When you’re a publicly traded company, investors like to keep a close eye on your past performance and future plans. Such is the case for Zynga, or as Wall Street knows them, ZNGA, and they reported back to their shareholders …
When you’re a publicly traded company, investors like to keep a close eye on your past performance and future plans. Such is the case for Zynga, or as Wall Street knows them, ZNGA, and they reported back to their shareholders yesteday with a quarterly earnings announcement.
The results weren’t ideal, but Zynga CEO Don Mattrick didn’t fail to paint a pretty picture about the year to come. In particular, they’ve confirmed that they “expect to launch between 6 to 10 new games in several of the highest monetizing, evergreen mobile categories – many of which – will be entirely new to Zynga.”
Two of those games we already know about: the reimagined Empires & Allies, and their still-secretive Tiger Woods project.
Two, however, we did not.
Already in a Canadian soft-launch on Google Play, FarmVille: Harvest Swap is a match-3 game that borrows the aesthetic of their most popular franchise. We’ve played the first dozen levels, and our initial impressions are favorable. The game maintains the level of polish that you’d expect from the FarmVille franchise, with colorful characters and catchy music.
That said, it’s also a fairly familiar experience. There are little touches that feel unique, like collecting carrots to entice rabbits to move out and open up new sections of play, but it doesn’t seem like Zynga is trying to re-invent the wheel here. Still, we’ve only played 12 stages, so take that for what it’s worth.
Dawn of Titans is their other new announcement, and beyond the name, we don’t know much. They’re classifying it as an “action strategy” game, and describing it as “set in a beautiful world where players have the opportunity to build and battle as they command armies of thousands, train titans and lead their alliance to victory.”
Development is being handled by NaturalMotion — aka the studio behind CSR Racing and Clumsy Ninja that Zynga acquired last year.
“I am proud of NaturalMotion’s commitment to build a breathtaking entertainment experience that is a paradigm shift in mobile gaming,” said Mattrick. “Throughout the creative development phases, the team has been testing the boundaries of what is possible on a mobile device by pushing the edge on visual fidelity… Leveraging their proprietary mobile technology and engine, the team was able to create unprecedented visuals as well as animation and a depth-of-gameplay that supersedes anything found today on mobile.”
So, y’know… no pressure or anything, NaturalMotion.
Dawn of Titans will be entering a soft-launch somewhere in the world “in the coming weeks.” Stay tuned to Gamezebo for more info on this one as it surfaces.
