Former Zynga Employee Answers Questions on Reddit

One of the 520 people laid off by Zynga took to Reddit to answer readers' questions in a IAmA interviewthis week. The former employee received four-and-a-half months of severance along with insurance. They also shared some ideas about why the company is currently struggling. Check it out: Their major issues are the inability to adjust to the changing market. They did great when Facebook gaming was on the rise, but now it's declining and Mobile is on the rise. They're trying to change over, but employ too many of the same game development "best practices" that were developed for Facebook games. These just don't translate to the mobile market, which is why they're suffering in that market. After discussing some management issues, the former employee concluded: Too many major decisions are quick reactions to sudden changes in the market. If some games jumps to the top of the Top Grossing charts then everyone need to drop everything and change to follow it. Which wastes time, makes for bad design and ultimately puts projects behind schedule. It just means they're always late to the party, and whatever game they're trying to compete with has already faded away by the time their own version hits the market. They rely too much on reacting to what is making money now, and too much on their own data. They don't strive to make anything new or innovative and that's no way to excel in the games market. You need to lead the pack, not try emulate the best practices of top games with the hopes that you can out perform and already established IP.

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Former Zynga Employee Answers Questions on Reddit

Jason Boog

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