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Game company Zynga suffered a reversal of fortunes in 2012 as gamers switched from the company's desktop games to those played on mobile devices. Photo: Reuters

New | Game firm Zynga's measure of future revenues well below estimates

Social gaming company expects to launch games in fourth quarter

Zynga

Zynga's forecast current-quarter bookings, a measure of future revenue, is well below estimates as the social gaming company expects to launch some games only in the fourth quarter.

Shares of the company, which reported lower-than-expected active monthly players for the second quarter, fell as much as 10 per cent last week.

The company, known for its FarmVille and Mafia Wars games, said it would release its action-strategy games Dawn of Titans and CSR2 in the fourth quarter.

"The fourth quarter is really going to be the one that determines Zynga's fate, at least in the near term," Barclays analyst Chris Merwin said.

Zynga, once one of Silicon Valley's fastest-growing companies, suffered a dramatic reversal of fortunes in 2012 as gamers switched from the company's Facebook-based desktop games to those played on mobile devices.

Founder Mark Pincus returned to the company in April and has since sharpened the company's focus on releasing more mobile games and cutting costs.

Zynga has exited the sports games category and shut down several PC-based games. The winding down of games also weighed on third-quarter bookings forecast.

The company said it expected bookings of between US$155 million and US$170 million, well below the average analyst estimate of US$180.1 million, according to research firm FactSet StreetAccount.

The company's number of active monthly players fell to 83 million, while analysts had expected 98.4 million, according to FactSet.

Zynga posted higher-than-expected bookings of US$174 million in the quarter as its new games such as FarmVille: Harvest Swap and Empires & Allies attracted gamers.

Zynga's net loss narrowed to US$26.9 million in the second quarter from US$62.5 million a year earlier.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Zynga sees bookings well below estimates
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