SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Video game publisher Electronic Arts Inc filed a lawsuit on Friday against Zynga Inc, accusing the social gaming company of copying key elements of EA's 'The Sims Social' with its title 'The Ville.'
EA says Zynga's 'The Ville,' a recently released game for Facebook Inc, 'copied and misappropriated the original and distinctive expressive elements' of EA's title. The complaint was filed in the District Court for the Northern District of California on Friday.
Zynga, the creator of 'Farmville' and 'Cityville,' did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
(Reporting By Malathi Nayak and Gerry Shih; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick)
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Friday, August 3, 2012
Thursday, August 2, 2012
'World of Warcraft' Lost 1 Million Gamers in Three Months. Is It Over?
Remember World of Warcraft? Chances are you've come across someone in the throes of its infamous addiction. Released in 2004, the massively multiplayer online game had 12 million subscribers at its peak in October 2010 -- but has been losing them ever since.
[More from Mashable: Taiwanese Teen Dies After a 40-Hour Diablo III Session]
Now Activision, the world's largest videogame company, has announced that membership in WoW is slipping at its fastest rate ever. With 10 million players three months ago, the cooperative quest game is now down to 9 million.
That still makes it the largest MMO on the planet. But if this rate of depletion were to continue, the fantasy world would be a ghost town by 2014. Investors were worried enough to drive Activision's stock down 5% in after-hours trading, despite the fact that the company had a very good quarter otherwise.
[More from Mashable: 'Angry Birds' Creator Drops Trailer for New 'Amazing Alex' Game]
So is the trend reversible? There are plenty of reasons to believe so. Mike Morhaime, president of Blizzard -- the Activision-owned company that launched WoW -- told investors he felt many gamers were simply 'taking a break' for the summer to play Diablo III.
They would be back in the fall, he said -- especially since Blizzard is releasing its latest expansion to the title, 'Mists of Pandaria,' in September.
Then there's the platform. You can only play WoW on a Mac or PC; it is not yet a tablet or smartphone game, nor is it likely to be for a while, though Blizzard has made vague suggestions in that direction.
But games, and gamers, are going increasingly mobile and tablet-based. The gold standard there is the Infinity Blade series, which looks just as jaw-droppingly beautiful as any WoW landscape -- and which, with a retina iPad, is actually more high-definition than its PC counterpart.
Its price: $5.99. So you could get both games in the Infinity Blade series -- and the forthcoming third game -- for roughly the same cost as one month's WoW subscription.
Where do you think World of Warcraft is headed? Is its era over, or will it rise again, stronger than ever? Share your prediction in the comments.
This story originally published on Mashable here.
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[More from Mashable: Taiwanese Teen Dies After a 40-Hour Diablo III Session]
Now Activision, the world's largest videogame company, has announced that membership in WoW is slipping at its fastest rate ever. With 10 million players three months ago, the cooperative quest game is now down to 9 million.
That still makes it the largest MMO on the planet. But if this rate of depletion were to continue, the fantasy world would be a ghost town by 2014. Investors were worried enough to drive Activision's stock down 5% in after-hours trading, despite the fact that the company had a very good quarter otherwise.
[More from Mashable: 'Angry Birds' Creator Drops Trailer for New 'Amazing Alex' Game]
So is the trend reversible? There are plenty of reasons to believe so. Mike Morhaime, president of Blizzard -- the Activision-owned company that launched WoW -- told investors he felt many gamers were simply 'taking a break' for the summer to play Diablo III.
They would be back in the fall, he said -- especially since Blizzard is releasing its latest expansion to the title, 'Mists of Pandaria,' in September.
A New Gaming Landscape
Then again, other trends in the gaming world are not going WoW's way. The idea of asking gamers to subscribe (WoW costs $15 a month, presuming you want more than a level 20 character) seems increasingly outmoded. Electronic Arts recently made its marquee MMO, Star Wars: The Old Republic, completely free to play -- because its membership numbers had slipped below a million.Then there's the platform. You can only play WoW on a Mac or PC; it is not yet a tablet or smartphone game, nor is it likely to be for a while, though Blizzard has made vague suggestions in that direction.
But games, and gamers, are going increasingly mobile and tablet-based. The gold standard there is the Infinity Blade series, which looks just as jaw-droppingly beautiful as any WoW landscape -- and which, with a retina iPad, is actually more high-definition than its PC counterpart.
Its price: $5.99. So you could get both games in the Infinity Blade series -- and the forthcoming third game -- for roughly the same cost as one month's WoW subscription.
