Social game maker Zynga's fortunes have continued to fall under the new leadership of former Xbox boss Don Mattrick according to the company's latest financial reports.
Mattrick left Microsoft just ahead of the Xbox One's launch, but has not been able to reverse the flow of players abandoning Zynga's various titles. The studio is the developer behind the extremely popular Farmville and Words With Friends, but has struggled to retain users after the peak of its success.
Last quarter Zynga reported 28 million active users, whereas the company 53m this time last year. A silver lining for Mattrick and Zynga could be that 28m is actually one million more than the number from the previous quarter.
This could represent a reversal indicating that the numbers are going to start climbing again, but such a modest gain more likely means the company is levelling off instead of continuing to drop.
Still, turning a massive user loss into a slight gain is a positive for Zynga. The overall outlook is not promising for them, though--the number of unique monthly users dropped to 86 million from 150m in the first quarter last year. This represents a loss of roughly half of all Zynga's users in just a year, a decidedly negative figure.
In terms of actual dollars, the revenue for the quarter was $168, down 36 per cent compared to 2013. Zynga made a net loss of $61m for the quarter, as opposed to a $4m gain last year. Mattrick focused on the positives, though, and stated that this quarter they have positioned the company for success in the rest of the year.
"In Q1 our teams delivered a solid start to the year against our strategic frame of growing and sustaining our franchises, creating new hits and driving efficiencies," he said.
"We have established a strong base for 2014 and believe we are pacing well for a year of growth."
Source: Eurogamer
