did a good job on leveraging the popularity of Angry Birds. But they've got yet to prove that they can replicate that level of success. Actually it is highly unlikely that they can/anybody can. After dozens of far less succesful titles the stars aligned for them and they created this phenomenon. For me it's a question how long they can ride that out. I just hope they don't go for that IPO that has been rumoured for a while.

[blackdog]

I agree with everything you wrote, but how's that different from what Zynga has been doing? I mean "god complex" aside, better execution...

Rovio has simply a different mentality, they haven't made any grinding game... they probably are studing one to cash-in themselves, but they seem to want to do somewhat original stuff.

They certainly are having some troubles and feel pressured to find a new brand to build upon, in fact they are already transitioning into publishing smaller dev's games. I think the first two are coming out like this month?

In the mobile space I really admire Halfbrick, they had quite a bang with their titles, they were original and set new models others have followed.

I've spent quite some time on Jetpack Joyride (when sitting on the toilet ) and have unlocked most of the stuff and haven't paid a dime, I like that the game feels fair: no objectives are unreachable, the interaction is enjoyable, even if extremely repetitive.

Edited June 6, 2013 by blackdog

[FrieChamp]

I agree with everything you wrote, but how's that different from what Zynga has been doing? I mean "god complex" aside, better execution...

Zynga is still a social game company. Supercell is a mobile game company. Zynga grew at a rampant speed. Supercell grows slowly and carefully, Zynga IPO'ed and look where that got them, Supercell is private etc. Talking about the games: there is probably more similarity between the products than between Supercell's & Rovio's, I agree. Rovio is still following the premium approach, because they don't face the discoverability problem that other developers face. It depends on what criteria you judge a developer by: innovation in gameplay, execution, the fun you had with the game personally, business strategy/revenues that their titles generate ... I guess we can agree that Finland is pretty hot for mobile game development these days

Jetpack Joyride is great! I've still got to check out "Fish Out Of Water".

[Nysuatro]

Isnt Rovio more like a marketing company?

[blackdog]

Zynga grew at a rampant speed. Supercell grows slowly and carefully, Zynga IPO'ed and look where that got them, Supercell is private etc.

Yeah, that's what I meant with "god complex"

No objections to the rest of the comments.

Jetpack Joyride is great! I've still got to check out "Fish Out Of Water".

I actually did check if it was an achievement i couldn't remember, then it hit me. How the hell I didn't get notified of this I'm subscribed to their YT channel.

From the trailer makes me think of a mix of an artillery and Tiny Wings... i'll check if there's a trial compatible with my crappy old devices.