Zynga's failed cross-platform ambitions and Nintendo Switch 2's global launch | Week in Views
The games industry moves quickly and while stories may come and go there are some that we just can't let go of…
So, to give those particularly thorny topics a further going over we've created a weekly digest where the members of the PocketGamer.biz team share their thoughts and go that little bit deeper on some of the more interesting things that have happened in mobile gaming in the past week.
Craig Chapple
Zynga to shut down Torchlight 3 developer Echtra Games after four years
Zynga’s plans for a cross-platform strategy have taken a major hit this year. First it shut down Star Wars Hunters, a not inexpensive project years in the making with a team of hundreds behind it that failed to take off.
Now it’s closed Echtra Games, a cross-platform studio set up by developers who had previously worked on Diablo and Torchlight. At the time of the acquisition, Zynga CEO Frank Gibeau said the deal would be “instrumental in growing our iconic licenses and brands from mobile to PCs and consoles, while helping to further expand Zynga’s total addressable market”.
Echtra CEO Max Schaefer, meanwhile, said it shared Zynga’s vision that “cross-platform play is an essential part of the future of RPGs and interactive entertainment”.
A year later, Zynga was acquired by Take-Two to lead its mobile efforts.
Cross-platform gaming has of course been an industry trend for years, with titles like Genshin Impact seeing enormous billions of dollars in revenue across devices. Meanwhile, and perhaps more relevant, titles like Plarium's Raid: Shadow Legends and Scopely's Star Trek: Fleet Command eventually made the jump to PC.
But it looks like Zynga, without any cross-platform success, is abandoning that strategy and refocusing instead on its core business: mobile.
Recently, some of its mobile teams have been knocking it out the park with new releases. Peak Games’ Match Factory is closing on $400 million lifetime gross revenue, according to AppMagic estimates, while Rollic’s Color Block Jam picked up more than $20m last month.
Aaron Astle
Nintendo Switch 2 is out now: Hardware specs, launch games and an $8bn industry opportunity
The Nintendo Switch 2 has finally arrived.
And after more than eight years as Nintendo’s flagship console, the original Switch’s days in the spotlight are over.
As a lifelong Nintendo fan, this launch brings about an unstoppable wave of nostalgia and many points of reflection. The games industry was a different place in 2017 and Nintendo specifically was in desperate need of a hit console since falling from those lofty heights of the Wii era.
It’s strange, looking back, that hybrid consoles are still a relatively new development in the industry’s history. It wasn’t really all that long ago questions were being raised around what Nintendo could even do to stay relevant. The company’s hardware specs were behind on home console, few people were interested in the Wii U, and more and more people had access to mobile games as an alternative to the 3DS.
Then came the Switch and immediately Nintendo’s fortunes changed. The console outsold the Wii U’s lifetime unit sales in its very first year, and now, eight years later, it’s one of the best-selling consoles of all time at over 150 million units.
Its games library is nothing to scoff at either. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe are all best-selling games in their respective franchises; Fire Emblem: Three Houses is the best-selling game in the series; and more than 20 first-party Nintendo games have surpassed 10m unit sales on the Switch thus far.
On a personal level, the Switch saw me through the end of school, was by my side at university and continues to be my primary console during these early years of my career. So, it’s a strange feeling to see Nintendo moving on to something shiny and new.
Of course, being the Switch 2, that shiny, new thing is really just a big hardware upgrade to something many have enjoyed for years - the generational jump isn’t as drastic as the Wii U to Switch was. But, it’s a leap all the same, which some analysts expect could present an opportunity of up to $8 billion for the wider games industry over the next two years.
Switch 2 sales are also forecast to outpace the Switch’s early on, which seems quite possible if the pre-orders are any indication.
As for myself, I’m continuing on with the good old-fashioned Switch for now, with enough of a backlog to work through at least until Nintendo tempts me with an exclusive Zelda or Fire Emblem.
And, ideally, some more colourful Joy-Con options.
Companies