Where do you think World of Warcraft is headed? Is its era over, or will it rise again, stronger than ever? Share your prediction in the comments.
This story originally published on Mashable here.
This news article is brought to you by RELATIONSHIPS ADVICE 201 - where latest news are our top priority.
Finnish app maker says 'Angry Birds' IPO in late 2013
Rovio, the Finnish makers of the world's most-downloaded mobile app 'Angry Birds', will seek a stock market listing by the end of 2013, chief financial officer Mikko Setala said in an interview published Thursday.
'We have prepared a stock market entry for 2013. But the shareholders have not decided when or whether it would even happen,' Setala told Swedish economic newspaper Dagens Industrii.
'If we go to the stock market, it would most likely be in the second half of next year. We do not need to raise any more funds at the moment,' he said.
Founded in 2003, Rovio had first mentioned its public listing plans in 2011, citing New York and Hong Kong as possible exchanges for the IPO.
Expectations for a listing grew after the company published net profits of 48 million euros on sales of 75.4 million euros for 2011, prompting financial analysts to forecast astronomical valuations for the firm.
When asked to comment on a valuation of 7 billion euros put forward by some, Setala told the newspaper that the figure was pure 'speculation'.
'We have not come up with any figures. It would a mistake to do so,' he said.
Rovio is mainly owned by the three founders of the company -- including one of the shareholders' father who had remortgaged his house to keep the company alive. Other stakes are held by various venture capitalists such as the founder of internet telephone giant Skype, Niklas Zennstroem.
'Angry Birds' reached more than one billion downloads in May, according to Rovio.
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'We have prepared a stock market entry for 2013. But the shareholders have not decided when or whether it would even happen,' Setala told Swedish economic newspaper Dagens Industrii.
'If we go to the stock market, it would most likely be in the second half of next year. We do not need to raise any more funds at the moment,' he said.
Founded in 2003, Rovio had first mentioned its public listing plans in 2011, citing New York and Hong Kong as possible exchanges for the IPO.
Expectations for a listing grew after the company published net profits of 48 million euros on sales of 75.4 million euros for 2011, prompting financial analysts to forecast astronomical valuations for the firm.
When asked to comment on a valuation of 7 billion euros put forward by some, Setala told the newspaper that the figure was pure 'speculation'.
'We have not come up with any figures. It would a mistake to do so,' he said.
Rovio is mainly owned by the three founders of the company -- including one of the shareholders' father who had remortgaged his house to keep the company alive. Other stakes are held by various venture capitalists such as the founder of internet telephone giant Skype, Niklas Zennstroem.
'Angry Birds' reached more than one billion downloads in May, according to Rovio.
This news article is brought to you by GADGETS NEWS - where latest news are our top priority.
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Zynga, Nokia and the dangers of cliche-based speculation
We all know that the feature phone market is dying and the mobile app market is hot. And that is what makes short-term investment decisions very tricky indeed. When everyone is widely aware of certain trends, everyone on Wall Street tends to scramble to the same side of the boat simultaneously. But sometimes, the boat tips.
Nokia's (NOK) 2Q12 report had two major surprises. The company managed to sell 4 million Lumia phones, about 1 million above consensus. But perhaps even more importantly, Nokia showed +4% sequential feature phone volume increase when Wall Street expected -4% volume decline. The feature phone market is still dying - but the process may be a bit slower than anticipated and Nokia just might be grabbing share in a shrinking market.
The combination of beating both smartphone and feature phone expectations did not light a rocket under Nokia share price immediately after the July 19th earnings report. But as days went by, more and more investors shorting Nokia began concluding that the company may not face the short-term cash crunch the bears had been salivating about. Shorts started covering their bets, which means they had to buy Nokia shares to exit their positions. The wave of buying built into a tsunami. Then, like clockwork, rumors (probably entirely fabricated) about possible M&A action began popping up again.
In less than two weeks, Nokia's share price swung up by more than 45% from its mid-July lows.
Zynga (ZNGA) has executed a neat mirror maneuver. As everyone knows, social and mobile gaming are hot growth industries. Zynga made a bold move by coughing up more than $200 million for OMGPOP, the developer of the hot "Draw Something" game - back in March. The new entity seemed to be on the verge of grasping the whole non-console gaming zeitgeist and running with it. Everyone knew this, and analysts like Wedbush's Michael Pachter slapped giddy $17 price targets on Zynga's stock as they jumped on the bandwagon.
