At the WTIA TechNW forum in a discussion about the social media games industry, PopCap Games CEO Dave Roberts had a few choice words about Zynga, the makers of just about every popular time waster you’ve played on Facebook. It seems that he doesn’t feel that there’s any staying power behind what Zynga is doing. He lays it all out in this quote:
“They are in some ways struggling to catch up because they are not (about) gaming in their heritage — they are a marketing company. They are a media company,” Roberts said about Zynga. “They are awfully good at it. But we believe that ultimately, and it’s our bias, that great content wins out. And that great games are always going to be better than great marketing.”‘
Roberts goes on to say that his Bejeweled Blitz was whipping up on Zynga’s Mafia Wars as far as daily unique visitors goes, and that this has been accomplished without advertising. He said that Zynga is “using money to buy their customers.”
And he wasn’t done with Zynga, even with that. He wrapped things up by saying that “the easy money days are gone” and that you “actually now have to work at it.”
Ow.
Great games will beat Zynga’s social media muscle [TechFlash]
