Future Zynga Facebook, mobile games could be more sequels

At least Zynga chief creative officer Brian Reynolds is thinking about it. The design head of the company recently spoke with IndustryGamers and, when whether FarmVille English Countryside has sparked a trend within the company, Reynolds replied, "Well, it's so early in our industry, is it time to have sequels? I don't know. It sounds like something we might do." In fact, Reynolds appears to be a big fan of the sequel--just look at his previous work.

"It's never too late to do a sequel, by the way," Reynolds said to IndustryGamers. "It's not like we need to be quickly running for the sequels because you can do sequels even 10 years after the original game. The first Civilization sequel came out 5 years after the first one and the next one was 5 years after that. And we've only even been a company for 3 years."

And he has a point. Civilization still sells like hotcakes and it's been reiterated upon five times now. Not to mention the mobile releases and other rehashes over the years. Could Zynga employ the same strategy to remain relevant? While the company has already shown that it can successfully launch new properties (ahem, CityVille), the groundwork has already been laid out.

FrontierVille is surrounded on all sides by promised expansions with one recently receiving a mysterious update in its description. Mafia Wars constantly releases new content, and you could consider its new-and-improved mobile app an expansion. So, would it be in Zynga's benefit to succumb to "sequelitis?"

We've yet to see FarmVille's daily active player base stabilize as a result of the new expansion, nor has its monthly players grew dramatically. Granted, it's only been around for a week, but remember CityVille's meteoric climb? If anything is to decide whether more sequels are in the future for Zynga games, it is the numbers.

[Via GamesIndustry.biz]

[Image Credit: VentureBeat]

Would you still be interested in Zynga games if the next few releases were sequels? What is the likelihood that this is the direction the company will head in?

Analyst: The last three years was the 'first generation of social games'

It's statements like this that make you hopeful for what the next three years will bring. Speaking to IndustryGamers, Eedar analyst Jesse Divnich concluded a talk with, "If anything, what I am suggesting is that what we've seen over the last 3 years should be classified as the 'first generation' of social games." What Divnich is referring to is the property and time-management sub genre of social games on Facebook and other networks that have arguably hit critical mass since they hit the scene way back in 2008.

According to Divnich, social gamers are getting their fill from new releases in a fraction of the time it took before. This means players are bouncing from one game to the next more quickly, and those games left by the wayside are reaching their peak in monthly and daily players far sooner than ever before. You can blame the sheer volume of high-quality time-management games for this--think about it: What are the top three games on Facebook right now?

Divnich goes on to compare this form of social gaming to the Guitar Hero franchise (how timely) in that innovation is quickly running dry in this sub genre. "New technology breeds innovation and while I am confident that both Facebook and Google are beginning to expand their social offerings, I think it may be safe to say that the current time-based management genre, as we know it today, will have to rapidly evolve beyond the traditional 'sprite clicking' mechanics to sustain consumer interest," Divnich told IndustryGamers.

With technologies like Unreal Engine 3 coming to Flash (and as a result Facebook games) and HTML5 slowly gaining traction, Divnich might be onto something here. The analyst goes on to cite the upcoming Mafia Wars 2 by Zynga as a harbinger of the second generation of social games, but let's not get ahead of ourselves now. Check out the interview in full right here.

[Via VG 24/7]

Do you think this form of social gaming has reached it peak? Where would like to see the industry go next in terms of gameplay, graphics and social features? Sound off in the comments. 1 Comment