from Hacker News

Facebook and Zynga to end close relationship

by anons2011 on 11/30/12, 12:26 PM with 32 comments

  • by potatolicious on 11/30/12, 2:44 PM

    This is a flesh wound for Facebook, but IMO will probably be lethal for Zynga. Without the "virality" (read: spamming) offered by Facebook their games have no hope of any sustainable user base.

    They can pivot into actual casual games (a la Popcap), but that space is already crowded and Zynga has no real advantage over anyone else, and plenty of disadvantages.

  • by nicholassmith on 11/30/12, 12:37 PM

    Could this turn out to be the nail in Zynga's coffin? Seems like investors are getting cold feet, staff reductions, and a general malaise seems to surround the brand. Losing that access as a key partner to Facebook and becoming just another user is going to force them to make very rapid changes to adapt.

  • by michaelochurch on 11/30/12, 3:38 PM

    I name this Praziquantel Day.

    (Praziquantel is a drug used to kill tapeworms.)

    This is very, very good for Facebook. They are upgrading their brand and image by doing this.

    The major reason Google+ Games did not succeed is that preferential treatment was given to mainstream developers (e.g. Zynga) who didn't expect us to thrive and therefore gave us their second-string stuff, as opposed to indie developers who would value us and the access we could offer them and give us a very high (brand-defining) level of quality. Having raised this issue, and having proposed an alternative strategy that would have worked exceedingly well, is the major reason I am no longer at Google.

  • by mathattack on 11/30/12, 6:23 PM

    I can't see how this isn't the death knell from Zynga. Maybe I am missing something, but Zynga loses all their mass appeal. Maybe there is a self contained group that runs under the radar screen at their site, but they lose much of the social connection.

    Facebook can find other game makers. There is no other Facebook for Zynga. Facebook also gets rid of some unwanted Spam.

  • by jiggy2011 on 11/30/12, 2:45 PM

    They could just resort to actual email spam, would anyone put it past them?

  • by zerostar07 on 11/30/12, 4:06 PM

    Facebook is also enforcing new terms for its developers: From December on, applications that run on external domains instead of appearing as an iframe inside facebook will be severely restricted in their access to facebook[1]. This move is supposed to force indie developers to move their games to facebook where they can't use AdSense (it's not allowed by facebook) and can only use facebook's own payments system (it's mandatory).

    Zynga could have used this 2 year time window to grow an independent social gaming network, but they failed to do so. It was inevitable that this would happen.

    [1] https://developers.facebook.com/blog/post/2012/09/05/platfor...

  • by abbott on 11/30/12, 3:04 PM

    Best for both, and it will release zynga from FB exclusivity agreement. Facebook's platform and business has changed dramatically in the past 24 mos. And zynga can focus on growth on other platforms in addition to maintaining a presence on Facebook.

  • by brianbreslin on 11/30/12, 2:53 PM

    So in the article they say "Zynga's stock fell 13% on the news" - my first reaction was how can you go 13% below zero?. Is that wrong? (actual drop was $.17 since they are trading at $2.50)

  • by Narretz on 11/30/12, 3:49 PM

    >>> Zynga now has its own games platform, but players will no longer be able to share their progress on Facebook.

    Isn't every app allowed to share certain things on a user's FB page? Why wouldn't this be possible for Zynga games?