Today, Zynga reported its financial results for its most recent quarter, the 30 days ending March 31, 2016.
For that period, the company pulled in bookings (money generated from in-game purchases) of $182 million — above the company’s guidance for the quarter. The company saw a rise in ad-based revenues, with its “advertising and other bookings” segment up 42 percent year-on-year.
Quarterly losses shrank to $26.6 million, down from $51.2 million in the prior quarter and $46.5 million a year ago, on a GAAP basis. Non-GAAP net income was actually positive, at $2 million.
Mobile now represents 76 of the company’s total bookings — meaning more than three-quarters of its revenues come from mobile games, a shift the company has been trying to make for some time. Apple’s App Store now represents the biggest slice of the company’s revenue contribution. Notably, Words With Friends has seen renewed success — its bookings were up 60 percent year-on-year.
Zynga has been promising for a long time that it was getting on the right track. After ex-Xbox exec Don Mattrick failed to push the company where it needed to be, founder Mark Pincus was reinstalled as CEO. There’s been another CEO shift to EA veteran Frank Gibeau, who came on board during this past quarter.
“Since joining, the biggest surprise for me has been how much operating leverage we have across the company, which we can unlock with improved planning, more focused execution and cost control. That means putting in place more disciplined, consistent development practices and more cross team collaboration,” new CEO Frank Gibeau said in a statement.
Gibeau’s mantra here is reliable launches of reliable games. The company is on track to launch its 10 promised games this year; four are out, and the remaining six are in soft-launch, Gamasutra has been told.
This is, of course, not just good business — this management shift to an EA stalwart with a reputation for shipping games (along with associated tales of his reliability at the helm of Zynga) are designed to restore confidence in the company with Wall Street, which is something it’s been sorely lacking for years.
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2016