Zynga, the acclaimed mobile game studio, has a prominent reputation for creating worldwide titles in multiple genres, including hits like Words with Friends and Toon Blast. Following its acquisition by Take-Two Interactive in 2022, Zynga’s Executive Vice President of Mobile Games, Yaron Leyvand, sat down with Pocketgamer.biz to discuss Zynga’s unique characteristics and how the takeover has changed their business practices.
Maintaining Independence
Taken over by industry giant Take-Two, Zynga has managed to keep its independence, autonomy, and culture primarily intact. While Take-Two encourages every studio under its label to be creative independently, the merger has been beneficial for both companies and encouraged a more extended investment vision. Zynga has streamlined its mobile studios and sharpened its approach to playing a select number of live games at scale carefully.
Finding A Perfect Partner
Since joining Take-Two in 2016, CEO Frank Gibeau has implemented a plan that focuses on nurturing Zynga’s core strengths, helping them integrate new studios and scaling its advertising and UA. A year into the acquisition, Leyvand states that the collaboration between Zynga and Take-Two has been a perfect fit, with both parties sharing core values, including creativity and innovation.
Approach To Developing New Games
When it comes to developing new games, Zynga trusts its internal expertise and relies on past experience and gut instincts at the concept stage. By investing and allowing a lot of creativity and flexibility early on, teams can effectively test the waters and capture something special before assessing marketability and validating their assumptions.
Growing Existing Genres
To be successful long term in established genres, Zynga believes in offering fresh and new experiences to players while clearly defining what distinguishes their games from the rest in the genre. By encouraging teams to experiment, learn and take calculated risks, the studio adapts to the constantly developing industry and finds success.