Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA) CEO Don Mattrick, in his first public appearance with investors at the 2014 Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom conference, expressed commitment to double down on core franchises. From the product pipeline for 2014, Mattrick demoed 3 titles: FarmVille 2: Country Escape, New Zynga Poker, and New Words With Friends.
Robust product pipeline
All three of the demoed games would be launched in limited countries in March followed by a full-fledged release in the second quarter of 2014. All these games have been immensely popular over the past few years, and Zynga believes them able to carry forward the growth in bookings from core games.
Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA) has taken lessons from successful competitor games like Supercell’s Hay Day, which is clearly evident from its 2014 pipeline including the new FarmVille title, believe the analysts. The new FarmVille title would be available on the mobile platform, in the second quarter, and is expected to include new features like online play and resource transfers from FarmVille 2 web users.
The management of the company believes that hit mobile games stay much longer in the top 20 category, and 15 of those top 20 games are generally from repeatable and sustainable categories. The rest of the five slots are filled by innovative games from small developers like Flappy Bird.
2014: a year of growth for Zynga
[drizzle]According to Morgan Stanley analysts Scott Devitt and John Egbert, Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA) looks pretty optimistic for 2014 on the growth front. The guidance provided by the management implies impressive quarter over quarter growth for 2014. However, the analysts note that the company has provided limited information on product pipeline “to avoid giving the competition “sight lines” into where it is investing.”
Zynga plans to be a leader in the free-to-play gaming in the region including the Americas and EMEA, which the game maker believes are underpenetrated when compared to Asia Pacific. The company believes that mobile gaming in the western markets has the potential to offer “profit pools in the tens of billions of dollars one day.”
Morgan Stanley analysts have an Underweight rating on Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA).
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