Two problems. First, Zynga has always been notorious about cloning the same exact game mechanics for all of its Facebook resource management products, and that monotony finally started catching up with the company in in the second quarter. Second, the upgrades for "Draw Something" were spectacularly ill-advised.
Mobile games are not neat packages - they are living entities requiring careful upgrade pathway design and quality improvements. Perhaps as a result of the Zynga acquisition, "Draw Something" was not tended well. In May, it started slipping badly on the iPhone paid app chart, dropping out of top 20 by the end of the month. By end of June, the hottest mobile game of March was out of top 50. The diamond in Zynga's crown had cracked in less than three months.
By August 1st, Zynga's share price had plummeted by roughly 50% from its July highs. Instead of soaring to $17, it slumped below $3.
People shorting Nokia and going long Zynga for the past month have gotten their clocks cleaned. The feature phone market is still dying, Lumia is still facing a mountain to climb and mobile gaming is growing at a heady pace. But in the short term, following the most obvious trends evident in USA Today headlines can often be a tough row to hoe.
Zynga shakes up top management
(Reuters) - Embattled Zynga Inc has shuffled its top management following a calamitous second quarter that left its stock in the gutter and spurred shareholder lawsuits.
The game publisher said Chief Operating Officer John Schappert will no longer oversee game development. Those responsibilities have been shifted to Chief Mobile Officer David Ko and Executive Vice President of Games Steve Chiang, who will now report directly to Chief Executive Mark Pincus, the company said in a statement.
'In order to unify our company around a multi-platform approach, we reorganized our teams in July to integrate web and mobile groups,' Zynga said.
Zynga shares were trading at $2.84 on Wednesday, down 4 percent on the day and 72 percent below the company's IPO price of $10 in December.
The shakeup reflected the company's move to prioritize its mobile offerings to compete in the fast-changing social gaming market, where users have been abandoning desktop games to play on smartphones instead.
'Our players expect their favorite games on every platform, and we want to unlock everyone in the company to continue moving quickly against the multi-platform opportunity,' Zynga said.
A swift decline in players of its traditionally strong, Facebook-based games, which generate more than 90 percent of Zynga's revenues, stung the company in the second quarter. Zynga last week reported results that fell short of Wall Street expectations and slashed its full-year forecast, sending its stock tumbling 40 percent.
This week, two law firms have filed class-action shareholder lawsuits against the company.
The management shakeup was reported by Bloomberg on Tuesday.
(Reporting By Gerry Shih)
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The game publisher said Chief Operating Officer John Schappert will no longer oversee game development. Those responsibilities have been shifted to Chief Mobile Officer David Ko and Executive Vice President of Games Steve Chiang, who will now report directly to Chief Executive Mark Pincus, the company said in a statement.
'In order to unify our company around a multi-platform approach, we reorganized our teams in July to integrate web and mobile groups,' Zynga said.
Zynga shares were trading at $2.84 on Wednesday, down 4 percent on the day and 72 percent below the company's IPO price of $10 in December.
The shakeup reflected the company's move to prioritize its mobile offerings to compete in the fast-changing social gaming market, where users have been abandoning desktop games to play on smartphones instead.
'Our players expect their favorite games on every platform, and we want to unlock everyone in the company to continue moving quickly against the multi-platform opportunity,' Zynga said.
A swift decline in players of its traditionally strong, Facebook-based games, which generate more than 90 percent of Zynga's revenues, stung the company in the second quarter. Zynga last week reported results that fell short of Wall Street expectations and slashed its full-year forecast, sending its stock tumbling 40 percent.
This week, two law firms have filed class-action shareholder lawsuits against the company.
The management shakeup was reported by Bloomberg on Tuesday.
(Reporting By Gerry Shih)
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Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Zynga hit by twin lawsuits after stock carnage
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Zynga Inc was hit by a pair of lawsuits from shareholders accusing the 'FarmVille' creator of failing to warn about declines in user and revenue growth before disastrous results sent its shares into a tailspin last week.
Two California law firms filed lawsuits seeking class-action status on behalf of stockholders this week, taking the company to task for allegedly concealing threats to its business and sales growth, such as Facebook platform changes that made it easier for users to find rival games.
The social gaming giant behind a plethora of Facebook games like 'Mafia Wars' last week stunned Wall Street by reporting quarterly results well below expectations and slashing its 2012 revenue forecast.
Its stock plummeted 42 percent to a record low and analysts cut their recommendations on the stock.
'Zynga misrepresented or failed to disclose material adverse facts about its business, operations, and growth prospects,' according to a lawsuit filed late on Monday by Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check LLP.
