Zynga: Tablets Are Becoming The Ultimate Game Platform

Zynga: Tablets Are Becoming The Ultimate Game Platform


Zynga is still kicking and looking to push into the tablet gaming market.

There are more ways to game now than ever before. If it has a screen and it's capable of holding an electric current, chances are someone somewhere can jury rig it to run Angry Birds. Naturally, a lot of choice leads to a lot of debate over which platform is the best. And we all know the answer to that particular question, don't we readers? I suspect you're going to tell me. In the comments section. At great length.

I suspect relatively few of you will agree with Zynga's president of games (isn't that a fancy title?), Steve Chiang, who reckons the humble tablet will soon claim the title.

"I think the tablet's becoming almost the ultimate game platform," he explained during an interview with GamesIndustry.biz. "I play before I go to bed, and when I wake up, I play on my tablet. Imagine FarmVille 2 on a tablet, you can see the detail on a bigger farm and be able to manipulate things, getting a full experience on a tablet. We announced in the earnings call that FarmVille 2 is coming to mobile, and tablets. I expect a number of our 'Ville games to come to tablets in 2013."

While it's still hemorrhaging cash like a stuck piggy bank, Zynga surprised its critics with a fourth quarter earnings report that wasn't apocalyptically bleak. It's still losing money, $48 million in that quarter to be exact, but that's a far cry from the $435 million it lost in the same period last year. It seems closing offices and canceling games left, right and center has allowed the company to stave off financial destruction for just a little bit longer.

Source: Gamesindustry.biz


computers with a full OS/OS tuned to gaming are much better then a tablet or phone. I love angry birds as much as the next guy but the AAA industry has the console/computer industry cornered.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Come back when you guys can offer an experience on par with Dark Souls on a tablet (lots of Dark Souls for me lately, haha :-)). Go on, I'm waiting.

Still on Farmville? Yeah, you guys have no idea what other gamers want then. We all don't use tablets for gaming, ya know...

Zynga is still allowed to have opinions on things? Who knew?

Uh, no, they are not. Can they do Skyrim? No? Dishonored? No? Borderlands? No? Deus Ex? No? I'm seeing a pattern here.


Actually the Razer one and I'm sure other Windows 8 high end tablets can. However, their not the best option for obvious price reasons. I'll stay with my PC thanks.

Aw hell no. >:(
Tablets/smartphones are for certain games, just like mouse/keyboard and gamepads are for theirs.
Don't just throw the term "ultimate" around when there's not even a god damn physical button on these devices.
I do not want a future where we have everything on a tablet that can just look good and accept my touch gestures on a completely flat and shiny surface, with no chance of feeling a button before I press it.
No thank you, zynga.

*goes back to playing skyrim on my non-tablet hardware of choice*

on second thought: oh well, it's zynga, a corner of "gaming" not even remotely tangential to my circles.

Yeah, ignoring everything else, if you're going to claim something is the "ultimate game platform" you may want to use something better than FarmVille 2 as an example.

Oh, and everyone knows the Dreamcast is the ultimate gaming platform!

I thought I sent you to the basement never to return?!

I agree. Tablets are the ultimate, for Zynga. They're games are so simplistically designed that they could break into the market easily.

However, you can't play the most intuitive games, like the Skyrims, the Dishonoreds, the Far Crys, the Crysises, on a tablet because they can't meet processing demands, and allow the players to have to degree of control as they would with a controller or mouse and keyboard. Essentially, the tablets will and always will be useless for the cool, big stuff unless you could get some sort of sufficient control going, which we are somewhat far from at this point.

Zynga has been the ultimate idiot for quite some time. I'm not surprised by their statement.

Too bad I already bought myself a Nexus 7 last week.

Still it would be nice to see more decent tablet games in the future that are decent and don't only play balls to the wall hard mode.

The same company that claimed social networking gaming would eclipse the traditional gaming market?

lol, no.

maybe for the crap they turn out, but tablets are hardly the end all be all.

Grey Carter:
Zynga: Tablets Are Becoming The Ultimate Game Platform



That's considered improvement, then? I'll try to remember that when I'm lost in the wilderness and have to eat my own arms and legs to survive. Probably shortly before I realize that I still need those arms and legs to actually get out of the wilderness.

I wasn't aware that corpses could speak.

Tablets will only surpass PC's when they have a dedicated keyboard. Oh no wait, we have this thing called a laptop.

Tablets are nice and all, but they are a fad. They are not the future. Try again Zynga this sort of thinking is what got you into trouble in the first place. Haven't you learned your lesson yet?

Perhaps they are popular right now considering they're the current "in thing" but I'll have to politely disagree with him on this matter. I don't think those that suffers from smudgy fingerprint screens should be called the ultimate anything.

In regards to my opinion, I still think the desktop PC is the best out there but I'd still hesitate to call it the ultimate.

Fuck off Zynga. You have no authority over which is and isn't a successful platform and Farmville sure as shit isn't the game that defines high end technology.

Just make your shitty games and stay quiet.

Awwwwwww. That's cute. Steve Chiang thinks he's people.

Maybe in the not too distant future where tablet's will replace desktops and we won't need consoles to make up for the few short comings of pc's (don't attack me!) tablets will be gaming a thing. Hell, I'm typing this message on one, but if I'm going to play a game on it A) fuck touch games. They're boring to me. And B) I'll plug in my ps3 controller and play an emulation of a real game

Oh man, I think I might've herniated something from laughing so hard...

Blackberry Playbook's games are abysmal. If Zynga made games for that platform, every Playbook owner would buy their games.

Tablet? the ultimate game platform?

I may be wrong, but shouldn't it be "gaming platform" / "platform for games"?

I didn't know Zynga even made games... guess I must have missed their stand at E3 the last time I was there.

I mean... I could see how it would be the ultimate gaming platform for a zynga game.

(That is intended to be both an insult and a true statement)


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