Zynga mobile slots games witnessed a phenomenal growth in the last quarter, which helped the firm to beat both revenue and earnings estimates. The game maker’s Wizard of Oz Slots and Hit It Rich! slots games enjoyed a 274% growth in revenue compared to the second quarter of 2014.
Spooky Cool acquisition paying
With such impressive growth from the mobile slots games, it can be said that Zynga’s acquisition of casino startup Spooky Cool is paying off. Zynga dominates the social casino game business, largely due to the success of Zynga Poker. The latest numbers reflect that the company is gaining traction with its other titles as well. This will help the firm to counter rivals like IGT and Caesar’s.
In an interview with GamesBeat, Zynga CEO Mark Pincus noted: “This gets to the story and strategy we are pursuing on mobile.” Zynga added the slots category a couple of years back by acquiring the Spooky Cool of Chicago, who have developed great products on iconic brands. Though the start was slow, “we learned is that an overnight success takes two to three years to get to,” Pincus said.
Though many Zynga executives have headed up the social casino business, including Barry Cottle, the core team at Spooky Cool has remained intact, said Pincus.
Zynga plans more titles
Zynga also entered into a multi-year agreement with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment for licensing a few of its iconic brands such as Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Both Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory-themed social slots game are expected to launch globally on mobile and the web in 2016. Apart from this, Zynga will also be coming up with another Hit It Rich! style slots game in the fourth-quarter this year.
The Zynga CEO believes having multiple titles is vital in the social casino category. For 72 consecutive weeks since March 2014, Zynga’s Hit it Rich! Slots have been among the top fifty iPad games while the Wizard of Oz Slots has been in the top-20 list of iPhone games for the last 18 weeks.
As of around 10.38 am EDT Friday, Zynga shares were up 3.88% at $2.55, while year to date the stock is down over 6%.