Zynga's results also cast a pall over Facebook because the No. 1 social network relies on Zynga for roughly 15 percent of its revenue.
The lawsuit accused Zynga of concealing declines in users and the sale of virtual goods -- such as a cow in 'FarmVille' -- the company's prime revenue source. A second lawsuit filed Tuesday by Robbins, Geller, Rudman and Dowd LLP echoed many of the allegations.
Zynga declined to comment.
The company founded by Mark Pincus was among a crop of fast-growing consumer Internet companies, including Groupon Inc, that debuted in 2011 with much investor enthusiasm but have since lost vast amounts of market value as Wall Street questioned the sustainability of their growth trajectories.
Zynga shares fell 2 percent to finish Tuesday at $2.95, a far cry from their December $10 debut price.
(Reporting By Gerry Shih; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick, John Wallace, Andrew Hay and Chris Gallagher)
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Two California law firms filed lawsuits seeking class-action status on behalf of stockholders this week, taking the company to task for allegedly concealing threats to its business and sales growth, such as Facebook platform changes that made it easier for users to find rival games.
The social gaming giant behind a plethora of Facebook games like 'Mafia Wars' last week stunned Wall Street by reporting quarterly results well below expectations and slashing its 2012 revenue forecast.
Its stock plummeted 42 percent to a record low and analysts cut their recommendations on the stock.
'Zynga misrepresented or failed to disclose material adverse facts about its business, operations, and growth prospects,' according to a lawsuit filed late on Monday by Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check LLP.
Zynga's results also cast a pall over Facebook because the No. 1 social network relies on Zynga for roughly 15 percent of its revenue.
The lawsuit accused Zynga of concealing declines in users and the sale of virtual goods -- such as a cow in 'FarmVille' -- the company's prime revenue source. A second lawsuit filed Tuesday by Robbins, Geller, Rudman and Dowd LLP echoed many of the allegations.
Zynga declined to comment.
The company founded by Mark Pincus was among a crop of fast-growing consumer Internet companies, including Groupon Inc, that debuted in 2011 with much investor enthusiasm but have since lost vast amounts of market value as Wall Street questioned the sustainability of their growth trajectories.
Zynga shares fell 2 percent to finish Tuesday at $2.95, a far cry from their December $10 debut price.
(Reporting By Gerry Shih; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick, John Wallace, Andrew Hay and Chris Gallagher)
This news article is brought to you by GLAMOROUS FASHION NEWS - where latest news are our top priority.
Law firm accuses Zynga of failing to disclose key data
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A California law firm sued Zynga Inc, accusing the game publisher of failing to disclose a rapid decline in users and revenue.
The social gaming giant behind 'Farmville' and a plethora of other Facebook games last week stunned Wall Street by reporting quarterly results well below expectations and slashing its 2012 revenue forecast. Its stock plummeted 42 percent to a record low and analysts cut their recommendations on the stock.
Zynga's results also cast a pall over Facebook Inc because the No. 1 social network relies on Zynga for roughly 15 percent of its revenue.
In its lawsuit, the law firm Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check LLP accused Zynga of concealing declines in users and the sale of virtual goods, the company's prime revenue source.
In its filing, submitted late on Monday, the San Francisco law firm sought class-action status for its lawsuit.
Zynga could not be immediately reached for comment on Tuesday.
Its shares fell 3 percent to $2.91 in morning trading.
(Reporting By Gerry Shih; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick and John Wallace)
This news article is brought to you by CELEBRITY GOSSIP NEWS - where latest news are our top priority.
The social gaming giant behind 'Farmville' and a plethora of other Facebook games last week stunned Wall Street by reporting quarterly results well below expectations and slashing its 2012 revenue forecast. Its stock plummeted 42 percent to a record low and analysts cut their recommendations on the stock.
Zynga's results also cast a pall over Facebook Inc because the No. 1 social network relies on Zynga for roughly 15 percent of its revenue.
In its lawsuit, the law firm Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check LLP accused Zynga of concealing declines in users and the sale of virtual goods, the company's prime revenue source.
In its filing, submitted late on Monday, the San Francisco law firm sought class-action status for its lawsuit.
Zynga could not be immediately reached for comment on Tuesday.
Its shares fell 3 percent to $2.91 in morning trading.
(Reporting By Gerry Shih; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick and John Wallace)
This news article is brought to you by CELEBRITY GOSSIP NEWS - where latest news are our top priority.
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